Attention is modern-day gold.
Which makes social media the modern-day gold mine.
If mined correctly, you can become wealthy.
- Wealthy with community.
- Wealthy with connection.
- Wealthy with influence.
- Wealthy with impact.
The problem is that few know how to mine correctly.
Their content lacks depth.
Depth in human emotion.
You can educate people all day long. But if you don't get someone to feel something. It is unlikely they will pay attention.
We are emotional creatures first and logical creatures second.
All learning starts with emotion.
So then the question is, what emotion do you want people to feel?
Well, there are six basic human emotions.
- Sadness
- Happiness
- Fear
- Anger
- Surprise
- Disgust
The general news has mastered fear, anger, and sadness.
But I have good news for you (pun intended).
They've mastered the wrong emotions.
Let me explain.
The Emotion Worth Mastering
I've posted content for 540 days in a row (and counting)
95% of which was getting little to no engagement.
Then, on April 17th, I made a post that had a 3,050% increase in engagement.
"Uhhhhh, whaaaaaa?!"
It was the day after I ran the BPN marathon, and the post wasn't even about me.
It was about an incredible human by the name of Hannah Hutzley.
She was paralyzed in a car accident in 2017 and showed up on race day to join her fellow athletes for a walk across the finish line.
You can find the whole story here.
But here's what it taught me.
People like, share, and engage with content that makes them happy.
For too long, we falsy believed that if we wanted to increase engagement.
We have to post content that makes people angry or sad.
It turns out that happiness is where the real gold is at.
This couldn't make me happier. 😉
But then how do we do it?!
3 Steps To Creating Happier Content
Step 1 - Define Your Audience
Clarify who it is you're creating for.
- What excites them?
- What entertains them?
- What makes them happy?
- What makes them go, "Hell yeah!!"
Content that makes a middle-aged trucker go, "hell yeah!!" will be very different than a 16-year-old high school student.
Define who it is that you want to brighten their day.
Step 2 - Master the 3 E's
Content creation can be rolled into three categories:
- Entertainment - it compels you to watch more
- Educational - it teaches you something new
- Emotional - it gets you to feel something
If you can hit one of these, you're doing well.
If you can hit all 3, you're crushing it.
For your next piece of content, ask yourself these three questions:
- Is this entertaining for my target audience?
- What does this teach my target audience?
- How does this content make them feel?
In my example of Hannah Hutzley:
- Entertaining? - Yes, especially if you're into fitness.
- Educational? - Yes, it teaches people about grit and resilience.
- Emotional? - Yes, it inspires people to chase their dreams.
Step 3 - Tell Stories
People share stories.
People remember stories.
People are storytelling machines.
To quote the great Steve Jobs, "The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come."
Use videos.
Use photos.
Paint a picture with your words.
Visuals are great at evoking emotion.
Just remember that stories that make people feel happy always do best.
Recap:
- Social media is the modern-day gold mine.
- There are 6 basic human emotions.
- Happiness is the strongest of all the emotions.
- Define your audience.
- Master the 3 E's.
- Tell more stories.
If you want to learn more about content creation, contact me here.
Hope you enjoyed this one, my friend.
-CH
