314: Why you shouldn't post dramatic content all the time...

If you’ve been looking at content and thinking the posts that perform best are the dramatic ones… the big emotions, the big reveals, the viral moments - this episode is going to give you a fresh perspective.

Because yes, 'dramatic' content can spike engagement. But engagement alone doesn’t build a business.

In this episode, I’m breaking down why you shouldn’t rely on dramatic content all the time when you’re marketing your business - and what actually creates trust, alignment and long-term results instead.

This isn’t about stopping vulnerability. It’s about understanding how content marketing actually works.

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah.

⁠⁠⁠⁠LEARN THE DETAILS OF A CONTENT STRATEGY WITH MY FREE AUDIO GUIDE⁠⁠⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ The difference between engagement and trust

✨ Why viral moments don’t automatically equal sales

✨ The role of “quiet” content in building authority

✨ How to balance emotion, strategy and sustainability in your marketing

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is episode 314, and I'm talking about why we shouldn't be relying on a certain type of content when we're trying to market our business. Welcome to the Content Queen Podcast. I'm your host, Mariah, entrepreneur storyteller, digital nomad, creator of Content bootcamp, and founder of Content Queen. With over 10 years experience in marketing, this podcast is here to help you create your ideal marketing plan by blending storytelling.

And strategy. So let's get into it. Hello gang. How are we all? Okay, so why you shouldn't post this type of content, I'm talking about the dramatic content. So not every story has to be intent. To be meaningful. I think sometimes in this online space, we feel this pressure to be big emotions, big reveals real, this dramatic energy because yes, it is a performative platform, but actually what I've [00:01:00] seen is the most powerful content and the stuff that actually works.

Isn't always that type of content, and that's what I'm gonna go through today and share with you some things you can do to reflect on what you're currently posting and how you can stop yourself getting stuck in this cycle of feeling like you have to be a story topper, right? You always have to top yourself with a better story or a better piece of content.

That's content creation. And whilst content creation is an element of our business, and really it's about balancing balancing. Our energy and our efforts. So in my opinion, if you are having the right balance. You are not always relying on these kind of viral moments, or, oh, once I get this like big post, my business will be changed forever because it's not always the case.

People with massive followings, massive engagements don't always sell. They just entertain. But yes, we do have to have that top of funnel content. Over the years, I've seen us go too heavy in the bottom funnel where we sell, sell, [00:02:00] sell, and not creating that top of funnel to bring more people in. And then I've seen.

The other way where we're always just posting or looking for these viral moments that is gonna make or break our business. And it doesn't often happen. And selling doesn't have to be that direct way of selling. It can be a balance of connecting and entertaining in a way that's going to engage your audience.

The biggest thing in this is like, what does my audience engage with? And I'm gonna talk about it from a lens of. A lot of times we often create content that does attract likes and engagement and views, but it might not be the the right people. So it's really understanding your audience in this. But social media is making us really obsessed with the dopamine hit, right?

We want the likes we like, and that's just normal. That's just how it is, right? That the social media platforms know exactly how to attract us, and their business model is to get you on the platform engaging, using it, because that's how they make money, [00:03:00] right? It's just, it's all a cycle, but. You are here and we are here to change lives with our product or service.

So it's important to remember that that's why I'm on this platform, that's why I'm here. And it might not be that that social media platform is necessarily here to directly. Convert the person straight away, but it is here to create community and to create that engagement. So having that balance of content is so important.

But I, I hear this all the time in workshops, in strategy sessions, when I ask, you know, what's some posts that have performed well or where are you seeing people engaging in content? It. Always something that's gone viral or viral, I mean is the definition of more than a million views, but viral in whatever definition you have.

They're like, oh, it was this like funny video of, I actually had someone say in their property they had a chicken or a hand loose in the yard and it was running around and. They posted on socials, and of course it got loads of [00:04:00] engagement. Then what happens is we get into this cycle of always feeling like we have to create these viral moments, create these viral moments, like I'm just gonna keep creating those and then everything will be fine.

But remember, it goes deeper than the likes and the views, and I'm gonna touch on that in this episode. So I've got kind of four points that I wanna touch on that's gonna really help you. Change and see the way that you view your marketing and the way you're showing up on your socials, especially socials.

I mean, because that's where those dramatic viral moments come from. So 0.1, dramatic content gets engagement, but it doesn't always create trust. I. Let that sink in for a minute because yes, dramatic posts, spike comments. I saw one today. Were the comments good? No. Did that creator put themselves in a case of nearly being sued for defamation?

Yes. So yes, it spikes comments. Yes, it creates emotion and controversy that can go viral, and yes, people are in drawn to that intensity. Like as [00:05:00] humans, we naturally wanna hear the gossip or the stories. Right. It's just how we are. It's our nature, right? It's, it's comes back from years and years of history on being attracted by dramatic stories, but is it sustainable for you?

