Easy Instagram Reel Ideas (for when showing up is hard)
Today, I want to open up a candid conversation about something we all face: the struggle to maintain our online presence when our energy levels hit rock bottom. As passionate creators and business owners, we understand the importance of consistency on social media. However, there are moments when the mere thought of crafting a post feels like an impossible task.
Feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to maintain a consistent social media presence is something we've all experienced. Whether it's battling fatigue, lack of motivation, or simply feeling uninspired, these challenges can often derail our best intentions.
I’m sharing insights, tips, and strategies to help you navigate those low-energy days while still showing up authentically for your audience.
In this episode, you’ll learn…
[03:00] The importance of maintaining consistency on social media, even during low-energy periods, to foster deeper connections with your audience and enhance brand visibility.
[08:30] Leveraging past content by reposting high-performing posts or repurposing content into different formats, such as carousels or alternative videos, to maintain engagement and reach.
[14:45] Utilizing B-roll footage to create engaging content without requiring on-camera presence.
[21:10] Exploring the trend of creating memes as a quick and effective content strategy.
[27:20] Embracing the importance of self-care and mental health by taking breaks from social media to recharge and generate fresh ideas.
Links mentioned in this episode…
Free guide to Monetize Your IG: Seven Simple and Proven Ways to Finally Make Money on Instagram
Apply for your FREE Instagram Breakthrough Call with Elizabeth
Quotes
[07:40]: "The only way you're going to get better at creating content for your business on social media is to create content."
[10:40] "Reposting past content isn't just convenient; it's a strategic move to maximize engagement."
[16:55] "B-roll footage adds a personal touch to your content. People love seeing the behind-the-scenes moments."
TRANSCRIPT
S3 Ep04 Easy Instagram Reel Ideas (for when showing up is hard)
**Elizabeth Marberry 0:00**
You know that showing up consistently on social media is a foundational strategy you must implement if you hope to grow your brand's visibility, while also deepening your relationship and your know-like and trust factor with your audience. Yet, we all have those days where consistency and just showing up feels so hard. So what do you do when you're just not feeling it? Those days when you're feeling low energy, and no motivation, we're going to talk about it today. And I've got five easy, low-energy reel ideas that you can utilize, no matter what you're feeling. Let's dive in. Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies, I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach, I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their soul-led work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram, and you're seeking simple proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.
Welcome to the show. It's perfect that I'm recording today's episode as I am recovering from a pretty nasty virus that had me taken out for at least four or five days where I wanted to record this podcast. But I was frankly just too sick. And during that time, when I got sick, content creation was just not really an option for me, I was sick in bed, I didn't feel great. And we all have that happen, right? Like, we cannot always be on this content creation hamster wheel, we have businesses to run, we have kids to take care of, we have spouses that we want to hang out with. So today's episode is going to be really fun because I'm going to share with you five different ideas that I leverage in my business. So that way, I can continue to show up consistently online, even if I'm sick, even if my kids are sick. Even if I get a flat tire. My audience has no idea what's happening. They just know that I'm showing up for them. And I'm staying consistent and they can rely on me. So I want to start by talking about like why, again, consistency is so important. As we talked about in last week's episode, consistency is a critical part of just staying at the top of your ideal client's or prospective client's mind, right? There's that statistic that people have to see things at least I've heard anywhere from like nine to 20 times before they're going to actually purchase or even before they'll click or take action.
So you cannot be afraid of being redundant. You want to show up and you want to show up consistently, of course, that builds your know-like and trust factor. But the other benefit of showing up consistently is getting those reps in as I always remind you the only way you're going to get better at creating content for your business on social media is to create content, there's no getting around it, you have to suck, you have to not be great at first, you have to get those reps in. And the more you practice it, the easier it becomes, the better the quality of your content becomes. And the more you are going to get a return on the investment of your time and energy. So I love being consistent because that means Hey, I'm practicing. And if I'm practicing, I'm getting better. So a reminder, don't be afraid of just sucking just put it out there. It can be imperfect, it can be a little bit flawed. In fact, PS, the more flawed raw content is actually doing better on Instagram right now. So try not to feel like everything has to be super polished up.
