POV: They’re Hitting Follow…Immediately

This episode is coming to you straight from the beach and we’re diving into one of my favorite categories from my signature 4H Method. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by all the advice about content calendars, conversion posts, and complicated strategies, this is the episode for you. I’ll break down why making your audience feel heard is so important when it comes to creating your Instagram content, plus I’m sharing some of my most effective hooks and real viral examples that have actually converted viewers into followers. 

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• An overview of the 4H Method and the real reason I created it.
• Why “traditional” content pillars didn’t work for me and why they probably don’t work for you either.
• Focusing on creating content that evokes feeling and emotion, creating a safe space for your audience.
• Viral hooks and reels that actually work, converting viewers to followers immediately.
• Trading inspirational and motivational content for content that makes people feel like you actually see and understand them.
• Giving your audience and identity or a name that makes them feel like they actually belong.

Links to reels in this episode:

• Reel: Middle Travelers
• Reel: Florida Realtor
• Reel: Summer Countdown
• Reel: This Vibe

Other episodes you might have missed:

• Episode 043: We’re Getting Back to Basics and Loving Our Content
• Episode 049: Relatable Humor That Says “They Get Me!”
• Episode 054: Is There Enough “You” In Your Content?
• Episode 063: Was That an Ad? Even the Big Brands are Making it Personal

