Mastering How to Make Shorts and Reels Quickly

Looking for a way to make the most out of Instagram and YouTube? Reels and Shorts need to be a big part of your social media strategy.

With the human attention span dropping from 2.5 minutes to 45 seconds over the past 20 years, people prefer short-form video content to long-form. This is part of the reason why Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have become so popular. If you know how to play the Reels and Shorts game, you’re one step closer to getting explosive engagement for your brand.

In this blog, we give you the cheat code by exploring how to make Shorts and Reels that convert quickly.

Understanding the Basics

Reels is a feature on Instagram that lets you create and share short-form video content. Introduced in 2020, it began as Instagram’s way of competing with TikTok, which gained a lot of popularity for its short-form video focus. Since then, the feature has become a big deal in the social media space, giving people the “TikTok experience” on Instagram.

YouTube Shorts was also created in direct response to TikTok’s massive success. Before, YouTube focused primarily on long-form videos. However, like Instagram, it had to adapt to the growing popularity of short-form video content to maintain its creator and user base. This led to YouTube Shorts.

How to Make Shorts and Reels Quickly

The quickest way to make Shorts and Reels is to use YouTube’s and Instagram’s built-in tools.

To create Instagram Reels on the platform:

Open the Instagram app on your device and log in.

1. Tap the plus icon on your screen.
2. Select the Reels option.
3. Tap the camera icon to record your short video (you’ll need to give Instagram access to your camera and microphone first). Alternatively, you can choose a video from your gallery.
4. Edit your video. You can add clips, trim your video, add desired audio, make a voiceover, add text and stickers, use filters, and even include closed captions.
5. When you’re satisfied with your video, click Next and add your caption, hashtags, and tags.
6. Tap the Share button to make your video public.

To create YouTube Shorts:

1. Tap the plus icon, then Short.
2. Click the red button to record your video directly from the platform. You can record a 15-second video or extend it to up to 3 minutes by tapping the “15s” button. If you already have the video on your device, tap Add and upload it.
3. Click Done.
4. Edit the video. You can add a voiceover, stickers, captions, filters, and text.
5. When you’re done, tap Next.
6. Choose your preferred visibility option (public, private, or unlisted), location, and audience.
7. Tap Upload Short to share the video with your audience.

Why Create Shorts and Reels?

Creating Shorts and Reels on top of regular YouTube and Instagram content (long-form videos and images) can be a lot of work, especially if you have multiple accounts. Is it worth it? Without a doubt. Here’s why:

• Broadened reach: YouTube and Instagram recommend Shorts and Reels to all users, regardless of whether they follow creators’ accounts. This could mean increased exposure for your account or brand.
• Increased engagement: Short videos are great at capturing and holding user attention. They, therefore, attract more likes, comments, shares, and reposts than static images.
• Relationship-building potential: Reels and Shorts allow you to connect more emotionally with your audience than static images. You can achieve this by sharing behind-the-scenes videos, get-to-know-me recordings, or fun challenges and trends.
• Cross-platform sharing: You can reshare Shorts and Reels videos on other platforms, such as TikTok and your website, to get more value from your content. For optimal results, however, be sure to remove YouTube’s and Instagram’s watermarks before resharing the videos.
• Monetization opportunity: Both Reels and Shorts offer creators earning opportunities.

Shorts Vs. Reels: Key Differences

While both Shorts and Reels are short-form video features, they’re pretty distinct. A great way to determine which one to focus on is to understand their differences:

Ideal Content Style

Any short video content can work on both platforms. However, some may do better than others.

For YouTube Shorts, mini vlogs, storytelling content, quick tutorials, and short educational videos do well. This is because people already go to YouTube for this type of content.

For Reels, fun content, such as lifestyle videos and video challenges, tends to do well because people primarily go to Instagram for entertainment.

Editing Tools

Both Reels and Shorts come with built-in editing tools to help creators prepare videos for sharing.

However, Instagram offers more advanced features, including music syncing, filters, and effects. You can also trim and zoom videos, add clips, search for music on the platform, or import your own audio.

YouTube, on the other hand, offers simpler editing options. While YouTube also provides features like filters and effects, they’re limited compared to Instagram’s.

Audience Reach

The beauty of making videos for Reels and Shorts is that they have the potential to reach many people, including those who don’t follow you.

That said, YouTube has a stronger global algorithm. This means it can position your videos in front of a broader audience.

Reels also showcases videos to global audiences. However, Instagram’s algorithm primarily focuses on users who are interested in your niche and whose searches align with your hashtags. For example, if you post food content, the odds of reaching people primarily interested in fashion content and a little food content are relatively slim. However, your chances of appearing on the pages of people searching for food content are very high.

Shelf Life

There’s no expiration date for content on both Reels and Shorts. That said, time can determine whether your videos blow up.

Videos on Shorts typically have a longer shelf life than those on Reels. So, it’s normal for content to blow up a few weeks or months after it’s posted.

The likelihood of this happening on Reels is low, as Instagram’s algorithm tends to push new videos more. However, this isn’t set in stone. Recency is just one of the factors the Instagram algorithm considers. So, while the chances of months-old videos going viral on the platform are low, they’re not zero. If the algorithm detects a surge in engagement, it’ll push your videos to new audiences, regardless of their age.

Monetization

Both Reels and Shorts allow creators to earn from their content, but through varying opportunities.

For Shorts, creators unlock earning opportunities when they join the YouTube Partner Program. After joining, you can get a share of the revenue earned from ads shown on your videos — if you have 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in the past 90 days.

Instagram, on the other hand, doesn’t pay users for creating Reels. Still, it offers a wide range of earning opportunities, such as:

• Sponsored content: You can partner with brands and earn from marketing their content on Reels.
• Product tags: If you’re a business owner or marketer, you can add product tags to Reel videos. This allows followers to purchase items directly from your videos, potentially increasing sales and revenue.
• Affiliate marketing: You can earn commissions from brands by sharing affiliate links in Reels’ captions.