People want relatable content. So be yourself and show up with consistent energy. Now how do you show up consistently on social media? Well, also running a business while also being a parent or a sister or, you know, a partner. Like we all have lives outside of our businesses and social media. So you want to develop some sort of a system so that way you can show up consistently, even if you're just not in the mood. Okay, so if I waited until I felt motivated to create content, I probably wouldn't be where I am today. Okay, there are so many days that I I remind myself the importance of showing up and I show up no matter how I'm feeling Doing now we're all human, you cannot be expected to show up with full energy every single day, life happens, kids get sick, there's a fire you need to put out with a coworker, you're running your business, you're running payroll, you're doing all the things and you have a limited amount of time to market yourself on social media. So today, I'm going to share with you five easy reel ideas that you can weave into your social media strategy, and use on those days that you just aren't feeling it. Okay, let's get into it easy real idea. Number one, I want you to run a report on your Instagram, you're going to go to your professional dashboard and look at your insights. And you can select either the last six months or the last three months, and you are going to check out all of the content that you have already posted in the last three to six months. And I want you to find the content that performed the best whether it got the most views, or saves or follows or engagement, whatever your metric is that you're looking at. But that post that really popped off and did well. And then what I want you to do is repost that content. Now here's what's crazy is, I have done this over and over again.
In my dance studio business, I have had multiple reels that have gone viral. And I mean, like over 100,000 views on these reels. And I will post the exact same reel with different audio usually, but I will post the exact same video the exact same caption even the same hashtags, and the video will go viral again. So why recreate the wheel every single time when you can repurpose that content that you've already created that you know already performed well for your audience, and just test and see what works and what doesn't. Sometimes it will pop off again, sometimes it won't. But you know that that's a solid piece of content that your audience really resonated with, go ahead and post it again, real idea number two is similar but a little bit different. And that is repurpose past content. So what you can do is, let's say my example from that last tip of you had a reel that went viral, or maybe it just had a lot of engagement, there was a lot of likes, there was a lot of comments, there was a lot of saves. And what you can do is you can take the information in that reel that you shared, and take the exact same information and repurpose it. So you can take those steps and put them into a carousel. So a carousel post is when you see those slide after slide after slide, when you're kind of scrolling through images, they can be pictures, they can be infographics. But let's say I did a reel that went viral of like five ways to convert your followers into paying clients. And that was a really popular reel that popped off, I can take that exact same content that I already wrote and repurpose it into a carousel. And or I can take the exact same content, and then put it on a different video that I already have in my camera roll with a different audio and post it again, a lot of times clients tell me like oh, you know, I don't want to be too redundant. I don't want to be too repetitive. Wrong, I want you to be redundant, I want you to be repetitive because what you have to remember is that 99% of your people will not remember anything you've posted before. And B A lot of them have never even seen it, there's so much content that they're consuming. They probably haven't even seen this before. So don't be afraid of reposting and re-sharing content. And again, if you have those pillars, those content pillars in your strategy where you have kind of five general topics that you always speak on, you're gonna be repeating a lot of the same information and that is okay, that is part of what is really positioning you as the expert in your space. So don't be afraid of being repetitive. We all need to hear things multiple multiple times for them to even sink in. And remember, people have not seen it before, most likely, and or they won't remember so don't even worry about being redundant.
Reel idea number three is so great. And I do this all the time, especially when I cannot get myself on camera. I'm sick. I am not feeling it, is I go into my camera roll. And I just look at all of my videos, and I find those B roll videos. So what does the term B roll mean? Exactly. So in modern In the film and video production B roll is just the footage, that is not the main action shots, it's the secondary shots. And if you ever watch the news, they do this all the time where they might be interviewing someone, and then they'll cut to another shot. So you can think of B roll is just sort of that behind the scenes, secondary footage that just helps you to tell your story to your audience. So maybe I'm walking down the street, or I was dancing in the kitchen, or I was working at my computer. And this is a pro tip for you. Whenever you think of it, just take some videos of you doing random things like pouring a cup of coffee, or pouring yourself a cup of tea, or maybe you're on the phone, or maybe you're recording a podcast, or maybe you're putting flowers in a vase, people love to see people doing things, it's just human nature. And so what I tend to do is I try to throughout my life, just randomly, I'll just kind of take videos of myself just doing my normal everyday things.
