Building Real Community with Stories and Shared Moments

Let’s kick off the new year with a little fun as I share some TikTok’s that had me laughing out loud. We’ll dive into why these viral moments were such a hit and we’re bringing it all back to community because this year we want to create content that truly connects by sharing real journeys and moments. I hope this episode reminds you that social media success starts with community and being you. So take a breath and join me for a light but meaningful start to the year.

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• The importance of building a community on social media that sticks with you long after the initial journey ends.
• Sharing personal journeys and moments online helps bond with your audience, creating loyal followers.
• Viral videos that showcase a vibrant and engaged community rallying around a shared moment. 
• Sharing fresh perspectives and behind-the-scenes moments.
• Pivoting your content doesn’t have to mean losing your audience.
• Getting active in comment sections and using stories to spark genuine interaction.

Featured content in this episode:

• _tatianaforbes
• Viral Topgolf
• Fixed for Logan

Recommended episodes:

• Episode 76: Create Content That Makes Them Want to Keeping Coming Back
• Episode 82: How to Get New (and Old!) Followers to Binge Your Content
• Episode 91: My Personal Predictions for Instagram in 2026
• Episode 92: This is the Era of Experiences and Belonging
• Episode 93: The Instagram Algorithm is Not the Villain: Being More Intentional with Your Content
• Episode 94: You Want Your Content to Fit Your Life, Not Become Your Life

