THIS is the Secret to Success on Instagram

Today, we're diving deep into the secret sauce for success on social media, the three S's of content creation: Simple, Shareable, and Specific. We'll be talking about how you can tap into these elements to create engaging content that resonates across platforms like Instagram and TikTok. We'll also review real examples from content creators who've nailed one or more of these S's, resulting in viral reels that capture attention and inspire shares.

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• Creating and sharing platform specific content: knowing your audience and the types of content that are successful.
• The importance of having a solid message to share with your audience.
• Test, try, and tweak!
• Content planning around specific events and holidays that your audience might be looking for.
• Creating simple and specific content, use scenarios and identifiers that enhance relatability.
• Group chat hero? We’ll look at what makes content shareable and how to start applying it.
• The role of humor in content (PS: Stay tuned for an upcoming episode around humor!)

Links to reels in this episode:

• Reel #1: Balloons!
• Reel #2: St. Lucia Resort
• Reel #3: Etsy Template
• Reel #4: Passport

Other episodes you might have missed:

• Episode 017: Turn a Simple Idea into a Reel People Will Love
• Episode 029: Tailoring Successful Reel Techniques to Your Niche
• Episode 034: Is Engagement the Most Important Metric on Instagram?
• Episode 042: Your Simple B-Roll Can Become Easy Reels That Actually Convert

Sign up for Reels Lab

Join the Social Squad Society

Love this conversation? Tap the follow button so you never miss an episode.

Connect with me over on Instagram!

