VIRAL REEL

STRATEGIES

creatortom
 table of contents

pages 3-4 introduction

pages 5-6 understanding engagement
pages 7-9 finding content ideas
pages 10-11 high quality
pages 12-13 captions
pages 14-15 hooks
pages 16-20 audio
pages 21-22 content looping
pages 23-24 double down
pages 25-29 posting times
pages 30-31 be consistent
pages 32 bonus section
page 33 finding my content idea
page 34 tommy’s way
pages 35-36 preparing my content
pages 37-38 writing the caption
pages 39-51 editing
pages 52-55 posting
page 56 conclusion
pages 57-60 f&qs

creatortom
 Introduction

Welcome to the viral reels strategies!

Inside of this guide you are going to find

all of the fundamental strategies that are
needed to create high quality, high
engagement videos to help you get more
reach with your content.

I’m going to teach you step by step how I

achieved results like this as a small
creator.

creatortom
 Introduction
Something to remember when going
through this guide. This is inside of how I
create and produce my content and the
strategies that I implement to increase my
chances of my videos performing well.

By no means do you need to stick to exactly

what I do in order to make it work for you.

This guide is just a framework for you to

follow if you have no idea where to start.

So with that being said, I hope you can

learn something from this!

p.s. At the bottom of this guide you will find a bonus

section where you will get an insight of how I create my
videos step by step.

creatortom
Understanding Engagement
First we need to understand how
engagement & reach actually work
together on Instagram.

When you post a reel, it is initially pushed

out to your followers. When the initial
audience engages with you reel via likes,
comments, saves or shares, it will then tell
the algorithm that your content is good
and then it gets pushed out to non-
followers by the algorithm.

When new people (non-followers) engage

with your post, it will get pushed out
further by the algorithm and this is
exactly how posts go viral. Your reel will
end up in the reels tab, explore page, SEO
ranking and in the posts for the audio that
you used on that video.

creatortom
Understanding Engagement

The golden rule of thumb that I live by is: “If

your initial audience doesn’t engage with
your post, then it will not get pushed out
further to new viewers.”

The hardest part is to create good quality

content that your initial audience will
engage in to even have a chance of your
post reaching new people.

creatortom
 finding content ideas

It is more simple than you would think to

find all of your ideas/inspiration for
creating content for your page.

Remember: NEVER just copy and paste

content from someone else’s page. you want
to be authentic and genuine to what you’re
offering. Always use other creators for
inspiration and for content ideas but,
always try to add your own creative spin
to make it unique to you.

creatortom
 finding content ideas
here are some of the best ways to find
content ideas on instagram:

Content Sniping
This is where you’ll find 10-15 creators in the
same niche as you, find content that has
performed well for them in the last 30 days. Save
these posts in a spreadsheet or word document
and then start re-creating them for yourself.

Using the Reels tab

Another easy way to find content ideas from
other random creators is to simply use the Reels
tab/explore page. Scroll through until you see a
piece of content that you could replicate and
would resinate with your audience, save them
into the “saved” folder on Instagram and then
pick one at a time to download onto your
laptop to use as a template/idea for your own
video. This is my personal favourite to find new
content ideas.

creatortom
 finding content ideas

Mixing
This method of idea generation is when you find
2 pieces of content from one of your favourite
creators that both performed well for them.

What you can do with this method is take the

IDEA from one of the reels (hook & framework)
and then MIX it with the AUDIO from their other
reel.

I use this method pretty frequent and this

method has worked well for me too.

creatortom
 high quality
The fundamentals of this are quite
straightforward but, I still see people
making this mistake when creating content
on Instagram.

Make sure when you sit down to make a

piece of content, always consider the
following:

Does my video provide value to my

audience?
Does my video have a strong hook that’s
going to engage my viewers?
Does my video have a caption full of
information and value?
Is my B-roll visually appealing and good
quality?
Is my content authentic and genuine to
me?

creatortom
 high quality

Try to follow this basic checklist when

creating a piece of content.

This will allow you to consistently

analyse your ideas and always make sure
that it’s actually “high quality” content.

