Jaiden Robinson 00:00:09  Hello and welcome back to The Rave Social Podcast. I’m your host, Jaiden, and today we’re going to be talking about how to create better content. This is a question I get asked a lot in my DMs. People are just like, how do I create better content that my community will either engage with like share whatever their goal is. They just want to create better content. So we are going to go over how to achieve that. And the first thing that I want to talk about are the elements of in an engaging Instagram post. So, I kind of like to think about it this way. There are four hooks on any piece of content that you post, and those four hooks are one, a visual hook. So this hook is going to be the graphic that you create, the actual video that you have going on. maybe it’s even a photo if you’re posting a carousel or something like that, that is going to be the first hook that people see. The second hook is on screen text.

Jaiden Robinson 00:01:15  So this could be the text hook that’s on your carousel. This could be the text hook that is on your reel. This could be the text hook that is. Yeah. On your on your graphic on your real whatever it is, it’s going to be the thing that people actually read on your piece of content. And the third is the hook at the start of your caption, which is a highly forgotten hook. And then the fourth one is an auditory hook. And maybe not every piece of content is going to have an auditory hook, but that auditory hook could be like a trending audio. And the reason that is a hook is because if it’s trending, people are like used to hearing it. And they know what the trend. So when they hear that sound start to play, they’re going to be more interested in your content. Or it could be an auditory hook in terms of like you saying something with your mouth. So it could be like, if you are not getting new leads, it’s because you’re doing ex wrong.

Jaiden Robinson 00:02:17  That could be like the auditory hook that you’re saying if it’s a face to camera, like speaking real or something like that, and those four hooks are really what will build the engagement and like the level of how interesting your content is. And I think when people are trying to create better content, they’re like, oh, I need like a high level of production. I need all these crazy ideas that no one’s thought of before. And that is not necessarily true at all. For your content to be interesting, it just has to have a reason for someone to keep watching. So that could be because you’re going to give them really valuable information. It could be because you’re really entertaining. It could be because it’s funny. It could be because the visual hook is really engaging, and they want to know what is happening in the video that you’re playing something like that. You just need your content to be interesting. And interesting doesn’t mean crazy, like I said. And then the other thing to think of there is just what kind of content do you like to consume? I think we overcomplicate social media so much.

Jaiden Robinson 00:03:25  We want there to be like a magic strategy, a magic hook, a magic posting cadence, something like that to make our content really good. But in reality, if you just pay attention to the content you like to consume and kind of figure out, like, why is it that you like to consume that content, then you create content like that. That is what is going to perform well, especially when you see things like on your for you page and you find them really interesting. Instead of being like, I want to copy this. Why don’t you just take a second, like, take a step back and think, like, why did this catch my eye? Is it because the information. And it was really valuable? Is it because it made me think, oh, maybe I’m wrong about that. Is it because it was beautiful? And the production that went into it was awesome? All of those things are going to change how well your content does and help you create better content. One of my personal favorite things to do is scroll TikTok, and I was actually talking to my partner about this last night.

Jaiden Robinson 00:04:28  I’m like, I have a hard time just scrolling TikTok for pleasure now because I’m always just like subconsciously looking for patterns like, how did they start that video? What were they saying? What are they talking about? What are the colors they’re using? What’s the emotion they’re invoking when they’re talking? My brain is thinking like patterns, patterns, patterns. So you too could have that happen. If you just want to work in social media and scroll all day long? No, but seriously, that is how you’re going to create better content is by consuming content and then understanding why that content is performing the way that it is. That will help you create better content. The next thing is, how often should I post on Instagram for optimal engagement? And here’s the thing if you want real growth on social media, I think that you need to post every single day for at least 90 days. And here’s the reason behind that. It’s not because of the algorithm. You’re not training the algorithm. You’re not doing a hack.

Jaiden Robinson 00:05:33  It’s nothing like that. It’s actually just because you need to understand what kind of content you like to create and can create within your own life. You know your lifestyle at the time you want to spend on it, all of that. You need to figure that out. You need to figure out what of that content lands with your audience, because some of it is not going to land. You could have the best hook ever, and it’s not going to land with your audience for whatever reason. You need to figure that out, and the only way to do that is really to just post and like post a lot and learn from those posts. The third thing is, if you can get in the habit of posting every single day for 90 days, when you are able to scale that back to five times a week, it’s going to feel so much easier and you’re going to be in the routine. You’re not going to let yourself just fall off the face of the earth, which is what happens to a lot of people.

