Episode 26 - Analyzing Content & Building your audience
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Monica: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone. Welcome back to inside the click the podcast that cuts through the noise by giving you unbiased data driven insights into the creator economy.
Michelle: I'm
Monica: Michelle. Let's
Michelle: get into it.
If you look at your performance for something, don't forget looking a few days before, or even a few weeks before, what in general types of content did you post that's leading to higher engagement and honestly, doing that analysis can be a little time consuming because it's. Really, the best way to do that is to go and pull your data up and then literally put pictures of your content up, like either like above or below, like your impression volume or the engagement rates or something, because then.
I always love doing this, and this is even what you can do when looking at data or like [00:01:00] data visualizations. If you relax your eyes, you should be able to just tell what's happening. So if you put all of your like high performing posts, like over on one side, like the images of them, drag them over in your I don't know, like Apple notes thing, and then put all of your low performing images by each other or posts even right.
If you do like text posts. And then you should be able to see, Oh my gosh, my high performing ones, feature my family a lot. Or if they're of me, with my car or whatever, and that is what works for you versus, oh, the images that are really dark or images that are just of me or my selfies. I feel like usually selfies actually do well, but let's just say people's faces.
Yeah. But let's just say that in this instance that they, that the selfie was not good. So then you're like, okay, like I shouldn't really post selfies. I still [00:02:00] see some creators posting text posts. On Facebook, and it drives me nuts. Awful. No, no one's going to click on that. No. No one's going to even see it, probably.
So what is happening? The whole world is visual and even reading visual, aka video. Yes. Yeah, I would definitely, that's a worthwhile exercise that everyone can do. Pull all of your stuff down, pull your metrics down, and then put the posts by their metrics. It's high and low and even mid, cause that's like content that's consistent and you should be able to see here's what works.
Here's what doesn't work.
Monica: I love that. That's such a good idea.
And even talking about this, just had an aha moment where if I take my Instagram account where when it was successful, when it was doing what it needed to do, and I have done this exercise before actually, where I looked at [00:03:00] that and I looked at what I'm doing now.
I am not doing the same stuff. What worked when I had a successful Instagram account was I was on stories all the time, chatting with my audience about random things that happening in my day to day, there was one instance where so I love Hallmark Christmas movies and Hallmark had released an app so that you could start checking off.
Which ones you watched and I was like, yes, challenge accepted. Now, they added another layer that said that you could add it to your calendar when. It's out so that like you remember to catch it. What it didn't say was, if you choose to do that, it's going to add every single movie to your calendar throughout the day and mark it as busy.
I got on Instagram [00:04:00] stories and I was like, y'all, you need to help me like mass delete all this from my Google calendars. Like telling this whole situation. I was having like followers as boyfriends, like trying to help tech solve this, like this whole thing. And there was always something like once a week, ridiculous like I would go.
Like to brunch and then drunkenly buy a plant and get in a taxi home, taxi, an Uber back to my apartment. DC was perfect for this type of content because in a city where you're walking around all the time, something ridiculous is always going to happen. Yeah. So that's what worked and that's what kept people engaged.
And then in passing it's, Oh, you left the Tupperware on your stove that you've never used before, but you just happened to turn it on once. And there's. Now Tupperware melting on your stove. But what was that shirt that you were wearing in when you were explaining that? That stuff is memorable. And I [00:05:00] don't do that anymore because I feel like I'm like 33 and boring now.
No,
Michelle: I feel like you also said that you felt a little jaded. That can happen if the fun is taken out of it a little bit where you're just less goofy and whatnot, but. That's a really interesting observation. I would watch that.
Monica: You're like, Oh my gosh. You can go back there, back in the highlights, it's 20 something.
There's my life in DC was one funny situation after the other. I will, with the stove, I had a 360 square foot apartment, so I was never there and I never cooked. I lived on top of Whole Foods and Navy Yard, so that was literally my kitchen and I went out of town for two weeks and I came back and the people at Whole Foods thought I had died.
Because they're used to seeing me three times a day.[00:06:00]
I would always be wearing Kansas City stuff, and so they called me KC. And I'm telling them, and I tell you, they thought I died. They knew me.
Michelle: Okay, they should have just looked in the newspaper and not, or sorry, not the newspaper, gosh, we're not in like 1990. They should have done a Google search. Be like, you're fine. Goodness, that's really funny.
Monica: Yeah. But to that point is if anyone else is listening and they're frustrated, I would say almost do that exercise that we just did here to just thinking like, when I enjoyed being a content creator, let's say your burnout.
Think back to when you enjoyed being a content creator, what were you doing? Because there's probably something that happened between then and now that [00:07:00] made you start to alter something and then it might not be necessarily why you started this in the first place and it's time to go back to that.