Trust me, you will see better results with

your reels when doing this.

creatortom
 captions

Captions are what makes up a large part of

your videos. If you make a short engaging
video with a lengthy caption, it is like a
cheat code for achieving more watch time
and engagement from your audience.

When finding content ideas from other

creators that have a longer caption. Try to
use the same framework and length they
used and then build on that to make it
better than theirs. Add more keywords,
more information and be more genuine to
match your style.

Provide as much value as you can in your

captions so you can engage your audience
and they can take something
memorable/valuable away from it.

creatortom
 captions

here are some example of engaging and

valuable captions:

creatortom
 hooks

The hook is what captivates your audience

to watch the rest of your video (in simple
terms).

The hook is shown in the first 3 seconds of

the video and it can be a visual hook such
as text on screen, audio hook such as an AI
voice over or good music.

If you can pair a text on screen hook with a

visual hook and a good audio, then this is a
very powerful strategy.

creatortom
 hooks
In my particular niche, I use on screen
captions and visually pleasing B-roll to
hook my audience. Some examples of good
hooks are:

“5 things I wish I knew sooner”

“10 things to learn in your twenties”
“I want to be more productive but I
procrastinate a lot”
“I want to make money online but I have
no skills”
“Struggling to remember information?
Try these 4 strategies”

The list is endless but these are just some

examples that I’ve seen that have performed
extremely well. All you have got to try and
do when creating a hook is to add some
sort of value to engage your audience that
makes them want to watch the rest of your
video.
creatortom
 audio
When you create a reel you always want to
try and utilise a trending audio.

If you use the strategies above about

finding content ideas then, usually you
find that the piece of content that you
want to re-create will already have a
trending audio.

If this is the case then you can absolutely

re-create your video with the same audio.

But, in some cases, you will want to use a

different audio to use with your reel. Maybe
because the original audio that was used is
no longer trending, it doesn’t suit your
style of video or you want to simply “mix”
two ideas together (this is what I do all the
time!)

creatortom
 audio
Using trending audios is almost ESSENTIAL
to increase your reach and get your video
pushed out by the algorithm. Hopping on
recent trends is a great strategy for viral
content.

When finding a trending audio you can

either:

Re-use the audio from the video you

saved
Find a new audio on the reels tab
Or look in the “trending audio” section
in the “professional dashboard” on your
profile.

creatortom
 audio

As you know there are tonnes and tonnes of

trending audios so you might be thinking,
“which ones should I choose?”

That’s why I have made a little checklist

that you can follow to help you pick a
good audio:

creatortom
 audio

Audios with less than 10k uses with the

original video getting over 500k views
or more with other creators getting
similar results (at least 100k or more).

Audios between 10k-20k uses and have got

good results from the other creators
using this audio.

Audios with less than 1k uses with the

original creator getting more than 500k
views (these audios are a GOLD MINE as
you can hop on the audio when it is very
early trending thus, massively
increasing your exposure and increase
your chances of your video going
viral.)

creatortom
 audio

tip:

Avoid using audios that are over 3-6

months old, even if it is still trending. Most
likely it will have a lot of uses and people
would have already heard this audio
thousands of times and they will most
likely just scroll past your video, which is
exactly what we DON’T want.

creatortom
 content looping

Content looping is a strategy used by

many creators to increase their
watch time and replays. Instagram
pushes videos that receive a lot of
replays and watch time.

The way content looping works is you

would create a reel with a length
between 5-7 seconds and pair that
with a strong hook at the beginning
and some information or a call-to-
action to read the caption at the end
of the video.

creatortom
 content looping

Because the video is so short, your

viewers won’t be able to read
everything in the video the first time
around, which will make them watch
the video multiple times and read your
caption that is full of information.

This is an awesome strategy to use to

rack up a lot of watch time just like
this one,

creatortom
 double down

So, you’ve now got to the stage where

maybe one of your reels has
performed considerably better than
your other reels or maybe even gone
VIRAL!

This is great as you can use this as

feedback for new content.

