Louise Ivan
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March 24 · Original version5.1M views
Likes46,998
Comments972
Shares77,539
Saves29,352
- On-screen hook
- “POV: You’re a man and live with 3 girls in Amsterdam”
- Audio
- Tame Impala — “Dracula”
- Caption
- “Ik ben niet homo. IFYKYK.”
- Followers gained
- —
Growth experimentsChapter 03 / Instagram
The 5.1M-view reel that took 10 minutes to make
An old clip of friends dancing in my kitchen became my biggest reel of the first 16 days. I reposted it with different music and watched it take off again.
01 / The beginning
The clip was already in my camera roll
I found a video of three friends dancing in my kitchen, cut it to about seven seconds, and paired it with a line about living with three girls in Amsterdam. It took me ten minutes to make. I posted it on March 24, during the first 16 days of my Instagram experiment.
Before this, I had tested a different hook and cut on a hospital reel. The kitchen clip was a separate idea: a small, funny moment I already had, with an opening people wanted to watch again.
10minutes to make
7seconds of footage
5.1Moriginal reel views
Almost 394Krepost views
02 / The two versions
This 5.1 million-view video took me 10 minutes to make
I found an old clip in my photos of 3 friends dancing in my kitchen. I cut it to about 7 seconds, used Tame Impala’s trending song “Dracula”, and added the on-screen hook: “POV: You’re a man and you live with 3 girls in Amsterdam.” The written caption was simply: “Ik ben niet homo. IFYKYK.”
I chose it because I thought the moment was fun. It took off as a trial reel. Later, I repurposed the same video to see if it would take off again, switching the audio to Sabrina Carpenter’s “House Tour” and updating the caption. It worked again: the repost reached almost 394K views.
May repost · Different musicAlmost 394K views
Likes3,787
Comments134
Shares6,896
Saves2,368
- On-screen hook
- “POV: You’re a man and live with 3 girls in Amsterdam”
- Audio
- Sabrina Carpenter — “House Tour”
- Caption
- “Do you want the house tour?”
- Followers gained
- —
Swipe to compare both reels
What I learned
The footage and on-screen idea worked again, even with different music and a different caption. For me, this supports my hypothesis: a simple reel of about 7 seconds, paired with trending audio, can encourage people to watch again.
I still focus on the same three elements when aiming for a viral reel: a hook that sparks curiosity, a shocking visual that delivers the emotion, and the full payoff in the caption.
03 / Take it with you
A process you can try
A small moment can be enough when the opening makes people curious.
- 01
Look through footage you already have.
- 02
Choose a moment you genuinely find interesting or funny.
- 03
Write a hook that makes someone curious enough to keep watching.
- 04
If the idea connects, try a new soundtrack or caption and compare how the repost performs.
That’s the experiment.