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 C ontent. Okay, I promise this one's going to be short and sweet because there are 2 main questions I've been getting lately, and I want to make sure I answer them for you and they actually go hand in hand, which is perfect. So today's episode, we're going to cover trial reels. While I'm talking Instagram, everything I'm going to share on this also applies LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, all of it. But we are going to talk trial reels a little bit. So this is the question I got today, right? I did a reel the other day about how all that horrible advice out there for years stripped the human out of our content, right? Saying you can't say I or me, you can't create content that sounds Human, right? It was like, it's all how-to and 3 ways. And meanwhile, I'm looking at what's working with creators and brands.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:06]:
And I'm like, that's not true. That's like, even the big guys are using my and I and personalized me-centric type of hooks. So I've been kind of on this like mission to help break people from this, because obviously once you've been told something, it's kind of hard to... it's a big mindset shift, right? But what's funny is when I always talk about like personalizing your hooks, being a human, Online and, you know, creating content from a lived experience, your own lived experience, people are like, oh, well, how much is too personal? And I want to make sure you guys know when I say something like personalized hooks, I don't mean vulnerable stories. Oh, my kid's first day of school. I mean, literally switching from how to, to how I. 3 ways to, 3 ways I. Instead of new arrival at Aldi or game-changing tool for homeowners, right? For your bathroom, whatever. It's like my favorite as a plumber who's seen it all, right? I mean, that's a weak hook.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:03]:
I'm just speaking off the dome real quick and I'll get there with more strategic, but I hope that makes sense because years ago I could have been like, 5 hooks to go viral this week. Okay. And, um, even though you can't promise that, that could be kind of the content that people in my world would say. Now it'd be like, here is the hook. that helped one of my followers get 26,000 followers from a single reel, which yes, just happened. Right. Um, and again, we'll get there of what that is because it was a trial reel. Okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:32]:
So, um, I won't give away what her said because it was her idea. She just took one of my prompts and tips on around what to put in the blanks and she ran with it. 26,000 followers off one reel. One reel, one trial reel, but it's because it was personalized. And they know it's a human behind the account and they can see who she is in the video. 7 seconds of B-roll, just her with her taste and identity. You could see she was, I think she was in her garden planting something. Um, okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:00]:
I wanted to make sure you guys understand that. And then I'll tell you what works for trial reels, because this is what works for everything. TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube Shorts. It's just going from how to educational content that's boring to personalized, lived-in, Oh, that person is what they're talking about because they've done the work for me. Let's say you're a Bookstagram person or a BookTok creator, right? It's not just 5 reads for fall, right? That could have worked, but like 5 bingeable series for fall. You want to go, for my fellow Gilmore Girls freaks or fanatics or lovers or whatever you want to say, junkies, or if you love Gilmore Girls, here's my 5 favorite series I read every fall, or I reread every fall. It feels like it's coming from a friend. If you're a barista, here's the drink I can't wait to make all fall, or I know everyone's talking about summer still, but I'm already making my favorite fall drink, right? It makes it personal, but it's still about the viewer.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:54]:
It's still value. Everyone made it seem like if you say I, my, we, us, our in your hooks and in your content, it felt selfish and it felt me, me, me. No, not at all. That's what made content boring as you know what. So you'll see it. Actually, let's do it real quick. I like to go to obviously products that I love because I love my product people, right? This is big for products too. I don't care if it's a product, we're going to make it human.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:18]:
So as an example, let's go to my beloved Diet Coke. Why don't we? Okay. Diet Coke. Don't text, I'm busy summering. Now, does that mean every single post has to have I, my, et cetera? No. They also have, I love this. Oh yeah, there it is. Block your calendar.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:34]:
It's my birthday. Another my. And then of course, right, but I'm just saying overall, when you go to the account, it doesn't feel like a, like you're selling a product, you're selling a lifestyle. You're, you're inside someone's camera roll, right? Let's go to another product. Let's do, um, say you sell candles. Let's just pull up a candle company. Ooh, I love this. This is a candle.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:52]:
