What can you do to help improve your posts and content for better engagement? With great content, you’re headed to business growth and success. Listen to today’s episode and find out! Your content will always reflect who you are, and you should always factor in how your existing and future clients will perceive your content. Tune in and discover how to write better content that will resonate with your audience and bring in more clients!
—
Listen to the podcast here:
Write Better Posts For Social Media
In this episode, we’re going to talk about a topic that might be very valuable to you. One of the hardest things to do when you are a new business owner or a new coach is to learn how to write compelling content that gets you results. When I say results, I’m talking about getting new clients because that’s the bottom line. People get stuck on engagement. They want to see more engagement.
Engagement Doesn’t Equal Clients
Engagement is great and it makes your ego feel real, warm and fuzzy inside, but engagement doesn’t equal clients. This is something that I tell my health coach accelerator students all the time. Having amazing engagement does not necessarily equal clients. I have a lot of students and graduates who have mediocre engagement but they have successful six-figure businesses.
Personally, my engagement is on the lower end. I would say my average engagement for Instagram is about 2%. We’re aiming for higher than that but I get about 2%. I don’t often get more than that. My engagement is average, but I have multiple six-figure businesses and moving towards seven figures. What is that all about?
Something I will say about engagement, and I’ve told this to my HCA students, is your most sophisticated clients and followers won’t often engage on your social media and with your content. I’m going to give you an example. You may or may not be familiar with Rick Mulready. He is a business coach. He’s big time. He had probably done multiple seven-figures. I’ve been following him for a very long time, probably since 2015. At the very beginning of my business, he was the Facebook ads guy, so I followed him for Facebook ad stuff. I joined his mastermind at the beginning of 2022.
I’ve been listening to his podcasts since 2015. That’s several years of listening to his podcast, but I have never engaged with anything. I haven’t engaged in a social media post. I don’t even know if I’m following him on social media. I’ve essentially consumed his podcast content. I haven’t commented. I haven’t reached out. There has not been a peep for me until I applied for his mastermind.
Just because people aren’t engaging doesn’t mean that they are not watching. This is especially true in the health and wellness industry because you are talking about sensitive topics, especially if you’re talking about periods and poop. Regardless, not everyone is super comfortable talking about their personal stuff in a public forum like health stuff. Commenting on a post is very public. Anyone can see that and not everyone is going to be comfortable with it.
Another example is one of my group program academy students, Shannon. I’m going to be having Shannon on the show soon. I’m very excited to talk about her success. She launched her group program for Black Friday. She enrolled 10 or 11 new members, which is incredibly exciting. She told me that all the people who signed up, she had never seen them before. They had not commented on any of her social media or replied to her emails but they’ve invested in her program.
I want you to keep that in mind because engagement is great and it makes us feel good but mostly, it just feeds our ego. It is a marker that we can use to assess our content and if we’re on the right track. Just because you’re not getting engagement, it doesn’t mean that your content sucks. On the other hand, maybe your content does suck. That’s why I’m doing this episode because I want to tell you how to write better social media posts.
Creating Content
What you’re going to notice as you start running your business is that writing is a big part of it. You do so much writing. Content is ultimately writing. Even if you’re doing a video, you’re typically still writing a script. There is a ton of writing that comes into entrepreneurship and online coaching. You got to embrace that. If you’re not a good writer, that is okay. It is a skill that you can learn and it is something that you develop over time with practice. If you’re not a good writer, that is an invitation to write more. When it comes to writing content, what I see from a lot of new coaches is terrible. I’ll be totally honest and transparent. I see a lot of bad content out there.
If you’re wondering, “I don’t know what type of content to create,” there’s a 100% chance that you don’t know your ideal client well enough. We are always writing with our ideal client in mind. Even when we are posting something more personal and more about ourselves, we are always thinking of the person we serve. When I hear that question, “I don’t know what to post on social media,” that is an invitation to get to know your ideal client more.
