Facebook Reels for local businesses: the second audience your Instagram Reel is missing

Why should a local business post Reels on Facebook, not just Instagram?

Because Facebook reaches a different crowd. Pew Research Center finds that about 68% of U.S. adults use Facebook, and its users skew older than Instagram's. Posting the same finished Reel to a Facebook Page puts it in front of neighbours, regulars and their friends who may never open Instagram.

Owners often treat Facebook as the place their parents are. For a local business that is exactly the point. The customer who books a family dinner, the homeowner who calls a contractor, the regular who tells the whole neighbourhood group about your new menu: many of them scroll Facebook first. Pew Research Center’s social media fact sheet puts Facebook use at about two in three U.S. adults, second only to YouTube.

The practical upside is that Facebook Reels costs you nothing extra to make. It is the same 9:16 video you already made for Instagram. The only new work is posting it to your Facebook Page, and that is the step most businesses skip. That is why Ruzz posts one finished short to all four platforms at once, Facebook Reels included.

What changed when every Facebook video became a Reel?

In June 2025 Meta announced that all videos uploaded to Facebook would be shared as Reels, removing the choice between a video and a Reel and lifting the old 90-second length limit and format restrictions. Live video stays separate.

Before the change, a business had to decide whether a clip was a “video” or a “Reel”, and Reels were capped at 90 seconds. Meta folded the two together: a quick vertical clip and a long horizontal episode now both go out as Reels, and both can be recommended to people who do not follow you yet.

Two consequences matter for a local business:

• Reels are public by default. Meta said it would ask people to review their audience settings, because many used to share video only with friends. A business Page wants the opposite: public, so the Reel can be recommended.
• Length is no longer the limit, attention is. Being allowed to post twenty minutes does not mean anyone will watch twenty minutes. A short that is watched to the end still beats a long one that is abandoned.

How does Facebook decide which Reels to show?

Facebook ranks Reels with prediction models: for each viewer it estimates how likely they are to watch, react, comment or share, using signals about the viewer, the Reel and the account that posted it. Reels that people watch through and share are shown to more people, including people who do not follow the Page.

Meta’s Transparency Center describes ranking as a set of predictions. For every Reel that could appear, Facebook asks how likely this person is to spend time on it, react, comment or share it, and orders the options by those predictions. The inputs are signals about you (what you usually watch), about the Reel (its topic, format and how others responded) and about the connection between you and the account.

Meta has also said, over the years, what it values in video: original content over reposts, viewers who watch to the end, and audiences who come back to the same creator. In plain terms for a business Page:

• Post your own footage. A clip downloaded from another app, watermark and all, is treated as a repost.
• Earn the full watch. Cut the slow start; the payoff belongs in the first seconds.
• Be worth coming back to. A recognisable weekly format teaches both viewers and the system what your Page is for.

What kind of Reels work best for a business on Facebook?

Reels that are local, practical and easy to share do best on Facebook: a real menu or price, a quick answer to a common customer question, a before-and-after, or a look at the place on a busy day. People share these into family chats and neighbourhood groups, which is where a local business wins on Facebook.

Facebook is where people still share things with the people they know: a family thread, a community group, a friend who asked for a recommendation. A Reel that is useful to someone specific travels further than one that is merely pretty. Ask of every Reel: who would someone send this to, and why?

The kinds of Reels that answer that question well are the same everywhere a local business posts: the real price, the process behind the result, the honest answer to the question you hear every day, the shop at its busiest. On Facebook they have one extra path, because a share into a group can bring in a whole street of new customers at once.

What format does a Facebook Reel need, and do I need a Page?

A Facebook Reel should be vertical 9:16, ideally 1080×1920, exported as MP4 without another app's watermark, with captions on screen for people watching without sound. To have a tool like Ruzz post for you, you need a Facebook Page: outside apps can post Reels to Pages, not to personal profiles.

The file is the same one you make for Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts: vertical, sharp enough to read on-screen text, and clean of any other platform’s watermark. Keep faces and text away from the very bottom of the frame, where Facebook places the caption and buttons, and burn captions in so the message survives a muted feed.

The one Facebook-specific requirement is the Page. Meta lets connected apps publish Reels to a Facebook Page, not to a personal profile, so a business that wants its Reels posted automatically needs a Page. Creating one is free, and many local businesses already have one from years ago. When you connect it to Ruzz, you approve access on Facebook’s own screen and choose the Page; Ruzz then posts each finished Reel there with the same caption it writes for Instagram.

How often should a local business post Facebook Reels?

As often as you post anywhere else. The simplest rule is to post every finished short to Facebook Reels on the same day it goes to Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Weekly is the minimum that keeps a Page visible; two or more a week builds momentum.

There is no separate Facebook calendar to keep. The work is making one good short a week; the posting can follow it everywhere. Consistency matters more than volume because each Reel adds to what Facebook knows about who your Page is for, and a Page that posts every week gives both the system and your regulars something to come back to.

That is also the honest case for a series: when each short leads into the next, people have a reason to return, and returning viewers are one of the signals Meta has said it values. Planning the series is where the time goes; once each part is made, posting it to four platforms takes one approval.