Trial Reels don’t get enough love. The strategy is to use them to grow your following and get 5X use out of every … single … video.
👋 Welcome back to Content to Commas, your weekly playbook for turning content into authority, audience, and income.
I wrote an issue in last month telling you to work your archive but I left out the best place to do it.
✨ Trial reels ✨
Most people avoid this feature because they don't see the benefits.
Trial reels go out to non-followers only 🤔 … so that video you already posted, yeah, the one that did numbers back in April and has been sitting on your grid ever since, can go back out to a room full of strangers. Every week. Forever.
So in this issue I’m breaking down how to use trial reels to grow your following.
📍 In this issue:
What a trial reel actually does for you
The Rerun Engine you can build today
Build something in minutes with Lovable (today’s partner)
Let’s lock in.
a message from our friends at Lovable
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🤔 What “trial reels” actually do
5 things to know …
It goes out only to accounts that don't follow you.
Your own audience never sees it in feed or reels tab (unless it’s directly shared).
It stays off your grid until you decide otherwise.
About a day later, the numbers come back.
Non-followers who enjoy the content can still comment, like, and follow you.
That's the whole feature in a nutshell and #4 is why it works, because you get a clean read from people who owe you nothing.
Your followers are nice to you. They already like you, so they'll watch something mid. A stranger doesn’t care.
One thing to set your expectations. A trial reel gets fewer views than a normal post, because there's no follower push behind it.
🚩 Read this before you use the feature
You need one proven video first. A trial reel is a distribution channel, not a rescue.
Sort your reels by views, last 90 days, and look at the top one.
Check if you actually have the feature.
♻ THE TRIAL REELS RERUN ENGINE
There's zero downside to posting a trial reel everyday (if you want).
1. Test the winners again & again.
Reshare your winning content frequently.
If your posts has received 3x your avg OR watch time over 10 seconds, OR skip rate under 50% OR all three … post them every 30-90 days as a trial reel.
Rather than repeatedly showing your successful content to the same group, try sharing it with fresh faces. This will allow your popular content to continue drawing more folks into your community.
2. Never press "share to anyone."
That button moves your winner to the feed dated to when the trial went up. 4 days back, buried under everything since.
So before you post the trial, save the video as a draft and duplicate it. One copy runs as the trial. The clean copy goes up later as a fresh reel.
3. Test & Learn
Pick 3 things to edit or swap.
new first frame
new opening line
cut a chunk from the middle
swap the text overlay phrase.
this is still an opportunity to learn. Don't lose it.
4. Run it back every 7 days.
If you can schedule content or have someone do it for you, I’d recommend having a trial reel at least once a week, every other week, or once a month.
That's 4 posts out of 1 video inside a month, 3 of them landing on people who have never seen your account.
You already have the sheet too … it's the “Viral Vault”.
HOW TO LOCK IN BEFORE NEXT SATURDAY
☐ Sort your reels by views, last 90 days, pick the top one (~5 min)
☐ See what post has strong watch time and under 50% skip rate (~2 min)
☐ Make 1 variation: new first 3 seconds or text overlay (~5-10 min)
☐ Save as a draft, duplicate the draft, post one copy as a trial (2-5 min)
If you only do one: duplicate the draft before you post.
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📌 ICYMI…
Each week, I share content on social, branding, and growth strategies. Catch up in case you missed anything.
Posts You Missed…
🔍 A free tool that helps you analyze any LinkedIn post: paste a competitor's, a creator's, or your own, and it grades it on all 7 factors, and hands you 5 mechanics to steal → Grab the tool
💼 The system that got me hired: 4 steps, and it starts with optimizing your profile for where you're going instead of where you've been → See the steps
🎬 Claude Skill for free with HubSpot: the Short-form Video Script Writer grades your hook on saveable, scroll-stopping and shareable out of 10, then rewrites anything under a 7 before you waste a take → Get the skill
📊 This will grow your newsletter faster than mine: I connected beehiiv to Claude and built a dashboard that grades every issue and tells me what to write next → Watch the build
🔗 You're sleeping on LinkedIn: more money, more opportunities and more deals there than TikTok or Instagram, and not just if you work in corporate → See why
Keep Reading…
💎 You're sitting on content gold and probably ignoring it: a 3-part playbook that kills the decision fatigue of starting every week from zero. Steal the 3 parts →
⏱️ Watch time is the new engagement rate: every major platform changed what it ranks, and likes quietly stopped being the metric that moves you. See what changed →
🎠 The Social Carousel Formula: I studied 7 Instagram accounts building brands instead of feeds and pulled the 5 ingredients all of them use. Grab the formula →
🏛️ Why you need pillar content: the mother post trick, where one big idea becomes many pieces and nothing gets invented from scratch. Run the mother post →
💸 How to monetize before 1K subscribers: small list, real income, and what actually sets your price. Do the small-list math →
🧾 The Content Rate System: how to price your work so it accounts for your audience value and your time, not just the deliverable. Price it properly →
Worth every penny…
The tools, equipment, and systems that power my content.
🤖 Stanley: My content teammate just got a major upgrade. What started with LinkedIn now helps me create for X, YouTube, and Instagram too. → Try Stanley Free
🐝 Beehiiv: Newsletters, podcasts, digital products, and now community. One of the easiest places to build your media empire and home to Content to Commas → Enjoy 20% off for 3 Months
⌨ Lovable: Describe the app or landing page you want, and it builds it. No code. Build with Lovable →
💾 Notion: Where all of work for content & business lives. Get Notion →
🎤 Wispr Flow: My most used tool, hands down. Writes about 10x faster than typing. First month free with my link → Try Wispr Flow
🧠 Granola: The AI best notepad that sits in on my calls. I cannot talk enough about it → Try Granola
🗺 Poppy AI: My content whiteboard. It knows my brand and can help me brainstorm with a visual template. → Try Poppy AI
💬 Manychat: The machine behind every "comment X and I'll send it" post. It turns comments into DMs, DMs into links → Build the flow
📊 Gamma: AI presentations and one-pagers. Elite. Elite. Elite. → Try Gamma
Resources Built For You:
The LinkedIn Growth Pack: 8 AI skills that write, grow, and plan your LinkedIn. The system behind everything I post → Get the pack ($79)
The Viral Instagram Carousel Pack: 5 Claude skills built on my exact carousel method → Grab the bundle ($29)
The Brand Deal Tracker (Notion CRM): Every pitch, deal, and deadline in one board. Name your price → Track your deals (free)
The Content Repurposing OS (free AI skill): Turn one piece of content into a full distribution plan → Steal the skill
Brandon Smithwrick, Creator of Content to Commas
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