Jaiden Robinson 00:06:27  And then the other thing is you need to understand what topics and what things in your business your audience likes to consume. Because if you don’t know that you’re just going to be throwing content at the wall for years and years and years and not seeing the growth that you want to see, if you want to really dial in quickly and have that growth. I just think you really need to post to your feed every single day for 90 days as a challenge. And it’s honestly like it. It is challenging at first, but it truly does get easier the more frequent and the more consistent you are with it. After you’ve posted every single day for 90 days, that’s when I think you’re totally fine to scale back. If you want to post 4 or 5 times a week to your feed after that, go for it. I would just make sure that you’re showing up on your stories every single day. So no matter what, I would show up on your stories and then in your feed, you can dial back to that 4 or 5 times a week.

Jaiden Robinson 00:07:23  That’s what I’m currently doing, and that’s what all of my clients do at this point. And that’s where they’re seeing that like really steady, consistent growth. And they understand what their audience wants to see. Creating content is so much easier from there. Okay. Next up. What types of content perform the best on Instagram? This is also going to help you create better content. Understanding what kind of content that cross section of what kind of content does your audience like to consume, and what kind of content do you like to create? That’s that golden spot where content creation doesn’t feel hard and it’s effective, and your audience is eating it up. So that’s what we want, ultimately. And here’s the thing. There is not one type of content that is king. You’re going to see posts all the time. Reels are king. Carousels are king. Everyone wants to be right about this. And the truth is, there is not one that is better or worse for you. It just depends on your audience and how they like to consume content.

Jaiden Robinson 00:08:27  So again, you have to figure that out. You have to see, is my audience consuming carousels in the way that I want them to? Or do they consume reels better? Do they like a shorter hook and then all the information in the caption? Or would they rather me really dive into the topic in a carousel? These are the questions that we have to ask ourselves. So for me, I try to do a mix and I will usually do 3 or 4 reels a week, because my audience consumes my reels very well and they’re easier for me to create. So I’ll do 3 or 4 reels a week, and then I’ll do 1 to 2 carousels a week, getting me up into that five post per week that I recommend. So this will, you know, help you see what content your audience wants to see from you. And the last thing is that I think static posts are really underrated. I think that they used to be really popular. Right? Like in high school, we would just post like a really hot selfie of ourselves and it would perform awesome.

Jaiden Robinson 00:09:29  And we were like, great, we love it. And then when Carousels and Reels came out, I think static posts kind of got put on the back burner. But here’s the thing static posts are underrated because when your audience comes across your static post, they are like, oh, that’s all the information there is. And maybe it’s just even a picture of you, but then they head down to your caption. So a way that I like to use static posts for myself and my clients is kind of like a journal entry where we’re really building trust and authority. So taking us back to 2010, I will post just like a picture of me or a selfie, or I’ll guide my clients to do that. And then in the caption, we kind of give like some little sneak peeks into the offers we’ve been working on, or a little journal entry as to what we’ve been up to lately, just to kind of build that community and that like strong feeling of authority with your audience and your caption there.

Jaiden Robinson 00:10:24  So if you haven’t tried that lately, I would say try that now. Give it a whirl. Okay, another thing with creating better content is hashtags. And I feel like this is such a hot subject. And here’s the thing hashtags have never been what makes or breaks your content. And that’s just the truth. I mean, yes, hashtags did help with reach at some point, and I witnessed that for myself and I witnessed it for my clients as well. But hashtags were never going to be the thing that made your account just like, totally pop off and go viral. They were an added place for people to be able to search you. But now there’s been a shift into keywords and it’s the same as Pinterest. It’s the same as TikTok. It’s the same as Google as a search engine. Hashtags are valuable, and they’re important for you to be searchable. But I would focus more on keywords, and those are kind of like interchangeable at this point. I don’t think Instagram has completely changed the algorithm to like not showing hashtags anymore.

