Use Identity Driven Content to Connect and Engage with Your Audience

This episode is extra special, it's our 100th episode! Identity is everything when it comes to creating Instagram content that really resonates with and engages your audience. We’ll talk about calling out your audience’s identity and then leaning into your own identity, looking at viral examples to break down the differences. I’m sharing a client win from a recent viral reel and we’ll talk about why sharing your unique perspectives and experiences are the key to standing out online.

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• Giving yourself permission to start things messy and embrace imperfection.
• How we love to learn from each other through stories and experiences.
• Prioritizing your messaging and understanding who your audience is when creating content.
• Reviewing the REP Hook Formula: Relatable, Expertise and Personal.
• Audiences purchase or engage based on their own identity or the creator’s identity.
• Leveraging personal identifiers in content hooks to resonate with your audience, such as demographics, situations, and locations.

Featured content in this episode:

• Casuallymatthew_: POV There’s a nook on Instagram
• Mecailabeth: I have ADHD
• Noahglenncarter: Kevin James sitting alone
• Shawnacischroeder: Classic Literature by Black Authors
• Mindfullymademotherhood: Snack my family asks for on repeat
• Budgeters_anonymous: Our son’s net worth at 3 months

Recommended episodes:

• Episode 53: Use Customer Insights to Create Reels That Attract and Convert
• Episode 61: Use The Relatable Expert Hook to Create Your Next Helpful Reel
• Episode 67: The Importance of Belonging on Social Media
• Episode 83: Use the REP Hook Formula and Start Filling in the Missing Pieces
• Episode 85: Start Thinking Like a Marketer So People See Themselves in Your Content
• Episode 92: This is the Era of Experiences and Belonging
• Episode 95: Building Real Community with Stories and Shared Moments

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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. Hello. It is a very special episode. This is our 100th episode of Good Content. And what a way to finally kick it off. I, I am in our new quote-unquote podcast studio. Obviously, uh, still more to do, but we have a location.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:39]:
My couch is here. I still have to put that up, but isn't this cool? It's built-ins, so now I kind of have a space to like put all my content creation stuff and got this fun light. And we are gonna do it right, one step at a time. So soon we'll have it completely set up and I'm gonna decorate the bookshelves and we're just gonna make it So fun. But I just, I just think it's perfect because I've been talking about creating a space for this podcast for 100 episodes and we finally did it. But again, as I always like to say, and as you can see from today's hair, last night was the Super Bowl. So it's giving Shannon was up past her bedtime, but you know, start messy. I, nothing I've ever created started with like the perfect lighting, the perfect sales page, the perfect onboarding process, whatever.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:22]:
Like I did everything really messy and I know that's really hard for a lot of people. But I think sometimes being Type B can really have its advantages in the entrepreneur space. Cause like if I just have an idea, I'm like, well, I guess I'm gonna create this freebie today. I'm gonna put it on a Google Doc and throw it out there. Like it's, trust me guys, there are things probably sitting in your Notes app, your Google Docs, obviously your brain that you could make money off of online. I'm telling you, we just love to learn from each other and we love to hear each other's stories and follow each other's journeys. And that's all social media is. That's all it's ever been.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:53]:
Ever been, and we complicated it so much, and it's really not that deep. So this is just for me telling you, like, and I did a reel on this last week basically saying, you know, I think one of the reasons I've been successful and why so many of my clients are successful and students is that we just don't hesitate, right? Just know you're gonna have so many videos that fail. You're gonna have carousels that fail. You're gonna be like, oh, this is gonna crush, it's gonna go viral. You're gonna be like, it's part of the process. I'm not a quantity over quality person. Absolutely not. I always say messaging first, social second.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:26]:
Understand what your message is, understand who you're trying to reach. But sometimes just to get going, you need to just kind of create, right? I love the freedom in that you don't have to stick to a specific niche. I love that if something just makes me laugh and I want to share it, I share it. I do not live by a content calendar. I do not put my content and myself into a box on social media. Um, that would be really boring. So I just want to encourage you, start messy, post the content, be cringe, embrace it. And one, and at some point one of your videos is going to take off.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:58]:
And with that said, I want to share something. One of my Reels Lab students, she just had a trial reel go crazy because what I want to talk about again in this special episode is the power of identity. So with your hooks, and I'm working on this new formula for you guys and I'll be sharing it next week. You know, I've talked about the REP hook formula, which is your hooks should mention one of these three things: something relatable, something that establishes your expertise, like why should we trust you, and then something personal. So meaning mine would be like, 10 Amazon content creation tools I swear by as a Type B creator, or something like that, or someone who's grown at 300,000 followers. The relatable thing is that Amazon piece. I'm borrowing the familiarity and that of something they can relate to. They relate to shopping there, right? So that's the R.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:40]:
The E is me as expert. Someone who's grown over 300,000 followers on Instagram that establishes my expertise. And then personal is just me saying, I, these are the things I swear by. So hooks like that are really powerful. I've helped so many people go viral with the REP hook formula. I've podcasts on it. I'm sure my amazing podcast manager, Steph, will put them in the show notes if you wanna learn more about that. But I'm coming up with a new one just to really drive this home because we purchase based off identities, right? Who do we want to be? Or, you know, we're purchasing things for a better version of ourselves.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:12]:
We buy everything from alarm clocks to microphones to, you know, we buy these wireless mics to be better content creators. We buy gym memberships to tone up for summer, right? There's all these things. We buy better versions of ourselves. And then the other piece of identity and hooks is your identity, your expertise. Like, right? Like, I love the doctors that are like, I fix bones for a living. I da da da da da. Dentists, I save people from getting root canals for a living. That type of identity, right? So we're either going to grasp to the identity of you because you're an expert and you know what you're talking about.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:45]:
You've read all the books, you've done the thing, you went to grad school, you lost the weight, you transformed the house, whatever. That's your identity. Or the identity of who we see ourselves in or who we want to be, right? So I know I love seeing content from Type B people, from girl moms, from people in North Carolina. That's my identity. Look, I'm wearing a Virginia Tech football, if I see content about Virginia Tech, am I stopping Yes. If I see content about North Carolina, am I stopping? Yes. If I see content about motherhood, Real Housewives, coffee, pasta, you guys know, like my whole algorithm is pretty much food. I'm going to stop and look, right? So that's things that I relate to and I see myself in.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:22]:
But obviously if someone's like, you know, I've traveled to all the blah, blah, blah, I've not done that. I don't identify with that, but I want to learn from that person. Okay. So that's part of it. Identity, right? But then you got to add in sometimes like buzzwords and terminology that we love, because again, we are buying into an identity or we're learning from your identity. And a lot of that identity comes from following people's journeys, what you've learned, what you learned 5 minutes ago, what you're learning now, what you're doing, where you're going, the season of life you're in, empty nesting, right? So again, there's all these words that I want you to start writing down and keep them in a bank in like Google Docs, right? Let's say you're an introvert. Okay. Write that down.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:01]:
Let's say you're single. In your 30s and you live in New York. Like, all these things about you need to write down. These are all interesting things you can work into your hooks that make people go, ooh, I want to learn from that person. That sounds like me, or that sounds like my friend. It's huge, guys. Identity. Then you bring in the journey aspect of what have you accomplished, what have you done, what have you worked on, what have you learned.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:21]:
So let me show you some of these hooks, and let me show you the trial reel that went bonkers for my client. And what's interesting about her, she's a dentist, but a lot of her content is lifestyle content. It's just about being a mom and systems in your home and all these things. And she has grown so much since she joined the Reels Lab. Like, I want to say she was at like 10,000. She's over— she's almost at 70,000 now. I'll get her permission. Maybe we'll put her in the show notes.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:41]:
I don't like to take credit for obviously everything because there's so much magic in just you and my clients. And, you know, I can give you guys hooks all day, but it's for you to take and run with and put your spin on it. So I'm not trying to take credit for her virality, but she is killing it and I'm so freaking proud. But she wrote me the other day. She goes, oh my gosh, Shannon, you are a genius. This trial reel has converted over 3,400 followers in 24 hours. Do you want to know why? She called out the identity that they want to be. She not only called out an identity, she called their identity out in one of my favorite ways to call people out on Instagram.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:17]:
And that is with a specific scenario, a specific thing that they say or find themselves in. This is something you guys can all run with. If you run a restaurant, you sell digital products, you are a home organizer, home contractor, you are a news reporter, whatever it is that you do, you can use this hook. You literally start with the hook of what your people say that they are pissed off about, frustrated with. I can't find anyone who shares that. I can never, I never know what to make for dinner. I can't dress my body anymore in my 40s. I did that.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:47]:
So what hers said, mine would be, I can't get out of 200 view jail to save my life. I never have time to create content. My content sucks and no one cares, right? It would say that in quotations. 2 to 3 seconds after that, this is an assignment I gave my Reels Lab students 2 weeks ago, and she took it, ran with it, and she sent it to me on February 2nd, giving me the results. And I don't, I forget what the results were then, but fast forward to now, it's over 14,000 likes, over 100 reposts, over 1,600 shares. This is a trial reel. And I've talked about trial reels a lot. Identity, identity, identity, big time in trial reels.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:23]:
It's basically introducing your account. Who are you? What do you share? So it says, My home stresses me out and nothing ever sticks. And then at the 3-second mark, she drops it. That's because you haven't met me yet. And she uses B-roll clips showing her systems, the calm in her home, the fact that there's still toys and snacks and whatever, but that there's calm in her home. You guys, on February 2nd, she was at 3,400 new followers. And that was when she only had like, I don't even know, half the likes and engagement. She wrote, she sent it to me again and goes, this is insane.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:52]:
Just yesterday. So she's grown even more and it's gone viral. Identity journeys, what we desire, we gotta know that about our audience, right? We gotta know why people buy, why they follow, why they whatever, right? So another example, let's just talk about the halftime show last night, Bad Bunny. Now it'll always just drive me crazy the fact that people get so worked up about who's at the Super Bowl and like, oh, like it's like what, we can't understand other people's identities and passions and joy, right? I remember when like Eminem and all them were on the Super Bowl. Was that like 4 years ago? And my mom and like all her, you know, siblings. I mean, obviously they're, I don't know what generation, but they're like, oh, this is terrible, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you guys, like, this is like if we had to watch their band, right, perform. But think about that.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:35]:
We, not everyone likes Bad Bunny, not everyone likes Eminem and 50 and all them, not everyone likes Aerosmith, not everyone likes Bruno Mars. That's what makes the world go round. Okay, so when we're engaging, we're going to typically want to see and engage with stuff that is in alignment with our taste, our taste in music, clothes, lifestyle, right? So when I say these things like Gen X, millennials, introverts, extroverts, empty nesters, those type of identifiers are huge. So when I put it on my stories last night of how the amount of storytelling in the Bad Bunny performance, I was like, oh, it's gonna take me like a day or two to dissect it all. I'm already getting DMs like, ugh, oof, like wrong take. And I'm like, you guys, like, it's just, it's, I mean, it's just silly to me. I get it, not everyone's gonna like it, but like, do you know how many DMs I got from people that were like, thank you for recognizing our culture. This was so special to us.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:25]:
And I'm like, that's why I loved it. It was so special to so many communities of people, right? They had the bartender from who has like one of the last Puerto Rican social clubs in Brooklyn. She like gave Bad Bunny a shot. There was so much worked into that performance. It was crazy. I love watching that stuff because of the art, right? I don't need to understand what he's saying. To understand how powerful of a performance that was. With that said, that's identity too.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:52]:
So when you're thinking about your people, what do they consider themselves to be? Who do they wanna be? What grabs their attention? What makes them proud? That's where it all starts. And when I say messaging, that's what I mean. Who are they? Who do they see themselves as? Who do they want to be? What do they celebrate? What do they get excited about? If you know your people are really pumped about Valentine's Day, you You better have some content about Valentine's Day, right? Whether it's like a meal to make your girlfriend, a gift to bring your teacher that your teacher will appreciate, whether it's an idea to bring a bestie. What are your people excited about right now? Right now there's a ton of people excited about the Bad Bunny show and they want to talk about Bad Bunny. There's a bunch of people in Seattle that are so hyped because their team won. There's people who are excited about Valentine's Day coming up, spring coming up. What is it? This is what I'm talking about. And take us along and give us some stuff that we actually care about.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:39]:
And you cannot go wrong on social media. Sorry, this is kind of a tangent. I didn't know where I was going to go with this 100th episode. Episode, but I just wanted to bring it on home to think of the person behind the screen. Stop thinking so much about these algorithms and content. It's the content is your thoughts. The content is your perspectives, your journey, or everything you're going through, everything you, you are testing. What are you doing? Where are you going? What you doing? Did you like the show? Did you not like the show? Were you happy about the game turnout? Was it the most boring Super Bowl ever? Yes, it was.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:06]:
Join the conversation. That is social media. So it, it can literally be as simple as that. With that said, I wanna talk about identity-driven hooks that you can take for yourself right now so you can get a quick win. Okay. Here's a great one. POV, you find out there's a nook of Instagram where burnt out and busy professionals are learning how to actually enjoy their evenings again without doom scrolling. How much identity is in that? So much.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:32]:
So anyone who can identify with that, they're like, oh my gosh, this is my safe space. I belong here. What could you do? POV, you find out there's a nook on Instagram where, or POV, you find out there's a coffee shop, a boutique, a bodega in blah, blah, blah, that XYZ. What makes your account different? What makes your content, your shop, your products lean into the identity of who we are? All right. I mean, here we go. Obviously Bad Bunny content everywhere. So anyone who was there is sharing, you know, it says one of the most beautiful halftime shows ever. So everyone who agrees is going to chime in and then other people are You know, social media cracks me up.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:08]:
Okay, here we go. I have ADHD, so I accidentally spent all morning perfecting the front of my to-do list instead of actually doing anything on the list. Relatable and funny, right? So if anyone with ADHD, you know, sees this, they're gonna be like, oh, that's me. I get it. Now let me find one more so you guys can see what I mean by these little identifiers and situations and scenarios that people put into their content that makes it blow up. Oh, and this is it. I was wondering if I was gonna talk about this. Okay, so Kevin James, this is perfect.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:35]:
Kevin James. Is coming out with a movie, and if you haven't seen his promo, it's insane. What he has started a brand new Instagram account and he's acting as the character in his movie. It's fascinating, but everyone sees and goes, that's Kevin James. And he's like, hi, I'm, I forget the name of whatever, like Matt something. Um, he was at the Super Bowl last night sitting by himself with roses. Okay. It is getting everyone talking.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:59]:
And what happens? That gets people joining a conversation and following along on a journey. Okay. There's so many ways to just make your content feel like you're inside on a joke. You're in on the conversation. This is what I mean. It says, why is Kevin James sitting alone behind me at the Super Bowl? And everyone in the comments is like, oh my gosh, it's the most genius marketing I've ever seen for a promo. It's, you know, it's a promo. All right, hold on one second.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:14:22]:
