Viral Reels (sales craft for attention)
A Reel is a tiny sales page that is judged in about two seconds. Treat it like one: sell a feeling first, prove it second, ask for one thing last. Nobody reads paragraphs on a Reel. If the idea cannot be understood from the picture and one short line, it is not ready.
This skill is the process. Details live in references/. Read them in this order when you need them:
references/hooks.md- the first 2 seconds. Always read before writing anything.references/story-and-persuasion.md- how the middle earns the ending (sales frameworks, in plain words).references/visuals-and-motion.md- what to show, how often it changes, and how to build it with the pipeline in this repo.references/scorecard.md- the pre-publish gate and the post-publish numbers to read.references/guardrails.md- general content rules (claims only from the source, no invented facts). For religious content, also readreferences/guardrails-religious-content.md.
What the platform actually rewards (anchor facts)
- Instagram's head has named three Reels signals: watch time, likes per reach, sends per reach. Sends (people DMing the Reel) matter most for reaching people who do not follow you. These are the only ranking claims here treated as solid.
- Everything numeric you read online beyond that (a "3-second rule", "70% retention", test-group sizes, "sends are 5x likes") is vendor or blog folklore. Use the ideas as heuristics, never as promises. Never promise virality. What you can do is raise the odds on each signal.
- So the job is three things, in this order: (1) get a person to stay past the first beat, (2) get them to finish, (3) give them a reason to send it to one specific person.
Process
Step 1: Find the one idea
From the source (article, verse, lesson), pull one idea a stranger could repeat in a sentence. Run the So What? ladder until you hit a feeling (see story-and-persuasion.md). If you cannot name the feeling, stop and ask.
Write it as: Feeling the viewer gets / Question or tension that creates it / The turn that resolves it.
Step 2: Choose the format
Pick one. Do not mix.
| Format | Use when | Sound | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Story-voiceover | the idea is a tension with a turn (a person, a choice, a mystery) | narration + music | 25-40 s |
| B. Visual metaphor | the idea is an image you can animate (rings, path, light, scale) | music only, 5-7 word lines | 20-45 s |
| C. Question / identity | the idea splits people ("which one are you?") | music, on-screen choices | 15-30 s |
| D. Myth-flip | a common belief is half right | narration or big text | 20-35 s |
Default for reflective or educational content: A or B. Format B alone is what makes a Reel feel like a slideshow if every beat is a sentence on a background, so B needs a real animated visual per beat.
Step 3: Write 5 hooks, pick 1
Use references/hooks.md. Write five hooks in different families. Test each: would a stranger who has never heard of you keep watching? Pick one and write the first frame as a picture or motion, not a sentence. Keep the runner-ups for the next Reel.
Step 4: Build the beat sheet
A table, one row per beat, 2-4 seconds each:
# | time | on-screen words (max 7) | voiceover (if A) | visual | motion/cut | emotion
Rules: a change of picture or motion at least every 2-3 s; one idea per beat; the payoff lands in the last quarter; the last beat connects back to the first frame so it loops. See visuals-and-motion.md for what each column must contain.
Step 5: Caption and CTA
Caption = the hook sentence, 2-3 short lines, one source line where relevant, one call to action, 0-3 hashtags. The CTA must make a send or a comment easy and specific (see story-and-persuasion.md). The bio link carries the long form.
Step 6: Score it, then build
Run references/scorecard.md. Do not build below 70/100. Fix the weakest category first. Only then make the assets (narration, mix, Remotion render) with the pipeline in visuals-and-motion.md.
Step 7: Ship and read the numbers
After posting, read watch time / retention curve / sends per reach (scorecard.md), write one line on what the curve says, and change one variable on the next Reel. Do not iterate one piece forever: set a version cap (3) before starting.
Output format
Give the user, in this order: the chosen format and why; the 5 hooks with the pick marked; the beat sheet table; the voiceover script (if format A); the caption; the score; the asset list with prompts. Keep prose short. Never pad.
Hard rules
- First frame is never a paragraph. Never more than 7 words on screen at once (verses are the one exception, and they get a long hold plus a clear source).
- Every Reel has exactly one idea and one call to action.
- Keep narrated Reels to about 50 s. Write the script to length first, and cut a whole beat (not words) when over. A first draft that runs 70 s or more needs a beat removed, not a faster voice.
- One meaningful animation per spoken point (see
guide/QUALITY-BAR.md). Never hold one picture for more than about 3 to 4 s, and never open or hand over on a black frame. - Every claim traces to the source article or a cited text. Do not invent facts, statistics, scholars, or hadith numbers. If unsure, leave it out.
- Follow
references/guardrails.mdon every Reel. If the Reel is about religion, also followreferences/guardrails-religious-content.md. - Report honestly. A prediction is an estimate with its reasoning, not a promise.