As the old saying goes, give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish,
feed him for life. And in most episodes on this channel, I am trying to teach you to fish. Sometimes it's nice to just be handed a fish. And so in today's episode, I'm going to share with you 16
viral Instagram reel ideas that you can use to increase your views, your engagement, and even make more sales in the process. In case we've never met before, hello. My name is Brock Johnson, and it is my full time job to geek out over the Instagram algorithm and help small business owners, brands, and content creators grow on Instagram. So if you want to grow your brand small business, or your content creation journey on Instagram, consider hitting that subscribe button, because every single week, I'm putting out a helpful episode just like the one you're watching right now. But let's not mince words. The first viral idea that I have for you is called the infinite iPhone zoom hook swap, and that's a mouthful. This idea uses a strategy that's going to come up a few times today called a hook swap. And a hook swap is essentially taking a pre existing viral video, or even just a clip from a pre existing viral video, and seamlessly transitioning into your own content. The key element in a hook swap in order to make it seamless is to use what's called a match cut. A match cut basically means that the motion or the object
at the end of the first clip matches the motion or the object at the beginning of the second clip. Fortunately, the match cut necessary for this iPhone zoom hook is pretty much as easy as they come. The video begins with the text on the screen saying something along the lines of, this iPhone zoom is crazy. And at first, it looks like the iPhone is just zooming in. But then as the video goes on and on, we're at a molecular level. And of course, there's no phone that can actually zoom in that far, but it kind of puts you in a trance, and it's like, what is going on? And it creates curiosity to keep watching, because you know that this isn't really how far the iPhone zooms, but you wanna see how far is this video actually going to zoom in. And then eventually,
it zooms so far that the entire screen goes black.
That's where you come in. You can either take your hand off the camera, or be standing in a dark room, or step out of a dark room,
and that will make the effect look like the zoom seamlessly transitioned into the clip of you. Then you can use the clip of you to teach a lesson, share a topic, tell a story, whatever it is you want. The second viral reel idea is the scavenger hunt reel. Now, the scavenger hunt reel starts with a main block of text that people are meant to read, and it's telling them to read somewhere else. Or it's using reverse psychology telling them not to read somewhere else. So it might say, don't look in the upper right corner. Then And of course, when they look in the upper right corner, there's another message. And it might say, don't read the caption,
and then they read the caption, and the caption says, don't read the pinned comment, and it's kind of like a scavenger hunt. They want to see where this is going. But the added layer that I'm going to recommend you include in your scavenger hunt reel is what I call the tape measurer reveal.
Essentially, you put a tape measurer on the ground, you extend it very far, and then you put a sticky note on the far end of the tape measurer. Then you set up your phone or camera right behind the tape measure itself, and you record yourself running from the far end of the tape measure up to the actual block, the actual body of the tape measure, and then you retract it. And then we're all sitting on pins and needles waiting for that retracted message to come in. We're wondering what is the sticky note gonna say, and then it gets there, and it says, look in the upper left corner. Or like I said, it could use reverse psychology and say, don't look in the upper left corner. And then the scavenger hunt proceeds as it normally would. I've used this exact reel and this style reel multiple times, and it hits every single time. Idea number three is that you thought that was gonna hit me reel. The setup for this reel is that there are two people on the screen. There is you, and there's someone who's throwing something at you. Whether it's a snowball, a cardboard box, a basketball, whatever it may be. But then right before it hits you, the video cuts to a close-up, and you're maybe squinting or acting like it's about to hit you, but it doesn't. And then you can address that. You can say directly to the camera, I bet you're waiting for that box to hit you. Well, I'm waiting for you to dot dot dot, and you can finish that sentence. Now, there have been some funny versions of this because this trend has been around for a while where people will say, I bet you're waiting for that box to hit me. And then as they're saying that, they get hit with the box. Or you could say, I bet you're waiting for that snowball to hit me. Well, I'm waiting for you to sign up for my email, and then they get hit by the snowball. Right? And then maybe they keep getting pelted with the snowballs, and it becomes like a funny play on our expectations.
