There’s always trends on Instagram. Remember when all those filters were completely necessary to add to your blurry iPhone 3 photo before posting? Then the thick, heavy white borders were very popular a few years ago. Now with Instagram Stories, I feel people are posting less on their feed (at least less unnecessary photos) and opting for a quick shot or video posted in their Story. A consistent “aesthetic” has taken over as the it-word of the time, making each post highly thought out and carefully curated. Some people love this, some people hate it. But whatever your feelings are toward this highly obsessed about app, one thing is for sure: it just keeps getting popular.
In our jewelry community on Instagram, there’s one obvious kind of post that has been sweeping everyone off their feet and giving mini heart attacks to jewelry lovers nationwide. I’m talking about the videos where someone opens up a jewelry box ever so suspensefully and ever so slowly, for a BIG REVEAL. I really don’t know who or what started this; it is hard to trace back to a particular person. I feel like Larry of Platt Boutique Jewelry has definitely been doing it the longest and has made an impact because he quite often uses this tactic in his daily postings! Larry says, “When I meet people who follow me, they say they always look forward to seeing a box video because they know it’s going to be something special.” He also states that his clients love how natural the videos feel–the item in the jewelry box is glittering away in the sunshine, untouched by photo editing and as real as it gets!
The video below is one of Larry’s all-time record holding posts, clocking in at over 98k views! This proves my inclination of how easily these types of posts can quickly become viral, which this post did just that!
Others have joined in on this trend, creating some gorgeous videos of jewels being revealed by opening a box. If I had to guess why this trend is so popular, I would say that it easily resonates with people because it is almost as if they are opening the box themselves, envisioning this as a beautiful gift they are receiving. The suspense factor also plays an important part in why this is trending on Instagram.
Another antique jewelry dealer that has taken part in posting “unboxing” videos is Ismael Khan of Ishy Antiques. He is based in London and finds that these types of videos perform well for his Instagram too. Ishy says, “I’ve done five box opening videos and all five are in my overall top twenty ‘posts’ based on impressions, insights and likes for the past year. My 2 most liked posts are box openings.” If that is not clear evidence to how impactful these kinds of posts are, I don’t know what is! He also adds, “From a social media growth point of view, I believe these types of posts are popular because people have to wait to see what’s inside the box which registers views and impressions, and therefore increases engagement.”
So the next time you’re stumped over what to post on Instagram, try your hand at the big box reveal! I’d like to recommend practicing opening the box a few times while filming FIRST before you film and post immediately. I’ve seen a few FAILS that were posted on Instagram and not done in the best way. I won’t give any examples because that would be quite rude, but I’m sure we’ve all seen them! You can even ask a friend to film while you use both hands to open the box OR get a tripod for steady filming. Not everyone has coordination and that’s ok! There’s ways of going about to help with that!
That’s what I did with the video below–I set up my camera on a tripod so I could use both hands. That seemed to work better for me at least. Another necessary part to this is getting some interesting antique boxes! I’ve seen these become quite scarce lately, but there’s always some on Instagram and eBay, although some are priced high because the seller knows how rare they’ve become! I found the hot pink one in my video below at a random antique shop in Kentucky. Talk about getting lucky in Kentucky! Always have your eyes peeled!
Have you seen this BOX REVEAL trend on your feed? Let us know a seller who does this that you enjoy watching in the comments section, I’d love to see!
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