How to Create a Facebook Reels Tutorial

Creating a great tutorial is one of the fastest ways to build authority and connect with your audience on social media, and Facebook Reels is the perfect format to do it. This step-by-step guide will walk you through the entire process, from picking a topic and planning your content to filming, editing, and publishing a tutorial that people will actually watch, save, and share.

Phase 1: Your Pre-Production Game Plan

The best tutorials feel effortless, but they’re built on a foundation of solid planning. Rushing this stage is a mistake that leads to rambling, confusing content. A little prep work here makes the filming and editing process ten times easier.

Finding Your Winning Tutorial Topic

Your goal isn't just to make *a* tutorial, it's to make a tutorial your specific audience is desperately looking for. The best topics sit at the intersection of what you know well and what your followers want to learn.

• Listen to Your Audience: What questions do you get over and over again in your DMs and comments? If multiple people are asking how you edit your photos or organize your projects, that’s your content "gold." Each question is a ready-made tutorial topic.
• Solve One Small Problem: Avoid trying to teach too much in one 60-second video. People have short attention spans. Instead of a "Beginner's Guide to Photoshop," create a Reel titled "How to Remove an Object in Photoshop in 30 Seconds." Focus on one specific skill that delivers a quick win.
• Look at Your Most Popular Content: What posts have received the most shares and saves? If a post about your morning routine did really well, consider a Reel tutorial on "How to Make My Favorite 5-Minute Matcha Latte." You already have proof there’s interest.

Outline Your Steps (Forget the Full Script)

For Reels, a word-for-word script can make you sound robotic. Instead, use a simple bullet-point outline. Your outline should be the core road map, ensuring you don’t forget a step while still allowing your personality to come through.

For example, a tutorial on resizing a photo for Instagram Stories might look like this:

• Hook: Show the "before" (a badly cropped photo) and the "after" (a perfectly sized story).
• Step 1: Open the Canva app and tap "Create a design."
• Step 2: Select "Instagram Story" from the templates.
• Step 3: Upload your photo and drag the corners to fill the screen.
• Step 4: Download and save the finished image.
• CTA: Closing shot showing the perfect story with text: "Save for later!"

This simple structure keeps you on track, respects the viewer's time, and delivers the necessary information clearly and quickly.

Gather Your Gear

You don't need a professional studio. High-quality smartphone cameras and affordable gear are all you need to create amazing Reels. Here’s a basic starter kit:

• A Smartphone: Any modern smartphone will do the job. The camera you have is the best camera to start with.
• A Simple Tripod: Shaky footage immediately looks unprofessional. A small, flexible tripod keeps your shots stable, whether you’re filming yourself or a process on a tabletop.
• Good Light: Natural light from a window is your best friend - and it's free. If you film at night or in a darker room, a ring light can make a huge difference in video quality.
• Clear Audio: The microphone on your phone is decent, but background noise can ruin a great video. Filming in a quiet space is often enough. For something more professional, a small lapel mic that plugs into your phone is an affordable upgrade.

Phase 2: Filming - Getting the Shots You Need

Now that you have your plan, it’s time to hit record. Your goal is to capture clean video and sound that will be easy to edit together later.

How to Talk to the Camera

Talking to a lens can feel awkward at first. The key is to imagine you’re explaining something to a friend. Make eye contact with the physical camera lens, not your own face on the screen. Speak clearly and with a bit more energy than you would in a normal conversation - it translates much better on video. It’s okay if you mess up. Just stop, take a breath, and record the segment again. You can cut the mistakes out during editing.

Mixing Up Your Shots

The most engaging tutorials use a variety of shot types to keep the viewer’s attention. Don't just film a one-take monologue. Think in terms of three main types of footage:

1. A-Roll (The "Talking Head"): This is you, speaking to the camera, explaining the steps. This builds a personal connection.
2. B-Roll (The "Action Shots"): This is the footage that illustrates what you’re talking about. If you’re teaching a recipe, B-roll is close-ups of your hands cracking an egg or stirring ingredients. If it's a software tutorial, this is your screen recording. This is the most important footage in any tutorial.
3. Screen Recording (For Digital Tutorials): If you’re demonstrating an app or a piece of software, you’ll need to record your screen. Both iPhone and Android have built-in screen recording functions that are incredibly easy to use. Just remember to turn on "Do Not Disturb" to avoid notifications popping up in your recording.