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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. Hello and Happy New Year. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see our house is still Christmasy, even though it is what is today, January 5th. The bags under my eyes just tell you how crazy December was. It was so awesome, but so crazy.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:38]:
I'm sure all of you are the same boat as me. Kids are back to school. We're getting back to our routine. Slowly trying to start new routines. That's my big thing in 2026. I'm not a big routine girly, as you guys know. I'm very type B. I'm very just unserious.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:54]:
But 2025 proved I need to get some routines going. So if you have any tips, drop them below on YouTube or just send me a message on Instagram because, whew, y', all, your girl is exhausted. But podcast room should be done soon. We got big things coming in January. I'm so excited. Book hopefully dropping by summer. We're almost there. 2026 is going to be a crazy year.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:16]:
2025 was just the year of, no, I wouldn't say I didn't burn out, but I said yes to pretty much everything. It was a big yes year, right? Like, someone's like, do you want to do this with me? Do you want to collab? Do you want to do a podcast? Do you want to speak at this event? I was like, yes, yes. This year I got slowed down a teeny bit. But I am speaking at Social Media Marketing World in April in California. I also have a speaking engagement in March in Florida. So I have a few. But I'm just so excited because the things that I'm doing this year, like, I. I just can't believe that I was looking at the year calendar and I'm like, oh, my gosh, it's already like all of 2026 almost planned out, right? So I.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:52]:
The good thing for that, for just to encourage you is that I just feel like 2026, all the work that you put in in 2025, especially if you've been listening to this podcast, I think 2026 is going to be the year that really cool things happen for you. Because I just feel like everyone was in full beast mode last year, right? And now hopefully we can all kind of coast. And that's why I do this podcast every week so that you guys, I can give you some quick wins, take and run with so that you can focus on all the other things you gotta focus on, right? But from one entrepreneur and creator to another, take a deep breath with me right now because this episode is gonna be fun because we're gonna start off the year really light. And there are. If you're on TikTok, if you're not on TikTok, don't worry. All this will make sense. But I'm telling you right now, I want this episode to really drill in to your brain, to throw out a lot of the garbage advice out there. A lot of the crap that you were sold over the past two, three years that was, you know, from people who don't.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:51]:
Didn't have your best interests at heart, unfortunately. And remember what social media is all about, right? And I'm going to prove it to you with these hilarious TikTok, I guess you could call them inside jokes, shticks, if you will. Now, I was talking to someone the other day about a lot of people blowing up on Instagram because of the journey they're sharing, right? And whether they're sharing it on Instagram, TikTok, both. Wherever it is. We love to follow journeys, right? If someone is starting 2026, like, oh, I'm about to rebrand my life, or oh, I'm about to completely, I'm going to spend the next 30 days doing X, Y, Z. I want to remind you that we love stuff like that. So if there's some sort of journey that you're on in January, share it with us. Even if it's just in stories.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:30]:
If you're like, I don't know if I want to share this and do 30 days or do this, that's totally fine. Do it in stories. And then if it clicks in stories, maybe you kind of just work it into your content. But I want to say something that it was really interesting. This came up with my friends this weekend. They're like, but then after that journey's over, they lose the weight, they transform the home. They do the one month of no spending, whatever. How do you keep them around? And that, my friend, is where community comes into play.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:54]:
When you build a community around your brand, they'll stick around. They'll be like, oh, yeah, I started following her because of this, but then she pivoted to this and I kept following her. I hear all the time, someone's like, I'm pivoting. Do I need to start a new account? Probably not. Not unless, like, you were a. Some sort of account that was like, all about cooking, and now you're sharing. I don't know, I can't even think right now. Something completely different, like maybe, but give people the option to stick around, right? I used to say this to network marketers I worked with.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:18]:
Even like when I first started doing all this, like 10 years ago, they're like, I was like, you don't need to talk about the products all the time. Talk about your life, talk about what you're doing, work the products into it. When you're talking to the camera in stories like, and if you sell skincare, be washing your face, doing that thing, right? So just know that if you're. I know it's beginning of the year, everyone's reflecting, everyone's like trying to do this and that. Do not worry. But if you're sharing a journey and you're worried about people sticking around after the journey is complete, this is where community comes into play. And these, this TikTok situation happening right now is exactly how communities start really fast and stay with you forever. So let me just take you down this little rabbit hole I was in coming back from the beach on the road yesterday, okay? So as you guys know, I've talked a lot about getting in the comments, right? I left a comment on Adam Mosseri's post the other day.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:08]:
I got people in my DMs. Oh, I just saw your comment and I'm following you now, right? I will comment even on something I find funny that's totally outside of my niche. And people will follow me from my comment. They'll go to my account, see what I do, and they're like, oh, actually I'm interested in content creation or, oh, I live in North Carolina. Right? You guys, we follow people for all sorts of reasons. And I think people just are so scared that if they pivot, people will leave if they share a journey that has nothing to do with what they already do. So I met Tatiana during COVID I started following her and she helped me when I was scaling my social media management agency in 2020. I was pregnant with Chloe and I was like, help me, help me.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:42]:
She's incredible. I've met her at a speaking event. I've met her at the Reelies, She's amazing. Now she pivoted completely and now is basically a running influencer, right? She's created a running community. But guess What? Of her 84,000 followers, do you know many people probably started following her when she was helping agencies scale. Have they left her probably not because they fell in love with Tatiana. They didn't fall in love with Tatiana, who has a great background in, like, corporate world and can help me scale.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:09]:
Sure they did. But, you know, and she still does that. She still does that side. And she's still got that beautiful, incredible brain that can help you do amazing things in your business. And she still does content about that. But now about 80% of her content is running her family, et cetera. So I just want to again, because I know this is that time of year that everyone starts going, ooh, just what do you want to share this year? What do you not see out in the universe right now that people aren't sharing and share that? Like. Like I tell people all the time, like, if you're ever stuck and in this age of AI and everything, looking the freaking same, right? Let's say you do healthy nutrition, et cetera.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:46]:
What's in people's. What's missing from people's Trader Joe's hauls that you haven't seen that you get, right? Let's say you are in the virtual assistant space. What is a hack that no one else is sharing? I want you guys to really think about this, because the thing that is missing from so many people's accounts is one fresh perspectives, right? So that's why I'm like, we're done with three ways to Blah Blah Blah five have more how to Blah blah blah. It's how I my go to my favorites. How I started this, how I'm doing this right from that me centric space. That's the first part, right? That's that big shift that I helped you all do this whole past year. The other part, like, Tatiana did beautifully. It was.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:25]:
And I don't know if this is true, but I have a feeling she probably started sharing it in stories. People started becoming interested and she was like, you know what? Hell yeah, let's do this, right? But again, Tatiana's continue going to continue to get booked for speaking events and all this and that from her expertise of what she's also really good at besides running. So again, she's just living proof of what that you can pivot and continue. But what she's done so beautifully, again, sorry, I'm gonna be all a little all over the place in this episode. Cause there's a lot I want to say, and I will bring it all home. But what it all comes down to when I say bring it on home is community. And when someone follows your journey was with you, was rooting for you. I mean, they're with you for life, whether you pivot to something different or whatever.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:05]:
Right now, on the flip side, let's say you. You're like, Shannon, I'm not really doing any sort of journey, and I don't really feel like doing all that. Cool. Community can be built in a number of ways. And let's go to TikTok, because I just cannot. When I say I was cackling in the car, I mean howling. So basically there's a. And hopefully you guys are on TikTok and you've seen this, but this will make sense because I told my husband he's not on TikTok.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:31]:
There is a Topgolf in Auburn Hills. I'm not sure exactly where that is, but there's a Topgolf, it's in Michigan, and it's literally even on all the local news stations. I just googled it. So basically, someone was at Topgolf the other day in Auburn Hills, and they put up a TikTok that just said, someone's about to hit the ball. And you see his reaction go, oh, my gosh. All of a sudden the net comes down and what the TikTok says is, nephew said, oh, no, thank you. Haha. Right, funny.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:56]:
It just shows the net falling down. It goes viral. Obviously someone writes in the comments. This is so funny, y'. All. So Logan, this guy Logan comments, they better have that fixed by January 9th. My work Christmas party is there. This comment then goes viral.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:12]:
People are like, topgolf, if you don't fix this, right? So now everyone is team Logan. And this is what I mean by community. Everyone all of a sudden is rallying for Logan and attacking Topgolf, saying, you guys better fix this net by January 9th or. we're boycotting, da da. So then Topgolf obviously finds out about this, and then they comment. So now all of a sudden, everyone knows Logan, huh? So this is where social media managers come into play. And gosh darn it, guys, social media managers are the unsung heroes. I was one for years.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:41]:
I still manage a little bit for other accounts, so I stay in the trenches. But when I say this is where social media managers shine, right? What happens after this? People are commenting things like, all I know, net or no net, Logan is rolling up Topgolf on January 9, someone else says, I came to the comments hoping for a description of what caused this. And I'm now leaving extremely concerned over the status of Logan's Christmas party. And then someone else goes me calling Topgolf corporate so they can fix this before Logan's party. So, again, this is what I mean by social media. It's just a bunch of humans that want to laugh, feel seen, feel good, learn something new, whatever, right? And what happened here with a simple TikTok showing a net falling because some woman was there with her nephew and just thought it was funny, leads to someone commenting, which leads to everyone rallying behind Logan. And guess what? Topgolf got that net up already. So then, Topgolf, if you go to the Topgolf TikTok, it literally says, we're excited to announce that the nets are fixed in time for Logan's work Christmas party.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:40]:
1. 2 million likes. And they have a sign for Logan. You guys, this is the power of social media. This is what social media is. It's humans connecting with humans over a common joke, a common belief, a passion, a journey. Like, literally think of social media. Take the media a part out of it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:57]:
It's just people being social. And we lost that back in 2020 when all these gurus came out and said, you gotta post 18 million times a day. You gotta. You gotta stop saying this. You gotta start do it. We lost the plot completely. And in 2026, we are so back. And I've been saying it all 2025.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:13]:
Cause I saw everything going this way. Back to basics, back to just being silly and unserious and having fun. Now, of course, many of you sell something serious. Many of you run nonprofits that have more of a serious vibe. So it's not saying you have to put out humor, but it is saying, just find something to connect and make them feel heard. It can be empathetic. It can be right. But let me just get back to the point of this.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:34]:
The whole TikTok universe is talking about Topgolf and Logan's Christmas party, and I cannot wait. On January 9th, what is going to happen? I. Look, I'm just so excited. I know they're going to do something serious and hilarious, and it's something for everyone to come around and root for. Just like Tatiana flipped over to running, rooting for her. Just like someone that's sharing their journey of this, starting a business. You know, here I am doing this. We're going to root for you.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:58]:
Or it can be as silly as someone's Christmas party almost getting ruined because of a net falling. Now, here's what else happened on TikTok. Ready? Some other random dude named Tony put up a TikTok that just said, oh, I love the Internet. It just says, is anyone mad at me? That's all the TikTok says, and it's just a picture of this guy Tony. These are the comments. Are you right? Because this all happened at the same time as the Topgolf Net went viral. This guy Tony's goes viral because everyone hopped in. You know what? Not right now, Tony.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:30]:
Someone else said, now that you mention it, someone said, I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. So now that this goes viral and everyone's having fun with Tony and geeking out, what happens in the Topgolf comments? They're like when you go back to Topgolf's post where they say, don't worry, the net is now up. Guess what? The comments are just as long as Tony doesn't show up. Tony wrote, so I'm not invited. Someone else, Tony, better not attend. And then Topgolf wrote, we have a strict no Tony policy. Oh, and then someone else commented on the same one, Logan, they did it for you, pal. And Topgolf, like, puts a funny meme of, like, you know, Michael Scott crying.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:10]:
Long story short, and there's a few other, like, funny jokes going around where everyone just rallies together and it just becomes one big inside joke. Now, what do we love as humans? We love to be in on something. We love to be included, right? And again, even if we don't want to go to a party, we just still want to be invited. It's that type of psychology. Social media is the same way. So even so, yes, you can build community by sharing your journey, by sharing behind the scenes, by sharing your passions, your love of things and your tips, your knowledge, your thoughts, your perspectives, your opinions. You can also simply grow community with a common thing for people to rally around and have some fun and laugh and because it's not that deep, and what's funny is, like, this wasn't a strategy. This wasn't topgolf saying, hey, let's.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:55]:
Let's have this net fall down. Have this guy comment in. Let's go viral, right? It's about people rallying around a shared moment. And this is why relevance comes into play, too, right? Like why I always say, like, obviously in December, I was like, make sure your content, you know, mentions the holidays or whatever, because we're all having these shared moments at the time. Like I said in a podcast a few weeks ago, like, look outside. Like, what is going on right now in the world, in your community, what it. How can you make sure the content connects with who you're putting it out there for? So again, when you put something out there, whether it's TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, et cetera. What is something that makes people feel like they're invited in, that they're in on it, they're rallying around something.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:14:36]:
Right? Social media is not traditional marketing in a sense that like it's sales pages, billboards, ads. It's literally community and connection. I say it all the time, but this is a real time viral moment that we can study together and see. Okay, and that was the last thing I wanted to say. How do you get people to participate in the comments? That comes from building community. Everyone always says to me, well, Shannon, I can't get people to comment. Focus on bonding with your audience. I feel so close to my people, to you, when I had a hundred followers to now with over 300,000.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:15:09]:
It's because I share my life in stories. It's because I don't overthink this stuff. You overthink it. It's not fun. Yes, you need a test, yes, you need a strategy. But sometimes something happens from a fun comment and a shared moment between you and your audience. Right? I have shared so many little moments over the years with my audience that some people will still say, oh my gosh, remember when you and Cam used to do the It's Friday every Friday when she was little? I'm like, yes, that was like five years ago. Little things like that build up.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:15:36]:
And even as silly as this Topgolf thing is, we all know that net wouldn't have been up by the 9th if it wasn't for this whole TikTok fiasco, right? It showed that they rallied around their customers and did the dang thing. It's why reels and TikToks go viral. Of just a small diner in the middle of nowhere to doing a funny skit. We want to know the people behind the brand. We don't want the flashy, perfect curated stuff anymore. We just don't. We just don't. So this was just a long winded way of saying, share your journey, share a joke, share a moment.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:16:08]:
You never know what's going to take off and go crazy. And that's how you build community on social media. Get in the comments. They don't even have to be your own comments if people aren't commenting yet. Use stories to get people comfortable messaging. You use captions that, you know, ask an easy question that has to do with your content. Obviously. I'm telling you guys, community is everything.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:16:29]:
And it's why, yeah, sure, I don't have as many followers as a lot of people in my industry. I do not care. I had a six figure business with less than 10,000 followers. So don't compare because you might have less followers than the person that you are comparing yourself to. But let me tell you something. You don't know their bank account. You don't know what's going on behind closed doors. The reason I'm still here and have not burned out all these years, cause my community, because I love you guys so much, I'm not here when I'm dead and gone one day no one's gonna be like, oh my God, she had so many followers.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:16:56]:
I hope they're saying, oh my gosh, she helped me so much. Oh my gosh, I got to connect with her on a human level. That's the power of social media and that's what we gotta get back to. And that's where you're gonna grow and shine. Share from your perspective, be a human. Share moments that people can connect with you over. And you're going to dominate. I know you will.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:17:15]:
I love you, friend.