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Content Lessons I learned from watching Reels

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Short-form video content now rules social media – there are many statistics I can list to back up that claim but I don’t feel the need to … you can already see Reels & TikToks taking over your digital life.

While long YouTube videos & blogs do retain their own value, people only go to them if they find your short-form appetizers interesting enough to dive deeper into your account.

This means that whether you’re online to market your business or to promote your personal brand, you have no choice but to pick up (and master) the skill of making short-form videos.

We all passively watch at least ten Reels every day. But I’ve recently taken up the habit of “active listening,” which involves pausing, re-watching & asking myself, “What exactly made this Reel interesting?”

This is helping me understand the infinite nuances of what makes content go viral. Today, I’m sharing all my learnings with you.

Here are content creation lessons from all the Reels that I found worthy enough to “save” on my gram. I’ll keep adding more every week.

Table of Contents

1. Business Challenges ~ The Tiggle

Tiggle is a niche D2C startup selling speciality hot chocolate & chocolate blends. In this video, the founder tells a story of how she ran into a roadblock when trying to work with an e-commerce marketplace.

She talks about the mistakes or lapses that can happen when you’re scaling your brand beyond your own storage space.

As the supportive comments indicate, the Reel humanizes the brand & makes them more relatable to normal customers. It makes them feel included in the brand’s journey – they’re seeing the highs & lows of the team through a very personal lens – building this intimacy & trust is a crucial step if you want to build a loyal community around the business.

Usually, BTS footage shared by businesses online is flowery & heavily manufactured (which is ironic, considering it’s supposed to be candid).

But I like that they chose to showcase their struggles. I gave them a follow because I wanted to see how they solved the problem, which they promised to share in the next episode.

Lessons Learned:

  • Be vulnerable in your content – it’s okay to struggle, fail or feel sad
  • Give people a reason to come back for the next Reel – end with a cliffhanger & continue the story

2. Uncovering ReCaptchas ~ ABC TV+

In this Reel, ABC TV+ teams up with comedian Lou Wall for their IP “#WTFAQ” to explore how ReCaptcha checks on Google work.

This is a highly technical topic so if they hadn’t done it right, I would’ve either been snoring or just skipped ahead. But thankfully, they’ve kept it light & natural.

I like how she has turned it into a conversation with her friend. It keeps me engaged throughout.

The dialogue is also simple & both the characters are acting like normal colleagues in an office so the conversation was quite easy to follow.

Lastly, I think the cutting played a very important role in keeping me hooked. It flows seamlessly between the two characters speaking and wherever required, zooming in on the computer screen to demonstrate what the Captcha “expert” is talking about.

Even the dialogue is captured from two or more angles. When filming your Reels, it’s important to plan your camera angles in advance & set up your room accordingly.

Ideally, you should have 3 POVs or focus points ready to cut & intersperse, keeping the video adequately fast-paced and avoiding visual drag, which is a result of a constant angle continuing for more than 5-7 seconds.

Lessons Learned:

  • When explaining something or educating your fans, frame it as a conversation to appear more natural & easy to follow
  • Keep interchanging between 3 POVs or focus points every 5-7 seconds to keep your audience interested in your video

3. ChatGPT Hack ~ Pete Huang (via TikTok)

The valuable tip shared in this Reel is obviously the main reason why I saved it (and shared it with my interns, too) – people love content that they can forward to save their loved ones time, money or effort.

But let’s go deeper – Pete (or whoever he has outsourced it to) really knows their video & audio editing.

  • There’s a zoom-in or out on his face every 3-4 seconds, which prevents visual drag
  • Along with this cut, there’s a “click” sound effect that accompanies any keywords or points he states
  • There’s a light leak effect to transition between the frames/topics
  • The font and colour used in the subtitles are also unique and hence catchy
  • He blurs into the background when the screen rec. of the ChatGPT site comes up to illustrate what he’s explaining

This professional effort that has gone into editing the Reel keeps its pacing absolutely perfect, giving it the look of a high-production value video.

Remember, your content can be great but if your editing falls flat, your audience won’t respect you in the long term.