Does it build that long lasting connection? Does it bring in aligned clients? Aligned customers, or does it just create noise now? You have to answer these questions specifically for the content you are putting out and for the marketing efforts that you are doing. I'm just having this platform to get you to think about it because the answer is sometimes yes, and the answer is sometimes no.

It's your call, your call and your audience and your call on your content, and you should feel inspired and empowered to be able to make that call. Yes, there are experts in marketing, but you are the expert of your business, so trust yourself. But there are a few metrics that I want to go through that are gonna help you go, okay.

Yes, that worked. No, that didn't work. [00:06:00] But also understanding what is the intent of that specific post. Sometimes it's not always for conversion website traffic, but it could be for profile visits, follows, et cetera. The ME Saves shares the metrics on social media that you want to focus on over likes and comments.

So website traffic. Do you have a spike after posting? If yes, what? Pages do they look at? Now, when I say spike, it doesn't have to be hundreds of thousands of people. It's just like, do you see an increase versus a day that you posted something different or a day you didn't post at all? If the answer is yes, of course, look at those pages that maybe had that where they went.

If they just went to your homepage and didn't go anywhere else, or they went to the exact page, you asked them, great. I've had clients that go, oh yeah, when we posted about my services, people click the link in bio and went to the services. And I think sometimes we don't trust that because. It can be a bit of a process, and of course it takes time, and then you ask, did it lead to anything?

Now, not all [00:07:00] posts, as I said before, have to lead to something. They can be there to create community, but maybe you wanna look at those other metrics, the profile visits, the saves, the shares, the follows, the, as I said, the more important ones. Do you get those metrics on everything? On social media? No, some platforms will give you some and some won't on, for example, Instagram a post, you definitely get those metrics on a reel.

You only get some, so just keep that in mind. But you can look at, for example, yes, on that day, did I get more profile visits than I normally do, et cetera. Do I think you need to get obsessed and look at every single post? Absolutely not, but just be curious. About the post, and you can do it from a bird's eye level once a quarter, once a month.

I think people that look at every single post every single day can become really obsessed with it. Again, balance. We've gotta find that balance. Now, when I ask that question, did it lead to anything? It's because with dramatic content or things that are here to [00:08:00] create drama. If you do that all the time, all the time, all the time, you're not going to see anyone taking any action.

But if you sprinkle stuff in that makes sense to your audience along with conversion content, that's when you'll start to build that trust and people will start to take action. And were the people who followed me or commented on that content, aligned people? Would they sign up to my email list? Would they buy from me?

Would they engage in my community? Because sometimes, no, sometimes we'll get a whole heap of trolls. Keyboard warriors, people that, yeah, it's really not worth it. So when you are creating that content, yes your dopamine hit is gonna be like, yeah, we need to create more of this. This is amazing. But if you go back through and look at it, honestly, you might go, it's actually not benefiting my business, it's just benefiting my ego.

It. So I use the analogy of when you are creating your social content, you wanna be talking to the person next to you. That intimate conversation that is going to create that relationship with the person on the other end. [00:09:00] You don't wanna just shout to a room of everybody. Think about a networking event or a party you go to.

You are always going to gravitate to the people that you resonate with and are like-minded. It is the same with your social media. If you are shouting to the masses and to a crowded room, you're probably not going to be heard at the level that you want to be heard, and you are just going to be having followers, not fans.

So remember that 0.2, the content that converts is often the quiet stuff. It's not shouting to that room. It is very intentional. It is very, oh my God, I felt like you were speaking to me. Type content. Content that gets visits to your website, to your social media profiles is when you share what you are doing and how you do it.

So expanding to behind the scenes. Client work, case studies, [00:10:00] processes, what you've built, what you're launching, how you're doing it. That's the stuff that people, your, your thought leadership, your expertise, that trust building content, that people know that person is a business owner. They know what they're doing, as opposed to that person is an influencer.

They are a content creator. Again, it all comes in balance, but if you are leaning too much on this side, people don't know what you do. They don't really get it and they don't know how you can help them. I see some people creating some great content out there and really shaking up their industry, but they're not sharing how they can help you.

And that's the difference because the boring posts, the things that don't get as much engagement. Other things that are clear, practical, building trust, friendly for SEO, when people are searching for you and they're shareable in different ways, they're shareable in the way of. Hey, you told me that you needed some new skincare.

I saw this. This looks pretty cool. 'cause I can [00:11:00] see the process of how it's made, or I understand what the ingredients are, right? That's the difference. Real connection isn't always built from those dramatic stories. And often, sometimes the dramatic content has zero to do with your business. And I'm gonna keep talking about that in a second.

But it is built on the consistent stuff that you are sharing. Honestly. Of what you're creating and you truly believe in it. You know, these past few weeks I've been talking about consistency is means nothing if you don't believe in what you do. Showing the behind the scenes, the client work, the prog the process.