I talked a lot about market research on this show. Market research is very important at every level in your business. I’m going into year eight and I still do market research. I did an email survey to get a pulse on who was on my email list. If you do have a following, you can do market research by polling them, doing a survey, running it as a contest and giving away a sweet prize so people will fill it out. You can creep in Facebook groups. I find this incredibly effective. There are public groups out there that you can get into and be a fly on the wall, and look at the types of questions that people are asking. That’s content.
I was in a lot of health coach groups when I was a health coach. I go into those groups when I’m like, “I don’t know what to create for content.” I go into those groups and look at the types of questions people are asking, and the types of posts people are making to figure out what they are struggling with now, what their desires are and all of those things. You will be able to write better posts and better content when you know your person better, and understand that everything you do is technically about them.
What to keep in mind when creating content is the person for who you’re writing content. It should always be speaking to their pain, struggle, desire, stories and experience. Truly, creating posts for social media is marketing. It’s a process of mind reading. We want to get to know them better than they know themselves.
The other mistake that a lot of people are making with their content is they are focusing on educational content only. Educational content is like your how-to. How to stay hydrated, lose weight, do this and do that? That can make up 40% to 50% of your content. If that is all your content, then you’re probably not going to be standing out online because that’s the kind of content that every entrepreneur, health coach and health practitioner is posting. It’s how to do this and that. That’s great but it can be boring. You want to provide value and show them how to do that, but you have to go beyond that.
Another type of content that you want to be creating about maybe 25% of the time is something I call belief-disrupting content. This is inspired by Brandon Lucero in his Thought Reversals because I was in his program a couple of years ago. This is essentially when you’re shifting limiting beliefs because there are a lot of limiting beliefs that people have that are going to prevent them from working with you. They believe a lot of things that aren’t true and are keeping them stuck. When you can shift someone’s belief system or what they believe to be true, that is when you shift into a thought leader. You’re not only an entrepreneur but you’re a thought leader because you are shifting the way that people think.
Spend some time journaling all the limiting beliefs that your people have that are preventing them from either taking the leap and working with you or making progress with their health issues in general. For example, if we’re talking about a weight loss niche. Let’s say you help women in their twenties lose weight so they can feel sexy on date night, get out there on Tinder or whatever. What are some limiting beliefs that they have about weight loss? What are the industry standards they believe are true that you think are BS and are keeping them stuck?
For example, this could be that they believe they need to exercise more or less. Maybe you don’t buy into that model. You’re like, “That’s BS.” The more they do that, the more they end up on the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster. You could speak to that. What are some of the other things? Keto is the best way to lose weight. Maybe they think Keto is and that’s keeping them stuck. Maybe they think low carb is the best way to lose weight and you think it’s BS and that’s keeping them stuck. Maybe they think they don’t have enough willpower to sign up for a weight-loss program but you think that willpower is BS and it’s all about micro habits.
Think about all the things that they believe to be true. They are either industry norms that you think are BS or they are deeper underlying limiting beliefs they have that are keeping them stuck. You want to write content about that. The other type of content you want to be sharing is the behind the scenes. This is best shared on Instagram stories and Facebook stories. Most platforms have stories these days. I think even LinkedIn has stories. This is the behind the scenes. Think of it like a documentary style or a day in the life. Let people know what you’re up to throughout the day. A good way to do this is to get good at taking photos and videos with what you’re doing throughout the day.
You don’t need to post it at that moment because I know that it can be annoying to be thinking of things to post throughout the day, then spending the time to post it. If you get into the habit of using your smartphone to take photos and videos throughout the day and little boomerangs, you can come back to that when you want to post. What that does is it gives people the behind the scenes into your life. Essentially, it humanizes you. What you’re doing is something called lifestyle anchors. You’re anchoring people to your lifestyle. That means that certain things will remind them of you.
If you follow me on Instagram, ask yourself, “What are things that remind you of me?” Maybe it’s mountains, my cool colored Calico cat or adventure. Those are lifestyle anchors and that essentially helps people humanize you and get a little peek inside your life. The other piece is connection content. It’s still about your person but the purpose is to help them connect with you. Think about values that you might have in common. If you follow me on social media, you’ll notice that sometimes I post both things that have nothing to do with building a business.
