Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:02]:
Well, hey, friend, another week. Here we go. Let's dive into what's working right now on reels, especially, because what I hear a lot from people, like, I actually did a thread on it last night. I said, you know, nothing pains me more than seeing people not enjoying creating content. And I asked, what is it that pushes you back or, you know, drains you or stresses you out? And I one thing that really stood out is someone said, actually, let me read it. All right. She said, ig feels like a lot of work for very little payoff. No matter how many different methods, systems I try, staying consistent feels like a full time job in and of itself, which leaves me not enough time to actually work in and on my business.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:44]:
And I was like, that's it. Okay, perfect. And that got a lot of likes, obviously. Cause people feel the same way. So let's go back to basics, shall we? And I'm actually going to go through the four H's again. I know I have before, but I'm going to give you actual reels going viral right now that fall under those four pillars that I teach. Helpful, happenings, humor, heard. Okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:10]:
And show you how simple they can be. Now, first, before we go into this, I just want you to know yesterday, if you follow me or, you know, watch my stories yesterday, one of my sweet followers DM'd me and said, isn't this your content? And was a fellow social media expert, right? And stole my content word for word. Took the Four H method, which, again, I coined. I didn't trademark it, because, you know, who would think you need to trademark stuff like that? But obviously I do, and I will. But, um, the Four H's is a method I came up with to help my clients because everyone's like, oh, well, I hear you need to do a visibility one, and this one. Or people say, I need an education, and I promote. I'm like, no, it all falls under these four categories. There's dozens of ways you can do it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:51]:
This is what makes sense for me and my clients. So I hope it makes sense for you. So, and just so you know, either she took it down or Instagram took it down, because I did confront her and said, you know, this. This is copyright infringement. Anyway. You can do that on Instagram. Just Google copyright infringement Instagram, it takes you through a step by step process if it ever happens to you, because I know it happens to everyone, no matter what industry you're in, and it's not okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:13]:
All right, so here's what we're going to do. I'm going to pull these up, okay? And again, these are viral reels right now in several different industries. Under these categories, what I want you to do is I want you to make four columns in a spreadsheet or on a Google Doc. However you want to do it, put helpful, heard, happenings, humor. And under humor, I want you to write down relatable situations you find yourself in, other people find yourself in. I know I've talked about this before, but just real quick, if you haven't heard another episode with it, again, another one is helpful. What are little bite sized tips? Tutorials. People ask about that you know they'll find helpful.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:47]:
Just jot those down. Heard are like, those pep talks, gentle reminders, and then happenings. That's when, like, you can kind of just go rogue with it. Like, whatever's happening in your business, you just throw out there. Maybe you were just on a podcast, you have a speaking thing, you have a grand opening, a new product, things like that. All right, so let's go through number one. Heard. So again, I want you to think inspirational content.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:05]:
It's basically your motto. It's what you stand for. These lead to a lot of shares because they're like, I share your core values. An example, one of these, a therapist, which is going viral, she has one column that says what she says, and it's, you know, like, do you love me? Are we okay? And then she goes, and this is what she means. And then in the other column, she said, you know, I've been abandoned before, and I'm afraid. Da da da da. Right? This is that type of content that makes the person reading it that feels this way go, oh, my gosh, I feel so seen and heard. That's it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:34]:
So they share it. They save it. They send it to their friends. They save it for their partner. Right? So think of things like that. Like, again, for me, social media marketing, for what that person said on my thread, I need to remind people, like, it doesn't have to be rules and constantly coming up with content. Like, it's the pressure behind that. That is why people are feeling this way.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:55]:
But also, we need to know that the tips we share could be the same tips you shared five years ago. It just has to be said in a different way. You need to look at what is working now. And I guarantee this girl has shared this piece of content dozens of different times. And this is the one that hit because it gave them, here it is, this is what she says, and this is what she means. And it's a three second reel.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:15]:
And if you're watching on YouTube, you can see it. It's just like one list and then another list next to it. All right, this is from a dietitian. I don't know who needs to hear this, but stressing over ice cream is probably less healthy than just eating one delicious bowl of ice cream. 41,000 likes, 1000 shares. Oh, and I'm sorry, the therapist had 122,000 shares, 311 likes over, you know, around a thousand comments. So definitely in the millions. So just, you know, this is what it's working.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:43]:
And the nutritionist, for those not watching on YouTube, it's just. It's just literally a five second video of ice cream with that message written on top. That is what I'm saying, y'all. It's that simple. All right, another version of heard. This is from someone who coaches people in corporate. It says, I don't know who needs to hear this, but take your lunch break, your evenings, your weekends, your holidays, your PTo. You agreed to a job exchange for pay and benefits.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:04]:
You did not sign up to sell your soul. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's just literally video of her putting flowers in a vase with that text. You guys, do you see what I'm saying? The reason so many people are exhausted by Instagram is because you're also trying to show up on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook. You have to reply to everything. This is all we want. It's not that deep, right? That is the heard category. So I want you to make a list of things that, you know, your person needs to hear and will feel seen, heard, valued, appreciated, etcetera.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:30]:
All right, number two is helpful. Again, this is. This is what I mean. This is the biggest pillar that has changed the most. We don't want 10 million ways to do something we want. What is something I can take and run with? Is it helpful? Right. Realtors, you could share, like, happenings in your neighborhood, therapists, you could share, you know, affirmations. I don't know.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:47]:
Just, you don't need to give them ten. Give them one or two that you love. Okay? So again, here's some helpful ones that have gone really well. I love lists, too. This first one is she's like a mom blogger, and it says family ritual ideas. And then it's like a list of ten things. And it says, Friday, pizza and movie night, Saturday morning, donuts. Sunday, da da da da.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:04]:
Family walks after dinner. Like, just really cute. Like I said in last week's episode, it just gives ideas, that's helpful to people. Next one, it's a nutritionist. I believe anyway, she cooks, she's in the food blogging, etcetera, it says, POV: You've got a breakfast that takes one bowl, 14 minutes, and four out of four of your kids love it. Frickin genius. Because again, she could have just said, you know, try this breakfast recipe.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:29]:
What do I say all the time? Simple, shareable, specific. And that's just what she did. And it's got 73,000 likes, you know, ton of shares, same one with the family ritual. And then lastly, a hair beauty expert. Her says, this is your sign to do rope braids before swimming, so you have heatless waves when it dries. 26,000 shares or 160,000 likes. That's it. And it's a ten second video of her doing it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:54]:
A little side note, when you do things like this, especially hair beauty, etcetera, or recipes, do like the six second version like this, where it's just like little jump cuts of her doing it, and it just says what she's doing. POV Da da da. Next, do a minute long tutorial. That way you get the people that want to get more and do them back to back. Like, there's no rules, guys. Okay? Third pillar is humor. So these are three examples of humor reels going viral.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:21]:
Right now. We've got, again, if you own a brick and mortar, I got you here with this one, too. But do you see how it's from bloggers to nutritionists to hair, therapy, corporate. I'm telling you, you don't have to be in a magical niche that goes viral. That's not true humor. That's that pillar where you write relatable situations for you, your niche, your people. What are things that they say that they think are funny? One little hack I love is go to TikTok, type in your niche and humor, and just see what pops up. All right? Obviously, don't copy.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:49]:
Get inspiration. All right? This one says pov when you're hungry, but all the food in the house needs to be cooked. In the video, the audio is someone opening the fridge going, right. I think this is just like a regular. Like, just a creator. Not a regular creator. You know what I mean? Doesn't own a business, but that's genius for nutritionists, fitness people, anyone? 70,000 likes. 25,000 shares.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:11]:
Thousands of comments. Next. Parenting hack. Okay, so this is a mommy blogger, parenting hack. There are no hacks. Everything's hard. Your kids, these kids don't listen. This is your life now.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:20]:
Godspeed. And obviously it's funny and shareable. 194,000 shares. Over 200,000 likes. All right, next is when the customer is trauma dumping, but you need to change the keg. It's a hilarious video of someone just trying to pour a beer for their customer. It's a burger joint. And, like, the audio is like this person going, and then my mom died and da da da.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:42]:
So, again, funny, relatable to people in their own niche. Right? You're allowed to create content. Content for your fellow bartenders, for your fellow realtors, for your fellow plumbers. You're allowed to share content that's funny to you. Your customers might find it funny, too. Okay, so there's humor. Do you see how easy. All right, pillar four is happenings.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:02]:
This is the one where I just say, tell your story, talk about what you're up to, show behind the scenes. Nothing is as powerful as taking people behind the scenes. This one says, it's a private chef and it's just her with a rag over her shoulder and she's cooking. And it says, pov, you are the built in private chef for your friends when you have a friendly get together or you're holding a get together, holiday get together. Sorry, it's hard to read it on here because I have these screenshots. And again, it takes people behind the scenes and they get to experience what it would be like to have her on the trip. Genius, right? So easy peasy. Just shows her and her element.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:42]:
We love to see it. 57,000 shares 126 likes 2200 comments okay, viral. Viral. 5 seconds. Easy peasy. Again, I've had reels that are 90 seconds to go viral, but I'm just saying that's how easy these are for you. Okay, next one is a. Looks like she's a home organizer.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:03]:
I'm actually not sure, but this is great for the sleep coaches. Her says POV: you sleep trained your toddler at two years old, so now you have peaceful mornings and evenings because they fall asleep on their own, are asleep by eight, and you're up by 07:00 a.m. can we talk about specificity? She nailed it. But that's great for sleep coaches, right? It's behind the scenes of her life. But what's cool is it over? Also overlaps with, like, that empathy, heard feeling. They want to feel that feeling. Lastly, ten years ago, I randomly bought a pink ice cream bike with no plans. Nine years ago, I decided to join a local farmers market.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:35]:
People laughed at me and told me not to spend too much money on my little project. People still to this day ask if I'm still doing the little bike thing. And honestly, sometimes I get embarrassed. But guess what? And then she goes on to talk about how much money she made and it's just showing behind the scenes of her bike. And that's it. 6000 shares, almost 100,000 likes. So obviously in the millions of views, or at least 800,000 ish views. Do you guys see what I mean? Those are your pillars.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:58]:
That's what you do. At least right now in summer 2024, those are the reels going viral right now. Those four things. And it's funny, I actually did a reel that I shared like six months ago with some prompts. I wouldn't do those anymore. That's how quickly you have to adapt. But it's okay. It's one tweak, I promise.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:14]:
It's just that. Keep following along. Keep listening to this podcast. I bring you guys this every single week. Make sure you I also have a reels freebie with prompts and captions with those four pillars. They'll be in the show notes. Grab it. I want you to enjoy creating so, so badly.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:29]:
And I will be back next week with more.