And then I have these videos sitting on my camera roll for those days when I'm just not feeling it. And so what you can do is right now, I bet you that you have a video on your camera roll that you could totally use. And by the way, it doesn't have to be you, it could be a view of a mountain that you filmed when you were on a hike, or it could be a video of you pouring a glass of wine and you're not even in the video. It all depends on your brand, and your whole brand vibe and vision. So you have to kind of take what I'm telling you now and put your own lens of okay, what is my brand? What is the whole vibe of my company. So for example, in my company and my coaching brand, in my videos, you'll see me and my kitchen a lot, I do a lot of dancing in my kitchen, while also teaching you about Instagram marketing, because I kind of mesh my two passions together. In my dance studio business, you'll see a lot of videos in our actual dance studio, of our couples dancing, you'll also see videos of them on their wedding day. And that is our brand. So it wouldn't make sense to post like me pouring a cup of tea for my wedding dance brand. Okay, so you have to kind of think through like, what is your brand, what is your company, and what would make the most sense in terms of attracting your ideal prospect, your ideal follower to kind of magnetize their eyes to your content.
But again, don't overthink this too much. I'm trying to make it as simple for you as possible. So you're gonna find some B roll footage. And then what you're going to do is you're going to find a piece of trending audio. Now you can find trending audio on Instagram by that little upward arrow, it goes up to the diagonal, and you'll see it kind of in the lower left side of the screen when you're scrolling through reels. If an audio is trending, you'll see the upward arrow. So you're going to grab a trending audio that again, aligns with your whole brand vibe, you're going to edit your B roll clip to about seven seconds. So don't make this too long. Just make it short and quick and easy. You're going to slap a hook on your video. So whatever the piece of content is going to be about. So five ways to, you know attract your dream boat client or something like that. So a hook of what you're going to deliver in the content. And then you're going to have a call to action on the video which could say simply just read the caption, right? Like, let's just keep it really easy. You write the caption, and you post it and you're done. Right, you didn't have to get on camera, you didn't have to go find a video, you didn't have to film a video, it's already sitting on your camera roll, you can just go do it and be done for the day.
Low Energy Reel number four is actually one of my favorites. And it's a new thing that is trending on Instagram right now. So if you're listening to this, go take advantage of this because who knows how long this trend is going to last. And that is posting a meme. So what you can do as you can be scrolling through Instagram and you'll see those memes, you want to find one that is going viral one that is like really popular, and everyone's kind of gobbling it up. So what you're going to do is you're going to tap on the three dots that are in the lower right-hand corner of the reel, and then you're going to select remix. Now when you select a remix, that meme is going to come up and then you can add your own text over whatever is already on the screen. So an idea for you could be you know, a viral meme that's someone you know is on a speedboat and they're freaking out and they're falling off and you could say POV meaning point of view, and then a hook that speaks to your ideal odds. DNS, and then you're gonna write the caption and post it and you're done. I recently used this hook on my feed, you can go check it out. And it is a meme of Jennifer Lawrence. And she's like, What do you mean? What do you mean? And she's like freaking out and crying. And I added the text over the screen of saying, when you realize it's not the algorithm, your content just sucks, okay? So obviously, that's kind of an edgy thing to say, that took me two minutes to create, because I just took that meme, and I put my own hook on it. And then I wrote what I had to say about that in the caption, so it's a really great way to do a really quick and easy post. Now, the fifth idea I have for you, you're gonna say what, this is not a real idea, but just hang with me. The fifth idea I have for you is to turn off your phone. Yes, you heard me turn off your phone and take a break.
So the other day, I did this. And when I say turn off, I don't mean like, put it to sleep. I mean, like power it off. I know, it's very, very spooky. But I want you to power off your phone and take an hour away from your phone. The other night, I did this, and I turned my phone off for four hours. And all of a sudden, I just felt the sense of like, Ah, I can breathe, I can just relax a little bit, I can feel into myself. And what I find is that when I take breaks, that is when I get my best ideas for content is when I'm not working. So if you are that exhausted, if you're that tired, if you are that sick, please give yourself permission to just take a break, turn your phone off and just rest and know that social media is always here waiting for you to get back on board when you're feeling better, or when you're feeling energized. And you might be amazed at how this break this time away to protect your mental health will actually fuel your business and help you go further faster. Because you will get those downloads that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise, when you're just pushing and hustling, and just forcing yourself into creating content for the sake of creating content. That's what I got for you today. I hope you found at least one of those ideas helpful. And I want you to go and implement one of those ideas this week. And when you do tag me on Instagram and let me know, I cannot wait to see what you create. And if you got a lot of value out of today's episode, please share this episode with another creator or business owner who might benefit from our episode today. And I cannot wait to dive into more Instagram marketing strategy with you next week.
Thank you for listening to Strut It. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're gonna want to grab my free monetize your IG guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at Elizabethmarberry.com/freebies That's Elizabeth marberry.com/freebies To get my monetize your IG guide. If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms and I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.