What Pete has done can be achieved in mobile editing nowadays, so invest that time to create an output that shows you mean business.

4. Event Announcement ~ Ruia College

These kids wanted to promote the upcoming sports event in their college. The usual way to go about it would’ve involved shooting an announcement with the team saying all the details out loud … so boring!

Thankfully, these smart youngsters found a creative way to deliver the message. They convey it through single lines written on post-its, college boards, phone messages & so on, making me feel like I’m watching an exclusive insider conversation of their group.

There’s no dialogue and at its core, it’s just a simple college fest announcement – but the reason I was so invested was the whole concept that they’ve used to package the info as some sort of secret invite for the viewers watching it.

On a side note, the trending upbeat music in the background also helps to carry the video to its conclusion, so it’s a sweet, smooth ride for me through & through.

Lesson Learned: When creating announcement/update videos, see if you can creatively convey your message through offbeat visuals, sounds & editing techniques.

Make viewers feel they’re part of an exclusive conversation.

Remember, you need to tell a story at all times. And a story doesn’t need words, it just needs an intriguing hook (e.g. It’s happening!), a progression (e.g. where, when & what) and a grand reveal (e.g. see you there) in the climax – this video has it all so that’s why it gets my vote!

5. Tracking vs. Static Shot ~ Jazzie

The best way to prove that your technique or product is better is to actually show it in comparison with an alternative, either side-to-side or one after the other.

Without using any dialogue or explanation, Jazzie shows us in this Reel the power of using the technique called “tracking” in film, in which you follow the subject instead of standing in one position.

He first shows a tracking shot and then follows it up with a static shot (with the same frame and subject). The static falls flat in front of the cinematic-looking tracking shot and the answer is clearer than ever.

Of course, as people in the comments have pointed out, it is all about your personal preference and also what your story needs (a tracking shot shows the progression while a static shot is more suitable to end the story).

This is why Jazie smartly ends the video with the question, “Which one do you prefer?”, compelling his fans to weigh in with their thoughts in the comments, boosting his engagement rate.

Lesson Learned: Show, don’t tell. And try to end the video with a question!

6. Interview Hook Questions ~Filmanatix

In this Reel, the director & cinematographer going by the name “Filmanatix” explains how to create a short teaser cut from a longer documentary/personal intro or feature-style video interview you’re doing with a client.

He starts with a strong hook by presenting us with a tricky situation, using the format “Here’s what you’re doing. What if this happened instead?” (So you’re shooting a 20-minute video but the client wants a 30-second teaser edit).

If you’re into videography, you’d be instantly drawn in to discover the solution to the presented challenge.

Then, Filmanatix follows the classic but effective format that most film-focused creators on Instagram or TikTok use – first he walks us through his process, explaining his solution & line of execution, and then follows it up by showing us the final outcome of his filming & editing.

It’s very satisfying to watch because of the way the story is told – challenge, process, outcome. So you come out of the video with so much value.

Lesson Learned: Draw in the audience with a problem, explain your line of thinking step-by-step & do provide the logic behind why you’re doing what you’re doing wherever possible, then finally show the audience the end result of your process so that they know exactly what to envision & benchmark when they follow your style.

7. Falling Down ~ Doodles

You don’t need a long video to go viral. Even 5-second Reels blow up.

All you need is two ingredients – an “open loop” & a “pattern break.”

An open loop, in the context of video creation & visuals, is when you’re placed right in the middle of an action that’s taking place – this can be a familiar action, like a cup falling down mid-air, a base jumper getting ready to jump off a peak or in the case of this video, just a person doing jumping down.

Your brain doesn’t like open loops – it wants to close them, so you’re compelled to watch ahead.

This is where the pepper to your salt comes in – you break the pattern by showing an unexpected outcome.

In this Reel, the person doing the jump zooms in on his legs, which are folding on the floor. It turns out that it’s actually a fresh cut (not a continuation) and those are his hands, which pull out the business card displaying his cafe’s name (this appears to be in Russia).

Using no words, no special effects and just simple editing, he created a cute moment of delight which made me smile.

Lesson Learned: Forget the length. Forget everything. Break the pattern & create a moment of delight!

