K atie c ouric

CHAPTER 3
CHOOSE A MESSAGE FOR THE
MASSES
nce you have built up your followers and understand who your primary
audience is, you need to keep them engaged. You must create content that
keeps your followers wanting more, that resonates with their interests, and
that gets them to share your brand at the highest possible velocity. This is
the best way to make sure your message continues to appear in your
audience’s social feeds. There’s no point in building up followers if you
can’t have active engagement. Creating content that grabs people’s attention
and makes them want to share it with their social friends and connections is
key.
Knowing how to structure your message is critical to success. If what
you’re saying isn’t capturing your audience’s attention and causing them to
engage with your content, the work you put in to build that audience goes to
waste. Getting fans isn’t enough. You need to continually captivate them;
it’s important for the continuing growth of your audience and social
followers.
Although I can’t give you the specific messages that will be best for
your brand, since everyone’s will be different depending on goals and target
markets, I can give you guidelines that will help you discover how to
choose the best messages for yourself. By following these simple
guidelines, you will know how to stand out among the noise in no time.

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Find Your Hook Point
To share compelling information, you have to find a unique hook point—
that is, something that makes you stand out, grabs your audience’s attention,
and leaves them wanting more. It’s an essential exercise in understanding
the value of what you have to offer.
A great example of a solid hook point is what Tim Ferriss did with his
book title 
The 4-Hour Workweek
. Ferriss had a concept and an idea of the
type of value he could offer the world, but he needed a hook to get people
to pay attention to his message and stand out. If he hadn’t found a succinct,
thought-provoking message, his book wouldn’t have been a bestseller. The
novelty of a four-hour workweek was what grabbed people’s attention. The
concepts in the book were nothing revolutionary or new, but Ferriss’s
ability to package these ideas with the concept of only having to work four
hours a week was something that sparked people’s interest. It was a tangible
lifestyle image that people desired and didn’t know how to get. It hooked
them into wanting to know more about this enticing and interesting offer. If
Ferriss had used the title 
The Tim Ferriss Guide to Working
Fewer Hours
, it
wouldn’t have been as captivating. Instead, he thought about what would
resonate with the audience he was trying to attract and how the wording
could hook them. He figured out what they wanted and didn’t only focus on
promoting himself. By coming up with a catchy way to explain this material
and through creating an image of a lifestyle choice, he got people’s
attention.
It’s not enough to simply talk about yourself and explain what you do.
Many other people have the same skill sets you do. You have to find what
makes you and your product or information unique and relevant to other
people’s lives.
What makes what you do different? And how can you make that
important to others? You have to come up with a succinct, attention-
grabbing way to get your information across. And it needs to be relevant.
You must associate yourself with topics that are timely, interesting, and
meet your audience’s needs. The hook point is what gets people to stop and
pay attention.

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