📸 Everything the Instagram CEO recommends to win on Instagram

Instagram has become more like TikTok in the last few years, and now the CEO of Instagram has confirmed it via a bunch of helpful Reels, giving advice on how to get the most from the platform.

Some of his advice is about the algorithm - and gives insight into the rules of Insta, and how the algorithm thinks. Other bits of his insight are just advice, and I don’t think they have a huge bearing on the algorithm (they’re just good practice). I’ve split the points below accordingly.

Read these points through the eyes of a full time creator - creators already know these points, they live it every day. But the next time you write a brief, think about whether your brief lives up to this advice.

Algorithmic insights:

• Focus on Watch time. The longer people watch your video, the more organic reach you will get overall. Most branded videos lose 70% of viewers within a few seconds, because viewers can spot an ad a mile away. Watch time is the single most important metric on both Insta and TikTok.
• Likes are important to tell the algorithm to show the video to more of your followers (Insta calls it connected reach). If you have a lot of followers, this is an important metric. If you don’t, see the next bullet point 👇
• Shares / sends are important to tell the algorithm to spread the video into recommended content and explore feeds (unconnected reach) - basically everyone who doesn’t follow you. That could be A LOT of people, so I’d argue this metric was key if you want organic reach on a video.
• The more you post the better, as long as you don’t let quality drop. So post loads if you have great things to say, you won’t be penalised (despite what you might read).

Instagram confirms that watch time is the #1 metric to optimise for

Good practice:

• Keep logos off videos, and definitely no watermarks. That’s mainly a nod to the fact TikTok watermark downloaded videos. Instagram knows people swipe the moment they see a logo. People are on Insta to be entertained.
• Keep your content original. Don’t repost other people’s stuff. This is an interesting one, as Instagram have claimed for a while they punish reposting. In all honesty I don’t think they know how to do this yet, in the way TikTok definitely does.
• “Use audio, it’s really engaging”. It doesn’t have to be trending audio, which suggests Instagram doesn’t really care about music tracks in the same way TikTok does- audio won’t make you trend on Insta. But it will keep people watching, and it can be a key part of a video, or even photo carousels.
• Keep it short. Weirdly Instagram recommend “3 minutes or less”, but given 3 minutes is the limit on Reels, that’s a given. But if you are optimising for watch time and video completion rates - we’d say, keep your videos as short as they can possibly be, and still tell the story. Trim every wasted millisecond, that’s what Creators do.
• Stay consistent with what you post. I think this more generic advice, it’s given as a way to create expectations for your followers, but as we know, unconnected reach has a lot more potential than connected reach. It just depends whether you see building followers as important or not.

👯‍♀️ Instagram launches “Trial Reels”, their best idea since collab posts

Fresh from the news that TikTok has finally copied one of Instagram’s best features (collab posting), Instagram has announced another great feature: Trial Reels.

Trial Reels is a way of posting of Reel to Instagram, without committing the post to your own profile (and your followers) until you see how much traction it gets. You post the video, and the algorithm puts it into the “explore” areas of the feed. Your followers don’t initially get served the video, and it doesn’t show on your profile.

Trial Reels allow you to test a video before committing it to your profile

The use case they highlight is for creators to trial new content formats, and experiment without risking an exodus of followers, something creators fear will happen if they change their styles (and alienate OG followers). Many creators have multiple accounts for this reason, posting different stuff on different profiles.

We think the feature will start featuring in brand deals really soon - as it seems to have a lot of potential in brand / creator collabs.

Here’s how it could shape deals (using familiar scenes):

• “The Trial Run”. Brand briefs a creator, but the brief is different from their usual style, and they’d normally turn it down. But the brand agrees it can be posted as a Trial Reel, and won’t be shown to the creator’s followers. It can still be promoted, and if it’s successful it will still get organic reach (unconnected reach - as explained above). No downside for the creator, and no risk of an exodus.
• “The Performance Pact”. Brand briefs a creator, and they want loads of content (3-4 posts). They want announcements, content shot on the day, and some best of film. The creator agrees to post them all as Trial Reels, and a performance / engagement threshold is agreed for them to be posted to the audience. If they don’t do well, they don’t get posted to the profile. Creator is de-risked from boring their audience with too much branded content (unless it’s popular), and the brand is incentivised to brief the creator for success.
• “The Battle Test”. Brand wants to focus on performance, with multiple versions of a video (made by a creator). The creator makes 3 different versions of the video, and both parties agree to post the best performing one to their profile. All 3 go live on Insta, but one wins (and goes to the follower base).

Expect to see Trial Reels as an option on the CreatorOS dashboard very soon!

🧐 Creator tip: Nell shares her personal experience using both Instagram and TikTok as a creator

Nell Carter (known as Nell’s Kitchen), is a creator and a local business in the UK. She runs a catering business making delicious sandwiches, and at same time creates content around food. We asked her to share her experience of moving from being Instagram-only, to having content strategy on both Insta and TikTok - a regular occasion for brands, too.

Nell moved over to TikTok 2 years ago.

Two years ago, TikTok was completely off my radar. As a millennial straddling Gen Z, I had built my sandwich business on Instagram, relying on polished photos and engaging Stories. But in late 2022, I started experimenting with Reels. My videos were rough but authentic, and while my static posts still performed better, I noticed a growing audience.

Then it hit me; I was missing out by not posting to TikTok. Initially, I just repurposed my Instagram Reels, watermark and all. Bad move. TikTok deprioritises videos with Instagram branding, so a friend advised me to use a third-party editor. Almost overnight, my TikTok views soared from the hundreds to the thousands. One video hit 200,000 views in 48 hours—while the same clip barely scraped 5,000 on Instagram.

I soon realised TikTok thrived on unfiltered, narrative-driven content. My "sandwich-a-day" challenge, where I used a random ingredient generator, starting doing really well. People tuned in daily, left comments, and created a real community. Meanwhile, Instagram felt more like a curated highlight reel—great for brand credibility but less dynamic for discoverability.

When I hit 10,000 TikTok followers, I joined its Creativity Fund, which rewards long-form content (anything over 60 seconds), TikTok also allows creators to organise videos into playlists, showing a preference for serialised content and formats. Instagram, on the other hand, still prioritised aesthetics and static content—though its push for Reels suggests that’s changing quickly.

While going viral on TikTok is easier, sustaining that momentum is far more challenging unless you have a deeply engaged audience. Instagram - for the moment - remains the stronger platform for professional credibility and brand partnerships.

Ultimately I’m both a content creator and a small business owner. Instagram has been instrumental in legitimising my brand, helping me reach local customers and grow my network.

Follow Nell’s TikTok by clicking right here.

📈 Trend of the week: #EmergencyContact

This is a nice example of a trend elevating simple content to a higher level. It’s generally women posting videos of guys (not always) doing stupid stuff - with the title “this is my emergency contact”, and the audio track “Ordinary Girl” by Hannah Montana.

As many brands take on personas through either their staff or a character, you could see how this could be an easy fit to piggy back on - with no real need to make the videos very long (many we’ve seen are under 20 seconds) it’s also a good opportunity to .

@sullivang_

blessed @Chadx_