Personalization is the Key to Your 2025 Content Strategy

As 2025 approaches, we're diving into the future of social media content creation. Spoiler alert: it's all about making your content personal and relatable! We'll discuss how educational content has transformed over the years, why personal stories resonate more than generic Google tips, and we’re exploring examples of viral content that connects with audiences on a deeper level. Let's close out the year strong with good content!

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• How content has evolved over the years and why what used to work, doesn't anymore.
• Inviting your audience into your world and the reason personal content resonates so well.
• Different ways you can add a unique touch to your own content, with examples!
• Creating personalized content works with all the 4 H Method categories, heard, helpful, humor, and happenings.
• Suggestions for creating timely, personalized content around the holiday season and other current events.

Other episodes you might have missed:

• Episode 007: Relatability in Everyday Content with Instagram Stories and Reels
• Episode 014: Why Creating Specific Content Leads to Higher Engagement
• Episode 018: The 4 H’s Are the Only Content Pillars You Need for Reels
• Episode 024: Is Storytelling the Missing Piece in Your Content?
• Episode 026: Start a Signature Series That People Keep Coming Back For

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Transcript

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. Well, hello. And it's almost 2025. What? We got a little more than a month to go. That's insane. So I thought we would talk about what's going to be working in 2025, because trust me, this is not to scare you.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:36]:
It's about to be so simple. You're about to be like, excuse me, this is how simple it's going to be. Yes. Amen. Can we get excited? Because here's the thing I said back literally this month in 2023, I did a reel that went viral and I said my hook, I remember at the top said, stop posting educational content. And people were like, this is educational. I was like, listen to me. Because the rest of the reel.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:57]:
I said, educational content as we know it has changed. And that is true. And it was true then. It's still true today. And we saw it all happen all year long, this huge shift in educational content because we. Educational content from like 20. Well, I mean, even before that, but especially once Covid hit and everyone started getting on Instagram, starting businesses, and all these gurus came out of the woodwork being like, here's how to grow. Here's how to grow.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:19]:
Us marketers that have been growing already on Instagram for years, like what? Like, it was a lot of stuff that just didn't make sense to us, but a lot of it worked. And that's cool. But it is. None of it's working anymore. None of it. Okay, so a lot of it was just like, tips, tips, tips. Value, value, value. Shove it, shove it, shove it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:36]:
Right? Like, shove the value, shove the value. What happened was that value was so impersonal to the brand itself or to the creator itself. It was stuff that looked like I could get on Google, on Pinterest, I could already find it. Five ways to save money for a home. Here's how to organize your closet, right? Like, it was all basic. That worked then. Now there's way more people on the app, way more businesses. We're following more people.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:03]:
You know the drill. So what we're doing is almost going back in time. I want you to think about 2013, 2014, 2015, Instagram, even 2016. Here we are at our coffee shop. The. The caption would be like, meeting with friends and working on this. Now that's not going to work anymore, but the personalization of it is. Here's what I'm doing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:24]:
Invite us into your world. I want to know all of it. I want to know your perspectives, your thoughts, your opinions, what you're doing. So here's what I'm going to say instead of yap your face off. And I'm just going to show you proof. Let's just get into it. So I actually just did a reel this. I actually, I've done a couple this week about this, and this is what I mean.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:45]:
I'm gonna go to my save folder so that you guys can learn from these viral reels that are going viral right now and have been going viral for months, some of them 12 weeks more. And this is what it's gonna be in 2025. If your content looks like something, a blog post that I could find on today's show or Yahoo, whatever, we're done. You need to make it about you. And that's a really hard shift for us because for so many years we were like, do not talk about yourself. It's not about you. The problem was, back then, content was one dimension. One dimensional in a way, right? I don't know how else to say it, but, like, it was a caption and that was it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:15]:
It was a picture and a caption, picture and a caption. So really, you had to kind of make it about the reader because if it was all about you, we're like, okay, right? Get over yourself. Now. It's like the reel can be. Like, here are things I did here. Come with me to Nordstrom to find this schedule. Content with me as a blah, blah, blah, come fix this leak with me as a plumber, whatever. That's the reel.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:34]:
That's the care, that's the content. And then in the caption, it's, are you tired of this? Are you? And then we make it you, you, you. Do you see what I'm saying? Here's an example. Oh, this is actually a brilliant example because it's the POV prompt I love. I love so much. It's a makeup artist. So again, she's making this content about her, but at the end of the day, it's actually about the viewer. Okay? It says, and again, this goes for educational content, AKA helpful content.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:56]:
It goes for heard content. That empathetic, motivational pep talks, permission slips, all of it. Personalize it. We are so inundated with basic content from ChatGPT and AI. We want to know you, your opinions, why you're telling us this so here, let me go. I'm just going to go through a few reels. That's all we're going to do. Because I just want to show you what I mean by this so that you guys can take these ideas and run with them.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:19]:
This girl says she's a makeup artist and that POV, and I'll show it if you're watching on YouTube and I'll put it in the show notes. It literally says, POV, you're a professional makeup artist for 20 plus years, wishing you had been born in the YouTube era. So basically saying she didn't grow up with YouTube. Why does that matter to me? Because I didn't either. And that's why I've had to watch hours and hours and hours of tutorials, because I wasn't taught how to do makeup and hair, because we didn't have the tools in the 90s for that. Right. We're out here looking a mess. What we thought we looked good, couldn't tell us nothing, but now we know.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:50]:
A mess. And then it goes. So you decide to make videos for women in their 40s because it's never too late. Bravo. Makeup and skin by Katie. That's her handle. It spoke to me directly. It goes.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:00]:
I feel seen and heard by her. She is there for me, and I can connect with her on the level of, I also grew up without the YouTube and I'm in my 40s. Personal. But she made it about her. You're a professional. That's her. She's saying, pov, you're a professional makeup artist, and you grew up in its number. So you started a thing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:16]:
She's talking about herself. 40,000 likes. 40,000 likes. All right, um, let's have a sip of oat milk latte. Oh, my gosh. Mom's in North Carolina. I went to Piney Town Playhouse. It was one of the best oatmeal lattes I've ever had.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:32]:
And Chloe played for two hours. I did this prep for the podcast. Beautiful thing. All right, another one. Pov. This is for the dentist and the doctors of listening and the therapists. This is what I mean. This is humor, and it is personal.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:46]:
The dentist is standing there with this cowboy stuff on it says POV. You asked Dr. How his weekend went, knowing he's a Cowboys fan. Right? So it's his. His admins, and he's obviously depressed because the Cowboys lost. I mean, hilarious. Again, personal. Okay, am I not going to go to this dentist because he's a Cowboys fan and I'm a Commanders fan? No, it's hilarious.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:07]:
And if I'm a Cowboys fan, I'll be like, I want to go even more, you guys. Personal. This is not a basic boring humor. This is unique to them. Unique to them. Okay, all right, here's another one. This or this person. I love this them.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:22]:
Why would you move from Chicago to Hinsdale? And then it says, because. And it shows all the beautiful homes. So again, this is personal to him. The caption, this man named Jim Laha, he's a realtor. It says, after living in the city for many years, my family and I finally made the move from Chicago to Hinsdale, and we've never looked back. This town has it all. It's personal to him. Not 8,000 likes, 4,000 shares.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:43]:
And he's a realtor. Okay, Telling you personal. I don't want to know why I should move to Hinsdale because some magazine told me. I want to know why the realtor did. Here's another example. That was brilliant. It was a pediatrician. And he says, are your kids in bed yet at 7:30 ready? I'm just.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:00]:
I'm just going to play it so you can hear it. Ready? 7:30pm Is your kid in bed yet? As a pediatrician, I put my kids to bed very, very early. And many people think it's kind of controversial. Okay, over 800,000 views, 20. I think something like that. It was like 700 something. Thousand views, 21,000 likes. So many shares, so many comments.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:20]:
And guess what? A lot of people going, my kids have sports till 7. How is this possible? Like this, you know, but then that's more content ideas for him. Because he goes, okay, well, here, here's what you do if your kids have sports. I mean, brilliant. He is a pediatrician, but he's not just going, here's some remedies for your kid. He's saying, this is what I do as a pediatrician. I'm a pediatrician. Hi.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:37]:
I know my stuff, and this is what I do with my kids. You guys, does this make sense? Is this clicking? So you saw humor heard and helpful. And then, of course, we got our happenings, which you guys know I love my happening reels. And that's simply stuff saying, this girl, you told me my Instagram makes her feel poor. I made it to 700,000 Instagram followers, so allow me to reintroduce myself. And she's talking about herself and her journey to becoming 700,000 followers. And she is a blogger, looks like. And it's all about, who am I? Reintroducing myself post. 700k.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:09]:
So she reached 700k and did a video about who she is. 129,000 likes. Now, obviously she's a content creator. If you find this, if it's in the show notes and you watch it, it's. It's a little more edited. It's obviously she's, you know, so I don't want that to intimidate you, but happenings could be reintroducing yourself. It could be, hey, I hit my first 10,000 followers. Welcome.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:26]:
Here's a little bit about me. Here's my favorite karaoke song. Here's what I love to do on the weekends. We want to follow humans. I'm going to bang my hand on the chair. Okay, this is where content is going in 2025. I called it in 2023 and I went viral about it and no one listened to me. Many of you did.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:44]:
My clients did. And they're killing it. Coaches, here's how much I made in the past year being a business coach. Not. Here's how you get to your first 10k. Here's how I made $10,000 a month as a business coach. Social media managers. Here's how I got my client to go viral this month.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:01]:
I use this hook and da, da, da, da. Show us virtual assistants. Here's how I updated my client KeyNote presentation in five seconds. Click of a button, show us, demonstrate it. And then again, this girl went viral. Everyone is sick but you because you made the whatever. And then she takes you through it. She talks about why she's been making this so long.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:20]:
So while you're making it about the viewer, it's actually your story of how you came up with the tip, the recipe, the outfit. You guys see where I'm going. This is the future of content. And you've got this. I do not like the shameless plug on this podcast, but if you're listening to this and you're like, Shannon, gosh darn it, get into the Reels Lab. It's me as your social media manager and your own little strategist on your team saying, hey, you're a plumber. Post this this week. Hey, your lawyer, post this this week.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:43]:
You don't have to guess this stuff, but this is what I will be sharing majorly. Even talking to the camera like, this is your homework this week. Okay? By the time you're listening to this, it's Thanksgiving week. What are your plans? Thanksgiving. What's your favorite dish? Thanksgiving. And how can you segue that into business? Here's what I'm wearing. Thanksgiving as a da. Here's what managing family boundaries and dynamics have taught me.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:05]:
Here's what Thanksgiving with my very overly political family has taught me as a therapist. Talk to the camera. Here's what moving out of the country and not being around family for Thanksgiving feels like for me. Do you see what I mean? Like something about the holidays because it's relevant and timely. Something about Christmas. Relevant and timely that you can do. Home organizers. This is how I tidy up my home when I have a last minute, whatever, last minute visitors or how I make my guest suite feel so good that people never want to leave

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:36]:
As a home designer, do you see what I mean? Like not here's how to and then the caption you go, you are having company Thanksgiving. You want to make sure you da, da da da. Here's what to do. Does that make sense now? Am I saying that every single reel, every single carousel needs to be like, here's how I no, no, no, no. You're still allowed to do three ways to blah, blah, blah, blah blah. Just again, make it personal in some way. Make it timely. Here are the best stocking stuffers for kids under five from a professional gift giver.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:06]:
That will still work, but if you have teens, you say, here's what I'm buying my teens or here's what my teens are asking for, for Christmas. Mix it up. It doesn't mean every single one has to be personal. I'm just saying this is you need to start working your educational content to have a little bit more of a, right. So even my reel that I posted, that's doing really well. I said, here's what I would post on Instagram if my engagement was down from a social media strategist and it's doing really, really well. So there you go. I'll let you go.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:35]:
It's the holiday week. Enjoy your Thanksgiving if you're in the States. If you're elsewhere, I just hope you're having a beautiful season and let's close this year off strong and start personalizing our content again. Let's go back in time to when we enjoyed being on these apps because we connected with humans. Love you, friend.