Has this happened to any of your Reels yet?
You know those older Reels of yours with views far below what you were hoping? Maybe you were tempted to delete them, thinking, “Wow, those numbers look depressing.”
Then, a few weeks or months later, you look at your post and start spewing coffee all over your keyboard. Your views and likes have hit the stratosphere: 50K, 100K, 1.4 million. You have hundreds, if not thousands, of comments to skim through.
And if you’ve seen BAM’s IG post on this, you know you’re not alone.
The calm before the storm
What could have triggered the flood of views, likes, and comments now hitting your once invisible Instagram Reel? Who cares? The point is, it happens.
A video shared by @thebrokeagent has gotten 173,000 likes and counting because Instagram is pushing it right now.
So, in a recent YouTube video, it makes sense that Robert Benjamin tells his audience NOT to delete their non-performing Reels.
Benjamin states the reason is good old supply and demand. When there’s a lot of search demand for a certain subject, and if supply is low, old posts get resurfaced.
So, basically, one of your posts from 30 days ago—which you might have deleted because it didn’t do that well—that topic or that subject could then become popular and Instagram then shows that content to a group of people and, as a result, you get more followers, you get more views from an old video, and all the videos you’ve made since then start getting recommended to that person. And this is how a lot of small creators on Instagram right now are seeing a ton of growth based on videos that they made a week ago, two weeks ago, a month ago.
The upshot? If a Reel you’ve published to Instagram doesn’t do well within a week or so, don’t stress over it. And do not delete it. Those crickets for the first few days or even weeks don’t mean anything. They do not mean your video will never get the attention you hoped for.
Videos are starting to live longer on Instagram. And that’s big news for video marketers on the platform. You never know when (or how) one of your posts will skyrocket in popularity.
So be patient with your Reels and with yourself.
It’s happening all over
A number of Instagram users who commented on BAM’s “Delayed explosions” post have had the same experience:
Top takeaway
If your Reel performs poorly, don’t delete it. Sit on it and give it time. These delayed explosions are happening all over Instagram, and they could happen to one of yours when you least expect it. Give it that chance.
Meanwhile, keep creating and keep learning. At the very least, your Reels will keep improving, which your audience will appreciate. And you’ll make a delayed explosion that much more likely.
