Hey Trendspotters,

This week I’m giving you a Super Scientific Case Study about how video length impacts performance on Instagram vs TikTok, so keep reading to find out why Instagram is telling people to stop making long reels.

And in some personal news: I recently announced that I’m officially open for business as a brand marketing consultant and Fractional CMO! 🎉

I took a bit of a break from consulting while I built up my creator career, but turns out marketing myself instead of a brand is…actually pretty boring.

And honestly? I’m not that good at “running a business,” and I don’t enjoy it.

But I f!$#ing LOVE marketing, and I’m pretty damn good at it too, so I’m excited to get back to doing more of what I genuinely love doing.

Please keep me in mind if you hear of anyone looking for a marketing consultant — all my fave clients have come from referrals! 💓 

Oh, and if you want to work with me but don’t have a specific project in mind, or you have a limited budget, you can book a 1:1 consulting call with me! The first 10 sessions get 50% off while I optimize my workflow, and there’s just a couple left.

Instagram News: 

• When it comes to the Reels algorithm, Instagram’s CEO says your “send rate” (aka the percentage of shares your Reel is getting) is more important than watch time, likes, and comments

• You can finally add a collaborator to a reel AFTER you publish it!!?!?! MY FEATURE REQUEST CAME TRUE (hopefully — looks like it’s still rolling out/being tested)

• Tweetdeck, is that you? Threads is testing a new desktop experience

• I’m pretty into this new “notes” feature that Instagram is testing. You can add a “note” on a post in your feed, which your close friends or mutual follows will see!
  
  Perfect for meme posts, and Instagram says you’re more likely to see content with a “note” in your feed — so it could give our posts an algorithm boost too.

• Threads adds a new “recent” filter for searching real-time content

• BeReal may be on life support, but Instagram is working on a similar feature called “Peek” — not to be confused with “Dual” which was launched back in 2022

• Instagram has a new show where Instagram leaders chat with creators on @creators

TikTok News:

• TikTok will stop showing weight loss content in the “For You” algorithm, and experts are calling it “one of the most well-defined policies by a social media company yet.”
  
  Content about “extended intermittent fasting,” “rapid and significant weight loss” exercises, steroids, and drugs like Ozempic will no longer be amplified.
  
  The content will still be accessible in the “following” feed, but removing it from the FYP is meant to “interrupt repetitive content patterns” and prevent your entire feed becoming weight loss content if you were to engage in just one post about it.

• 1 hour videos are being tested on TikTok (more on that below)

• TikTok is a search platform, and just like Google, they’re rolling out generative AI search results (powered by ChatGBT)

• TikTok is taking on QVC, and the NYTimes visited their studio to see how live selling works.

• Does a TikTok ban violate the First Amendment? Without specific evidence, yes, say the experts NPR spoke with.

➡️ Send this to your boss: Why Social Media is the Most Misunderstood Job in Corporate America

How Long Should Your Videos Be on TikTok and Instagram?

Time is money — but when it comes to how long your videos are, Instagram and TikTok put a different price on watch time.

Recently, Instagram explicitly told creators that Reels longer than 90 seconds can “hurt distribution.” (The Information)

Now technically, the “time limit” for Reels is 90 seconds. But ever since Instagram decided to dispose of the static video post and post all videos as Reels, there’s been a hidden workaround to posting longer Reels.

You just have to create a regular “post,” upload your video, and it will post as a Reel while bypassing the time limit!

But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

While Instagram continues to test 3 minute and up to 10 minute Reels, they are prioritizing short-form content and encouraging creators to keep it to 90 seconds or less if they want that algorithm boost.

Meanwhile TikTok is doing the exact opposite and going all in on medium-to-long form content after expanding the TikTok time limit to 10 minutes.

Creators are already only paid if their video is longer than 1 minute, and now TikTok is now testing 1 hour videos and promising to “boost” your content if you upload a horizontal video.

Instagram is out here trying to compete with TikTok, meanwhile TikTok is focused on taking on Youtube.

And it makes sense, because TikTok and Youtube are both search engines. So while they are competing over search results and medium-to-long-form content, it leaves an opening for Instagram to become the destination for the type of content that made TikTok famous in the first place.

I think it’s important to mention here that IGTV wasn’t a huge failure — it was just way ahead of it’s time. I was actually in the audience at F8 when Kevin Systrom (OG Instagram CEO) boldly stated that the future of social media was vertical video on your phone…all the way back in 2018.

But because IGTV was a flop, I doubt Instagram will follow TikTok’s pursuit of Youtube and instead stay focused on filling the gap of short-form content (three minute Reels would be nice, though).

Anyway — back to the main point: does video length really affect how the algorithms promote your content?

Recently, interview clips from The Cutting Room Floor’s podcast episode with Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach went majorly viral — but different videos went viral on different platforms.