Which One Should You Create?

Both Shorts and Reels have strengths that can help you grow. A great strategy would be to leverage the two rather than focusing on just one. By doing so, you get to expand your reach, unlock more earning opportunities, and increase audience engagement.

Of course, as mentioned earlier, some content types do better on one platform than the other. To determine what to post where, A/B test different versions and adjust your strategy based on their performance. For example, if lifestyle videos perform better on Shorts than on Reels, post more of them on YouTube.

Tips for Creating Reels and Shorts Quickly

Leveraging both Reels and Shorts can be taxing and time-consuming. But, it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips to help you create your content quickly without running yourself ragged:

Start with a Script

Recording videos without proper scripts might have you spending hours on tasks that would take minutes. This is because you’ll likely have to pause to collect your thoughts and edit out a bunch of filler words.

A script serves as a compass, showing you each video’s direction. It can guide you on exactly what to talk about and how to talk about it to avoid awkward pauses, filler words, and unnecessary deviations from the original video idea.

Get Your Tools Ready in Advance

Preparing your tools beforehand can save you a lot of time. To prepare:

• Make sure your devices are fully charged.
• Clean your camera lens for clear recordings.
• Free up sufficient space to avoid disruptions mid-recording.
• Stabilize your camera by using a tripod.
• If you want to edit with an external tool, like CapCut, install the software and sign up as needed.
• Test your device in different lighting conditions to find what works best.

Edit Videos in Blocks

Trimming down long videos to a few seconds (or minutes), adding effects, and including pertinent captions and text can be overwhelming and time-consuming.

To save time, edit videos in blocks. Rather than try to do everything at once, divide your tasks into small, easier-to-edit segments. For example, you could trim the raw footage first, then arrange your clips, and finally add text and effects. This not only makes editing less daunting but also reduces the risk of mistakes and late uploads.

Get Your B-roll Footage Ready

B-roll is any supplemental video that can elevate your primary content. It can be great for adding context, covering mistakes in primary footage, and preventing boredom, especially when narrating content.

Shoot and edit your B-roll early on. This way, you can quickly add it to your A-roll during final editing.

Take Advantage of Available Technologies

Manually handling Reels and Shorts, especially across multiple Instagram and YouTube accounts, can be challenging, sometimes resulting in delayed posts. Luckily, there’s a solution: social media copilots like GeeLark.

With GeeLark, you can create multiple individual environments for each YouTube Short account, eliminating the need for constant log-ins and log-outs when posting content. All you need to do is open a new cloud phone profile for each account.

That’s not all. GeeLark’s AI video editor can help you edit content quickly by facilitating batch processing. Further, our YouTube Shorts automation feature can auto-publish videos at specified times across multiple YouTube Shorts accounts.

GeeLark also lets you create multiple Instagram accounts and streamlines management by automatically publishing Reels content. Our tool can also auto-share videos across other platforms, including YouTube Shorts and TikTok, to help maximize your exposure.

Managing Multiple YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels With GeeLark

To automate video posting on YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels across multiple accounts, start by setting up your cloud phones. To do this, log in to your Geelark account, go to New profile, and add all the required information (including proxy details). Set up a cloud phone for each account to prevent platform detection.

Next, download YouTube and Instagram apps on each phone by going to Applications, then App Store. When you’re done, start YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels automation by doing the following:

1. Tap Automation on the left sidebar.
2. Go to Marketplace and search for the Post Reels video on Instagram or the Publish YouTube Shorts template.
3. Select your preferred task automation method. We offer three options: Create a regular task (suitable for regular content posting), Create a recurring task (ideal if you want GeeLark to post content in a loop), and Create a custom process (great if you want to build your own automation process from scratch).
4. Set up automated publishing tasks. This will vary depending on your chosen automation method. If you choose the “Create a regular task” option, tap the Add button, then select the cloud profiles where you want to post your Reels and Shorts content. Then, click Add task to add your preferred publish date, upload your video, and add details like the video title.
5. Review all your settings and details, including the selected cloud profiles, video content, posting schedules, titles, and captions.
6. If everything is in order, click Confirm publication.

Once everything is complete, our automation tool will publish your content on Reels and Shorts as per your setup.

Content Creation Best Practices

Knowing how to create engaging Reels and Shorts content from the get-go can save you time by reducing the need for reshoots. So, do some research before you write your script and set up your camera.

Some of the most important content creation best practices to keep in mind include:

• Capture your audience’s attention within the first few seconds: You can do this by posing a question, making a bold statement, or using attention-grabbing footage.
• Keep your recording short: You can post content up to three minutes long on both Reels and Shorts. However, this doesn’t mean you should record such long videos. Keep your script and recording as concise as possible to save time on editing. Shorter videos also perform better — according to Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri, long videos can hurt distribution.
• Add value: Create content on topics your target audience likes or is interested in, so you don’t have to reshoot videos when engagement dips.
• Make your videos accessible: Add closed captions during editing to make Reels and Shorts accessible to people with hearing difficulties and those who prefer to watch videos with the sound off.

Streamline How You Create and Post Reels and Shorts

Instagram and YouTube offer built-in video creation and editing tools, making it easy to create content directly on the platforms. If you’re looking for a seamless way to get videos up, leveraging these tools is one of your best bets.

However, you’ll need additional help if you have multiple accounts. That’s where GeeLark comes in.

With GeeLark, you can automate content publishing across multiple accounts, cutting down tasks that could take hours to just a few minutes. You can also use the Geelark AI for content creation and batch editing to further streamline Reels and Shorts workflows.

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