What you may also notice is there is some common value between me and you that ties together this post that I’m putting out there. For example, in a few episodes, I was talking about my journey with Kambo. Kambo is this frog medicine that’s applied through the skin and it’s a crazy experience. I shared that in episode 102. You can tune in to that. In that episode, I shared my experience doing this frog medicine. What does that have to do with business? Nothing. Where’s the common value? In the inner work.
I know that health coaches and practitioners or mindset, lifestyle and fitness coaches tend to be committed to their evolution and inner work. Personal development is a common value. I often share things that I’m doing for my personal development because it’s inspiring to you and we share that value in common. Connection content can also be stories. This goes beyond your origin story. The story of how you got from wherever you were to where you are now, but these also include little stories throughout your life that your people can relate to. Stories are pretty powerful. Stories are written into our DNA and our history up until the digital era, essentially before the written word. That thing was carried through stories. Naturally, in our DNA, we connect to these stories. It’s powerful when you tie a story into what you’re doing and something relatable.
I often talk about my business struggles. Sometimes when I’m trying to make a point, either with a belief-disrupting post or educational posts, I’ll weave one of my stories in there. We all have lots of stories that we can share. What will serve you is to be aware of the experiences that you have throughout your week and throughout your day. If there’s a lesson to be learned in that, that’s a great piece of content to share. It helps people connect with you. It has a similar intention as the behind the scenes. Connection and behind the scenes both have the intention of helping people connect.
Influencer Content Versus Entrepreneur Content
I want to talk about the magical intersection that makes content engaging. There are two types of content out there and if we can make them intersect, then we create magic. Influencer content versus entrepreneur content, we’ve already talked about these different types of content. Entrepreneur content is specifically written with the ICA in mind. The ICA being the Ideal Client Avatar or the human that you serve. That is what an entrepreneur does. That’s going to be your educational content. That’s going to be your limiting belief content, all the stuff where you are specifically trying to speak to the ideal client avatar.
You may or may not be aware of what an influencer is. You probably follow or know someone who is an influencer. An influencer is someone popular on social media. Maybe they are hot. Maybe they’ve got a hot family. Maybe they were on a reality TV show or whatever but they have a huge following. What they’re sharing is stuff about their life. They don’t have an ideal client avatar. How they make money is they grow a big following, get people invested in themselves, their personalities and their lifestyle, and they sell other people’s products to make a commission.
I’m not recommending that you be an influencer. What I’m recommending is that you take influencer content and intersect it with entrepreneur content. Influencer content is all about you. What this does is combine value and connection because people want to get to know you. We are lacking human connection these days. If you’re all business and you’re telling people never to share anything about yourself, your lifestyle or who you are, then people aren’t going to trust you.
Trust is critical when it comes to online marketing. No one is ever going to buy from someone they don’t trust. You’re never going to buy from someone you don’t trust. If you are considering investing in a health coach accelerator, it’s because I’ve built trust with you. Not only have I given you value but I’ve shared part of my life and who I am. I’ve shared my values, personality and lifestyle with you, and you see me as human.
Not only do you like the value that I’m sharing but you’ve connected with me on some level as a human. That’s what we’re trying to do. We want to bring together valuable educational content. We want to bring together that influencer, so stuff about you. Even when we’re posting influencer content, it’s still about them. If it has no relevance to them, don’t post it.
If you’re just at a festival gallivanting around doing acid and there’s no common value and it has no relevance to your audience, then probably don’t share it. Maybe there’s something from your acid trip that you learned, you’ve taken in or you’ve absorbed that you would think would be valuable for your audience and there’s a teaching moment in it, so know the difference.
The other way to write more meaningful posts is to combine that value with your voice. This is similar to what we’ve been talking about. Not only do you want to create content that’s very specific to your ideal client, audience and the person you serve, you also want to make sure that everything you write is written in your voice. It needs to be conversational.
