The word 'reel' is a the term social media platforms use to describe a very short (usually 60 seconds or less) video that you can edit and post using their 'reel editor.' These types of videos were made famous by TikTok but you can now make them on Facebook and other social media platforms too. Do you want to create a reel for your business or for fun? They can seem tricky to create at first, but once you get the hang of it, they aren't so bad.

Reels are a great way to start video editing. Creating a reel can give you a feel for the basics of adjusting the length of clips and stitching them together the way you want. It can also give you a quick feel for how pros lay elements like text and graphics over their videos. My favorite part of reel editors are the fact that they allow you to add hit songs. This is because the song is referenced within the reel and therefore the copyrights are made right with so to speak.

Note that Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram all have separate Reel editor tools that you can use. This makes reel making pretty much free and accessible (as long as you have access to the internet and a phone camera). Just remember that each of the editors is a little different. Today I'm going to be working with the Facebook reel editor tool.

​You can record multiple clips for a reel 'on the fly' while in the editor tool, but this is often tricky and unrealistic unless you want to think fast. If you don't want to be pressured to think so quickly about which clips you want to record (and I often don't), you can create a facebook reel using and recycling videos you already have in your phone’s camera roll and that's what I do here. It can be a little tricky at first until you learn the steps. In the video below, I take you through the steps. I'll show you what each one looks like. Just watch carefully so you don't get tripped up.

1. Go to your facebook page and start to create a post. Before you create the post select 'reel'
2. Go to the bottom left and click on the photo stack icon
3. Make sure to select 'select multiple' top right if you want to add and stitch together multiple videos in your reel, then select each of your videos and click 'next' when you're ready.
4. *Important: Go to the top left and hit the backwards arrow to edit each of your clips individually. Otherwise, Facebook will stitch your videos together however it wants by default.
5. Click on the bottom center of the editor your clips are shown. You will see the number of clips. Tap the number. Now your clips will be shown individually.
6. Click on each clip and then click 'trim' in order to shorten the clip and find the piece you want. Drag the slider bar back and forth until you're happy with the segment. Click done in the top right after trimming each clip. Remember, you only get 30 seconds cumulatively for your reel.
7. When done trimming each clip tap 'done' in the top right one last time. Your video will now be stitched together not just arbitrarily but in the way you want.
8. Now you are back out to the main screen where your video is all stitched together in the way that you want. Now you can add captions, effects, text, or audio music to your video! Have fun with it! You can trim from here as well but bear in mind in this screen you can only trim the WHOLE reel video (not individual clips).
9. When done adding text or effects, click 'next' and you will be able to add a description to your video and then share your reel. *Be sure to look in the top left to watch your reel uploading. Don't click away too soon or you can lose your edits and your reel. Be patient and wait for it to upload. It should usually take about 1-5 minutes depending on your connection speed.

​Each of us has expertise to share. We do hours of research and spend late nights up scouring the internet to find ways to make our own lives easier, healthier and more enjoyable. We also put these hours in to improve our own knowledge base or stay up-to-date.

Things we've learned can range anywhere from how to make our great grandmother's pie recipe to how to start a not-for-profit, how to find the cutest spring hats or how to create an app.. even how to beat our favorite video game.

Sometimes we share what we've learned and sometimes we don't.. BUT often times when we do, most of of do NOT do it in the smartest, most efficient ways. We usually just share these things we've pick up or learned in an excited facebook post or some kind of Instagram story from our personal pages. That's great but.. This gives the platforms all the glory.. and credit!

I'm on a mission to figure out how to change that.
I believe that not only do we all deserve a little credit for all the time we spend, but many of us also could truly use a little something back (potentially). While that can mean monetarily, it doesn't necessarily have to mean that.

My years of work for others (primarily business owners) helping them better utilize the platforms of the internet have taught me that there is a better way to share than most of us do. There IS an eloquent way for you to share authentically while not (let me just be honest here) screwing yourself over in opportunity cost every time.
There are more opportunities for individuals today than most people realize. Those opportunities are just going to get bigger and bigger as the economy shifts into this new thing it has been becoming for the last 20 to 30 years.

Anyway, if this all sounds intriguing to you, feel free to join me in The Content Journey, it is a free group where I explain how you can share on the internet in a really eloquent and rewarding way that gives you more leverage for the future. I help you avoid the pitfalls and the many mistakes I've made getting started and just help you get things set up well from the start.

My scrubby beta platform of this system can be seen Lorna Doone Living. It isn't very fully established but the skeleton system is in place. .. so check it out, feel free to be nosy, you may even understand the whole idea of it without direct explanation.
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P.S. after two weeks of a debilitating headache, I'm getting back to it. It's great to be back.