Spicy Takes & Trending Sounds

In the past two months, my Instagram account went from 2,200 to 12,600 followers.

It all started with a series of Reels I made about painting a deck of cards (I recorded a podcast episode about it).

One of the key drivers of growth was the use of trending sounds: Songs and user-produced audio clips that have thousands of videos linked to them and are frequently used on the platform.

By scrolling on the Instagram Reels page for just a few minutes, you will easily be able to tell what sounds are trending. They’ll pop up several times in your scroll, and whenever I came across a new popular sound I’d save it to my creator studio for future use.

Trending sounds did not originate on Instagram of course. This is a feature they ripped straight from TikTok. There is a MASSIVE opportunity to take advantage of trending sounds on Tiktok.

One of the easiest ways to do so is the “7-second method:”

Use a trending sound and pair it with one video clip that’s 7 seconds long. Minimal text on-screen, little to no effects/filters. It’s catnip for TikTok growth hackers.

I’ve tweaked this method in the past week and have been seeing surprisingly great results. Here’s how;

1. Take a trending sound

2. Add a big block of text on-screen

3. Shoot a simple 3-8 second video.

This strategy is effective for two reasons:

#1: There are hundreds of trending sounds to take advantage of. If you have a lot to say about your niche, this is an easy way to crank out tons of videos quickly.

If you have a particularly *spicy* take (like the one above), EVEN BETTER. You’ll get more engagement if folks want to debate you. Don’t be afraid to stir the pot a little bit, especially if you’re going to make and publish a bunch of these at once.

#2: By keeping the videos short but the block of text long, your audience will be forced to watch the video multiple times to read through the entire thing. More time spent on your video = the better it performs in the algorithm. The more plays, the better.

Try this method out, let me know how it goes.

Have an ELITE week,

Hannah