Why Creating Specific Content Leads to Higher Engagement

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:05]:
I am your host, Shannon McKinstrie. Welcome to Good Content, the podcast where I remove the never ending content creation guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked. Good content. Hey, friend. Welcome to another episode of good content with Shannon McKinstrie. I'm actually recording this on June 13, and I am a little bit triggered. Gonna get into actual tips because I have a monthly q & a with my Reels lab students, which is my membership for people who want reels, prompts and captions and things like that. And it was an amazing call with everyone inside.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:44]:
But what I did for literally the first 15 minutes was walk through a bunch of reels that are going viral right now. And I literally broke down exactly why, and they absolutely loved it. And all of them were like, oh, my gosh, I have so many ideas. Like, I get it. It's clicking. And so I thought I'd kind of share some of the reels I saved to show them today, if that's cool with you. I'm gonna keep this one really short and sweet, because if you're like me, it's summer, your kids are home.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:06]:
It's bananas. You're like, Shannon, just give me something to take and run with. I got you. So, my husband and I are sitting on the couch last night, he'd had this really fun event for our neighbors and asked if I could create his real, real fast because it takes me a lot shorter, as you guys know. Right? He's probably a lot like you guys are, overthinking and all this stuff. I was like, give me your phone. I'll do it real quick. I put it up, and then I started scrolling on his reels tab.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:27]:
Just, I'm curious what the algorithm is feeding him. And it's funny because he follows me and a lot of other people I'm connected with in my space. The algorithm is feeding him a lot of content from other people who are, quote unquote, Instagram coaches. Right? And the amount of clickbait and horrible advice I was seeing literally made me so angry because, one, they're getting a crap ton of views, which, fair enough, clickbait gets a lot of views, and it's at other people's expense. And it just drives me crazy. Let me just read a couple of them so that you know what not to listen to before we go into what's actually working, because there's ethical ways to create hooks, and then there's unethical ways and we are doing it ethically because trust me, you can still grab people without scamming them. Okay. One said I took a screenshot because I could not believe this.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:13]:
And what's funny is I see a lot of people with the same hook. So it's probably. It's those digital MRR people, which, again, if you're listening, if you're MRR. I'm not hating on you wanting to make money. I just. Whatever they're teaching you all is dead wrong. And I'm sorry. Like, it's...
Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:26]:
It's just... That's for another day. It says, reels are officially leaving Instagram. I have seen this a dozen times and it's so not true. And then they go in the comments to just completely, whatever. I'm not even going to go there. The other is how to get a thousand followers in a day. Here's the steps.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:42]:
Follow me. Unfollow me. Follow me again. Like this reel. Comment Done. Wait for notifications. Don't get me started. And lastly, the big doozy that literally sent me up a.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:52]:
I don't even know. Instagram no longer wants you to post every day. It's not like saves the shares. This is what it's prioritizing. Now, I know there's bigger things in the world to get upset about, but this is just like, this triggers me to know em, because Instagram has never wanted us to post every day. It's never wanted that. It's never wanted us to post any tied with time day. It wants you to find a community.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:12]:
It wants you to help people. It wants you to get engagement, period. If your content is good and resonates, people will like it, save it, share, etcetera. I didn't even read what this person wrote in the caption. I was so triggered. It got so many likes because people are looking for a magic pill. They're like, oh, that's why it's not working. Because I'm posting every day and Instagram doesn't want me to.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:30]:
Instagram does not give a rats what you're posting. It cares if you're getting engagement, because if you're getting engagement, you're making them money. So how do we get engagement? Let's just say. Let me just. I want to make sure you guys know this is trash. It's all trash. All right? And just so you know, every single one, when I went to their profile, it's there.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:49]:
Just trust me. There's so many of us marketers who are really, truly here to help you. And those people are not them. Okay, now that I've chosen violence today, let's. Let's go to the sweet, kind part of the podcast, because that's why I'm here, vibes. But I just know if my husband's seeing this going, oh, I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is insane. Okay, let's dive in. These are the reels that I pulled up for my Reels Lab students yesterday.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:12]:
And again, we're talking specificity. Okay. All right, so I'm going to pull up these reels and share a few of them with you. And this is a perfect example of specificity. All right, first reel creator is Corin, and her reel is just a simple b-roll left to right of literally what it says on the screen. Now, I want to say this. She could have said, POV: This is your sign to...
Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:36]:
Or you plan an annual friends get together and it feels like the nineties. And she could have stopped there. She didn't. She went viral. Because it says, pov: you plan an annual friends weekend that feels very summer in the nineties, where every waking moment is spent. Outside dinners are cooked and eaten in the backyard, the kids are barefoot, poor memories are made. Now, again, this is good copy, but it's not like anything wild. You just kind of dig a little further.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:02]:
Okay. And that's a great example of empathy. It's a great example of shareable ideas. It's all of it. It brings in sirs and those emotions that people want. Okay, another example. And do you see what I mean by specific? Again, she didn't just say, this is a sign to go outside with your friends this summer and pretend like, no, she got so specific, you felt like you were there. Now, as far as a different route, realtor this real is absolutely genius.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:26]:
Okay. It's a DC realtor. DC is where I'm from. So I see a lot of that stuff in my explore page. Still, the creator is Chelsea McCarty, and it literally says, are you ready? Don't just talk about home for sale. What is it about the home? What's the style of the home? Who's going to want the home? Right? Why choose between a french countryside estate and a home in Washington, DC when you can have both? And the video literally shows that it literally feels like the countryside. I'll give you one more idea. This is my favorite one.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:54]:
Are you ready? It's just a little b-roll of the ocean. That's it. And all it says, and again went viral says, sorry, but nothing makes my heart happier than floating in the ocean when the UV ray is eleven, after sipping my iced toasted coconut latte without a care in the world and a bunch of cute emojis. And then what I did for my Reel students is what I'm going to do for you, my Reels Lab students. I went to the comments to see why it was so popular, and one of the fun comments I loved was, wow, I never knew I needed an iced toasted coconut milk latte until now. It's like this feeling is better than anything else. We are on here to see content that makes us feel something, makes us laugh, makes us feel seen. I talk about this a lot on this podcast, or it's just really helpful and a tip we can take and run with.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:38]:
But again, she could have said nothing makes my heart happier than jumping in the ocean after blah, blah blah and whatever. No, she said the drink she's having, what uv rays it is. Right? And one more because we're going to go to education two here because I want to show you the vast way to make everything specific af, I've talked about this before, so if you've already heard this on a previous podcast, I love looking at people that can work with people all over the world because I know that's a lot of you listening, but they're still getting local because that works. The algorithm loves it because they know where everyone on their app is located and they know that location is an instant connection point. So this one says it's a travel agent and this one went viral as well. And it says, or viral for her, right? I always want to specify that. It says international deals from Raleigh, North Carolina, and then it's a list of all these, like Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and how much they cost. Super, super specific as in specific as in location? Not just, hey, here's some cool places you guys should travel this summer.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:37]:
No, I could go find that out in a Facebook group. What are the prices? What can I expect with you as my travel agent? I know that you are doing the research for me. This business owner creator has so many viral reels, and the one that she has pinned with 3.5 million, 70,000 shares. 70,000 likes. Literally just says Raleigh, North Carolina to Bar Harbor, Maine. Yes. I'm like, what's ME? Maine? And then she goes down to say what their itinerary was. Specific.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:06]:
Who are you creating your reel for? Why do they care? You do not need to trick people to create hooks that go viral. You do not need to give false promises. You just need to share stuff and make it crazy specific. So with that said, this is the most important part of the podcast. Ready? This is how we sum all of this up. And I wrote this down so I would. I would be specific. So if you're in weight loss, health, fitness, wellness, it's not that they want to lose weight.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:34]:
It's that they want to drop four dress sizes in six months. Okay, that's just an example. Or if you're in beauty blogging, lifestyle, etcetera, it's not that they want a summer makeup routine. We don't want a summer makeup routine. We want to be able to know how to recreate Sabrina Carpenter's signature makeup look. Okay. Anyone else obsessed with her makeup? Hear, hear. Or if you're in real estate, we don't want a home.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:54]:
We want a home that's full of character and equal parts victorian and modern. Again, that's what I mean is being specific. If the home isn't that, you would change those words. So again, I could go deep into this. I want to keep this short and sweet. We're busy. It's summer, but just do not fall for the gimmicks. And when you're looking at hooks that went viral, I just want to show you that you don't have to go the clickbait route.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:14]:
None of those were clickbait, and they went way more viral than any clickbait one would have. Okay, so that is good content. Be specific. I know I've talked about this a lot, but I was so triggered last night looking at all of these horrible hooks from people in my industry, and it just made me sad. So I hope that helps you. Next week's podcast. I'm really excited. We're going to go deep into how to keep your good content going on days you don't want to post, because I know in the summer you're probably going to fall back on your posting a little bit.
Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:38]:
So stay tuned. That's going to be a good one. I love you, friend. Don't listen to the BS. You've got this.