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From today, you can schedule Facebook Reels within Buffer.
With 2.9 billion active users, Facebook is the most popular social network of them all. We reckon publishing Reels on Facebook is the fastest way to grow your audience. Read on to see how. 👇
Why Facebook Reels?
As per the first-quarter data of 2023, Facebook boasts a whopping 200 million daily active users in North America and a staggering 2 billion globally.
In January 2023, Facebook had 2.9 billion monthly active users worldwide, outperforming any other social media platform in terms of user base. Most of these users fall within the 18-44 age range, with a dominant representation of the 25-34 age group.
In other words, Facebook is still the biggest player in the social media space. In fact, 36.7 percent of the world’s population uses Facebook every month.
Given this extensive user base and Meta’s demonstrated favor for Reels, focusing on publishing Reels is likely your ticket to sky-high reach on the platform.
Unraveling Facebook Reels
Facebook Reels are akin to their Instagram counterparts—brief, trend-focused videos that utilize a myriad of unique editing tricks, sounds, and filters to engage viewers.
Over 140 billion Reels get played every single day on Facebook.
That’s up more than a 50 percent from May 2022 which reveals two things. One, Facebook clearly prioritizes Reels and is showing them to more and more users. And two, Facebook users simply want to watch Reels. Â
In fact, in 2022 during the Facebook Q2 earnings, Facebook revealed that they had tweaked their recommendation model resulting in a 15 percent increase in Reels watch time. It’s unusual to get this behind the scenes peek at how the Facebook algorithm operates, but this insights clearly shows how important Reels are for Facebook.
How Reels look on the Facebook iOS app
Leveraging Facebook Reels for Audience Growth
Recent data from January 2023 reveals that the average Facebook post gets an engagement rate of .07 percent.
For context, the average link post gets just 0.3 percent engagement. It suggests that video content is one of the best ways to boost your engagement rate.
Increased engagement signals the Facebook algorithm, propelling its content recommendation engine. Thus, a single highly engaging piece of content can be just the jumpstart you need to draw attention to your other content.
What’s more the potential ad audience for Facebook Reels is 697.1 million people.
To put that in perspective, Reels sits way above other Facebook products like Marketplace and Instant articles, but still below Stories:
Stories: 1.25 billion usersFacebook Marketplace: 495.7 million usersInstant articles: 313.6 million users
Today the potential Reels audience is slightly smaller than the potential Stories audience, but the tide is changing with Reels views increasing at a faster pace than Stories.
You might be wondering what the difference is between Reels and Stories on Facebook, so here’s a quick breakdown.
Reels are shown to a wide public audience, and browsing Reels is possible for all Facebook users. Potentially your Reel could be seen by millions. On the other hand, Stories are only shown to a users followers or friends.
Repurpose TikToks, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels
If you’re already crafting short-form content for Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts or TikTok, you’re halfway there. Repurposing this content for Facebook can instantly grow the volume of people who see and engage with your videos.
One word of warning however—try saving your video without a watermark. Doing so prevents the algorithm from identifying your video as a repost and increases the likelihood of user engagement.
As engaging as Facebook Reels can be, they don’t have to constitute your entire content plan. Balance your content calendar with a mix of Reels and other engaging formats like photo posts and statuses to give the algorithm a broad content spectrum to recommend to your engaged viewers.
Looking for inspiration? Check out this list of 11 ideas for Reels.
With Buffer, posting your Facebook Reels becomes a seamless process. If you’re already sharing Instagram Reels, you can smoothly share them on Facebook too. All the Instagram Reel features you’re accustomed to are available for Facebook as well.
So, why wait, schedule your first Facebook Reel today →
