Facebook referral traffic is tanking, but you know what's doing really well?

Reels keep on being the focus for both Facebook and Instagram, with Meta's ever more relevant AI-recommended Reels in-stream serving to get the growth of both apps back on track. After all, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri just recently noted that Reels now accounts for 50% of all time spent on Instagram.

In other words, if you're serious about maximizing engagement rates on either Facebook or Instagram, you have to be creating engaging short-form video clips.

If you are going to make that push, this will be helpful.

Today, Instagram launches three new Reels creation updates-an effort to make standout Reels easier and less needy of the more complex third-party video editing tools.

Really, though, is more the point of short-form video, as users respond better to more organic, in-the-moment clips as opposed to spiffed-up marketing. Well, that, and clips from old TV shows; really though, the more organic and native you can make your clips feel, the better they're likely to perform.

Instagram has brought new editing options that will be available straight in the Reel composer, which gives you more freedom to customize your creations.
You can now chop and change your clips directly in upload flow. With this, coming up with unique angles-for-literal posts might be more accessible.
New relevant editing buttons have also been added by Instagram.
These are some useful updates, not game-changers in themselves but functional, practical UI changes that will better enable in-stream editing.

And while you may still want to create your short clips for your brand in a custom editor, it's good to know that you do have the capacity to create reasonable-looking videos on the go, whenever you need, which could help you step into short-form video.

Meaning that I wouldn't want to fully invest in it and pour too many resources into it because, of course, eventually, Meta will lose interest and be doing something else.

But at least for now, it's worth experimenting with if you can.