Transcript

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:00]:
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. Welcome to another episode again. Still haven't gotten the podcast studio done? We will. And the day it happens, you're gonna be like, wow, Shannon, you really did that. And I don't know when that day will come at this point.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:36]:
We've had sick kids. It's just been a season. I mean, in January was a decade, am I right? Like, it was just a lot. And on top of that, all I keep hearing from everyone is you're frustrated, you're frustrated. Instagram in particular. TikTok too. I mean, TikTok. Let's be real though, my TikTok, if you follow me over there, I treat it like Instagram stories.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:55]:
When I have a thought or whatever, I just throw something up. I also repurpose my Instagram content, but you'll see my Instagram content does not do well over there. It's a different culture, It's a different beast. Right? I do repurpose a lot of my stuff, my videos on LinkedIn, a lot of my threads on LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn. We'll have to do it. I think I've talked about that. Right? We have to do a thing on that.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:12]:
But what this week I want to talk about is what's working on every platform across the board because I think we need to revisit the three S's. I haven't talked about it since really early on in this podcast journey. And thank you guys. I. I put it on actually on TikTok and stories the other day about how I was like randomly just looking at Apple marketing podcasts and my mine is noted under the popular section. Like, I cannot, cannot. Never thought I'd start a podcast. Never thought anyone would care.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:37]:
Thank you. I love you guys so much. You have no freaking idea how much this means. And I just wanted to do this podcast because obviously I want to get more out than a 90 second reel. Reels are now three minutes, but whatever. And as I said, I've been testing. I haven't really noticed much of a difference. I think people are still on Instagram for the short form mainly.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:53]:
So TikTok people will watch long videos over there. I think we lock in when we're on TikTok and we lock in when we're on YouTube, Instagram. We still want kind of, we we scroll really passively and just want that. That quick hitter, that quick hack, that funny thing, that empathetic quote. That's it. So what I want to talk about, again with the three S's, I've talked about it before. Those three S's are simple, shareable, and specific. I talk about messaging a lot because obviously, messaging before social, always.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:18]:
A lot of people get on social media and waste their time. Yes, you have to test, try, test, tweak, of course. But you'll save yourself a lot of time if you nail your messaging first, on top of really understanding why. So here's what I want you to do. Let's say you write out a tip, okay? Like, I want you to ask yourself why they care. Every time you write a sentence, whether it's for a caption, whether it's for a reel, whether it's a script at the end of that hook or maybe a sentence, you say whatever it is, especially if you're trying to convert. This isn't for the cheeky type of content I'm talking about. I'm talking about, like, conversion.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:50]:
Ask yourself, why? Why do they care? So if you're like, hey, found this cute blazer. Why do they care? Who is it for? What does it do that's different than other blazers? What is the thing that they're looking for? What is the event they have coming up? Why do they care? That's always say when you're creating content, like, look at the calendar a month from now, what's coming up? That maybe you could use one of those words as an identifier. Valentine's Day, Super Bowl, right? Those types of things. Easter, Passover events we have coming up, where we might need your content for it. Other identifiers, right? Is how do they. What do they refer to themselves as? Here's what that looks like. Because I actually shared this on Stories yesterday, and someone was like, you should make this a reel. And hopefully I will by the time this podcast airs, but if not, I got a dm.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:30]:
Someone said, can you look at this hook for me, Shannon? I said, absolutely. And it says something about motivation paralysis. Like, basically a tip for motivation paralysis and the B roll. I can't remember. I think she's in. I think she's, like, hanging clothes in her closet. I was like, cool. Great use of B roll.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:45]:
Of, like, doing a mundane activity that we go, okay, this has something to do with habits, right? It, like, signals in our brain, okay? Something about this has to do with our house or habits or cleaning or whatever. We all probably suffer from motivational paralysis. But what does that. Why? Why do I care about motivation paralysis? What is the scenario, the event, the identifier you can use about that? So what I said to her was like, what does that feel like to you? Motivation paralysis? Does it mean losing your spark? Does it mean not being able to get out of bed? Does it mean sitting in your cubicle and not knowing where to start? What is motivational paralysis? You gotta ask yourself, why do they care about motivation paralysis? And what will make them care is something that they struggle with every day. And be specific. So that's what I mean by that one S, which is specific. So I always like to say, if I say low views, I mean low views. Sure.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:33]:
Like, you guys might be like, yeah, I've got low views. If I say get me out of two interview jail, you know exactly what that feeling feels like. Low views could mean a thousand views, five hundred thousand views. Two views. It means something different to everyone. What is something everyone is struggling with on TikTok Instagram? That 200 view jail, everyone talks about it. Okay, so with that said specificity, what else does that look like? Let's actually. Let's do it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:57]:
Let's pick up the phone and scroll and find. All right, here is a reel. And obviously the B roll is beautiful. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see it. I will have it in the show notes, too. It's beautiful. It's like Valentine's... Again.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:09]:
What? Hello? Relevant to the times. I deeply regret wasting hundreds of dollars on helium balloons before this hack. Okay, she could have said balloon hack. Do you see what I mean by specific? She painted the pain point. She painted that picture clear as day. She's been wasting money. She said exactly how much money? Hundreds, not 50. Hundreds of dollars.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:34]:
On helium balloons before this hack. This is what I mean by specificity. Now let's move on to the other S. Shareable. She got over 3,000 shares. 11,000 likes. 3,000 shares. So let's actually watch what the hack is.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:46]:
One second. Oh, my gosh. I'm actually dead. This is genius. It's little pieces of tape that you put on the ceiling that come off really easily. So the balloons aren't even. There's no helium. But they're all in the air.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:01]:
Oh, my God. Okay, can I also say, there's so many ways she could repurpose this instead of filling your car. Okay? Because here's the thing with balloons, right? I always joke, like, when I. When it's my daughter's birthday, I Put this. I put them in the Suburban, and I'm just like, even the Suburban cannot hold all these balloons now, right? We like the big balloon. It's too much. So now all you have to do is order a bunch from Amazon for like, a dollar and blow them up. And you use these stickies.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:24]:
That's a. Then you don't have to. One, you don't have to leave your house. Two, you don't have to go to Party City or wherever. Rip Party City and shove them in your car and almost cause an accident, because you can't. There's many ways she could repurpose this. Instead of driving around town and you can't see out your windows with a bunch of. You know, she can even use that imagery being like, ugh.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:40]:
You know, or shoving it in your car, scared they're going to pop on the way home. Do this instead. Do you see what I mean? You take. She could take that same B roll and repurpose it. Oh, my God. Okay, so again, why is that shareable? Because we want to show it to our friends and go, look what I found. Isn't this cool? We should do this. We love to share and be the group chat hero.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:57]:
I talk about it all the time. And it's simple. She nailed it. One, two, three. Simple, shareable, specific. It's simple because we can do it. I can literally order stuff on Amazon right now and do it tomorrow. Do it for Valentine's Day.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:09]:
Do it for the Super Bowl. Okay, let's look at another one. This is so fun. I'm such a nerd. I hope you guys love it, too. Now, again, my feed is always gonna be full of relatable, funny stuff, and we will talk. Actually, you know what? Let's do that next week. Next week, we will talk humor.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:21]:
Cause I was actually talking to a social media strategist, helping her kind of map out her new offers, and I told her I was like, the funny, humorous content doesn't have to be slapping my knee, like, dying. It can just be like, oh, giggle a little, a little chuckle. And a lot of that is like very evergreen type prompts. And I'll talk about that next week because that'll be fun. How to create. Because we don't. We all know humor bonds all of us. And humor can also sell and grow.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:43]:
So we'll talk about that next week. So again, right now, if you. If you know my 4H method happenings, heard, helpful humor, those are kind of the four categories that every piece of content you'll ever see Falls under humor is something I want to, I want to cover separately next week. But here's, you know, again, humor should be simple, specific, share about everything. If you want to go viral, that, that's the trick. So let me find a couple more examples because I know a lot of people listening might own a boutique or a coffee shop. And you're like, we don't really do a lot of helpful content. Right.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:10]:
It's more like the vibe, the experience of coming in. So with that said, you also want to be simple, specific, and shareable. Ready? Here's a great one. This is travel. So what this person is selling even though she's a travel agent? I think, Let me see. Yeah, she planned. She's a vacation planner. Okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:26]:
So I'm gonna send this to Steph too. Okay. So she, she has really pretty B roll, this really pretty suite. And she could have said blahdi blah, villa in St. Lucia. Instead it says, POV, you're staying at an adults only, all inclusive resort in St. Lucia. And your butler level suite comes with a private oasis.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:45]:
Simple, specific, and shareable. She didn't just say St. Lucia. All inclusive with a pool. You get to experience what the feeling would be like to walk in there. Butler level, suite, adult only pov, you're staying. So it's telling you, you can experience this. 13,000 shares.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:07]:
Why? Because they're like, I want to do this. Want to go here? Let's do one more. This is for my digital product. People who sell, if you sell courses, if you sell, if you're a graphic designer, things like that. This is literally a genius reel. It says, this baby shower invitation template makes me $686 a month on Etsy. So this person obviously teaches people how to sell digital products on Etsy. 32,000 likes 39,000 shares.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:35]:
Simple. Do you see what I mean? He just said this template. He said, baby shower template. He said exactly how much money. And he mentioned Etsy, which we all know what Etsy is. Feels doable, feels simple. All right, And I'll just tease you with the humor, with the specifics right now. Okay? This one is so funny.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:49]:
It says, and it's this. Someone just grabbing a cocktail says when they say, listen to your body, but my body wants to be at an all inclusive resort, grabbing my sixth cocktail before noon. Boom, there it is. Simple, specific, share, 72,000 shares. Don't you dare tell me content creation is hard. I'm just kidding. I love you. I know it's a lot, but once you nail this stuff, this is what I mean, you gotta come up with the specific messaging and I will not be mad at you if you use ChatGPT.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:17]:
Lean on it every time. If you're saying you could take this prompt and say, when they say, listen to your body and, you know, write out what you would say. Let's say you're a contractor and you're like, and. And it says, but your body wants to tear down walls and put up new kitchens, blah, blah, blah. Throw it in ChatGPT, whatever the B roll shows, throw it into ChatGPT and be like, how can you make this more specific and fun and casual? And then if you don't like what it gives you, give you five more and then tweak it to you. Okay, that is a little. A little breadcrumb for the humor. One we'll talk about next week.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:46]:
And I'm gonna do one more because these are going insane, you guys. And they're simple B roll. I know there's some girl out there in my industry saying, oh, B rolls dead. Y'all just listen to this podcast. I. I'm at this point. Don't get me started. Okay, ready? This is a talk to camera with a quick hack.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:01]:
And I want you right now. This is your assignment this week. Ready? Think of something so D U M B that you think everyone knows it. We don't. I'm going to let this play. Ready? I'm just going to turn it up. Ready?

