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Social Media & Content Creation vocabulary · Platforms and Formats

Reel

Meaning in social media & content creation, with examples

/riːl/nounCore term

In social media & content creation, reel means: A short, usually vertical video with music, effects or text, made to be watched quickly and often recommended to people who do not follow you.

In Turkish: reels, kısa video

How it is used

The name comes from Instagram Reels, and Facebook uses it too; YouTube calls the same format Shorts. You film, edit and post a reel. Reels are one of the main tools for reaching new audiences.

Example sentences

  1. The recipe reel reached 80,000 accounts, most of them non-followers.

  2. Let's turn the workshop footage into three short reels.

Common collocations

  • post a reel
  • film a reel
  • reel views
  • Reels tab
  • turn into a reel
  • short-form videoA video that usually lasts from a few seconds to a few minutes, is often filmed vertically and is made for quick viewing on phones.
  • trending audioA song, sound clip or voice recording that many people are using in their short videos at the same time.
  • storyA short photo or video that appears at the top of an app and disappears after 24 hours, used for casual, everyday updates.
  • hookThe first few seconds of a video or the first line of a post, designed to grab attention and make people keep watching or reading.
  • remixA new video made from someone else's video with a built-in app feature, for example by reacting to it side by side or adding your own clip.

More terms: Platforms and Formats

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