How to create influential content
Bess Obarotimi
Property Management Leader | Partnering with Landlords for Optimal Results
Do you want to create influential content? Ok, good people. I’ve got you in this post.
Let’s start by understanding the reason you need influence.
The harsh truth is that no one is interested in your selfie, product, brand or business. No one cares. They only care about themselves, so if you want to influence, you must create content that involves the audience.
With influence, your audience will become a community of people that want change. As lofty as it may sound, our work on social media must bring change; otherwise, no one cares.
Our change can be to make people happier, more knowledgeable, or make their lives easier. Whatever it is, our content must be about the audience, and it must bring change. Only when we do that will our content be influential, and people will stop scrolling, click like, share or comment on our work.
So here are some content ideas that you must build that influence:
1. CREATE CONTENT THAT INVOLVES THE AUDIENCE.
Create content that gets the audience involved. The content that does that is stories, behind the scenes, polls, quizzes and discussions.
Tell founder stories.
Everyone brand, business, or content creator has a founder or back story. When you tell it, at least one of the people currently following you will be able to relate; another may be inspired. Do it enough times, and you attract a group of people, a community who relate and are inspired.
Behind scenes.
Behind the scenes are not only stories, but they are real life current stories about your brand. They reveal the real you, your work values and your progress.
People get behind and support you when they see how your brand operates. They want more than carefully curated beautiful photos. Show your audiences what goes on behind the flawless selfie so they can get to know you and associate real life with your business.
You see, this is the great thing about socials; You can use it to run your PR. Let the fans know what the brand is really like and the milestones it is making.
Start discussions.
Discussion can range from sharing your opinion on current news or asking questions.
Your opinions help audiences decide whether they and the brand are on the same page. It builds stronger connections.
Asking questions and doing polls also help your audience share their opinions, showing you care. Plus, you get to know more about them. That’s market research right there and then.
Your audience may decide to ask you questions. If they do, answer them. Your audience will feel valued and trust you, which is key to having influence.
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What’s more, with the answers, you’ll develop more ideas for content and keep the discussion going.
2. ADDRESS PAIN POINTS.
It doesn’t matter what you are selling your customer has a pain point. For example, a fashion brand customer may want to know what to wear to the cinema on Saturday. Restaurant customers need to know what wines to pair with the steak dish on the menu. Sneaker customers want to know how to style their new kicks. Photography customers need to know how to look their best on set. Do you get the picture (honestly, no pun intended)? There is always some pain point that you can address in your content that will make your customers more interested in what you have to say.
3. BE AUTHENTIC.
On social media, it isn’t a problem to follow trends or use other people’s content for inspiration. In fact, audiences expect it. However, you must make it authentic. Actually, it’s virtually impossible to be someone else. Here’s my personal story.
There’s this old money style fashion content that I love, and I tried to copy it, with my own spin, of course. However, even with my own spin, I wanted the content to look a certain way, but it never did. Eventually, I realised that it was because of me. The real authentic me was shining through and not allowing my content to look how I wanted. Ultimately, I decided to like the old money style content from afar and create content with my authenticity in its entirety.
I discovered my preferences from the old money style content but realised I was great at being me.
When you can break free from a mould of how things should be and give the audience your authentic self, they love it.
Don’t hold back. Be yourself. If people don’t like it, they are not your customer. But I guarantee you some will love you for it.
I hope you found today’s article useful. Let me know which parts resonated with you in the comments if you have. Also, click the like button, and share with friends who may need it.
In the next article, I think I will give an example of the type of content you could create and how to use them to bring life to your brand on social.
Until then, have a good one!
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