Jaiden Robinson 00:11:35  But I do know that like they’re using hashtags as keywords, so I would use no more than 15 hashtags and I would use the 15 hashtags. If you want to. But gone are the days of like the really long hashtags hashtag, things like that, I think. Just get specific and share a couple that are really valuable to your audience and really searchable. And the other thing with hashtags is that guess what? I haven’t been using them. I have literally stopped using hashtags in my content, I think for the last like three weeks or so. And I’m recording this on July 17th, so we’ll see where I’m at when this episode comes out. But I’ve actually stopped using hashtags, and honestly, my content has been performing pretty much the same. Like there. I’ve seen maybe a slight dip in reach, but nothing that extreme, and I think I’m going to keep doing it just to like test it and see and then show you guys like what is the difference and if like it was even worth your time to like type out the hashtags.

Jaiden Robinson 00:12:38  Like maybe it’s not even worth it. I’m kind of leaning towards that. Another big thing with Creating better content is how can you make it like visually more appealing. And I think that a good place to look is on your for you page, because when you see those viral reels and when you see that content that is performing really well, that is an indicator to create that kind of content. And I’m not saying copy these creators or these reels or even like the content really, because a lot of times it’s just like super vague and not actually useful for your business, but you can find trends in what visually is making sense. So how are things popping up on the screen? What is the graphic design looking like? How are people structuring like the words you read on the screen? And when you pay attention to that, then you can implement that into your own business. So take a look right there and you can see what content is performing the best. I will also say Human content is going to perform the best.

Jaiden Robinson 00:13:46  So a lot of times clients will come to me and they are maybe, maybe you’re a photographer. And so you have really beautiful content of like, table scapes and cakes and landscapes and things like that. And you want to use those in your reels, but that is not going to perform nearly as good as a human face. So even in your video content, you really want to start with a human or like an emotion. And here’s the thing. I’m not going to tell you to post a reel of you crying. Sometimes I find those cringe. Sometimes I want to post them myself. I’ve seen my clients post them. And here’s the thing they do really well. I’m not going to tell you to post that if you don’t want to, but they do really well because they are so emotional. It’s the same thing with photographers reels that will go really viral. It will be like the woman or the bride walking down the aisle, and you can see the groom at the end and he’s crying.

Jaiden Robinson 00:14:49  Those reels do really well because they are pulling a really strong emotion out of it. So there you go. There’s an idea. The more emotion you can share, the better. And that is a very visual thing. I think just what’s really important to remember about your visual content is that social media is meant to be social. So when you take the human out of it, and when you take that element out where you’re just posting like words on a black background, which I do sometimes strategically, you are losing that social aspect to a degree. Yes, your copy can come in and be that social aspect for you if you want to, but I think it’s just important to remember that like it is a social platform, period. So your content needs to be social if you want it to perform well. And that that can be a very visual thing another thing that I like to do with my visual content is do something that’s easily repeatable. So I like to go to a studio in Salt Lake and get content.

Jaiden Robinson 00:15:51  And I do this about quarterly. I just get tons of B-roll. That all looks pretty much the same, but that way it is a strong visual hook. Each time someone sees my content, they know it’s me because they know, like the outfits, the space, the area. Like it’s very, easy for them to recall. Like, that is my content. So that’s one way I like to make my content more visually appealing. But you kind of have to do what works for you. I know that’s not always possible. And if in your niche, if you’re maybe you’re a photographer, like that doesn’t make sense for you. So maybe for you it’s just getting a lot of B-roll and maybe hiring someone to come and get behind the scenes content for you. The final thing I’ll say on this is that iPhone video is going to outperform any sort of highly produced video. So don’t be afraid to just pull out your phone and create some video. And yeah, it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Jaiden Robinson 00:16:51  In fact, the less perfect it is, the more visually appealing it is because we are again on a social platform, and your audience isn’t expecting a high level production when they’re just scrolling through some reels each day. Another hot, hot question that we get, and this is a debate I see on social media all the time, but does my theme or grid matter? And at a point in time, grids were really, really important. They were like, honestly, the bread and butter of social media. But here’s the thing it’s not really a big deal anymore. Unless you are a photographer or like a designer, your grid really doesn’t matter. So if you’re a coach, if you’re a service provider, if you’re doing anything besides like something that is 100% visual, like photography and videography or like design, website design or graphic design, you do not need to worry about your grid. And even as a photographer and a designer, I would not worry about your grid to the degree that you use to.