It tells you that Instagram somehow

liked this particular reel which is
why it performed exceptionally
better.

creatortom
 double down

Now, you can use this to your

advantage by a method called
“doubling down”.

The way this works is you would

analyse that particular video: The
hook, audio, B-roll and caption.

What you can do now is re-create

iterations of the same idea to
increase your chances of another
video going viral again based off of
your original idea such as,

re-writing the hook, mixing with a

different audio and re-writing the
caption using the same framework.

creatortom
 posting times

One of the most common topics

surrounding reach and engagement is
posting times.

Depending on your timezone, this can

vary but there is a general rule of
thumb.

After speaking with some Instagram

experts, they recommend to post your
reels anytime between 1pm and 4pm EST.
Depending on your time zone, you can
just run a quick timezone conversion
with Google to find out the right time
for you.

I’m in the UK, so for me the best times

to post have been proven to be
between 6pm-9pm.

creatortom
 posting times

Regarding the right times to post, I

personally take it with a pinch of salt
but the times listed above have proven
to give me better reach.

it also depends on where your audience

is mainly based, so you wanna try and
hit the right time to post when your
audience is most active on Instagram.

creatortom
 posting times

Another easy way to find out when your

audience is most active is to go over to
the “professional dashboard” on your
profile,

click on “total followers”,

scroll all the way to the bottom and

you will find analytics of the peak
active times on certain days or hours
on each day.

creatortom
posting times

creatortom
 posting times
Also, whilst you are in the professional
dashboard, you can also see what
countries most of your audience is
based ↓

creatortom
 be consistent

The last point I want to make clear on

the strategies I’ve spoke about is to
actually be CONSISTENT.

Nothing kills your page and growth

more than being inconsistent.

As you all know, Instagram, much like

all of the other social media platforms,
likes to keep everyone on there for as
long as possible and as often as
possible.

creatortom
 be consistent
Showing up consistently is gonna work
wonders for the algorithm and your
results with your account. Depending
on your schedule, try to post at least
once a day. This is exactly what I do and
it seems to work well for me.

If you can’t post everyday, try to at

least post around 3-4 times per week and
on the same days every week depending
on what days your audience is most
active, (use the methods in the ‘posting
times’ section to find this information).

Posting consistently will allow you to

get more content out there and see
results a lot quicker. You can make
iterations and test ideas a lot more
frequent and also increase your
chances of one of them videos blowing
up a lot quicker!
creatortom
 bonus section

Congrats on finishing the Viral Reels

Guide! I hope you took something away
from these strategies so you can start
implementing these right away and see
some results fast!

in the next section, you can grab an

insight to my exact workflow strategy
that i take to create my videos for my
personal brand.

i have created this section as a bonus

for you guys to give you some
inspiration if you are unsure on where
to get started.

creatortom
 Step 1: Finding my content
idea

The first step is research, I tend to find

10-15 creators that align with my niche
and have good performing videos in the
last 30 days.

With these creators, I try to find a mix

of half of them having a larger
audience (i.e. 50k+ followers) and the
other half of creators with a smaller
audience (less than 10k).

It is very important to try and find

content ideas from up and coming
creators as this is exactly what you are
too, so finding content ideas from them
that got a high amount of views can
usually mean that the same can happen
for you too.

creatortom
 tommy’s way

What I personally do to save my content

ideas is create a folder in the saved
section of instagram and call it
‘content ideas’

I can save everything that I might want

to re-create all in one place to come
back to later on.

P.S. refer back to the “finding content

ideas” section earlier in this guide for
more info.

creatortom
 Step 2: Preparing your
content
Once you have found some ideas and
saved them, it is now time to start
preparing for re-creation of one of
those videos.

First of all, I like to head over to my

saved folder in Instagram on my laptop
and click on one of the videos that I
want to use.

I would then copy the URL link and paste

it into Reelsave.app website to
download the reel and use the audio if
needed (more on this in a previous
section).

I also make a note of the ‘hook’ that they

used in the first 3 seconds of their
video.

creatortom
 Step 2: Preparing your
content
I copy the caption that was used in that
reel and paste into notes.