Film each segment separately. Record your intro. Then, record your voiceover for Step 1. Then, get a B-roll shot for Step 1. This modular approach makes editing far simpler than trying to do everything perfectly in one continuous take.

Phase 3: Editing That Creates a "Scroll-Stopping" Reel

Editing is where your raw footage transforms into a polished, high-impact tutorial. You can edit directly within the Facebook or Instagram app, but dedicated apps like CapCut or InShot offer far more control and creative options.

Nail the First 3 Seconds

You have to earn a viewer's attention. The best way to do that is with a strong visual hook that shows them what they'll get by watching. Start your Reel by flashing the final, amazing outcome on screen for a second before you begin the tutorial. Whether it's the perfectly decorated cake, the decluttered closet, or the animated graphic, showing the desirable end result makes people stop and think, "I want to know how they did that."

Leverage Text, Captions, and Subtitles

Most people watch Reels with the sound off. If your tutorial relies entirely on a spoken voiceover, you're losing a huge portion of your audience. Use text overlays to reinforce your key steps.

• Headlines: Use a bold headline at the start that states the value proposition (e.g., "5 Steps to Better Coffee").
• Step Markers: Number your steps on screen ("Step 1," "Step 2," etc.) to give viewers a sense of progress.
• Auto-Captions: Use your editing app's auto-caption function to create subtitles for your voiceover. Not only does this help people watching silently, but it also improves accessibility. Review them for errors before publishing!

Pacing Is Everything

A fast-paced tutorial feels professional and confident. An overly long tutorial feels boring. Keep your pacing energetic by using quick cuts. Don't linger on any single shot for more than 2-4 seconds. Tightly cut out any pauses, "ums," or "ahs." Use jump cuts (where you cut from one part of a continuous shot to a slightly later part) to make talking-head segments more dynamic.

Add Music and Sound

Audio drives trends on Reels. You have two primary options:

• Trending Audio: Using a trending song can increase your Reel’s initial visibility, as the algorithm may show it to people who have interacted with that sound before. The downside is that trends die, and the sound might not fit your brand's style.
• Original Voiceover: High-value tutorials often perform amazingly well with just a clean voiceover. This establishes you as the authority, and your audio becomes "Original Audio" that others can use, promoting your content even further. You can always layer soft, instrumental music from the Reels audio library underneath your voiceover at a low volume.

Phase 4: Publishing and Promotion

Your video is ready. Now you just need to get it in front of the right people.

Write a Caption that Converts

Your caption should support your video, not just repeat it. Use a simple, effective structure:

1. Hook: Start with a question or a bold statement that restates the problem your Reel solves. ("Struggling to frost a smooth cake? I got you.").
2. Value: Briefly explain what the tutorial covers and why it’s useful.
3. Call-to-Action (CTA): Tell people exactly what you want them to do next. Do you want them to "Save this for later"? "Share this with a friend who needs it"? "Comment with your favorite baking tip"? A clear CTA dramatically increases engagement.

Choose an Eye-Catching Cover Image

The cover photo is what people see when they browse their feed or look at your Profile Grid. It needs to be clean, intriguing, and informative. Select a frame from your video that clearly shows the topic or the end result. Add a clear, readable text title over the cover that summarizes what the tutorial is about (e.g., "How to Poach an Egg"). This makes your content "browsable" and helps people find exactly what they're looking for on your profile.

Lock in Your Hashtag Strategy

Hashtags help Facebook's algorithm understand what your content is about and show it to relevant audiences. A good strategy is to use around 7-15 hashtags that are a mix of broad, specific, and niche.

• Broad (1-2): #tutorial #howto
• Specific (3-5): #canvatutorial #graphicdesigntips #designtutorial
• Niche (3-5): #canvahacks #socialmediadesign #entrepreneurtips

By following this structure, you create content that is not only valuable but also optimized to reach the audience that will benefit from it the most. Now go create something amazing!

Final Thoughts

Creating a Facebook Reels tutorial is a great way to demonstrate your expertise and provide genuine value to your community. By focusing on a clear plan, clean filming, and audience-focused editing, you can produce content that not only educates but also helps grow your brand.

Once your tutorial is polished and ready, the last thing you want is for a post to fail during publishing or for your accounts to randomly disconnect. We understand how frustrating those legacy scheduling tools are, which is why when we built Postbase, we prioritized rock-solid reliability for short-form video. You can upload your finished Reel once, visually plan its place in your content calendar, and trust it will go live exactly as scheduled, every single time.