Over the years, I have read so much content from so many different people (most of them marketers). I have subscribe to email lists, follow businesses on social media, and see paid ads every single day.
In addition to that, I've also written a lot of content for a lot of different businesses. I've been hired to write everything from tiny Google ads, to giant 3,000 word blog posts.
Some of my pieces have done really well, while others have been tremendous disappointments.
I know the last sentence might come as a bit of a shock to some of you. Most marketers like to hype up their wins, but they rarely talk about how with every win comes more than a few losers.
But why is that? Why don't people talk about their losers?
Well... they're probably trying to sell you something, right? That's a pretty good incentive to not be 100% honest with someone. Especially if that someone is the person you're trying to get to hire you.
But the truth is that some content will always do really well, while your other pieces will get completely ignored.
And that's just a universal truth.
But there is one thing that you can do to get more of your content read by more people.
Just be yourself. Or you could also call it being authentic.
How to be authentic.
People are craving human connection. They're starved for it. All they see is content created by A.I., or from big corporations that don't really care about them.
But most people want to be a part of something nurturing and intimate, so your job as a marketer is to give them that thing.
If you're trying to create a strong personal brand; being authentic means posting about your personal life, and the day-to-day of what you're doing in your business.
For example, if you're a real estate agent, bring your online community with you on house tours. People would eat that up. That's exactly why HGTV exists.
You've got a whole TV channel based on real estate agents showing houses to perspective buyers. Why couldn't you start a YouTube channel with the same premise?
Or maybe you're in charge marketing your business's brand. What does being authentic mean for a business, if you're not an individual or a personal brand?
Personally, I think being authentic means showing up as a regular person on social media, and creating authentic communities for your customers to engage with.
Look at what Wendy's is doing on social media. They've got almost 4 million followers on X. And they've done that by acting like a real person, with a real personality.
I challenge you to go though all of your social media channels, and check out what Wendy's is doing. See how they write their posts. They're acting like they're a real person, and not some huge corporate conglomerate.
But being authentic is not just about showing up on social media.
You've also got to create community - preferably a community that people actually want to join.
There are no rules for what your community has to look like, but ideally people should have the ability to communicate with each other.
This can be in the comment section of your blog post, in a facebook group, or on any other platform you'd like. You should choose whatever you feel will work best for you and your business.
The sky is the limit.
But there is one thing that every community must have...
You've got to have banter, or back-and-forth with your community. People should be conversing with each other and with you.
You can encourage this kind of behavior by...
- Asking Questions
- Posting Interesting Content
- Becoming the Devil's Advocate for your Community
Remember - If you can't elicit at least a little bit of engagement, you're just a crazy person talking to yourself. And no one wants to be a part of that.
Just putting yourself out there is the key for most people.
When most people create content, they're just posting things that they think people will like. Or even worse, things they think will make them look professional.
That's not your job.
And it's not what you should be doing if you want people to fall in love with your brand.
Instead, you've got to let people into your world.
So I want you to think for a moment about what that might look like for you, and post it in the community.
How are you going to let people into your day-to-day? What are you going to show them? How do you think they'll respond?
There are no wrong answers, so don't worry about that.
After you've posted, members of our community will reply with our reactions. And then you can either go with what you've started with or you can make adjustments.
The point here is to have a game plan for how you're going to bring your authentic self to all of your marketing efforts.
Because we want to see you.
Hey, if you loved this, it's actually part of my series on content marketing. You can become a paid subscriber to Rainmakers United to get the whole thing.
Click the link below to subscribe today.