If you use a MacBook, then use the notes

app or if you are on Windows, just use
Google Docs.

Note: You are not just COPYING and

PASTING someone else’s content to post
on your page.

You are simply downloading their reel

and putting the caption into notes to
use as a FRAMEWORK for your own piece
of content.

The next section is about how to rewrite

the caption to add your own creative
spin on it.

creatortom
Step 3: Writing the caption
By now, you would have downloaded the
reel and copied their caption into
notes.

What I do from here is I read their

caption and analyse their hook and
then try to use my creative brain to re-
invent this idea!

First up is re-writing the hook. Try to

think of ways that you can make your
hook slightly better or more engaging
than theirs.

For example, original hook is “DO THIS

TO GROW YOUR INSTAGRAM”

You could say, “TOP 5 STRATEGIES TO SKY-

ROCKET YOUR INSTAGRAM GROWTH”.

Much better right?

creatortom
Step 3: Writing the caption

The caption:

What I would do here is use their

framework that they used in their
caption but, I would add and subtract
parts of it to make it more authentic
and unique to me.

Tommy’s tip:

Keep in mind, we are not trying to ‘re-

invent the wheel’, we are emulating what
is already working on Instagram so
that we know that it has a chance of
performing well when we post it
ourselves.

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing

I have now got my hook and caption re-

written. It is now time to put the reel
that I downloaded into my video editing
software and start re-creating it for
myself using the same structure as the
original.

The video editing software that I am

currently using is Capcut on desktop.

I personally use this as it is free and

simple to use once you learn the basics
of video editing.

It has more than enough tools and

features for editing short form content
on Instagram.

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing
Add original video into your timeline:

Import the reel that you downloaded

and put it onto your timeline.

Here is where you will extract the audio

from the video so to add my own B-roll
later on,

it will play with my clips rather than be

attached to the original video.

It should look something like this↓

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing
Making cuts in the clips:

If I am using the audio that is with the

original reel then what I would do is
scrub through the clips from the video
and make cuts where there is a clip
change,

you can do this by pressing “B” on your

keyboard and a little razor icon will
replace the cursor.

like this↓

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing
Adding my own B-roll:

Once I have made all the cuts in the

clips, it is time to add my own B-roll
footage.

I import my media from my iPhone

through Airdrop and import the clips
straight to my MacBook,(if you don’t
have this then you can upload your
clips to Google Drive/Onedrive).

I then put the clips that I have selected

into my timeline in Capcut and proceed
to edit the parts of the clips that I want
and then adjust them to change in the
same places as the original video.

example on next page →

creatortom
Step 4: Editing

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing

Adding dark preset LUT:

Now that I have got all of my clips

edited and in the right place, I then go
back over them and add my dark
aesthetic preset to them

(available on my gumroad page or

through my link in bio on my Instagram
page)

If you have your own presets or

settings that you use, then feel free to
use them instead.

My preset is available for anyone that

just wants to add it straight onto their
clips with no extra editing.

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing

Adding dark preset LUT:

before: after:

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing
On-screen captions:

It’s time to add my on-screen captions, I

will add my text hook and the other
written captions that will appear over
the top of my B-roll.

I personally use Canva to make and edit

my captions and then import them as a
png file into Capcut.

You don’t have to do this is you are not

familiar with Canva, you can just use
Capcut’s ‘add text’ feature in the text tab
and write them in yourself.

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing
Exporting:

Now that the video had been finalised

and completed, it is time to export it.

This is very simple to do and with

Capcut I usually keep everything as
recommended.

Just make sure that you export the video

in 9:16 resolution and at 30fps (this is
the format used for Instagram Reels).

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing
Making the Reel cover (thumbnail):

When I make a reel for my page I always

make sure that I make a thumbnail for it
to make the video more appealing to new
viewers when they visit my account. I
usually scrub through my video that I’ve
just edited and find a point in one of the
clips that would look good for a
thumbnail.