Jaiden Robinson 00:18:00  I would just make sure that your colors are cohesive and things are looking nice. You can do the light dark method. So a light photo, a dark photo, a light photo, a dark photo to kind of build that contrast on your page. But don’t let your grid hold you back from posting. I think this is like my the hill I want to die on as a social media manager. Is that like your content? Going out is always going to be more important than your grid. Like your grid is a secondary thing. If you have the bandwidth, if you can do that and you can make it a priority, do it. If not, post the content anyways. And here’s the thing for everyone else. If you are using consistent fonts and colors and like themes, I don’t even want to say the word themes. But like if you’re using consistent fonts and colors and maybe like filters on your photos, you don’t need to worry about your grid. It’s going to naturally look pretty cohesive as long as you’re not using like one random font in this and another random font in this like you want even your Instagram native text, you want to use similar fonts each time just so that you’re easily recognizable and digestible.

Jaiden Robinson 00:19:14  And that honestly goes more for like how your content is going to perform than your grid. But as a side effect, your grid is going to look great. So I just would not worry about that too much. Okay. And then the best tools and apps for editing your photos and videos for Instagram. So I like to edit in Final Cut Pro Capture or just write in the Instagram app. I’m pretty sure capture is free. You just want to make sure it doesn’t like leave the logo at the end of whatever you export. Pro tip but for me, I will edit things in Final Cut. Like if I’m recording a face to camera reel that I need to cut out all the pauses, ums and all of that kind of stuff. I’ll edit that in Final Cut. For some people, premiere is easier, but really it’s up to you. And if you are like a photographer or a web designer, it might be easier for you to operate inside of Adobe Premiere if you’re already familiar with it.

Jaiden Robinson 00:20:14  or Final Cut if you’re familiar with that. But also like editing inside of Instagram is getting easier and easier. They keep rolling out updates that make it really simple. You can speed things up, slow it down, cut things out, change the duration of your clips. So don’t be afraid to just edit like right in the app. My only piece of advice with this is like if you’re going to use Koepka or some sort of like external editing, I would make sure your text is still native. So what that means is like, I wouldn’t add text in cap cut really. Maybe unless it’s for like a podcast, I would make sure that you’re using the Instagram native font and adding that text right inside the app. That helps Instagram just be able to give you better SEO and keywords when they can see that the text is right in there. I also just like this is a hunch, but I’m pretty sure Instagram pushes content more when you use more of their features. And the downside of like using your brand fonts and stuff like that on reels is that it’s going to come off immediately as like an ad, like a paid ad, instead of feeling like organic content.

Jaiden Robinson 00:21:24  So people might just like skip over your content if you’re using fonts and stuff that aren’t native in the app that they’re scrolling on. So I would just keep that in mind. And also like you don’t need to override it like these things just need to be really simple and high quality content is truly not rocket science. It’s just is it clear? Is it concise? Is it eye catching? Like we don’t need to add all these crazy things. In fact, I would just take things out. Like anything that is not getting your point across directly, I would take that out. That’s how your content is going to get better. And then moving on to your Instagram Stories. This is where your content really matters for connecting with your audience. So if you want to make better story content, I would focus on these four elements community authority, sales, and your personality. So I just really think you should stop thinking about being interesting. And I know that goes against what I was saying with your feed content, but in your stories, like, really, you don’t need to be that interesting.

Jaiden Robinson 00:22:34  You can just share your coffee like your audience genuinely cares what your favorite coffee is. So I would share that. Or if you’re a foodie, like share your favorite places to eat. People love that, and it’s really going to build that personal pillar and even sharing things that you like to do outside of work, like your audience wants to know what you do for fun. They don’t always want you to just be like teaching them and providing value. In fact, that gets really old really fast. And I’m sure you followed people that are like that and you’re like, please get me out of this. And you can always ask questions in your stories too, which will help you make better content. So the one question that I tell everyone to avoid is, what do you want to see more of from me? Because here’s the thing your audience doesn’t want to see anything from you. If you’re going to ask them straight out like that, they’re probably know that’s your job to figure out what they want to see from you But you can ask guiding questions to see what they need.