Let me find one more. And here's another great account, Classic Literature by Black Authors. Now, is that long-winded, crazy identity? No, but so I just want to show you sometimes they can be like, I love me some long hooks that are just like tons of identity in them, but I love this classic literature by Black authors and it's just straight up. So anyone who wants to read more by Black authors is going to stop on that account and follow, and that's it. And I love this one too. How simple. The snack my family asks for on repeat. So anyone with kids, and you can tell from the video, it's like little snacks for children and it's like, why am I seeing that? Because the algorithm knows I have kids and the algorithm knows I like food, but I identify with it because I have a family, right? All right.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:15:03]:
And here's a perfect example of journeys. So this account, Budgeters Anonymous, I think a lot of people are like, oh, well, I talk mortgages or money. That's boring. Well, here's how you make it not boring. You bring us along on a journey. So he is talking about, he's holding his baby and he says, ready? I'm just gonna let it play. Little guy turned 3 months today and already has a net worth of $2,607. So he's holding his baby who is 3 months and he's talking about how they're going to, how they are.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:15:29]:
It's the caption says it's easier to make your kid a middle-class trust fund kid than you think. Holy identity right there. He's not saying billionaire, millionaire. He's saying something that like most average families are like, oh, this sounds doable. And instead of just saying, here's how, he's saying my son just turned 3 months and he's already got blank amount in the bank. So with the Kevin James promo, the Instagram is Matt Taylor. Life's messy. Art is beautiful.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:15:54]:
Let's turn this mess into a masterpiece. So what it is, is him, he's like an art teacher. And I don't know what's unfolding, but as you go through his Instagram, as this story is unfolding, as they're filming this movie, he is taking it like you are getting a behind the scenes look. It's not giving the movie away. The last reel he shared is him crying on the street, basically saying his girlfriend either left him. You guys, it's absolutely brilliant. Even though we know that he is acting and this is part of a movie, they have studied what works on social media and they have turned it into an Instagram account. So by the time you go see that movie, you are invested.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:16:28]:
You're sharing it with your friends. You go, we gotta find out what's unfolding. We gotta find out what's going on. This is how he starts out almost all of his videos. Hey guys, Mr. Taylor here. Hey guys, Mr. Taylor here.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:16:36]:
And I know what you're gonna say, well, Shannon, he's famous, but they are doing what works on social media. When all else fails, look at what the big guys are doing. This is what we're doing for movies now. This is crazy and I'm obsessed. So all I wanna do with this episode is just really simplify social media in a way that feels So that you start thinking about how you use it as an Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, et cetera, user, but also how you think like a marketer. We are buying experiences. We're buying stuff through our own identity, and you're literally inviting them in to be a part of that identity. So what Kevin James and them are doing is they're like, let's invite you in, come and meet Mr.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:17:11]:
Taylor, get his story, get all the behind the scenes of who he is. And we're placing him at the Super Bowl by himself. There's a reason for this content. Like my client did, hey, Your house is always a mess. You can never figure it out. That's because you haven't met me yet. You are inviting us in to be part of this identity and to be part of this journey and to be part of a story. That, my friend, is social media in a nutshell.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:17:33]:
What can you share today? What thought perspective? That is your content. What cool thing did you discover? What are you looking forward to? What are you doing to prepare for summer, Valentine's Day, spring? Bring us in. Bring us in. And I know for my product people, easy, taste-driven. What is my taste? What do I like? Am I on a budget? Do I want the dupes? Do I want the expensive part? What is it? And own it. I love, there's, there's a really funny reel, I'll have to try to find it and maybe I'll share it next week if I can find it. But like, there's a bougie baby bottle cleaner and the whole joke is like, how do I convince my husband that we need this overpriced blah, blah, blah? They own it. A lot of parents are gonna be like, that is so unnecessary.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:18:14]:
And then there's gonna be parents who are like, I need this now. Or like this, I deserve this. I gave birth to a baby. Right? So identity, identity, it really comes down to that. Okay. Next week I'm gonna share the hook with you. So take all that in, absorb, start writing down your identifiers, and we're gonna have some fun next week. I'll talk to you then.