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 [00:00:05]:
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. Greetings, and sorry for looking like a beach bum if you're watching this on YouTube. It is what it is. We are at the beach, and it's actually perfect time to record this episode because last week, I mentioned I wanna talk about the heard category. If you've listened to any of my podcast episodes, you know I talk a lot about the four h's, which is a method that I came up with years ago, trying to help people simplify content creation. Right? People have been told create, you know, one piece is for converting, one is for growth.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:49]:
It's just overwhelming and too complicated. When we are scrolling on social and deciding if we're gonna follow, purchase, like, comment, share, whatever it is, it's based off feelings. Right? So we need to create off of feelings. We know that our people want to feel, and that doesn't mean it has to be deep or anything like that. A lot of the content in the viral hooks I give you all a lot are kind of, like, based on tips, tutorials, etcetera, which is the helpful category. Right? So I did these four categories, the four h's based on kind of feelings, but also great ways to serve and provide value that aren't always tips and tricks. Right? So the first h is heard. Second is helpful.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:24]:
Third is humor. Fourth is happening. So helpful content, pretty self explanatory. Right? Anything that's helpful. Humor, pretty obvious. Right? Makes them laugh. It's relatable. And then last, of course, is happenings, and that's, like, really, like, behind the scenes.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:38]:a
Did you move somewhere new? What vacation are you on? Did you hire a new employee? Events you went to, launches, new arrivals in your boutique, things like that that are happening kind of behind the scenes, but also can be business related, of course, or personal. They can be personal too. By the way, anyone telling you not to post personal stuff, do not listen. That's, like, the biggest red flag of all time. We're we're on here to follow people. But heard is the one that I feel like most people struggle with. They're just like because I think for me, the reason I came up with these four h's is because for a while, again, it was like conversion content, sales content, and I'm like, we can convert. We can sell.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:11]:
We can we can do that with any type of content, to be honest. Every piece of content I put out there is to grow, nurture, sell. So the other flip if you flip the coin, other people are saying that inspire, educate, entertain. Right? That was kind of the standard pillar. So So inspire was the one that I always struggled with because I'm not a big, like, what's the word, like, mindset girly. I'm not a big affirmations, like, type of person. So I was like, I don't really wanna put out motivational content, motivational quotes. Like, that's just not me.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:38]:
So I was one that struggled with it too. So I came up with heard because if you can make someone feel heard and seen and know they belong in your space and that, like, your account is for them, they're hitting follow immediately. And honestly, it really just brings up the whole concept of social media in general. We're on here to feel seen, heard. We wanna follow people where we feel safe. And even if that is a rugby account, it's just like we're into rugby over here, or it's a nontoxic account. They feel safe over there. Whether it's a account where, you know, right now it's June, you know, and they're sharing pride content, and that's where you feel safe.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:14]:
Like, it can either be that deep or it can be deep as in, like, my account where I just hope people feel safe to ask questions and get a real answer based on data, not just what's gonna get clickbait. Right? That's kind of my thing. So I want you to really think about when it comes to heard to not overcomplicate that H of my pillar system is what is the vibe of your account? What are your core values? What makes people go, I feel seen here? This person gets me. This boutique gets me. Even if it's a hair salon, what are the things about your salon that make people go, oh, that's where I need to be going. That's where I need to be shopping. That's right? The way customers and that we all act now, we're we're a little more picky with who we follow. We're a little more picky about who we where we shop and things like that.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:56]:
We wanna make sure that our values align. Yeah. So with all that said, I I picked some reels for you to show you because I wanna tell you I have helped when I say hundreds of people go viral and this hook I'm about to share with you, I shared about a year ago on Instagram. I helped people when I say 40,000 followers off this one reel, that type of blow up because as soon as they know your account is for them and that you get them and you are a safe space, you win. You win. But, again, this is where I come down to what I always say the three s's, specificity, simplicity, shareability. Right? So is it shareable? Is it specific? Is it simple? So let me break down. This is this one literally screams heard, and this I actually broke this reel down when I spoke at Social Media Marketing World because this just is the perfect way to do heard.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:39]:
Now it says, and it'll be in the show notes, welcome to the side of Instagram where we celebrate middle travelers, people who are not budget travelers, but also not luxury travelers, more hotels and hostels, people who love to eat street food but also like to splurge on a fancy meal, who think experiences are worth more than physical things. If this is your vibe, come say hi. 42,000 likes. 2,300 comments. And let me tell you the comments. They're great. Oh my gosh. We have a name.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:06]:
I thought it's just every 30 plus year old. Right? So, again, they're giving their community a name, middle travelers. So this went bonkers.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:25]:
Comments again, finally, we fit in somewhere because it's either super low budget, hostel, bunk bed, traveling, or extreme five star hotel suite kind of vibe. They gave these people a community to be in, and you can do it too. Okay? So that's one of the hooks you can do. Welcome to the site of Instagram where we believe in, we celebrate, we are all about blank. Okay? That's one of the hooks. The second hook, this one has helped a lot of my clients go viral too, but the one that has helped them go crazy, it is literally this. Ready? POV, you're a blank. You're gonna put in the blank who they are.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:59]:
You're a coastal grandmother. You're a car enthusiast. You're a toddler mom. What do they identify as? I had someone in the wedding planning space go viral. I had someone in a toddler coach go viral with this. So figure that out. You know? Poll people, lean on chatGPT, but really try to understand what they identify as.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:21]:
Like, what's their identifier? And if you still if you struggle, one really great book you could read is identity marketing by my girl, Veronica Romney. She's brilliant. And it's all about the power of marketing now where it's less of buy this and more be this. So you kinda like you know, Swifties call themselves Swifties, things like that. So, again, anything that you could think of that you could kinda help give them a title, like, POV, you're blank struggling with us. Ready? So POV, you're twenty twenty six bride, if you're in the bridal space. POV, you're a toddler mom. POV, you're a rugby junkie.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:52]:
I don't know. Like, whatever it is. If you're local POV, you're a Washingtonian. POV, you're a midsize girly, whatever it is. Shout them out. And then it's just POV, you're a blank, tired of blank, and find my account. So let's say you're an author, but you write some sort of type of book, but you do it in a different way that, you know, people will be like, yes. That's the kind of book I've been looking for.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:14]:
So you could say something like POV, you're a true crime junkie. POV, you're a romance novel lover. Tire who's tired of books with main characters that blah blah blah. What is it about your books that make it different? And you find my whatever novels. You find my book. You find my account. Another girl who went viral with it, it was like, POV, you're a twenty twenty six bride who wants to have a blah blah blah wedding without it costing over whatever whatever, and you find, you can say, our venue in Lexington, Virginia. You find, you find my account.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:44]:
You find whatever it is. Okay? But, again, like I said, if you're not sure exactly what to call your people yet, you could just say POV, you're tired of blah blah blah, and you find this product, whatever the product is. POV, I do it in a different way. So I do POV, your reach is trash. This works really well for my account sometimes. POV, your reach is trash, and you find this trending audio in my favorite hooks and get out of 300 view jail. So there's lots of ways you can do it, but that's more of a helpful way. Right? That's more of the helpful category.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:15]:
But when we're talking heard, we're like, I could say something like POV. You're an exhausted content creator. You're a business owner who's tired of, the clickbait or whatever, tired of conflicting Instagram and just want actual strategies with proven results and you find my account, Things like that. So this is again where you really gotta find out what vibe your people are looking for, and they haven't found that account yet, and you're like, here it is. I made it for you. So you can do the welcome to the side of Instagram, blah blah blah blah blah Or POV, you're a toddler mom who's tired of blah blah blah blah blah, and you find my account. You're basically saying this is the vibe here. This is what I share.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:49]:
This is what I do, and they feel heard. Okay? Obviously, there's so many ways to do heard. Heard could also be, I love this one. This is from a realtor in in Florida. How life feels because you listened to that little voice in your head that told you to move to Florida, and now your evening walks look like this. So that's the other version of heard. I call it, like, the warm fuzzy hug. But, again, this makes people feel seen because they go, I did the same thing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:12]:
I ditched blah blah blah for Florida, and I will never look back. It makes them feel safe. It makes them feel seen. This person understands them. 78,000 likes, 22,000 shares, all because she made them feel heard. And the audio sounds like this here. I'll let it play. Right? Now another way to make your people feel heard so, again, we've got the shout out exactly who you are, what your core values are, what your vibe is.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:41]:
Right? That's the POV, you're a blank one, or the welcome to the side of Instagram. Both of those are great. Or you can say how blank feels, how life feels, that sort of thing. And then there's also ones that are as simple as this. A summer. A summer countdown. Right now, it's summer, which is why I look like this. I look crazy because I was, you know, at the beach.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:02]:
We're all in summer mode. So anything that gives them that vibe that they love. Maybe you are a realtor or a content creator in New England. Create a Reel showing that feeling that they cannot wait to get to the beach and be in back in that coastal New England life. Right? That makes them feel heard. It makes them feel they get you. We are on social media to feel seen heard. That's a big part of it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:25]:
Not just to learn and be entertained and all that, just to know that you get us and we're safe here. So especially with it being, like I said, pride month, summer. Think about the things right now that people are like, gosh. I just wish there was an account that had this type of vibe. They're like, here it is. And lastly, another great one to take and run with if you want if you have clips like this crater, it literally just says this vibe, and it's a bunch of clips just showing the vibe. But it basically shows what this account is about and what his whole thing is about. Travel, photography, lifestyle.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:56]:
Like, that is his account. If that's how they travel and that's what their life looks like when they travel or that's their desire, they're gonna follow him. They feel heard. They feel seen. They feel comfortable to be here. Alright. That's it. That's how to create heard content, and this is the perfect time to do it because there's a lot going on, and it's summer, and people are like, I just I just wanna have some fun and feel seen for your heart.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:16]:
Now again, lastly, if you are in the therapy mindset mental health category, then this is your moments. HEARD is your category. Do the inspirational quote, do the stuff that makes them go, gosh, I needed to hear that today. That is HEARD. So there you go. Those are a bunch of different ways to create heard type content. I love you, friend, and I'll talk to you next week.