8. Dad Joke Survivors ~ Create Kids Inc.

This video gets me every time! It’s so hilarious I can’t.

The truth is that I’ve heard all these Dad Jokes before but again, the way they’ve presented them is the real lesson.

They’ve shot the video as a mockumentary, parodying the style of survivor stories or crime documentaries. The sound production is very thematic – with sad music and big thuds to accompany the titles, I was almost feeling real sympathy for the survivors of the Dad Jokes.

When this intentionally serious music and editing are juxtaposed with the actual content (which is completely non-serious), your brain goes nuts with emotions and the result is delight/laughter.

Had the Dad Jokes been told plainly, I would’ve taken them as cringe or dumb at best. So its really the director and editors that deserve the credit here.

Lesson Learned: Add a thematic layer to your content. Don’t just present it as it is. Can you parody something? Can you honour the style of a famous director or actor? That’ll create a much more impactful product.

To see another example of what I mean, watch this Reel in which a cute boy is used to parody the style of life hacks & business guru videos commonly found on Instagram.

9. 30 sec to Diagnose ~ MedSchool Bro

I slept through biology in school & I have no interest in medicine except when I’m visiting the doctor to treat myself or learn about a loved one.

So there’s no way I’m going to watch a Reel in which a doctor tries to guess the ailment with symptoms given as the clues. This Reel changed that in 30 seconds.

It’s a perfect example of how to make a boring or technical concept like a medical diagnosis interesting for the general crowd by gamifying it.

It’s help almost like a dumb charades or “warmer & colder,” game except here, the person behind the camera is giving the doc (who’s very handsome, if I might add) clues to help him guess an ailment that someone is suffering from.

The doctor starts with basic questions to know which category the disease belongs to & then drills deeper with more specific questions.

I understood nothing they were saying but because of the gamified format, I was hooked, rooting for the man to get to the answer before time ran out.

Lesson Learned: Gamify your content & set a time to build anticipation.

10. Luxury Trains in India ~ LBB Mumbai

When you’re out of content ideas, just curate a list that caters to a particular audience!

It’s the easiest way to give value to your audience. Best movie recommendations for Valentine’s Day. Coffee flavours for each Zodiac Sign. Thoughtful Gifts for Science Students.

And in this case, 6 luxury trains every travel enthusiast should hop on once in India!

Notice how you don’t need to shoot to speak anything.

The listicle flows seamlessly, accompanied by dreamy footage of the trains, lower thirds mentioning all essential details like the name, destination and price, and a smartly chosen soft melody (which was trending at the time) carrying the entire video in a pleasing manner.

Listicles also get bookmarked/saved & shared more than any other format, except maybe memes, so they’re a great content pillar to have in your calendar once a week.

Lesson Learned: Curate numbered lists that are relevant to your TG – it’s a great sustainable way to provide value!

11. Salting Cashew Nuts ~ Mucherla Aruna

I had a huge grin on my face throughout this video.

The South Indian chef, Aruna Aunty, is so adorable & natural while sharing her husband’s tip for salting cashews. She hasn’t prepared or scripted anything, you can tell that she’s just talking to you as if you’re her own child.

I love that her English is broken – you can tell that she’s trying hard to get her point across & she is successful in it. This makes the content so authentic, simple, well-grounded & cute. It made me go hug my mom.

Aruna has 1M+ followers on Instagram, a testimony that you don’t need polished language to make it big. In fact, the more home style you keep, the more people you’ll draw.

12. Plant Surgery ~ TSD Group

It’s not just about the quality of the information you give – it’s how you convey it. Nowadays, nobody likes to be “told” things. They want to enjoy their learning so it’s important to add drama, stories & fun in your content.

Take this video for example – it’s by a company that makes landscape designs, nurseries, irrigation systems, gardens, etc. for homes.

Maybe they just wanted to showcase their expertise in taking care of your house plants. Instead of doing an explainer video on why a plant might die if you don’t take proper precautions, they chose to turn it into a drama.

A “patient” comes in worried about her dying plant & the “plant doctors” revive it by performing emergency surgery, in which they skilfully highlight the neglect that must’ve led to the situation. They’re possibly parodying TV medical shows like “Grey’s Anatomy.”