Once I have done this, I then export that

section as a ‘still frame’ in Capcut.

Or, sometimes if I don’t use a still frame

out of my clips, I’ll use an aesthetic
image out of my camera roll that suits
the video. For example, my desk setup or
a dark aesthetic of my laptop.

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing

Making the Reel cover (thumbnail):

here is a screenshot of how to export as

still frame in capcut↓

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing

I personally make my reel covers over in

Canva but you can use Adobe Photoshop
if you are more familiar with that.

I import the image I want to use and then

add text over the image to make a title
for the video.

The font that I personally use and I see a

lot of other creators using this font is
Montseratt.

It stands out very well and it looks

clean and the text is easily readable.

creatortom
 Step 4: Editing

A little extra thing I like to do with the

title is highlight the keywords in bold.

This makes the text ‘pop’ more and makes

it look more appealing to potential
viewers to provoke them into clicking
onto the video.

like this↓

creatortom
 Step 5: posting
Now for the final section, posting time!

When I go to post, I always look for the

audio that I have used on my video and
head over to that specific audio page
and press ‘use audio’

creatortom
 Step 5: posting

Then I select the recent video from my

camera roll and put it into Instagram’s
editor.

You wanna make sure that you adjust

the volume of the audio.

In the section that says ‘volume

controls’ make sure your original
audio from your reel is at 100 and then
turn the selected audio all the way
down to 2 so that you can’t hear it over
your video but it still plays in the
background.

see next page to see what i mean by this→

creatortom
Step 5: posting

creatortom
 Step 5: posting
Now that’s out of the way I simply add
the reel cover in the next section and
copy and paste my caption (which I
wrote out earlier in my notes).

Also on this section you wanna make

sure that ‘upload at highest quality’ is
turned on.

It is crucial that this is turned on so

that your reel uploads at the highest
quality possible.

Once that has been checked, it’s time to

hit the share button!

creatortom
 conclusion

I hope this section gave you

guys some insights as to how I
personally go about making my
videos for my page and inspire
some of you that may not know
where to get started or how to
organise your content.

In case I have missed anything

that you guys might want to
know, check out the F&Q section
below where I highlight some of
the questions I get asked on a
regular basis.

creatortom
 f&q
1) How do you edit your videos?

As explained in this guide, I use Capcut

to edit my videos and Canva for my
captions and reel covers.

2) What have you learnt so far with

content creation?

As a small creator building myself up

and improving everyday, the main thing
that I have learnt is to just be
consistent and don’t focus on every
individual piece of content. Videos are
gonna flop especially when you are
starting out and that’s ok, you’ve just
gotta try and analyse what could be
improved and then make iterations and
pivot your content to be slightly better
next time.

creatortom
 f&q
3) Where/ how do you get the B-roll for
your videos?

I film all of my clips myself just with an

iPhone and a cheap tripod. You have to
start somewhere so, utilise the
equipment that you already have to get
started.

4) I’m creating a page in the same niche

as yours but I’m stuck, where should I
start?

Follow this guide to get some ideas of

how you could structure your content.

I would also say to make sure that you

are always researching the
marketplace on Instagram to see what’s
working and how you could re-create
content for yourself.

creatortom
 f&q

5) My setup is old, what should I do?

Trust me, this doesn’t matter when you’re

first starting out. Apart from my iPhone
and my MacBook (which I already had),
my desk setup is very basic and I have
had it for years, I don’t even have a
proper office chair! This doesn’t stop
me from being creative and creating
good quality content.

Upgrade your setup in the future once

you start growing.

6) How do I increase my reach?

Strong hooks, good quality B-roll,

utilise trending audios, value-packed
captions and BE CONSISTENT!

creatortom
 f&q

7) Instagram is not showing my content

to non-followers, how can I fix this?

Try to use a select few hashtags

(between 3-5) that describe your video
best so that the algorithm has a better
understanding of your ideal audience.

hopping on recent trends with audios

and add CTAs (call-to-action) to engage
your audience to increase your chances
of your video being pushed out to non-
followers.

creatortom