She's, um, sells a product. Looks like she's a one-woman shop, Candle Glam by Perry. And I love this. It says 320 candles in one day, one woman, no employees. That's like, you know, you guys know my 4 H's. Heard humor, helpful happenings. That's a happening. This is behind the scenes of the business.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:08]:
This is what people freaking want to see. We see who our money is going to. We see that there's a person behind the account, right? So that's what I mean. Let me look at one more thing and then let me look at something outside of products. Okay. I'm just going to go to my explore page. Oh, this is funny. There's an age when Diet Coke starts hitting better than alcohol and I'm officially there.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:29]:
And why am I seeing this? Because I just searched Diet Coke. That's how much the algorithm is following you. It's like, oh. We want to keep Shannon on the app. She just searched Diet Coke. Let's give her more content about Diet Coke. So that's a personal lifestyle one. That's the humor category, right? Actually, since we're on the 4 H's, let's just do that so that we do a happening behind the scenes, a humor, which was the Diet Coke in this one.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:48]:
For a helpful, let me show you how they personalize education. Here we go. I love it. Talk to camera. This is a creator, um, who his, it's macloafe. It looks like he does outfits and lifestyle. Okay, ready? I'm gonna let it play because we need to talk to camera for yapping because those yapping talk to cameras also. So I love to say when it comes to I, like, I love a hook on a talk to camera, yapping, whatever you guys want to call it, over the head where the hook over the head is kind of very basic.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:15]:
It's like what a Pinterest pin would say, what a blog title would say, like 5 Crock-Pot recipes for fall, right? But verbally you're like, I am telling you right now, if you show up with this on Super Bowl or at Not super. For, um, college football, everyone's gonna be bugging you for the recipe. What came out of my mouth is personal. I, my. Today I'm sharing, welcome back to my series, that, and then the hook over your head, which grabs them and can be there for just 3 seconds. Text placement is very important, right? I did a reel yesterday, so make sure you go look at that. Text placement is very crucial. And then still it's verbal.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:51]:
Want something? Or I always say, if maybe you're just like, no, Shannon, I'm struggling. I don't know. I just want to get it done. I just want to blurt whatever I want to blurt out. Cool. Maybe your caption underneath it has, this is my favorite, you're going to want to stay, you're going to want to follow me for more, blah blah blah. Make something, whether it's the hook on screen, talking to the camera, or the caption, just something making it human, personalized, lived in, right? Okay, so his says I'll just let it play so you can hear it. I love the Birkenstock Boston, but if there was one thing about it that I could change, it would be that there was a version.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:20]:
So there you go, he's saying, I love that, but if there was something I would change, that's a Great hook for all of y'all. I love a pumpkin spice, just right, fall content is starting. I love living in blah, blah, blah, just as much as the one, the next person. But if there's one thing I could change, great for realtors. I love working in HR and being a part of people's da da da da. But if there was one thing I could change, there you go. So there you go. So that's helpful, right? That's suggestions, ideas, perspectives.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:47]:
It's helpful. Last one is. Heard. All right. Oh, I know. I'll do the one I shared the other day that went viral for me. Not crazy viral, but pretty viral for me. It says, before you roll your eyes because your friend is trying to be an influencer, consider this.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:59]:
Maybe they're not trying to become an influencer. Maybe they're trying to get enough clients to leave a job they hate or trying to pay for dance lessons or groceries. To you, it might be cringe, but to them, it's the bravest thing they've done all week. So this is your sign to support your friends before strangers do. You know what's funny? I actually don't say I or my in any of these. But again, I'm in the, I'm in the video. It just feels human and very, um, off the cuff B-roll. So that's another thing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:24]:
Just make sure there's something that feels human. If that was like a video of a mountain, it might not have hit as much. It shows that I'm here creating content. So there's another thing there too. So there's that one too. So we just covered the 4 H's and now trial reels. Let's wrap this up real quick. So her trial reel was that perfectly positioned trial reel.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:42]:
This is what you do for trials. This is why everyone's Like, oh, Shannon, I tried that hook on trials. It didn't work. Trials are a totally different strategy. And to be honest, what goes viral for me in trials is those lived-in moments, like funny moments with my kids, my husband, um, me jotting off things that I'm able to afford now since starting my business, like very kind of top of funnel, like content that like every person would find interesting. Right. Um, we're talking about the content that just naturally goes viral because it's a in-the-moment, funny home video of your dog, right? That stuff always goes viral. It just always goes viral on trials for me.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:16]:
My Instagram tips, sometimes I've had a few viral hits, but usually it's like the funny, and I did a funny one with me and my husband like 6 months ago where I was like, how do I explain to people that my favorite hobby is going out to eat with my husband, sitting at the bar, making friends with the bartender and leaving slightly tipsy? And then I've seen all sorts of people do it and that was actually going viral. So I did push it to my feed. For trial reels, I let my trial reels just stay in the trial quote unquote algorithm. Let them do their thing. What I do every day when I go to post my reel, I post it as a trial and then I post it to my feed separately. The only time I take a trial and push it to my feed is when it's going crazy viral. That's when I do that. So that's just kind of a rule of thumb.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:55]:
I'm like 2 birds, one stone. Let one be a trial, let one be on your feed, right? Okay. So with that said, there's also reels that I just share as trials and That is what I call the that's me reel. And that's what this creator did. She took the hook I shared, put her spin on it, went viral, 26,000 new followers and still going. It said patiently waiting for, and then in that blank, she fricking crushed it. She put a scenario slash situation in that blank. What is something your people are currently, you know, waiting for the people who just moved to North Carolina? Patiently waiting for the people who just had a baby, waiting for the millennial moms who just had their first baby.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:36]:
What is it you want to put a situation? And she did just that. Because right away they go, holy crap, that's me. Patiently waiting for the... and I think it said women who, and then in the blank, she said the situation that they're in was very specific. I'm not going to give it away because I don't want to, right? I haven't gotten permission and obviously, obviously I don't want. Anyone else taking it from her because she crushed it. And now all of a sudden need to blank to find my page. So what is the situation scenario your person just found themselves in yesterday, a week ago, a month ago? And what do they need to do because of it? Maybe they just started a business and all of a sudden realized they don't want to go to jail because of money. Like, you could make it funny if you're the bookkeeper, right? Who just got in a car accident in your state that desperately need a lawyer to cut through all the blah, blah, blah, and they find our practice.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:25]:
Waiting for the people who, you know, have a stubborn, uh, you know, whose toddler refuses to brush their teeth and live in whatever to find our page, right? Because you're the dentist's office. Those are the type of things to go on trials. And you know what? They're not all going to hit. I've done a few that failed. I've done a few that hit. You just got to test what, and listen, guys, talk to your people. This is what I have so many podcast episodes about this. Get to know your people and you'll know exactly what words to put in those blanks.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:51]:
ChatGPT can't crush it like that for you. It can try. I mean, again, lean on that if you need some, like, you know, um, Julia's here, Parsley and Prosecco. Our, she comes every Monday, cooks our food. For her, I would have said something like, patiently waiting for the families spending $700 a week on Uber Eats and want to stop, da da da, to find my page. And I would say families in Raleigh, right? Something like that. Again, that might not hit. Try it again.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:13]:
Try a different version. The single women, the, the nervous grooms, the whatever, right? Whatever it is. And maybe you sell the rings or you plan the engagement package. What is it that's in their life stage? Because that's what makes people feel seen and they hit follow so fricking quick. So there you go. That's what means a slight change. It doesn't mean you have to be vulnerable. Is it great to be vulnerable on social media? Heck yeah.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:35]:
But I know that's not where a lot of y'all are at yet. And a lot of you are brand new or you've been doing it a while and you're coming back and realizing the game has changed. That's it. That's it. I know this is going to help you today, and I'm so, so, so excited. Again, look at, um, the reels from, you know, the past few days on my feed for a little extra help. I, I don't know. I just hope this changes someone's life today, and I know it can.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:55]:
It has the possibility to do so. I love you, friend.