The Reel has 3.7M+ views, which just goes to show the power of dramatizing your message!

Lesson Learned: In an earlier case study, we talked about how making your content conversational can help. Now go one step further & turn it into a parody, skit or drama. Your audience is more likely to consume & enjoy it!

13. Burger Cooking ~ Sahini Banerjee

One category of content that’s always in high demand on Instagram is “therapeutic” video.

I have watched this woman make chicken burgers for her husband even when I’m both hopelessly single & vegetarian just because it was just so pleasing to watch her make everything from scratch.

The music chosen is perfect (it’s from the opening montage in the movie “Up”) and the sound of her cooking is also pure ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) i.e. audio that relaxes you.

Similarly, I also remember saving this video of a guy placing an apple in his terrarium (a micro-level ecosystem in a bowl) and then filming all the snails & worms coming out to feast on it.

It was so beautiful to watch.

The point here is that you shouldn’t ignore this growing pillar of content – try deliberately working on some peace that can be consumed as audio-visual therapy. People love it because it gives them a break from all the fast-paced, hook-style content out there!

Your choice of music & editing will play a huge role here so spend some time making sure everything looks calm, nice & pleasing, like in a low-fi girl chill video or a meditation seminar.

Lesson Learned: Having some slow, easy, therapeutic content on the side will help you break free from the monotony of speedy content.

So dim the lights, put on some mellow background music and let a sense of calmness take over in your video – we could use more of it!

14. Wedding Painting ~ Kim-Vi Tran

In this video, the painter showcases her live painting done for a couple at their wedding.

But she’s smart enough not to reveal her end result at the beginning. She hooks us in by showing the shocked & surprised reactions of all the guests who pass by the painting.

What is everyone gawking at? Why are all of them so surprised & pleased? What is on the other side of the camera? Show me the completed painting ugh!!

That was me throughout the video. It kept me watching until the last few frames when we get to see the full picture in its glory.

In the age of dwindling attention spans, you have to learn the art of retention. Traditionally, complete audience retention (from start to end) is less than 10% for most videos so you have to really get it right to keep people invested.

Always write with the intention of keeping your people interested until the very end. At no point should your Reel feel bland or useless enough to swipe up & skip ahead.

Lesson Learned: Promise a carrot, build up or reveal to the audience to keep them interested in watching your video from start to end.

This can be done by asking an intriguing question, promising a reveal or creating FOMO if they don’t do as you suggest.

15. Kanan Gill’s Reviews ~ Sosh

This is pure genius – I love how I thought I was watching a Kanan Gill standup comedy Reel about funny reviews on Amazon and then it smoothly transitioned into an ad for the e-commerce website that rewards people for leaving authentic & useful reviews.

By using an easily available clip from the internet, the account managed to hook me with what I like (Kanan Gill) before easing me into their actual content/message. This is also one kind of content repurposing, except this time, you use something popular to grab people’s attention before you show them your real message or face.

This can be a:

  • Famous movie dialogue or scene
  • Trending internet clips or meme
  • Shot of someone famous doing random stuff
  • Anything people are already familiar with

It’s all up for grabs as long as the content you’re taking is relevant to your message, brand tonality or topic. In this case, it was super-relevant because the whole video is about the stark difference between the fake and useless reviews you see online versus the authentic and useful reviews that the e-commerce portal offers.

Imagine if they had started with their actual message (with the lady coming on screen), which begins roughly 15 seconds into the video. I would’ve swiped ahead.

But they managed to use Kanan’s clip as bait to lure me into seeing the entire video.

Some of you will have this doubt about how legal it is to use a part of someone’s content. In my opinion, it’s completely fine unless you’re promoting the post inorganically, in which case Meta might block it for copyright infringement.

In fact, Instagram does have a Remix option, which allows you to take a part from someone’s Reel and then react to it – in a way, that means Insta encourage remixing others’ content.

So go ahead and leverage popular content but do it smartly!

Lesson Learned: Start tracking popular content and remix trending Reels if the creators have enabled that option!