Jaiden Robinson 00:23:37  So questions like what is the number one thing that bothers you about your marketing strategy. And then you can give them options. And then based on what people click on, you can create content around that which will help you create better content because it’s what your audience wants, right? So the main thing there is just like not explicitly saying, what do you want to see from me? Like you need to uncover that that’s your job to discover what your audience wants. And also because they may not really know what they want. So when you give them options like in a poll or something like that, they’re like, oh, I actually don’t mind that. My marketing strategy takes me five hours a month. What irritates me is that it’s not working. So you can talk about why their marketing strategy is not working, instead of talking about how to improve the time they spend on it, if that makes sense. Okay great. Moving on. There’s two more things I want to chat about briefly here at the end.

Jaiden Robinson 00:24:37  And the first one is, how can you use organic content to grow? And using organic content to grow is just not so challenging. It’s more of a consistency thing. So we talked about this at the beginning, but you really do need to be showing up every single day on your stories at least. And just like being there and connecting with your audience, and that doesn’t always mean that you’re going to be doing some high level production on your stories. It just means like showing up, saying hi, like showing that you’re there for your audience and that you don’t just like, do a big burst on social media when you’re launching or selling an offer and then disappear forever. Like they want to know you’re reliable and they want to know that you genuinely, genuinely like, want to connect with them. And the last thing that I will touch on here is how you can use your Instagram Analytics to improve your content strategy. So I will say, first and foremost, don’t spend too much time inside your analytics because all that’s going to do is make you feel bad about yourself, especially if you have a piece of content that does really well for the next year, your analytics are going to be comparing you to that piece of content.

Jaiden Robinson 00:25:52  So that’s good in some ways, right? Because that was your high performing content. But at the same time, like, should you be focusing on that or should you be focusing on the content that is getting you new leads and getting you new sales and getting you new clients? You know, I think that sometimes we can just get really wrapped up in that. So instead of that, I would look at your posts on a post by post basis and try not to compare too much like month over month. I would maybe look at 90 day analytics and then post by post. So when you’re looking post by post. Don’t be fooled by rich comments and likes because honestly, I know this is so cliche to say, but they do not indicate if that content was effective because your post could get zero likes and zero comments and sell your offer to someone that is completely possible. And in fact, the content that is going to convert your audience the most is going to be your most niche content, which means the least amount of people are going to resonate with it.

Jaiden Robinson 00:26:59  So that’s actually okay. What I would instead look at is the goal of each of your pieces of content. So if you posted something with the intention of getting a lot of views for your reach strategy, and it didn’t get a lot of views for your reach strategy, I would just look at why was it the hook? Was it your visuals behind it? Was it your caption? You know, was it just not like direct enough? Like did your audience just like, miss it? Those are the kinds of things that I would consider. And then I also would just look at your business as a whole, like, is your marketing strategy getting you closer to your goal? Is it getting you new leads? Are you getting conversions? Are you reaching new people for your business to convert down the line? That’s what I would consider more than just looking directly inside those Instagram analytics. And here’s the thing. I’m going to say it right now. I haven’t looked at my analytics in actual like I cannot remember the last time I looked at them.

Jaiden Robinson 00:28:01  I look at them more for my clients, obviously, because we want to be really informed and have that data. But for me, I’m just like, it doesn’t make me feel good to look at my analytics. I want to compare myself and honestly, I don’t give a shit. I don’t give a shit. I’m getting new leads. I’m getting new clients. Like my sales strategy is obviously working, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time in there making myself feel bad when I would rather just spend that time like creating better content and more content, if that makes sense. So that is a wrap on how to make better content. I hope there were some good little nuggets you took from this. I know this episode is kind of short and sweet, but I actually love that because hopefully you can just take some elements and implement them right away to help improve the performance of your content. So yeah, we’ll see you next time. Bye. First, I want to say thank you so much for being here and listening to my podcast.

Jaiden Robinson 00:28:53  It means the world to me, and I just appreciate this community more than you could ever know. If you love this episode or a previous episode that you’ve listened to, go ahead and head to the. Leave a review link in the show notes and leave us a review. We would really appreciate it and we’re so glad that you’re here. Thank you.