But the gist of the reel is that you build up someone's expectations where they think that you're gonna get hit by whatever the thing is, and then either you don't get hit or you don't get hit right away. Idea number four is the I'm already there reel, and it uses the song I'm already there by Lonestar.
In this song, there's a pause and then the singer sings I'm already there. So the way that you are going to use this reel is you're going to add some text on the screen that says,
when a client or a customer or whatever it is that you use to describe your audience, or you could even say, when someone says, go to hell. And then the text says,
but you're already a small business owner trying to grow on Instagram in 2026,
or but you own a bakery and it's the holidays,
or but you're a mom who owns a small business and it's the first week of summer. So the joke is that someone is telling you to go to hell, but because of your circumstances or what you do for a living, you're saying, I'm already there. It's funny. It's self deprecating, and it's very easy to do. Idea number five is the magic notebook. For this, you're going to need a notebook, a string, and a large marker. The video is going to begin with you dragging the string under the marker, which implies that you are putting the ink on the string.
Then you lay the string out on the pages, and you close the notebook. You You can tap it with a magic wand, or pad it, or do whatever you want to make it unique, and make it your own, and then you pull the string out from the notebook.
And what you're setting up is that there's going to be some magic trick, that the ink on the string is going to spell out some word, or draw some picture, or whatever,
and then when you open up the notebook, you're revealing something that you have already written. Maybe it's a call to action for your course that you're selling, maybe it is a quick tip, maybe it's an unpopular opinion, you can write whatever you want. But again, you're just playing with people's expectations.
They know that obviously the string did not write those words, so that's even an added layer of the humor. But once the words are revealed, they've already watched your entire video. Retention is at 100%,
and they're more likely to engage because of that. As someone who cooks about 95% of their meals at home, and no, that's not an exaggeration,
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thus fast forwarding the reel so that you can get closer to the camera, and thus they can read the message faster.
Now, what's really going on here is that anytime you hold down on the right side of the screen, it speeds up the video. But because you've put this little graphic, it makes it look like there is a button on the screen, and so people are more inclined to press and hold down on said button.
If you want the overlay, the PlayStation graphic that you can add to your reel, DM me on Instagram. My Instagram username is Brock eleven Johnson. Just send me a direct message with the word PlayStation.
All one word, PlayStation. Send me that word, and I will send you the link to the graphic for free. Idea number seven is reaction videos. Reaction videos are super popular, and they're very, very easy to do. And all you have to do is find an already existing
viral or popular video that relates to your niche, and green screen yourself on top of it. Give your reaction, give your 2¢, make sure you're actually adding something to the video. Don't just stand there and be like pointing
at it, but actually add something, make it unique, make it novel, give your two cents, give your hot take, give why you agree or disagree. But these sort of reaction style videos are taking these existing viral videos that have already been proven to get a lot of views and engagement, and they're just extrapolating that. They're adding your own 2¢, and so they're likely to do well for you as well. Idea number eight is my all time favorite, what I like to call my award reel. The award reel is quite simply holding up your hands, and then in your hands, you can digitally impose a trophy, like an emoji of a trophy, or you can literally hold up a trophy if you have a trophy nearby or in your home, and then you just save that video to your device, and then you can reuse it over and over and over again, and just change the text on the top of the screen to present the award to a different group. I do one of these reels at least once a month, if not multiple times a month because they're so easy. And nine times out of 10, they are outliers in terms of performance. And what I mean by that is that nine times out of 10, they are my best performing reels for that month. So I want you to create one for yourself right now. Literally,
this episode, put your phone on a nearby window sill or bookshelf or something, and just take a ten second video of yourself looking at the camera
and holding up your hands like this.
Then open CapCut or edits or whatever, put an emoji of a trophy where your hands are, and boom, you're done. Save that to your device, put it in some special folder or favorite it so that you never lose it, and then every couple of weeks, you can reuse that clip, change what the text says at the top of the screen, and you're good to go. Idea number nine is the crying reel. Now, this one is going to take you getting a little bit emotional.
