No need for an intro with this one.

Because it's frustrating as hell when you're hitting post and getting crickets. So let's get right to the gold:

YOU'RE NOT HITTING ON UNIVERSAL THEMES

Your content is going out to two audiences: your broad audience and your core audience.

Your broad audience isn't necessarily going to hire you, but they can help share your posts, and get your ideas more exposure.

Your core audience resides within your broad audience. They are full of your ideal clients. Though they are much smaller in number, they are far more likely to take you up on an offer you put together and share online.

(More on your core audience in a bit).

If your post is getting crickets (IE no engagement), you're probably not offering your broad audience enough meat on the bone.

You're failing to provide universal themes they can resonate with. These are ideas, values, and stories that prompt an emotional response in the reader/viewer.

The solution is to look at the main point of what you're sharing and ask, "am I going to elicit some kind of emotional response here?"

"Is this funny? Inspirational? Gut-wrenching? Scary? Surprising? Controversial?"

if the answer is no, your broad audience is likely to ignore the post.

YOUR CORE AUDIENCE DOESN'T DEEM IT RELEVANT

The trick to balancing your content is to ensure that it's not too wide open or exclusive.

If you're too specific (and use a ton of insider-jargon), your broad audience tunes out. A few people may engage with you but that's it.

If you're too wide open (talking to everyone all of the time), your core audience won't respond. You may get more engagement but this is frustrating when you've put together offers that are attracting the wrong person.

So here's how to find the sweet spot:

Master telling stories that resonate with just about anyone.

Master making offers that resonate with only your ideal client.

Here's a post I shared on Linked-In for my broad audience. It was about traveling the country full-time in an RV:

I ended up with nearly 4000 views because I intentionally left the audience wide open, wrote about themes I felt most could resonate with, and hit on values that matter to me.

Here's a post I made on facebook for my core audience:

Notice the engagement is a lot less. However, each of those 16 comments are individuals who feel like what I'm offering is relevant to their specific wants and needs.

You can oscillate back and forth between broad and core audience in this way to fully utilize social media.

YOU'RE USING ABSTRACT BLOB LANGUAGE

Which one of these two statements grabs your attention more:

"That day I knew what it was like to be my highest self and live in total abundance and success."

"That day I sunk my feet into the warm sand and left my laptop hundreds of miles away, not to be seen again for weeks."

If you went with the second statement, do you know why?

I can tell you why the first one didn't resonate with you as much.

"Highest self" and "total abundance" and "success" are prime examples of Abstract Blob Language.

These are words that can mean so many different things to so many different people that they are impossible to visualize.

They're huge nebulous ideas that can't be observed by the senses...so they don't feel real in any way. They don't feel visceral to the human experience.

One quick scroll through Linked-In yields tons of these examples...

Do you see how these lack specifics? How they're full of fluffy language that isn't really saying anything precise? They're not making a stand or even a point.

If you want to capture someone's attention, you must paint a vivid picture that can be interpreted by the senses.

In other words, you want your audience to see, hear, touch...or even smell and taste what you're talking about.

So eliminate big abstract ideas like SUCCESS, LIFE, LEARNING, GROWTH, EMPOWERMENT, AUTHENTICITY, LOVE and replace them with a more specific context. Bring in the senses to set the stage and help your audience understand exactly what you're talking about.

YOU'RE NOT USING THE OTHER SIDE OF STORYTELLING

If you're not utilizing storytelling in your content, you're missing out on the most potent engagement weapon known to mankind.

But if you're not sharing both types of stories, you're missing out as well.

There are two types of stories you should be telling on social media:

1) Stories about you: sharing relatable moments and experiences from your life that add value to your audience by inspiring, educating, delighting, and teaching them.

2) Stories about your ideal client: sharing relatable moments and experiences that your ideal client is going through right now and will view as highly relevant to them

Most stories are typically about the author. Here's what I overcame, here's how I did it, and here's how I'm successful today. You should work with me.

They cast themselves as the hero. Luke Skywalker. "I beat that asshole Darth Vader and want some recognition!"

These stories can be effective if they give insight into unique moments that strike the right chords...but they aren't as potent as this:

Telling stories about your ideal client.

Now the stupid way to go about this would be to say something like: "If you are X prospect and are struggling with Y and Z in your life, you may relate to this..."

It's too obvious. Too on the nose, as they say.

But if you ground your ideal client story in a story about YOU, you're a genius.

Because now you can tell a story that gives your ideal clients the freedom to live vicariously as the lead protagonist.

Just like when you saw The Matrix for the first time and couldn't help but wonder what it's like being Neo...

That's the gift you can give those who read your stories.

To do this, you have to know who you serve, what their biggest pain points are in their day to day life, and what the biggest outcome would be that they value.

Once you have these things clear, you can weave them into your stories.

You can reflect on moments where you too experienced the very things they're going through now. You don't have to even call attention to this. Simply sharing the story is enough for your audience to connect and resonate.

For example, if you are an experienced coach who has been burned a few times with offers that were too good to be true, I can tell a story about a time I also was swindled.

I can say,

Now I don't know if you've ever been through this, but if you have, you can't help but erase me from the story. You unconsciously slide into the main character's shoes. I become you in that story if it hits close enough to home.

That is how to utilize both sides of storytelling.

If you want more help crafting engaging content that not only captures attention but actually leads to more booked discovery calls on your calendar, book a "get to know you" call with me.

I would love to help you stop making these four mistakes.