Reel Voice [00:11:12]:
This is a super important passport tip. If you fly internationally, open up your passport to the back page and take a photo of the barcode on the bottom. If you lose your passport when you're in another country, this will expedite the process.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:23]:
Okay, she's talking to the camera. There's no hook over her head. She's just in an airport. You can tell there's probably no ring lights around her. You guys, if the messaging is clear and specific and shareable and it's going to go crazy. 57,000 shares, 23,000 likes, 382 comments and she's holding up the passport. So it's very clear what this is about. She's in an airport.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:43]:
Clicks in our brain. We know. You know, oh, I travel. What's this about? Right? Simple, specific, and shareable. Because it's simple. It's just taking a picture of a barcode. It's specific because she tells you if you fly internationally. Right.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:55]:
And she's told you the passport and it's in a shareable. Okay. So look for the specificity in reels that are going crazy. Here's the last one I'll share 11 clean snacks at Costco for school lunches. There it is. 77,000 shares, 63,000 likes. Simple, specific, and shareable. She didn't just say snacks, she said for lunches, so we know it's for our kids.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:14]:
She didn't just say snacks, she said clean snacks. And she didn't just say at the grocery store, she said Costco. And it's simple because we can go to Costco right now and do it. And it's shareable because we want to share it with our friends who know they want to feed their kids clean food. Those three S's right there, along with the four H's I teach, are the secret to success on Instagram, to selling, to growing, to nurturing. All of it. My content does all of it. My client's content does all of it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:39]:
It grows, it nurtures, it sells because we keep it simple, specific, and shareable. And when we make sure, it is either going to make them feel heard or it's going to make them laugh, humor, or it's helpful, or it's a happening in our business that makes them identify with part of our brand and cheer us on and be a part of it. This was a long one. I know. I try to keep around 10 minutes, but this is so, so important. And I promise you, if you follow these tips, you'll see a huge difference. And I don't. I don't like to pitch on this podcast because I have people tell me they listen to the podcast and go viral all the time.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:10]:
I get DMs all the time. It's so fun. It makes me so happy. I don't want you to have to spend money, but if you are really struggling, hop into the Reels Lab, come in for a month. If you don't like it, you can always leave. We have Q and A's. I give you these prompts. I put blanks.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:23]:
But in those blanks, for each industry, I give you suggestions on what to put so that you can kind of get, oh, okay, that's cool. Maybe I'll actually say this. Or you can just say what I say. I know it's frustrating. I know it's overwhelming. There's a lot of noise out there. I've got you. Love you, friend.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:36]:
Have a great week and I'll talk to you next week.