Maybe you can make yourself fake cry. Maybe your eyes are going to be red from allergies, and you're just going to take advantage of that. Maybe you're going to rub your eyes, and you're going to intentionally irritate them for the sake of this video, or maybe you're just going to find a filter on Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok that makes you look like you're crying. But very similar to the award reel, I just want you to take a quick video of yourself looking sad and crying,
and then save that to your device. And then you can reuse that every couple of weeks or every couple of months, and add some sad, soppy background audio onto it, and label why you might be crying. Maybe it's a funny thing, maybe it's a sarcastic thing, maybe it's a serious thing, but now you have this clip that is very emotional and that you can use over and over again. Idea number 10 is the fake apology reel.
One of the most viral and attention grabbing styles of content on all social media are apology videos.
And so what people have figured out is that you can do a fake apology,
and it grabs attention as well. Now, want you to be careful with this one, because there are some audiences and some audience members who will be off put or annoyed, or they might even unfollow you for doing this style of reel. So know your audience. If they are easily offended, maybe you don't do a fake apology video. But if you have an audience that expects you to be a little bit funny, and goofy, and silly, and they don't take themselves too seriously, well then by all means, you could absolutely crush it with a fake apology video. Idea number 11 is the emoji
puzzle. Essentially, just add some text onto the screen that says, read the first letter of each emoji.
And then, you use emojis to spell out some sort of message. The message could be a quick tip, it could be a hot take, it could be the beginning of a story, or it could be a call to action.
One thing that I like to do is I like to use the emoji puzzle and create a scavenger hunt with it. So my text might say, read the first letter of each emoji. And once they do, it reveals a message that says, read the top right corner,
or read the pinned comment. Or it just may be a direct call to action that says, comment the word guide, or comment the word send. And then because they've already decoded this puzzle, they're already in the game, and this gamification increases the likelihood that they take action. Idea number 12 is the classic dude with a sign. This is made popular by dude with a sign on Instagram. There are many copycats now. There's also dudette with a sign, and there's nothing stopping you from becoming your own dude or dudette with a sign. Just grab a big piece of cardboard. We all know that we have some leftover Amazon delivery boxes laying around. Write a message, a call to action, a hot take, an unpopular opinion, whatever it may be on your piece of cardboard, and then go out and record a video of yourself on the street holding up the sign. Now, pro tip. When you do this, it can actually be advantageous
to record a video of yourself holding up a blank sign,
and then what you can do is you can use Canva or use some AI tool to digitally
write the words on that cardboard. That way, you don't have to have multiple pieces of cardboard or film yourself multiple different times holding multiple different signs.
You can just take one video of yourself holding up that cardboard sign, and then you have this reusable template where you can just change out the text on the cardboard or what the Sharpie would have been written on the cardboard saying, and you have possibly an infinite amount of content from this one video. Back in 2016, when I started my first real online business, I remember that my head was filled with so many what ifs. What if no one buys this? What if I'm an impostor?
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Idea number 13 is a hook swap, and this one is called the Rainy keyboard hook swap.
The original video was created by Pablo Rochet or Rochat or I'm I'm not sure how to say his name, and I was raised in the American education system. So I'm sorry. Don't blame me. Blame the US government. But however you say his name, he's an awesome content creator. He's got over a million followers on Instagram. You should definitely check him out. But he created this viral video where he put a wireless keyboard in a plastic bag outside in the rain, and then he filmed a video showing what the rain is typing. Each raindrop is hitting a key, and that key is being recorded on his computer. Well, you can use this intro, you can use this hook and seamlessly swap
into your own video, where instead of the second half of the video being his random keys on his computer,
there is a message being typed out on your computer. In order to do this yourself, what you wanna do is open a new document on your computer, then make it full screen,
then start a screen recording on your computer of the entire computer screen. And while that screen recording is going, start by typing a few random keys, Then,
type out the message that you want people to hear. Again, like I've said so many times today, that message could be a hot take, an unpopular opinion, it could be a quick tip, it could be a story, it could be a call to action, or it could be the beginning of some sort of scavenger hunt. You can have it say whatever you want.
