The Magic Recipe to Content Strategy

This is Solange. Solange is a beloved culinary icon from North Eastern Brazil in Bahia.? She has the title of Baina de Acarajé, someone who specializes in preparing and selling the traditional Afro-Brazilian dish, Acarajé.

What does Content Strategy and Solange have in common? Turns out more than I thought. Read on…

I was honored to meet Solange a few months ago and learn about her story when we were shooting our music documentary in Brazil, through our Just Play platform. Just Play is an ongoing traveling music documentary series we created in 2013 to give more visibility to women artists in the Americas.

Solange impressed us from the moment we met her, not only for her great personality, but also for her passion in keeping her family heritage alive and the centuries-old tradition of Acarajé — a delicious fried street food made with beans and crispy onions, stuffed with shrimp, crab, nuts and coconut milk.

In a small street corner in Salvador, most evenings you’ll find Solange with a group of both locals and foreigners lined up to buy what many consider to be the very best Acarajé in Bahia.?

Solange has been perfecting the art of Acarajé for 30 years — a tradition passed down from her grandmother and mother — both respected guardians of this Afro-Brazilian gastronomic tradition.?

Yet, what does Solange have in common with content strategy? And what is her secret to be recognized for having one of the best Acarajé in all of Bahia?

Solange prepares and plans methodically

It’s a whole day of preparation, a step by step process of acquiring the right ingredients: buying shrimp at the fish market, finding the ripest vegetables from the farmers market, selecting the perfect black-eyed peas to create her legumes base, perfectly chopping the onions and dicing the tomatoes.? She takes extra time choosing the freshest ingredients for her hot pepper sauce and prepping her traditional Bahian spices and seasonings by hand.

Solange knows how to be discovered.??

Early evening Solange ventures out with her deep fryer, pans and Acarajé supplies, making her daily pilgrimage to one of a few strategic locations centrally located outside the Pelourinho. Solange positions her grilling and frying station for hungry passersby on foot or by car looking to buy her famous fried dough balls. With the aroma of her Acarajé wafting through the streets, and the sizzling sound of palm oil boiling, she knows precisely where and how to be seen by locals and tourists alike.?

Solange knows her audience and platform

Solange serves up her sizzling Acarajé, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. She knows precisely how her customers like it and what time to expect them. Her hungry clients are a cross section of the Brazilian community from all walks of life and she serves up Acarajé personalized as they wish. Do you want spicy okra sauce? A little extra shrimp gumbo topping? Extra crispy? Lemon wedge? Extra red chili? An ice cold beer to wash it down?

Solange is her own best brand influencer

Not only are Solange’s customers getting a delicious fried ball of dough cooked to perfection, they get to experience Solange’s passion, her exuberance and most importantly her infectious smile and uplifting spirit. Seeing your Acarajé prepared personally by Solange by hand with the freshest shrimp from the sea — there’s nothing quite like it.? It’s all about her personal connection with each customer too that is irreplaceable. It’s why there’s a line down the block for her crunchy Brazilian delicacy.

In my time getting to know Solange, I was reminded how much we could learn from her as content strategists. Solange reminded me that we can’t take our eyes off the fundamentals for clients:

• Build an audience through real connections
• Make your content meaningful and personal
• Put your brand and the audience at the center of your experience
• Take the time for strategic content planning and preparation
• Work to maximize content discovery

Solange gets the fundamentals right. That’s why she has a product that people love and she is so appreciated in her community. We should remember the importance of helping clients foster a culture of content. Just like Solange, it takes guidance, care and love for what you do.

As we make leaps into the future with AI technology and ChatGPT, content strategists are uniquely positioned to guide clients navigate these new waters.?

So, let us not forget the inspiration we can find in our everyday. The inspiration we find in people like Solange doing what they love can inform and ground us, in how to create meaningful experiences with content. This may be the magic recipe to content strategy after all.?