16. Art of Framing ~ Blake Rider

We’ve talked about this before but I think this really is the ultimate proof that you don’t need to speak a single word to give value to your audience.

Blake teaches us how to set up a proper camera frame for our movies or videos – all by showing us examples of bad framing, pointing out the flaw that makes each frame bad, and then he proceeds to show us a couple of examples of good framing that takes care of those flaws.

It’s all show, show, show … so there’s no need to tell you anything! I learned more about cinematography through this Reel than I did by listening to any YouTube video.

Lesson Learned: If you’re trying to teach or educate the audience on how to do something, wherever possible, try to show them visual examples rather than simply speaking theory.

17. Sneakers ~ Eshan

You know how everyone talks about dwindling attention spans.

The only solution for that is making shorter content. But that’s not always a solution – what if you have a lot of meaningful stuff to say?

This is where editing plays a huge role in today’s short-form content.

Observe the Reel above – the cuts are so fast & interesting that you’re glued to the screen. Eshan’s video guy & editor work to intersperse different frames, oscillating between front, side & off-camera shots every 2-3 seconds.

The animations are fast & you feel like you’re almost watching a rap video. If I’m being honest, I feel the guy on camera (Eshan) didn’t have much substance to say (sorry bro) – it was more like a movie monologue, spoken word or rant.

But the editing elevated his script to a whole new level, which tells us that pacing your videos is so important in today’s age & only snappy editing like this can achieve that effect.

Of course, this style won’t work for every brand & topic but it does work in this case because the guy is trying to appeal to the youth, who are the TG for the sneakers he’s trying to promote (as a paid promotion).

Lesson Learned: Invest in your editing. Make your cuts snappy, move between camera angles, add animations & have tracking or relevant stock video shots every 3 seconds.

Keep your viewers’ eyes busy lest they get bored & scroll up to see the next Reel.

You can easily do your own editing through mobile editors like InShot, but if you’re short on time, it’s a good idea to hire an expert – giving them a small fee will be worth it in the long run.

18. Climate FAQs ~ Suzie Hicks

Suzie did two very smart things at the beginning that made me save her Reel & follow her for more.

First, she made her fans/community feel part of the conversation by reading out a question that one of them had submitted – this makes me invested because now I’d love to ask her silly questions on the climate & environment, too, knowing that she might pick it up!

Second, she did an intro montage of her various Reels (that are part of her larger Q&A series) before jumping into the answer to her hook question.

This made me feel, “Woah, she surely does a lot of content like this. She isn’t new. I should follow her or at the very least, check out her profile for more!”

Lessons Learned:

  • Always try to involve your audience in your content – how can they participate? Either they can ask you questions or even join you in creating the content. Your community is your biggest untapped asset! So use it!
  • Show people that you’re doing this passionately, through montages in your content like the one above or just mentioning that you’ve already done like 50 videos on this topic/series so they should follow for more – people care about consistency, they don’t want to follow someone who posts just once a month.

19. Office Camera Shenanigans ~ HitData

Woah – I can’t believe I spent a minute of my life just watching a random hand go around controlling people in the office.

This is just pure, pure top-notch creativity. No dialogues, no special VFX as such – it’s just brilliant coordination, some cute camera work & classy editing with well-timed sound effects.

Of course, it took a lot of effort, I’m not denying that, but you see how simple & clean the product is? You really don’t need big-budget ideas to make viral content.

All you need are fun concepts like this! So start thinking about what you can do with your camera & your people! Experiment. Experiment. Experiment.

20. Simple Sadha Ghatiya ~ Jitendra C.

Obviously, the content of this Reel is highly motivating – he’s completely right, while your content’s quality shouldn’t be abysmal, you need to focus on consistency & let go of perfectionism. It’s better to post 5 decent Reels a week than one excellent shot.

I hope every creator reading this takes it as a sign from the universe to JUST. GO. FUCKING. CREATE. Stop trying to make every Reel look Oscar-worthy. You’re better off with giving 70% every day of the week than 100% for just 2 days.

