Combat creator burnout by leveraging past successes. Feed the scripts or captions from your most popular old Instagram posts into ChatGPT and prompt it to create rewritten or recreated versions. This upcycling method generates fresh, proven content with minimal creative effort.

Instead of guessing what short-form content will resonate, identify existing long-form videos or articles with the highest engagement. Transcribe these proven winners and use AI to extract impactful clips, carousels, and tweets. This method leverages past success to increase the probability of future performance.

To create more Trial Reel content from a single idea without being penalized, you don't need to reshoot the entire video. The algorithm's duplicate detection primarily focuses on the first 6-7 seconds. Making minor changes to just the intro—like new on-screen text or a different opening clip—is enough to register it as unique content.

Instagram imposes unstated, account-specific daily caps on Trial Reels. Posting beyond this limit, which can be as low as five, results in an immediate 30-day block from posting any more Trial Reels, without prior warning. Since the limit is unknown until breached, it's safest to post no more than five per day.

Instagram's algorithm favors on-platform actions like DMs over off-platform link clicks. Asking users to reply to a Story to receive a link, rather than using a link sticker, signals high engagement to the algorithm, which can dramatically increase the story's overall views and reach.

Instead of needing a formal podcast, creators can use a simple Instagram Live session as raw material. Even with low viewership, the live video can be saved and uploaded to Opus Clip, which then automatically extracts dozens of short, engaging reels from the long-form content.

Contrary to some growth-hacking advice, stuffing captions with keywords or hiding them in videos is considered spammy behavior by Instagram's algorithm. This practice will result in your content being actively penalized and shown to fewer people.

It's counterintuitive, but upgrading a successful Trial Reel to your main feed is detrimental. The algorithm doesn't refresh the post; it retains its original timestamp. This causes it to be buried deep in your feed, making it highly unlikely that your existing followers will ever see it. It's better to let it live only as a Trial Reel.

Instead of constantly creating new material, an efficient growth strategy is to 'upcycle' posts. Repost successful content after 90 days, aiming to publish every piece at least three times to maximize reach and reduce workload, as most followers missed it initially.