If I was a betting person, I would easily bet you a LOT of money that you can’t scroll your social media feeds each day without seeing someone dancing to a trending audio.

It’s a normal thing these days and I personally think we have 2020 to thank for that.

What once started as an app for teens to use for fun dances quickly became something that everyone and their mom (literally) were using. 

And then the next thing you know, people went from dancing to Savage to suddenly using this new video first platform as a way to actually market their business… wild times, am I right??

At the time, it might’ve felt crazy, but what’s even crazier is that the concept of trending sounds, cringe dances and video first marketing stuck around. 

And of course Instagram had to jump on the bandwagon. 

When Reels was introduced to the app, I admittedly thought: “Great… one more thing we have to figure out and adapt to.”

In the name of staying relevant, I did, and to this day, like many, I still use Reels as a primary way of making content for Instagram.

But guess what? I DON’T lip sync or take part in the cringy dancing… I simply won’t do it!

And you know what’s really cool? It doesn’t change the way my Reels perform. But I can’t take credit for that on my own!

When it comes to business, I’m constantly looking for ways to be more productive and efficient which means I eagerly outsource or find solutions that help me work smarter, not harder. 

One of those solutions is The Reels Report Membership by Laura Bitoiu, which is designed to help you save time and stay ahead of the trends on social media. 

With the help of Laura’s prompts and a wholeeeee lot of b-roll, I can jump on trends faster and reach new eyeballs WITHOUT spending thousands of dollars on ad spend – and that’s music to a business owner’s ears, right?! 🎶

YOU can do the exact same thing, but before you hop on the Reels train, make sure you’re following the proper guidelines to avoid any legal headaches in the future.

How To Use Trending Audio Legally In Your Social Media

• Don’t use trending audio in an ad or sales campaign (or get a license to do so)

Music and trending sounds are one of the most popular mediums that people conduct copyright infringement on and the reason for that is because it’s really easy to do so.

Many people don’t understand that when you download a video from Instagram or another video platform that contains music with lyrics or other copyrighted sound, with the intent to use it for an ad or sales campaign, you’re violating the copyright.

If you attempt to use Reels with licensed music as ads, your ad will likely be denied by Meta or will receive less than desirable results than you’d hoped.

Instagram will also often remove audio from your content if they detect a potential licensing violation, which can completely ruin a video that you spent a ton of time on. 🙃

This is why you want to make sure you’re following the rules from the get go, so you can avoid these annoyances in the future.

• Don’t upload videos with trending audios from third party platforms as “original audio”

This is something I see happen SO often on social media and the reason it happens is because many creators want to re-use the videos they’ve created on TikTok and upload them to Instagram or vice versa.

While I understand that this might make your content creation easier, it’s actually a direct violation to Instagram’s terms.

Here’s why: when you download a video with music or a trending sound from TikTok and then upload the video to Instagram as a Reel, the video will upload and display the audio in your video as “original audio” when really you don’t own the rights at all.

This can again result in Instagram removing the sound from your video or removing the content altogether, so stay on the safe side and always create your videos in the apps they are intended for!

• Use trending audio to simply educate your audience or raise brand awareness (without CTA’s)

One of the safest ways to use trending audio in Reels is to simply educate your audience or raise brand awareness WITHOUT using any call-to-actions. 

Reels are great ways to bring a little bit of humor to your brand and speak to your audience’s pain points without straight up selling. 

• Archive videos with trending audios once it’s served its purpose

If you fear that you’ve potentially violated copyright on trending sounds or music in your video content, you can simply archive the post now that it has served its purpose to further minimize your risk.

Overall, I believe that Reels can be a great way to market in your business (when you do so legally) and there are some awesome tools out there to help you do so with ease – with Reels Report being my favorite. 

With this membership you receive four ahead of the trends Reels audios each week, along with ideas on how to apply the trends to your business for just $37/month. 

Only $37 to stay relevant to my audience WITHOUT having to do the research or concept myself? Sign me up!

Using my tips above in combination with Laura’s resources, I believe there is a way for you to easily implement Reels into your marketing strategy and if you’ve been looking for a way to make that happen, look no further.

Laura opens the Reels Report Membership a few times each year, so you can get on the waitlist to get first dibs when it reopens and while you wait, you can download her FREE Reels Batching 101 Lesson!

If you’re curious what this resource looks like in action, head on over to The Boutique Lawyer on Instagram – all of the Reels on my feed are thanks to Laura. 😂

P.S. This blog post contains affiliate links, but I only ever recommend products or services that I love and use myself!