Insider Style Content is Taking Over Social Media

We have entered yet another new era of content creation and it all leads back to human connection. One of the biggest and most underrated growth hacks on social media is bonding with your audience, and for a while people forgot the whole reason we are on social media to begin with. Well I think we’ve all realized what was missing and now we are looking for people to connect with and feel seen. And when we look at what’s really working on Instagram right now, its content based on lived experiences, personal journeys, beliefs, and perspectives. Think less influencer and more insider, and that doesn’t mean the end of influencers or that every single thing you share needs to be behind the scenes content, but it does mean that we want to see more from the people working behind the scenes.

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• Why sharing your inside perspective is going to change everything for content creation, we don’t like to feel like outsiders, we want to experience an insider's perspective.
• Taking what you’re already doing and things you see everyday that your audience doesn’t, and turning it into content that changes your life.
• How to build trust with your audience through insider style content, when trust is at its lowest right now.
• Trade influencer style content for insider style content, with behind the scenes content that actually connects and builds trust. 
• Why big corporations are paying their employees to create video content right now and what this means for content.

Featured content in this episode:

• ShannonMcKinstrie: Starbucks is paying baristas to make TikToks
• Janeconnery: The content I want to see
• Emmagrede: GRWM for Wimbledon
• Kathrynlturner: A look at some of my favorite products
• Heycourtneymitchell: What I’m wearing at Anthropologie as a full time stylist

Recommended episodes:

• Episode 97: We All Love Familiarity, Here’s How to Create that Familiar Feeling in Your Content 
• Episode 104: How to Create Viral Reels From Everyday Video Clips
• Episode 109: The Human Side of Content That Sells
• Episode 119: Your Boring Life Moments are the Shortcut to Success
• Episode 121: Discover What’s Valuable Once You Start Posting

