K atie c ouric

Connect with Your Audience
When looking for content creators who know how to move an audience, I
couldn’t help but think of Pedro D. Flores, filmmaker and CEO/creative
director at Comp-A Productions, a production studio that specializes in
social media marketing. He created a video called “Tacos” that has had
more than a hundred million views. Flores attributes the success of that
video to its relatability. It’s a comical video about how he gets discriminated
against because he looks white but is actually Mexican. It takes a serious
subject and educates the viewer, yet does so in a lighthearted manner. It
makes the viewer feel, think, and laugh.
Flores created “Tacos” as a comment on real experiences he was having
in his life. He has a very Mexican name, but people always accuse him of
lying about the fact that he’s Mexican. To combat the frustration, he
presented this video in a straightforward way, with no gimmicks, so people
could get a taste of what it’s really like to be a white-looking Mexican.
When creating content, it’s always smart to find things that are going on
in your own life that you imagine others might experience. Vulnerability
and honesty allow viewers to feel closer to the subject and to connect with
you and your emotion. It makes the material more relatable and therefore
more relevant to others’ lives.
Couric adds that now more than ever it’s important that people feel
connected to the material:
I think the ultimate irony in this age of connection is that we’re
more disconnected in many ways. Loneliness is one of the number
one epidemics in the country. Another prevalent epidemic is anxiety,
which I think is being contributed to by information overload. It’s
really important to find the sweet spot of providing a genuine
emotional connection with the material.
If you give some thought to the content you share, you have an opportunity
to enhance people’s lives and make them happier, brighter, and more
informed. It goes back to what Prince Ea said about service. Think about
how your content can help other people (and, yes, this will also help you get
your content shared).

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Brownstein suggests asking yourself, “Why should anyone give a damn
about my message?” We must remember that there’s so much content out
there—it’s endless. So when you create content, you’ve got to figure out
what will make people care. You have to make them want to learn more and
then maybe they will share it with their friends.
Brownstein adds that after you figure out why people would care about
your message you need to be sure to deliver the message authentically.
Social media is all about building relationships. So when creating content,
it’s important to ask yourself what having a good relationship with someone
looks like. It isn’t about simply asking them for stuff. You need to be
interested in them. Brownstein offers the idea of looking at the relationship
through the lens of a value exchange. Give your fans value and then also an
opportunity to offer value to their friends. If you give them funny content to
share, they get to feel like comedians; or if you provide them with
emotional content, they have the opportunity to touch someone’s heart.
Other people feel like they’re offering value when they educate others on
important topics, or they feel like part of a community when they have
strong opinions about an issue or a person.
He drives home that relationships are about giving, not just about
receiving. Make sure that you’re trying to give your audience something
valuable. You should follow an 80/20 rule: give 80 percent of the time and
ask your audience to take action only 20 percent of the time.
For example, when working with Cricket Wireless the briefing
Brownstein’s team received was to “create videos that give people
something to smile about.” Cricket literally spends hundreds of thousands
of dollars on these campaigns just to make people smile. It was only after
they released several videos with this intention in mind did Cricket ask
people to take action from these campaigns related to their business goals.
This was a very generous (and smart) approach that demonstrates the 80/20
rule and focuses on creating content that services others first. Do this.
Brownstein also believes that almost any topic, even the seemingly
mundane or difficult, can go viral; Shareability even created viral content
around pediatric cancer and colon cancer. He feels that especially with
difficult subjects it’s important to tap into people’s emotions and connect
with them at the heart level. Are you starting to see the pattern here?

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Tim Greenberg of the World Surf League agrees and says that his team
focuses on improving the viewer’s mood: “If I can publish a piece of
content on social that makes someone happier for even three or four
seconds then I’ve done my job. I’ve actually bettered that person’s day
through great content.”
Creating an emotional connection with viewers is an essential element
in making your content relevant to your audience. Think about how your
content will make viewers feel and they’ll be much more likely to share it
with others. Always be conscious of your end goal and 
why
you share your
content.