Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 It seems like everywhere you go, people are talking about Instagram reels, especially in the church world. But let me be honest with you, sometimes coming up with new ideas for your reels can be kind of hard. Well, we got you covered cuz in this video we're gonna break down some of the best Instagram reels, ideas for churches to keep you covered. Let's do this. You are listening to The Reach right podcast, the show dedicated to helping your church reach more people and grow. And today we are talking about Instagram reals for churches and what's actually working for churches right now. And hope to give you a few ideas of things that we have tried and tested and we've proven are working right now. So Instagram reels is pretty important for churches, right, Ian?
Speaker 2 00:00:46 It is, it is definitely important for churches and, uh, a lot more churches are using Instagram now, so they need to jump on the reels.
Speaker 0 00:00:52 Yeah, we probably ought to just give a little bit of a pretext to what we're talking about here. Uh, for those that are, uh, un indoctrinated, I guess, in the world of what's happening in social media, uh, I, my, uh, view of things is that this short form vertical video has eaten all other forms of social media out there. And the lion share of content that's actually getting results is those one minute or less vertical videos that you see that was made so popular on TikTok. Yeah. Uh, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, these are all answers to TikTok and, uh, reels is Instagram specific, uh, version of it. So yeah, that's what we're gonna be talking about today. Um, really I think that these tips that we have could just as easily be translated to YouTube shorts or to TikTok videos, uh, because they really, this is one of the nice things about this season of social media is you can use this same content on multiple platforms. It's not like it used to be where you wanted to do something tailored for Instagram, for Instagram, something specific for YouTube there. Really, this content works everywhere, so you can replace reels with any other term, but we're gonna be focusing mostly on reels today.
Speaker 2 00:02:00 Yep. That's good. Yep. Well, why don't we start by just, let's talk about like exactly, well, you did explain exactly what they are, but I guess, you know, how do you make them, I guess might be the first thing to, to address for folks?
Speaker 0 00:02:14 Yeah, I mean, I guess the only, the really real requirements is that, um, and I I this is true for Instagram, TikTok has changed their, um, their methods and things. And so I think you can post videos that are like half an hour long or something on TikTok. Um, but I don't ever see those getting a lot of traction. Typically. Maybe in the future that'll be the case and so we'll see how that goes. But generally speaking, we're talking about short form 60 seconds or less vertical video. So it's made to be right on a phone there and be seen full screen on there, and it's supposed to be fast engaging and things that people will quickly swipe on to the next one. And so what's unique about them is they're not just always finding them on their page that they used to scroll, but it's being delivered to viewers in the discovery algorithm. So it's kind of different. It's not just people that are following you, that are seeing your reels, it's actually the whole world. Anybody that the algorithm thinks might be interested in watching and therefore staying on their platform longer, they're gonna deliver your content to those people. Uh, so that's kind of a, in a nutshell, that really high version of, uh, of what a reel is.
Speaker 2 00:03:21 Yeah, no, that's good. That's helpful. So, and I guess we should dig into maybe some of the things that churches should do with their reels. Like what kinds of content?
Speaker 0 00:03:31 Yeah, I think the first one that comes to mind is behind the scenes content. I think this is always really valuable for Yeah. Churches. And I think giving people a little peak of something, it can't just be like, Hey, here's a a day in the life, everybody waving at the camera. You know that, right. That'll be interesting for your members. But I think if it's, if it's uncovering something behind the scenes that's a little bit out there, I think that's something that, uh, that kind of gets. I, I'm reminded of this Christmas, uh, there was a church, I think they were in the Dallas, maybe the Houston area. They were in Texas and they were famous because before their Christmas Eve service, they did like a rendition of little Drummer Boy. And I don't know if you saw this one where there's people on like wires hitting drums up in the top of the building and everything, and they gave people this behind the scenes looking, it got turned into a meme in a lot of ways because my goodness, like that's such over the top kind of, uh, um, megachurch type thinking with things.
Speaker 0 00:04:24 Yeah. And it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with that. But that's the kind of example, something that's really a curiosity of something that's happening behind the scenes, maybe something that's unexpected for people that aren't a part of your church every day.
Speaker 2 00:04:35 Yeah. No, that's good. That's good. And uh, uh, it reminds me too just, uh, of my church when you mentioned mega size church, uh, we did a behind the scenes thing where my pastor was driving around with the actor Sinbad around our new church building, building up our Christmas series. So we somehow landed, I don't know what the relationship was with Sinbad, but we landed him so
Speaker 0 00:04:58 <laugh>. That's awesome. Love the name too. That's perfect for a church. Sin bad, right? For a church. But
Speaker 2 00:05:03 <laugh> Well, it it's good that he was there. Yeah. He was in the
Speaker 0 00:05:05 Right place. He's in the right place if you're gonna sin bad. That's right. That's a, that's it Dad joke. Uh, yeah. Like to the nine. So anyway,
Speaker 2 00:05:12 We move on. We move on. Yeah. That's
Speaker 0 00:05:13 It. So, so another idea I would say is, uh, interviews. And so that's kind of in the vein you were talking about there with, uh, I don't know if it was technically an interview with Sinbad, but you have, if you have 60 seconds, you're not gonna be able to do a deep diving interview. Right. But you'll probably be able to get portions of an interview. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> I think it's great for interviews with maybe people that are newer at your church, uh, people that are sharing their testimony, they have a powerful story of what God saved them from and interview with them. That really goes a long way. But I think interview content is great. One of the advantages of it is that the person being interviewed, a lot of times they're not on camera all the time. And so they'll be more likely to share some of that content and their friends will wanna see it as well. And it can start to get some momentum that way.