Think about how you would sit down and talk to a girlfriend. Let’s say a girlfriend and you were sitting down, and they were asking you about health stuff. How would you talk to them? How would you break it down? You wouldn’t be condescending. You wouldn’t be standing above them or talking down to them like they’re stupid. You would get on their level and you would go back and forth until they understood. That’s essentially what I mean. You want to write like you talk. If that seems hard, it is at first but it’s an invitation to write more.
When you’re writing a post, whatever type of post you’re writing, try to use words that you would typically use. What might serve you is to pay attention next time you’re hanging out with one of your closest friends. How are you talking? Don’t be afraid to be your weird self. For example, a word that I say all the time is stoked. That’s because I live in a ski culture where there’s the ski bro lingo. I say some weird things like, “I’m stoked.” That’s a ski bro thing to say. That’s something I say in real life and I also say it in my content because I’m trying to use my own voice.
Say things you would actually say. You might feel a bit of pause because you’re like, “I don’t want to offend people. Sometimes I say blunt outlandish things.” Don’t be afraid to do that. This will help you find your people because you want to be both attractive and repelling at the same time. You want to repel people in the same way that you attract people.
The people who aren’t into you or in your vibe are not your people. If they don’t like you, it doesn’t matter how good your program is. They are probably never going to buy. It’s okay to repel them. They can go find a coach with whom they are truly connected. The people who like you are going to like you because you’re out there being yourself, showing your cool personality and letting your freak flag fly. They are going to be all in.
It’s okay. Some people might be repelled by you at first but they might come back. It’s okay to be triggering. It’s okay to be polarizing. When I say triggering, I’m not saying be a jerk and be totally inappropriate. I mean be yourself. When people are in the full embodiment of themselves, it can be triggering because there are a lot of people out there who are not in the full embodiment of themselves. They would like to be but they are scared. Therefore, they get triggered when they see that in others.
Some people are probably quite triggered by me and how I swear and say how it is. I put it all out there. Some people are probably quite triggered by me but that’s okay. Maybe once they go away and do some inner work, they will be less triggered by me and they will be back. If not, that’s okay too. Hopefully, you understand what I mean when I say triggered.
Let’s do a quick recap before we tie up this episode. If you want to write better posts, you got to understand your ideal client. You need to know them deeply. If you’re like, “I don’t even know what to post,” this is an invitation to get to know your person more or it’s an invitation to choose a niche. You want to have a specific and clearly defined niche.
You want to create value by posting educational content but I would not post more than 50% educational content. We want to write connection content where we connect with common values. We want to show the behind-the-scenes so people can get a look into our lives and feel like they know us so that we appear to be human. Remember that belief-disrupting content, which is where we shift limiting beliefs and we bust industry norms.
The magical intersection that makes content engaging is the intersection between influencer content and entrepreneur. An influencer is about you. An entrepreneur is about them. How can you intersect it to not only give value but also create deeper connection and trust with your audience? Finally, we want to connect value plus voice. We don’t just want to share valuable stuff. We want to learn how to write it in our own voice.
Make a list of all the words that you say all the time. Pay attention next time you’re hanging out with one of your closest friends or family members where you feel like you are the true embodiment of yourself, where you’re letting loose and saying whatever you want. Pay attention to how you act. That is what you want to infuse into your content.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did and you want to support me for free, you can leave me a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes. If you are an iPhone user, you can do that through the Apple Podcast app. If you’re an Android user, you can hit up iTunes on your desktop and give me a review that way. I would more than appreciate it. I read every single one of them and they wore my heart. It’s the best way you can support me if you found this show valuable.
If you are an Instagram user, make sure to take a screenshot of this episode share it to your Instagram stories. Tell me your take home. Make sure to tag me @KendraPerryInc and I will share it to my stories. I will personally thank you because I love connecting with you in direct message. I will see you again next episode where I help you become wealthy AF.
Important Links:
- Rick Mulready
- Brandon Lucero
- episode 102 – Past Episode – My Journey With Kambo Frog Medicine
- @KendraPerryInc – Instagram
- Apple Podcasts – The Wealthy Coach