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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. So I am calling it now. We are definitely in yet another new era of content and what's working. And it's what I've really been talking about for several years now that we're going back to human connection, right? We're going back to basics. Remember back in the day when we used to post on social media, it was like things that we genuinely loved and wanted to share. Whether it was a new coffee shop we found us on vacation with our families and obviously, you know, we'd slap a fun little filter, usually Valencia, and a cheeky caption and we call it a day, right? And, and fun fact, I was one of the friends.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:57]:
My friends would be like, Shannon, what should I caption this? And this is pre social media managers right. That wasn't even a thing. Social media was personal and I loved coming up with captions. It was like one of my favorite things. We get home from the club and I used to live in Atlanta at like 3am and I would literally take my memory card and, you know, plug the Canon digital camera into my laptop and start cranking out the photos and coming up with the photo album name and captioning each photo. Yes, if you're Gen Z, we used to do that. But really it was just we were sharing our life and we were documenting. We didn't care.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:28]:
And if people liked it, whatever, it was really more so for us, right? And then it went business and then all these rules came out and everyone had to learn how to be a marketer. Now my background's in marketing, so I know marketing, which is why it was a great segue for me from, you know, working in like news to then taking this thing that I already loved as a human of sharing these things with my family and friends, and now using it to promote businesses and grow communities and make money online, right? We had to saw this huge shift and all these rules came out and a lot of them, there were a lot that I was like, yeah, that's really helpful. And then there were some that I'm like, what are y' all talking about? Like, we've officially lost the plot. And all these social media experts, quote unquote, were saying, provide value, provide value. And obviously, yes, you need to provide value, but it was nuance. And they didn't explain that. Value is also human connection. Value is humor.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:15]:
Value is your lived experience. It's not just how to X, Y, Z. Right? And then everything got really boring on social because everything started looking the same. Everything started looking like Joe Schmo could have written it and put it out on a. Like a news article. Right? It wasn't personal anymore. There's a lot of copying. There's still a lot of that going on.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:34]:
Don't get me started. But you know what I mean. So now we have, the pendulum has swung and I could not be happier. So I've been noticing this over, I think I did a video, my first video on this like late 2022. And I was like, look guys, we are leaving the rules and BS behind and we need to start focusing on our lived experiences. Because I noticed even the big brands, makeup brands, food, retail, they were starting to use words like I and my. Even though these are huge corporations to make it feel more human and their content started looking more quote-unquote UGC, right? So we saw this because we saw that, you know, flyers no longer worked. Like the stock images obviously never worked, but people thought they did.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:12]:
And it was like everyone kind of had this wake up call of like, wait, social media is supposed to be social. Social media is not standard marketing. Social media is connection and bonding with your audience. I remember I did a tweet years ago, I just said like the biggest, the most underrated growth hack is bonding with your audience. And people forgot that. It was just like they wanted to put stuff out there and they just wanted to get a lot out of it. And it's like, no, no, no, no. It's a give and take.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:35]:
It is not a one way street, this app on top of that. So people started feeling like, you know, they're following these people, they're following these things and they're commenting and they're not getting any love back. Right. I remember there was some quote unquote Instagram expert years ago, this is during COVID times. And she was like, oh, I never respond back to people. I never da da da. I don't even use stories. And I was like, what? Like basically trying to tell people the opposite of what social media is.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:01]:
And thank God we've all woken up and realized and come back to what it is about and why we are on these apps in the first place. Obviously to feel seen, obviously feel validated, to connect with people, to entertain. Right? But what does that mean when you really look at the overall what's working? It's content based off people's lived experiences, their journeys, their beliefs, their perspectives, which I did a reel the other day. It'll be in the show. Notes about Starbucks has announced that they're going to start paying select baristas of theirs to create TikToks for them. Now, if you've noticed, if you scroll, if you're as chronically online as I am, you'll see everyone from Home Goods to Home Depot to. To Jersey Mike's to talk about, like, employees. Employee generated content is going crazy.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:46]:
And so what, I mean, what I said in the beginning is that we are entering a new era. It's not to scare you, it's not to say you have to redo everything. But what I'm observing and what I've been observing for a while is less influencer, more insider. So not the influencers. You know, the influencer world is dead. Far from it. But this just goes to show you, I know a lot of people are like, oh, I got to show up like an influencer. I'm like, no, you don't.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:07]:
I don't show up like an influencer. My content isn't to push products that other people create. It's. It's to help serve people with what I know and what I help people do. And then, you know, obviously I sell my own products. So if you're someone who's really, you're like, I don't really want to go into like the getting all these packages and talking about other products. Cool. Like, you can still grow.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:28]:
And I think that's what happened was there was this huge surge, especially about a year ago, where everyone started being like, ooh, I want to get my bag. And then everyone started coming on and like getting brand deals and brand deals and brand deals. And that's awesome. Brand deals can change your life. But I know for me, I'm someone who's like, that's not my thing. So if you're like that now, if you want help with brand deals, I can definitely do a podcast on that too. But this is more so for you to sell your own stuff and your own lifestyle and things that you're already interested in doing. Now, it's not to say I've had lots of brands reach out to me, but unless it's something I'm already physically using and loving, it's just, that's just not my jam.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:03]:
So I just want to make sure you guys know this episode is really about taking what you're already doing in your everyday life, things that you see Every day that your audience doesn't and turning it into content that makes you money and generates income and changes your life. So I am here to say we have entered the insider era. Does that mean all your content has to be behind the scenes? No, not at all. But we love to see the people behind what's going on. So we know our trust is in the toilet right now with a lot of people, but we're going to trust someone who actually clocks in to these businesses. So as far as insider, this means employee or founder, you're seeing founders do this as well. Founders have realized they're not too good or too big to show up and take us along on the ride. So what happened was Starbucks, all these other big corporations are seeing how these tiktokers and people on Instagram too are literally saying, I work at Jersey Mike's.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:00]:
Here's my suborder. I work at Home Depot. Come with me and work in the paint section today with me. And how these videos are going insane. I mean, they're getting millions of views and this is places that. Because again, that familiarity, we're like, oh, I go there and then they're taking us through their favorite things, what their day looks like. And we love it because now we have an inside scoop, right? So instead of an influencer who's pushing something that we know they're getting paid for, which is I love, trust me, I follow so many influencers. But this is a different thing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:31]:
So if you're like, no, I actually really like working at whatever that job is. And I see it with Anthropologie, you'll see more and more people in Anthropologie. I don't know if Anthropologie has a deal with their creators yet or their managers, but these, they're like, here's what I'm wearing today. As at a 8 hour shift and a 40 year old DA da da working at Anthropologie and people are freaking eating it up. I follow one of these creators, I'll make sure she's in the show notes. Her content's amazing. We're fascinated by it. It is literally gone full circle.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:57]:
You do not need to live a lavish life. You do not need to sell things that you're not even passionate about. You need to take us inside. And I don't care if that means you're a stay at home mom or you're a stay at home dad or you're a college grad student. Show me what you love about your campus. Do you know that if you even. I could see so many college students doing this and talking about like what meal they get, what their favorite, what under, you know, under the radar spots in their town they go to. I mean, I could see the potential is crazy, guys, the potential is crazy.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:25]:
We want the inside scoop. Not from an outsider, from an insider. We're the outsider and we don't like to feel like outsiders. Human beings do not want to feel like outsiders. So bring us in. We want to see from the insider's perspective. And that's why the insider era is going to change everything. It's why Starbucks is now paying their baristas.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:42]:
It's why other corporations will be following suit because they know that is the content getting the most attention right now. And trust me, when you want to know what's working on social media and in the marketing world, look at what the big guys are doing. They spend a whole lot of money researching what's going to make the most money. We know that. This is why they have so much money. You want to know what's working, look at where their money is going. And right now, their money is going to their own employees that are taking people behind the scenes because we want the inside scoop and we want basic. We don't want fancy production.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:15]:
So I'll give you a few examples. I mean, I've even seen. I don't know if I'll be able to find it. I'll try to find it for the show notes, but there was even someone who works at Elf Cosmetics, and she goes, come to work with me on the marketing team of Elf Cosmetics. And she got a ton of views. And we love to see it. We love to see the brands that we already know and love what's going on in their office. So even if it doesn't even have to be like, let's say you work at a corporation.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:35]:
Now, I know there are some corporations, obviously, that are like, absolutely not your boss. I don't want to get you fired. Right. We're not getting people fired here. If it's okay though, obviously, talk to hr, talk to, ask if it's okay. But again, even if you can't take people in, take us on your lunch break and talk about something that cool that happened that you're allowed to talk about. I've even seen a couple years ago on LinkedIn, there was a post of someone saying like, I don't care if you work at an HR of a law firm, you need to be building your own brand. And this is what I'm talking about because you can make so much money just showing us what it's like to work at a right.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:06]:
Think about all the law students that are like, ooh, what is it really like to work at a high profile big law in New York City or a small law firm in the boonies of Kentucky. Right? We want to see it. We love, we eat it up. I know you guys have seen the tiktoks and the reels from dentist office and like, it's, it's crazy. So let me give you some examples to close this out. Okay? This is so funny. I literally just opened TikTok. Listen to the beginning of this TikTok.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:29]:
This says everything. Ready? I really want to see a more real and raw on this app. Okay. I want to see moms who are working a full time job, juggling life at home with work and still trying to like make time for themselves. I want to see you in your nine to five element. I want to see you go after the dreams that you have always wanted. And like, there it is. How funny is that? That's the first video I see on TikTok.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:54]:
I'll make sure it's in the show notes and again from this, you're probably going, but how do I make it interesting? That's what next week is for. So make sure you tune in for the next week. Your homework is to really start kind of studying the content that I'm going to have in the show notes to think about, like, what are some things that you can take us inside? I know for me, if I was starting brand new and I wasn't sure and I like Instagram growth wasn't my thing, let's say I was, that was not my passion. The other things I love to share it would be again. And I did a whole thing on TikTok, the beach house. Like, I would probably show like things I'm buying for the beach. What a typical morning looks like where my, like, it's the stuff that I shared on TikTok the three weeks we were at the beach. That would probably be the content I share.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:33]:
And I would share just things I really, really like. I would also, I think if I could pick anything in the world to post about other than what I post about. Because helping you all grow on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, et cetera is my passion. But if that wasn't, if that wasn't what I love, I'd be posting everything local, my favorite places to go. It would be very North Carolina heavy. That would probably be my quote unquote niche. Even though you, you don't need a niche niche right all right, here's a creator from M and S Food. She is the director of product development at M and S Food.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:02]:
And M and S Food is a grocery store in looks like London. And here's one of her videos ready with over with a million views. Over a million. Hi, I'm Katherine, director of product development at M and S Food. Today is so exciting because we have got so many brilliant new products to share. Do you see what I mean? Insider, you work at Canva. Can you show us a glimpse of a new template that you guys are working on? Oh, you work at. And again, it doesn't have to be anything crazy.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:30]:
Another one of is of her in the grocery store. Hi, I'm Katherine Turner, director of product development at M and S. Let's go into the food hall to look at some of my favorite products. And she just shows you her favorite products. This is what I mean by insider. And like I mentioned earlier in the podcast, Emma with Good American, she does get everything from get ready with me to her making a smoothie with her kids. So again, it is. We want to feel like we know you.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:54]:
That is what social media has always freaking been. We just lost the plot a little bit, but we are so back, baby, and I love it. So again next week, I'll be giving you more ideas and helping you really understand how to take this new era and run with it. For now, I just want you to focus on kind of letting this sink in, remembering why you're. And kind of over the next week, look for these as you're scrolling. If you see one that's either a founder or employee base, whether it's a teacher, like, look at the T shirt. Look at the teachers, the artists, the people that work at Michael's, the people that work at HomeGoods. Doctors.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:27]:
Right. Chiropractors. Look not just in your niche. I actually don't want you to get stuck in your niche because that's where we get overthinking and get that imposter syndrome. So maybe here's your homework. Let's do this. Name like three of your favorite places. Maybe one is retail, one is some sort of food and beverage, and the third is maybe like a world that you're really interested in.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:13:46]:
Maybe it is like holistic medicine or whatever. So again, for me, I would probably look at Whole Foods and I would look at Taco Bell. I'm on the spectrum of foods. And then the third would probably be because I love makeup and beauty. So I'd probably look at like maybe some dermatologists. Or, you know, something like that. So make a note of that and maybe just actively search on TikTok or Instagram and see what employee quote unquote or founder generated content you can find. Study it and then when you come back next week, you will be ready to go.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:14:13]:
My friend, I love you. Have the best week.