Recho Omondi has a similar following across both Instagram and TikTok, so this is a great example that highlights the different priorities between the Reels and TikTok algorithms.

On Instagram, the shortest Reel (0:58) performed the best*, and on TikTok it performed the worst.

Longer videos performed 500-1000% better on TikTok compared to Instagram — and these are the exact same videos, posted to a following of about the same size.

*that Reel was also a collab post with Law, but it still out-performed the second most-watched video by 500%

The stats above show the video view count after ~4 days, and while the views have climbed in the week since, the percentage difference between the two platforms have remained almost exactly the same.

💡 So how does this affect your content?

• Optimize your videos for each platform: if you’re planning to record a 1-2 minute video for TikTok, split it into 2 separate Reels for Instagram. You can do this with “part 1” and “part 2” OR you can film separate intros for Instagram and edit them into 2 standalone videos. 

• Encourage people to binge your content: if you’re posting multiple reels about the same subject, link them together with comment replies to make it easy for people to go from part 1 to part 2.

But posting longer Reels isn’t a death sentence: all of these videos still got way more views than her account normally does, likely due to the high amount of story shares (reminder: a story view counts as a view on Reels).

The content, the storytelling, and the pacing of the videos are so good that you just have to keep watching. In this case, I don’t think editing the videos down to 90 seconds, speeding them up, or splitting into a part 1 and part 2 would have had the same impact.

One of the most important parts of your content strategy is having clear goals for each piece of content: is the goal of this reel to gain awareness (views, new followers) or is it to make sales (new customers)?

Knowing the goal of your post will inform how long you make your content and whether you decided to split it into parts or post a longer reel.

The goal of The Cutting Room Floor’s videos is to ultimately get people to subscribe to the podcast’s Patreon in order to watch the full interview — not to rack up the most views. And the longer-form storytelling nature of the content does a great job of making you want to do exactly that.

P.S. if you have no idea what your content strategy is, or it’s in dire need of an update, get on the waitlist for my Content Strategy Playbook:

Trendspotting: Negativity

More brands are moving away from strict brand safety measures and embracing negativity. There's shitposting, and then there's turning negativity into genius brand positioning. Here’s some examples of both:

Currently crushing on Glossier’s launch strategy for bringing back the original formula for their best-selling lip balm.

They’re leaning all the way in to their f*!k up by filming the team reading the comments section to show how much their fans absolutely hated the new formula (read more here). As fans said on Reddit, “bullying works.”

Duracell is SUR-ving: if you don’t watch Vanderpump Rules, you’ll have no idea what’s going on in this influencer ad. But if you’re a fan, the ad is instantly iconic. And that’s the magic of marketing to niche communities: the fans that get it, get it, and the fans who don’t, don’t.

Now this is the definition of a shitpost: Alexander Wang announced the launch of their Ricco bag with celebrity look-alikes, instead of actual celebrities.

The Ricco bag is an updated version of 2009’s Rocco bag, but the “dupe” and “deepfake” campaign concept isn’t landing with me. It just feels like a shitpost to get people talking that’s cheapening a luxury product and the “legacy” of the original bag (not hard to do when 11 men have accused Wang of sexual assault).

🎶 Trending Audios 🎶

Deeply Still In Love by ROLE MODEL

The viral TikTok sensation from ROLE MODEL has finally dropped, taking our Reels feeds by storm. This track, clearly inspired by his past romance with Emma Chamberlain, has captured our broken hearts ❤️‍🩹

Content Inspo: @lexie.lah @rachspeed @seeyoutomorrow

Espresso x Gypsy Woman (Altego Mix) by Sabrina Carpenter

Just when we thought "Espresso" couldn't get any catchier, it did. Use this track for your next upbeat Reel 🎶

Content Inspo: @fitfoodiestasia @gigi.in.mtl @l.liangg

Wait a Minute! by Willow Smith

This version of "Wait a Minute!" is perfect for any Reel featuring transitions. It's been especially popular with car and nail Reels, so if that's your niche, make sure to save this audio!

Content Inspo: @nudesocial @bzhvng @_afterhours.studio

Rock Paper Scissor Shoot

Couples, this "rock, paper, scissors, shoot" audio is the moment. Show off your switch from daytime fits to date night slays!

Content Inspo: @jujhavens @katviras @sagephillipshome

Tems “Free Mind” x 2PAC “Do For Love”

This remix proves that no one beats the smooth sound of Tems 🎶 Use this smooth r&b tune for a fit check or cityscape Reel. 

Content Inspo: @hours @about___blank @abbeysteaness 

Even more content ideas:

• a creative idea to help you get out of the box when marketing your product 📦

• a cool font and filter can go a long way to make an eye catching video 

• simple but effective fit check inspo 🕶️

• brb ordering a camcorder immediately 👀

• inspo to romanticize your next flight ✈️

💌 P.S. want to advertise in Trendspotter? Click here.