🌿Are you content with your CONTENT?

Newsletter #9

Author

Promptly-Yours
April 12, 2024

By Clerisa Varghese

Estimated Reading time 4 minutes 20 seconds

Quote

Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration

~ Jeffrey Zeldman

Learning

You are skimming through LinkedIn and find a job posting shared by someone in your network that fits your DREAM JOB DESCRIPTION.

You have the itch to comment “Interested”, then you pause and think.

Oh shoot, my colleagues or boss might see this comment.

Relate much?

Hehehe, I love creating memes

Today at a glance:

  • What makes us engage in social media content?

  • How can we create content that is engaging?

What makes us engage in social media content?

Pop Quiz:

Which of the below post is most likely to shared?

1. Cute puppy playing with a baby

2. A post about miscarriage jounrey

3. War in Ukraine Video

Correct answer: #3

Statistically speaking, Anger and Outrage is the most viral content on Internet.

So, my dear reader, before we dive into what makes us engage, let’s armour up with some research on why people engage in different type of content?

As per an interesting study by Customer Insight Group & New York Times; here are the following reasons and I have shared an example of what might that look like:

1. To bring value and entertaining content to others

Example : Sharing a standup video with a friend to cheer them up.

2. To define ourselves to others

Example: Sharing articles or news that indicate our political leanings

3. To grow and nourish our relationships

Example: Sharing nostalgic photos and articles about your college with friends

4. Self-fulfillment aka Personal Satisfaction

Example: To share home remedy tips with a friend who has PCOS symptoms

5. To get the word about causes and brands

Example: Sharing fundraising campaign

We all share and engage in social media for all of these reasons. In the sense that, there is no ONE reason why we share stuff on social media.

Now that we have the reasons to why people share, let’s segue into our next topic .

How to create content that is engaging:

Creating content is a beautiful process.

It is extremely rewarding to some while to others, extremely daunting.

Regardless of how you feel, it is a great medium to establish your personal brand.

When I get famous, I want them to share this as one of Clerisa’s famous quotes:

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“Creating content is a new age currency that showcases what you stand for”

Clerisa Varghese

Ooooh Goosebumps.

Answering our question: Creating Engaging content - I follow this one line I heard by Rick Rubin in a podcast: “Create content for your satisfaction”

When you create satisfactory content, people can sense that.

I am not an SUPER DUPER expert, but hanging out in this Content Creation space for the little while I have, this is what my ritual looks like: (and also I am not a fan of giving advice on things, I have not tried and tested myself)

I ask myself:

  1. What is the feeling I wish to evoke after someone reads this

  2. Name one person who might find this content useful and think from their lens on how best can I rewrite that content.

  3. Once written, imagine conversing with that person and sharing these ideas. Imagine what questions they will ask.

As for example with this newsletter, this is exactly what I wrote on Notion before getting started:

To wrap up on this segment; create content that make you feel

“MAN I AM PROUD”

and,

Create content to fit into the above mentioned reasons from the study.

For example: My hope to why someone could share today’s newsletter with a friend would be so that it provides value to their friend.

Prompt

I strongly believe that we are often the best subjects for our social experiments and observations.

So today’s prompt is all about observing in our phone, what did we share with our best friend recently.

Steps:

  • Go to Whatsapp

  • Lookup your best friend

  • Click on Media, Links and Docs functionality

  • Focus on Links

  • What was the most recently shared article/image/content

  1. Ask yourself why did you share that piece?

  2. What resonated with you to share it?

  3. Which above mentioned reason makes sense?

Intentionally reflecting on our own behaviour can guide us to create content that is engaging.

♟️ My own response to the Prompt:

I shared with Riya Desai (one of my best friend - lol don’t want to hurt my other best friends) the video about Jay Shetty being exposed as a Scammer

  1. I shared it because, she and I have been doing coaching calls and I wanted to call out how these self proclaimed gurus have given coaching a bad reputation.

  2. The fact that we were doing coaching calls resonated with me to share it with her.

  3. It is to “define myself to others” in my case - my interest in being a Coach and what’s happening in the industry.

♟️ Your Turn

I hope today’s newsletter served you with some insight.

If you have feedback, please hit reply to this email and let me know your thoughts. It helps me grow.

Got suggestions for topics? Hit reply and let me know.

Stay Cute and intentional,

Clerisa Varghese

P.S if you enjoyed this newsletter, forward it to a friend.

If you’re that AMAZING friend,

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