Then once you're done typing that thing, stop the screen recording.
Then grab your phone or your camera, whatever you record on, and record a video of yourself panning
from a window or a curtain to your computer
while that screen recording is playing. Then just add the Rainy keyboard hook on the beginning,
seamlessly
match cut into your video, and you'll have a very strong hook that grabs people's attention and increases the likelihood that they take action. If you want, I actually have a free library of over 40 of these hook swap videos, and all you have to do to get access to them is d m me on Instagram with the word swap, s w a p, and I'll send you all 40 of those right there in the d m's and you can use those in your future videos.
But idea number 14 is also a hook swap video, and this one is what I like to call the butt plug p o v. The hook for this hook swap video is someone holding an Insta three sixty that has been duct taped to a butt plug, and then it cuts to what would theoretically be the point of view of a Insta three sixty duct taped to a butt plug. In order to actually achieve this for yourself, after you have that hook, after you have that funny clip,
all you have to do is have someone follow you around doing whatever it is you do that's relating to your niche. Maybe you're in the kitchen baking, or maybe you are rock climbing, or maybe you are snowboarding, whatever it may be, and just have them follow you around with your camera or your phone with a wide angle lens. The wide angle is really key for this effect. But just have them put the camera right down there below your tailbone,
and follow you around for a few seconds.
It's hilarious, it grabs attention, it makes people go, oh my gosh, did they really just do that? And once you have their attention, you could then use their attention to, like I've said a million times, deliver a message, share a hot take, tell a story, or have a call to action. Second to last, idea number 15 is an outro swap, where you have the hook, you record yourself doing the first few seconds, and the outro of the video, or the rest of the video, the ending of the video is the same. And this one is the plant a tree every time swap. So all you have to do is record a b roll clip of yourself. Again, a clip that relates to your niche, or whatever it is that you do on Instagram, and add some text on the screen that says, quote, plant a tree every time you dot dot dot, and then include some sort of text that is something that people want, or something that people never do in your niche. So plant a tree every time you get the recipe right on the first try. Plant a tree every time you land a trick. Plant a tree every time one of your reels goes viral. That's the one that I did. And then it swaps into a video of the desert. So there's no trees being planted, and so the joke is that you didn't plant any trees because you never did the thing in the intro. And then last but not least, the sixteenth idea is the coffee pour hidden message trend. This one is probably the one that's the most complicated and is going to require the most work. I know for me it took quite a few attempts. What you wanna do is to get a mug that's filled with some kind of milk, and then get a second glass that either has some espresso in it, or it has some matcha, or just has a liquid of a different color.
What you're then going to do is record a video overhead
of yourself
pouring
the second cup into the first one. So the first cup is going to go from pure white to green if it's matcha, brown if it's coffee, whatever it may be. The first part of the sentence is going to match the color of whatever color the drink ends up looking like. So if it's a matcha, it ends up looking green. At the beginning of the video, the first part of the sentence is green, but it's on the solid white milk, and so you can read it. But then you make the second half of the sentence match the color of the drink at the beginning of the reel. So the second half of the sentence is probably going to be some shade of white to match your milk.
That way, when you pour in the matcha or the espresso or whatever, and the drink changes colors,
the white, which was the original color, is now revealed
as the second half of the sentence. It's really creative. I know it sounds complex, but once you play around with it, I bet it will actually be easier than you may think. And this sort of magic trick or revealing words is a really, really powerful way to increase your audience's retention, engagement, and views. I know in today's episode I gave you 16 fish, but I don't want you to feel overwhelmed with eating all 16 fish at the same time. Just pick one. Pick one idea that I shared with you today, implement it, and send it to me on Instagram afterwards so that I can cheer you on and tell you how horrible of a job you did. I'm just kidding. I'll probably tell you how awesome of a job you did. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. I'll see you next week, and as always, happy networking.