Speaker 2 00:05:54 Yeah. No, that's good. And uh, what about this one here, pain points. Uh, what is, what do we mean by that?
Speaker 0 00:06:01 Yeah, I think addressing a pain point or, so maybe it's just there's something that, that you, um, you sense that people are wrestling with right now. So maybe right now, and we're doing this in, uh, February here of 2023, if you're watching this later in the discovery algorithm is showing it to you at a later time. But, uh, inflation is a big deal right now, right? So it's a pain point for everybody. Everybody is watch. The big joke you see everywhere is that eggs are now like worth the price of gold, basically. That's right. It's how much eggs are costing people. Yeah. So that's like a, a pertinent pain point and it's also really relevant and kind of trending. So these are the kinds of things you wanna make content around. So, you know, what does the Bible teach about how we deal with inflation or financial struggles or some of those kinds of things. So topical relevant pain points that maybe people are feeling right now. Uh, that's something you might wanna make content around.
Speaker 2 00:06:52 That's good. That's good. Um, yeah, no, and I mean the churches shouldn't, uh, well that meets a need, right? So churches shouldn't shy away from that. So, uh, what about another one?
Speaker 0 00:07:02 Yeah, I think another one would be, uh, spiritual growth tools. Kind of giving some people some ideas on how to do that. So whether it's, uh, um, a app for your Bible or some kind of a reading plan or something like that that's out there, giving people kind of a demo or encouraging them to use something that will help them grow in their faith. And I think the thing with these is you want to get maybe like footage other than just someone looking right at the camera. Yeah. Like if you maybe have an app that your church really likes to use that has your, your church's bible reading plan on it, for instance, that's a spiritual growth tool. Yeah. Um, giving someone a walkthrough of you talking about it, but then cutting right to a screen share of the actual app on the phone that someone can see how easy it is to do these kinds of things.
Speaker 0 00:07:46 I think that's something we're seeing get a lot of engagement too. Anything we can do in these videos to make fast pace cuts Yeah. Uh, to kind of keep people's attention. That's really where this, these kinds of mediums shine. Uh, I've seen that most people are going to decide whether they're gonna watch your hole short, it's only 60 seconds at the most, but they're gonna decide within the, the first two seconds. Yeah. So you have to usually be really fast with engaging them. You have to have a really great hook. Yeah. Uh, so you'll want to do some cuts and, and some really engaging movement and stuff at the beginning of these videos.
Speaker 2 00:08:17 Yeah, that's good. Um, attention spans are getting shorter and shorter day by day, aren't they? So That's true. And especially on social media. So, uh, good. Well, last but not least, sermons, right? That's what churches are producing all the time. How could they make, how could they do those and keep 'em short?
Speaker 0 00:08:32 Yeah, this one's really the easiest, right? Because like you're already preaching sermons, you're already filming sermons in most cases. You're already editing them and putting 'em onto YouTube and putting 'em onto other channels. So what's stopping you from taking those videos? And they're not in vertical format in most cases. So making them vertical, cutting them down, putting in some of those transitions, putting some music behind them, doing the captions, doing that kind of stuff. And you actually have a really good piece of content. Now that might have sounded overwhelming to you, and perhaps it is, it is a lot of work to do all that stuff, but the thing is the hardest part, the actual filming and writing and creating the content, you've actually done that already. So we recommend that churches do that for about three videos every week. I think that's kind of the magic number. If your church takes your sermon and clips out three really dynamite shorts or reels in this case. Yeah. Uh, that really is, is great. We actually built a whole service around this called Sermon Sling. Yeah. Where we help churches that maybe don't have the manpower or the resources to do that, to take their sermons without them lifting a finger and turn them into one, two, or three of these vertical videos every single week. But that is something that I think for most churches will be the lion share of their content on Instagram reels. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:09:47 We're excited about that too. So, good stuff.
Speaker 0 00:09:50 Awesome. Yeah. And I, if you guys have any other ideas that you've seen working at your church, we'd love to hear more about them. Let us know down in the comments below, please, if there's something that your church is doing that's getting lots of traction on reels or on TikTok or on shorts, uh, let us know down in the comments and we'll catch you next time.
