Spark Conversation with Reels Your Audience Will Want To Respond To

Are you ready for a challenge? This weekend I was sitting in the airport with my husband. I told him I was going to grab a video already on his phone, post it, and by the time we land it will have quadruple the number of views he normally has. The result? It’s already over 10,000 views and he normally gets around 300 to 400. I see him overthinking his content and I know you are too. We are in a loneliness epidemic, people want to connect and we connect through conversations and storytelling. If your content feels personal, your audience will see themselves in your story and engage. Don’t overthink it, let your personality shine and watch your community grow. Human moments drive good content, trust me, it works!

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• How this era of social media focuses on authentic human connection and relatable storytelling.
• Building relationships and finding connection on social platforms through storytelling and relatable posts.
• Easy-to-weigh-in content drives engagement, such as local recommendations or trending (and sometimes controversial) topics.
• Using real-life conversations to inspire attention-grabbing hooks and content that gets more views
• A simple exercise to try this week: What conversations have you had with strangers that came up and are business related? Use that energy in your content for human connection.

Featured content in this episode:

• Petfriendlyhomesfl: POV: You’re in Florida
• Iam_alisanporter: The Bachelorette
• Takai.raashid: Weight loss
• Breakthroughbyjill: Weird rules we follow

Recommended episodes:

• Episode 67: The Importance of Belonging on Social Media
• Episode 81: Your Next Powerful Piece of Content is Already on Your Phone
• Episode 97: We All Love Familiarity, Here’s How to Create that Familiar Feeling in Your Content 
• Episode 103: Hot Take: We’re Following Accounts Where We See a Reflection of Ourselves
• Episode 104: How to Create Viral Reels From Everyday Video Clips

If you use the send a message option above, be sure to include your email address if you would like a reply! (Please allow 3-5 business days for a response)

Join me in the Reels Lab!