It really is a numbers game – I can vouch for that because as someone who sees success every 25 Reels, I know that I have to rapidly create those 24 failures to reach that 25th win which gets higher reach.

Another factor I liked is how the camera moves – it has its own personality. In some cases, it’s taking a dolly (moving in a circle) & in others, it is subtly zooming in.

This keeps my eyes hooked as opposed to a video that has a static frame & is hence, boring.

21. Zomato’s Dialogue Campaign ~ Marketing Moves

This informative Reel can leave us with 2 vital lessons. First, I like that the speaker had a call-to-action at the beginning as well instead of reserving it for the end like a traditional creator would.

You see a lot of YouTubers doing this – prompting people to subscribe or hit the notification bell icon before they move ahead in the video.

Remember that your audience is mostly passive i.e. they’re droomscrolling through the internet so they need to be given reminders to actively engage with you.

Of course, if your content is informative, they’ll automatically hit like or share, but it doesn’t hurt to give them a small nudge.

Second, the editing here is top-class. Observe how the background is moving as opposed to static so it keeps my eyes moving and hence my mind engaged.

Even the camera is slightly zooming in and out (this is most probably done in post-production) so the guy keeps moving a bit up & down. On top of that, the animations are accompanied by swish or click sounds – all of this together contributes to high retention.

Imagine if you strip away all the editing patchwork and just have the guy narrating the whole story at a stretch with referenced images appearing on the screen without animation.

That would be so boring to watch, which really reinforces my point about how crucial editing has become and you need to pick it up by mastering apps like InShot or Premiere Pro (if you can’t afford a pro, which you probably can’t).

23. Break the Rules ~ Sudhana

I’ve been talking about fancy editing and movement for quite some time now. But this Reel just shattered all of it by hooking me in without any editing at all.

This is basically just a plain video of a person’s eye movements – but it is so captivating because she’s woven a story and set a nice thematic song to go with it. It’s a masterful showcase of her prowess in acting & facial expressions – she clearly knows the art well.

What this video teaches us, however, is that it’s OK to break the norm in your content.

Just because something’s working for everyone else doesn’t mean you have to adapt your art to that style or worse yet, compromise on your authentic voice.

If people could fall in love with the creator just by watching her eyes dance on a still screen (as her fans in the comments imply), then there’s no saying what kind of content works.

Ultimately, it boils down to your skill, your talent, and the unique qualities of your art that will make your content special.

So do something unique and the whole world will stare at you (eye pun intended).

24. Pixar’s Storytelling ~ Heather Parady

Oh God, I love this Reel so much. It is a perfect 10/10.

The cuts are fast-paced like they should be and as we’ve discussed. But what I want to stress on is how she nicely “sums up” the 4 points that the other speaker in the video elaborated on.

This is actually a professional technique good speakers – the ones who speak at TEDx events – will apply, which is summing up what they said because the audience may have lost track of everything in those 12 to 18 minutes that the talks usually last.

Even in a 90-second video, there is so much value that has been unpacked so it’s really good that the creator made the effort to include a “summary” of the whole content, which acted like CTAs.

To be a good orator, whether its for 90 seconds or 20 minutes, always follow the rule – “Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Then tell them. Then tell them what you told them.”

This essentially means that start with a hook, go into the points and then summarize the points for your audience to help them remember your key takeaways.

On a side note, I love how she ended the video in a funny way by saying she’s rethinking the hook to her own video because it is essentially how to deliver good hooks – it’s so meta (self-referencing) & gave me a good chuckle.

25. What rhymes with Static? ~ Ani Brava

Not every Reel has to be about you talking.

I like how this short Reel sparks a genuine conversation. The comments are a treat to read because everyone’s contributing their own ideas.

When you’re out of content to post (or ideas to talk about), just make a short & sweet Reel with a prompt for your audience just as this speaker over here has done in the Reel above – she asks a question, gives an example and then encourages the viewers to comment their take on it!

Such a great way to gain authentic quality engagement.

So that’s all the Reels I’ve loved so far. I hope you got some value out of the insights I’ve shared.

Any cool ones you’d like me to analyze? Drop their links in the comments below!

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Manik Rege

Communications & Digital Marketing

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