So if you're a lifestyle creator, let's say you started growing your following in your mid 20s, And then your late 20s, you get engaged, you get married, have kids, but your core audience didn't follow that path.
And now you're sharing all baby content and all your favorite baby products and you haven't posted one outfit picture in six months. And then I've seen how friends, Suddenly like, my engagement is changing because my content is changing and I'm excited that my content is changing. But it's like, now what?
And there's some people where I've followed them for years and now [00:08:00] they only post kid content. And so I unfollowed them, even though I hung on for a while because I still thought I liked their personality, I thought the takes were interesting, but it gets to a point where it's just completely not relevant.
And I think that's okay for all that to happen. I don't think that if you start as a fashion blogger, 10 years later, you have to be a fashion blogger by any means, but I don't know that there's always a strategic plan for making this. The transition.
Michelle: So what are some things to think about if you are going to be doing that?
Because you don't want to be going back to the fashion blogger example. If you have a family and now you're going to soccer games and packing snacks and whatever, you're not going to want to, or you may not want to post the fashion stuff anymore. So you can't, [00:09:00] if you want to keep having a fulfilling.
experience being a content creator, you're not going to want to do what you don't want to do and what you don't enjoy.
Monica: Or that's not even the realm of your reality anymore. You're not wearing a cocktail dress to go to the newest restaurant three times a week anymore.
You're just, the opportunity's
Michelle: not there. Yep. So how can you start to plan for that?
Monica: I think one, Is understanding where the majority of your audience is at because maybe they're all in that stage too. And there's like a few people, but most of your audience is new moms and that's great. I think that's best case scenario, but at least, you pulled your audience, you drop the questions on what they're, they've been searching for.
And I think it can literally be as easy as, what are you shopping for right now? And if [00:10:00] everyone's saying a diaper bag, there's your clue. Now, if not one person dropped a diaper bag in there, then... I think that is where it's time to get strategic and maybe the first thing that comes to mind is teaming up with a creator who is already in like the mommy blogger space and start like meeting up and sharing stories together.
Not just like meeting up to just talk about things, but being together in that person's stories So that their audience is oh, she's cool, too. I want to follow her.
Michelle: You're so smart. That would work in a situation where it's okay, do you want to meet up?
And the person's yeah, I've got some extra time. Let me help you. [00:11:00] But then you also have to think about some ways that you would also be able to help. And it's not to say you have to do it every time, but you don't just want to reach out to 10 mommy bloggers. No,
Monica: it has to be, it definitely has to be like organic and it'd be like a, like someone who you're not just trying to ride their coattails for sure.
Another idea that just came to mind was. Brand collabs and on the brand collabs instead of it necessarily being just you posting that on your own content but negotiating something to where they're putting the content on their own feed so that then You're tapping into their audience as well.
Yeah. Because sometimes these brand collabs you're posting and the brand will never reshare your content. I know there's the problem, the other direction that then the brand shares the [00:12:00] content and you didn't get paid for them to do that. But I do think that could be an interesting way to tap into that new audience.
Yeah,
Michelle: not only that, you could just even say, especially if it's like an audience acquisition play for yourself, you could just even say, these five photos, you can tag me, you don't have to pay me. But I want to partner up on writing the copy or whatever, just to try for the chance of getting them diverted over to your profile, because it is like a little bit of an acquisition play.
Yep. You could do creative things like that. Yeah,
Monica: I like that a lot because I also really just like this as a reminder that it's okay to pivot your content and that you don't have to be An xyz creator the rest of your life. You can be a fashion creator and [00:13:00] now go into your diy era That's okay.
I think so many people are like, this is what you are, this is what you know converts, so this is what you're married to. And I don't think that has to be the case. And I think sometimes some people really blow up after they pivot, because that's where like their energy is and that's what they're excited about and people feel that.
Michelle: Taylor Swift, right? Started in country and then totally switch. But the thing with this industry, though, is you do need to put a little more planning. into it because it is human behavior that you're trying to influence. So that's gonna take a while longer because you're not going to just be like, everyone, let's migrate.
Monica: Bring your parent friends here. Let's
Michelle: go. They're gonna be like, what the [00:14:00] heck? Invoke some sort of reaction and people have to be interested in what you're doing. And so you Should really think about long term What are you thinking and not to say that's where you absolutely have to end up but you have to have Where you want to go, where you are now, and then start peppering in some of that content.
Monica: Thank y'all for listening. As a reminder, podcast episodes, like the full ones are out every Tuesday. On Fridays, we are sharing five on Friday, which is. What's going on in the influencer marketing space in under five minutes. Thank y'all for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, review if you're new here. And we appreciate you. See you guys later.