Love this conversation? Make sure to follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Connect with me 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. All right guys, I'm so excited about this episode because As I've mentioned, and you can tell I'm very, very excited, I am one of the keynotes at Social Media Marketing World next month in California, which I'm completely pinching myself and just finished the presentation. And I'm just so stoked. Like, I just cannot wait to give this presentation or this speech or whatever you want to call it, because I just, I know, like, we have definitely entered a completely new era of social media. We've known that for a couple of years now as we've been watching what's working, what no longer works, right? It went from sharing cute pictures of our lattes and our dogs and our travel adventures and, you know, with our friends and family. Then it went to heavy education, like coach it, right? And now we're like, oh God, we had to like, we, you know, the pendulum, right? We had to kind of overcorrect where now it's back to human connection again. And that's what my whole talk will be about is the return of, you know, human connection.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:20]:
Because as we know, there is a loneliness epidemic, right? People are lonely and we're busier than ever and we're on our phones more than ever. So a lot of the human connection we get these days, which is, it's sad, but it's true, is from our phones. But again, like I've said before, what a blessing it is to connect with people and serve people and be there for others, especially during crazy times, right? So I just got back from Florida for my friend's 40th birthday, Ms Sara Wiles. It was a blast. And it was funny because we're sitting at the airport bar, right? Um, I was at the get my little, you know, mimosa before the flight. So my husband and I are sitting there, and as we're sitting there, we- I basically did a, um, challenge, right? I was like, give me your phone, I'm gonna grab a video that's already on your phone, I'm gonna post it, by the time we land it will have quadruple the views of what you normally do. And sure enough, it did. It's already over 10,000 views, and normally he gets like 300, 400, because even though that's my husband, he doesn't always listen to my tips.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:18]:
And it's so funny because it just, you know, and he overthinks every single post. I see him and I'm like, press post already. So I see I know what you guys are going through. I also obviously have one-on-one clients. I even still manage, uh, some accounts. So I'm in the trenches with y'all. Trust me, I don't just grow my account. I grow others as well.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:35]:
So it was really fun. And we did 3 Reels over the span of a couple days and all of them are going crazy for him. So it's really exciting. But it's funny because as we're sitting there at the bar, a story that I love to tell people is like, I like to think of social media, all the platforms, as an airport bar, because what happens at an airport bar— well, I always joke about how if you need to restore your faith in humanity, go sit at an airport bar. It's literally strangers going to all different destinations from all different walks of life who randomly are overhearing conversations, or someone will have a shirt on that has maybe the school they went to, the team they root for, the resort that they love in Hawaii, whatever it is. And they're like, oh, Oh, hey, where are you going? Where are you off to? Or my dad went to that college, right? We're literally sitting there and people are making connections. And it's so funny to me that the bartenders know, you know, when they strike a connection with the person, they're going to get bigger tip. But it's also because we just want to connect with others.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:36]:
And what happened was, as we're sitting there and I'm creating a reel for Ryan, and I'm literally talking about, because one of his reels talks about how the 835 square foot home we bought in Alexandria in 2016 when we had no money. We were lucky enough to get like a zero down. Long story short, it was a major fixer-upper. Um, a lot of you guys were actually along for that journey as we started. Um, you know, about a year after we moved in, we, we just— it was, what do you call it, sweat equity, I guess. Like, Ryan did the floors himself. We did our half bathroom ourselves. We did hire out for our kitchen, but, you know, it was like a family friend, literally.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:12]:
When I say in that tiny little house that was a very much a starter home that was not ideal or in the neighborhood we wanted, but that home bought us this home in Cary, our forever home. That home got us on this path of creating wealth for ourself. And obviously as my business grew and his real estate business grew, things started moving. And so, but when we look back to 2016, that tiny, we call it the tiny townhouse that could, it was on Jason Avenue in Alexandria, Virginia, and we were able to sell in 2020. And then we moved down here. So anyway, we were talking about that and I was like, let's create a reel about that. Let's put the screen— I've seen other people do it too. Like, this is a reminder that your first, your baby little starter home is the down payment for your dream home, right? And it's a video of Ryan walking into a house that he already had on his camera roll.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:58]:
And in the caption, I told the story of buying the house and where we are today. And we use it as, you know, because it's fun. Like, I love reels like that because the reel itself was educational. It gives like a tiny like little bit of advice. And then in the caption, you're able to make them feel heard with your own story. And those types of Reels just do really, really well, no matter what niche you're in, whatever you sell. That's why Reels are so dope, because you can do one thing, one type of value in the video, and then add extra value in the caption. Okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:29]:
With all that said, it did really well. But as we're saying this, our bartender goes, ooh man, wish I knew that back in whatever, whatever, when he was in his 20s, something like that. And we're like, yeah. And he goes, yeah. He's like, you know what, luckily my family and I bought a house in 2020 and like, he was talking about all this stuff, right? But he's like, man, the way we would have been so much better off if we had done it earlier. And Ryan's like, yeah, man. And talking to him, and my husband's really good at talking to anybody. And, um, he's— that's one of his gifts.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:56]:
I always joke like, Ryan, you can throw him anywhere and he's gonna make a best friend. But with that conversation, what happened? They struck up a conversation. They were talking about, um, he was giving stories, he was asking Ryan for advice, and it's those moments that I'm like, this is literally what social media is too. If you think about as you're scrolling, you're seeing a lot of content from people you don't know anymore. That's a big shift we've had, right? They're strangers. They're strangers. And you're not going to chime in in the comments section if it's something you can't really weigh in on, or if you don't have a question about, you're going to scroll away. So your content has to do the same thing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:33]:
It has to resonate. It has to connect. It has to make them feel like this is for them. And a lot of people will say, oh, I tried this hook, it didn't work. I'll look and I'm like, it's way too vague. I don't understand what it's about. I can't connect to it. I can't weigh in on it because I don't get it right.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:47]:
I don't know. This is what I love to say. We did 3 reels. One was about the Raleigh airport and why it's our favorite airport. We love RDU. Second one was about the homeownership thing. And then the third was like a funny one of Ryan, like doing the silly influencer trend. So what's funny is the RDU one, immediately people are commenting because they're like, goated best airport ever.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:09]:
I love it. Right. That's easy to weigh in on. Now, if Ryan starts explaining mortgage rates, I mean, he, he'll get some stuff. You might get some questions, but we're typically not trying to talk mortgage rates when we're scrolling Instagram. Right. So what does he do? I'm like encouraging him to share, hey, if you have one day in Durham, this is where we're going. If you're a single Dude, moving to Raleigh in your 20s, these are the neighborhoods you should look at, right? That's the type of stuff that makes people go, ooh, not just neighborhoods in Raleigh to check out.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:37]:
That's boring. We have to see ourselves, right? So when you think about it, the fact that what Ryan said resonated with the bartender, he said, same, wish I knew that sooner. And it goes for the same, you know, you're looking at all these other people, some are in suits, some are in, you know, March Madness gear, right? Right now it's like March Madness. So. You're seeing all these people and someone stopped the other guy at the bar being like, oh, did you go there? And he's like, no, my son does. And they were talking about the, whatever shirt he had on. And they're like, yeah, you beat us so bad last year, da da da da da. So they're all talking about that.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:08]:
And it's just like, that's it. It's that simple. Think of social media, take the social media part out of it and just think of real life humans. We want to be able to weigh in on something. We want to give what we think about a situation that's happening. We want to laugh with you, right? I know. For a fact, like when I shared this, when, when we were sitting at that airport bar, I did the trend of no one's coming to save you and then you react with, yeah, right. And mine said, it's like, uh, no, as long as my husband's on God's green earth, he's coming to save me immediately.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:40]:
And then I said something like, a matter of fact, he's already here. It's him walking up to the bar. And I made the caption like CEO of saving me from myself or something like that. Funny. Everyone in the caption, my husband too, my husband too, my husband too. It's something easy for people to weigh in on. Do my Instagram tips get a lot of engagement too? Of course. But a lot of people, it's because they're like, oh, I'm stuck.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:58]:
I need help. But then those superhuman moments and just things that we can, like I said, attach to and weigh in on are really fun. And I love sharing content like that because even though I share social media tips, it's fun to just connect with my people sometimes and give them a glimpse into my life. And, and people all the time are like, oh my gosh, I love when you and your husband, your, your Instagram stories with him, you guys have so much fun. It just helps us trust each other, right? And then the people in my stories all weekend, oh my gosh, that I've been to that restaurant and that pasta. You're right. It's insane. Cause my brother told us about this restaurant to go to, Bucon in West Palm Beach.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:32]:
Holy moly. It was amazing. And same thing sitting at that bar. We're hearing all these people ask conversations. There's this one guy asking these older gentlemen, he goes, what wars did y'all fight in? And it was just like, when you think about it in that way, we're just trying to find something to talk about together and to connect over and something to attach to. So with that said, I'll just give you a few reels that are going crazy just to show you how easy. And so like, oh duh, right? Let me just scroll and we'll just find a couple. Okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:00]:
All right. So, oh my gosh, this is hilarious. It says POV, you're in Florida, it's 8:00 AM, you just grabbed a coffee, it's 75 degrees, and you're headed to the beach for a dip in the ocean before work. That's hilarious because why am I seeing this? Because I was just in Florida. Like, it's just- and the algorithm is so smart, it knows what content I want to see right now. And with me just been in Florida yesterday, it knows that. Okay. Oh, here's a good one.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:21]:
We grew up on Real World and Jersey Shore. Play the damn season. Talking about The Bachelorette. Now, obviously that's a very controversial subject right now, but there you go. It gives people something to chime in on, and it also tells the person's age immediately, right? That she's probably a millennial. So again, give something for people to weigh in on. Now, is that gonna sell your products, services? No, but I'll find one just so you guys see too. I know you're probably like, Shannon, that's not gonna- I'm like, I know, I know.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:47]:
Love this. Here we go. If I had to lose 50 pounds before May, here's exactly what I'll do. So again, he is putting himself in the viewer's shoes. He's talking directly to the person. That's their goal. He knows if he just says, if I want to lose, you know, some weight for summer, not as it's 50 pounds before May. And then he, in the video, he's demoing and he's in the gym.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:10]:
So obviously if people, he's not going to get people interested if they hate the gym, right? They see themselves in it. I'll do one more. All right, love this one. Weird rules we follow to stay lean and jacked year round as parents in our 40s. Again, this is what I mean. They're using language their people use. They're saying they're in their 40s. Why am I saying that? Because I'm in my 40s, so I feel like I am seen and I can weigh in.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:35]:
That's something I can have an opinion on or learn from and then follow them, be like, yeah, they're the people I want to follow. So I'll make sure for next week we go deep into hooks that are working right now. But this is again, a fun little exercise. What are conversations that you have maybe had with strangers that came up that are business related? So you can use that energy in your content to get more views. Human connection at the end of the day, guys. Love you. I'll talk to you next week.