What you're building is believing in what you're doing. It's showing people, it's not just the fluffy stuff. So I have seen this recently. I had a conversation literally on Friday with a client that I'm. Working with, and they have A-A-C-M-O, fractional CMO, and we had a post that needed to go out, but it hadn't been approved.

So we wanted to get it out because it was timely and it was a Friday afternoon. Now, we had this [00:12:00] belief that the content didn't perform well on a Friday. Why? Based on likes and reach on socials, which of course we need things to reach people because we need people to see it. But she said, well, we just have to post it.

Last week flopped. And I was like, Hmm, I'm curious about this question. So I went into Google Analytics and I saw a spike of website traffic last Friday. So I sent her the screenshot and said, well, let's just be mindful also that sometimes we just think things flop because they don't get the likes that some posts normally do.

But actually I saw a website traffic spike on Friday. Is it always directly related to that post? We, we don't often know, especially because it was on LinkedIn. LinkedIn don't give you those. Stats, which is annoying. Um, but yes, we saw at least a spike of engagement on their website. That to me is a great indicator of posting.

Do I think we should post every Friday afternoon? No, but it's just going to show what we are [00:13:00] looking at. I've seen this with a client I work with. Years ago we did a post on her retreat. It was an image carousel with details on the retreat. Very intentional of this is if this is for you, if dah dah, didn't get as many likes as her normal post would.

So she made a comment about that and I sent back the screenshot of the website, taps 37 taps to her website, that symmetric I'm looking at. So you get to see and understand that the staff that matters isn't always really dramatic, high engaging stuff. Point three drama can create dependency. And I've seen this a lot.

So creating stories and drama for the sake of content really, and, and you get that engagement and you see that you are going to become reliant on that next hit again, dopamine hit. These platforms are addictive, but how can we make it so it's like, okay, come back. I'm a business owner. I'm a business owner.

I'm a business owner. Repeat, repeat, repeat. So. [00:14:00] Really if we think about this, every post that is high emotion, your audience is going to be expecting that con, that intensity. That is why influencers and content creators are able to grow quickly. They are creating that intensity. And it's interesting 'cause the other day I was thinking, God, these influencers must be so worn out since 2020.

I mean, there's been influencers from years and years ago, but since 2020 content became more dramatic, it became more accessible and there was a lot of it. These influencers went massive. They've been now doing this, come on six years, and I was like, that's a lot. Two influencers the next day came out and said how exhausted they are and how their life is all about creating content and they don't often get to enjoy it.

The funny thing was one of the influencers was the one that was on my mind, so. Intensity is not sustainable. If you feel the pressure to keep topping yourself, you might exaggerate without meaning to and create [00:15:00] something out of nothing, and you then can start to feel more exposed. You're starting to feel like you have to share things that you don't want to share.

You burn out. I'm seeing it a lot. So when you do rely on this drama, it's not always drama because like it's just a dramatic story or something that is very. High intensity, high vulnerability. Then you forget the real connection and that it is built on growth of many of things, not just you having to show up like a performer.

Now, with this, I'm not saying you should never post a a vulnerable, raw, emotional story, not the case. I have a client whose brand has been built on her, her story, her tragedy, which was. Unimaginable, right? Unimaginable tragedy. But she built something out of that tragedy that is powerful and impactful. But it also means we have to keep repeating and telling her story.

[00:16:00] Why? Because we did one time a post and we didn't give context on her story, and the hate comments were crazy. So that was an example of not giving the right amount of context and going viral for the wrong reasons. Um. But it also gave us some really good feedback on why we should keep sharing the story.

Because often, sometimes repeating that story can feel dramatic and traumatic, and it is a tragedy, but it's important to give context. So her brand is based around her story and her tragedy. And a lot of people's are, so you do have to keep repeating it. Maybe it can feel really intense to share all the time.

So I had an amazing mentor, Sally Proser, that always says, share from the scar, not the wound. So that is a whole other topic and talking about it from a lens of, you know, mindset work and getting help and getting professional help. But if you are using your story as a lens to market your business. You do have to keep talking about it.

You [00:17:00] do have to keep sharing it because context is key. So I'm not saying don't be dramatic. Don't post anything vulnerable. Don't post anything raw. And when I say dramatic, I'm just using this as a way to encapsulate everything. But I do mean the raw, the vulnerable. It's not always meaning you are being dramatic.

It's just. That's how we're categorizing it for this episode. But it doesn't mean that you can't share those stories 'cause Simon's stories are super intense and they're really important for the audience. That's why I said at the start, be mindful that your stories have that connection to your audience.

Then it makes sense to do that. Your content, your audience, trust yourself. The last point is you don't have to bleed online to be seen. You don't have to. Share everything to be visible. You don't have to give everything, you don't owe anyone anything. You do owe them if they're gonna pay for your service, the transformation and the energy exchange.

But what they're looking for is a help [00:18:00] with their problem and their issue. So it's up to you to share with them what's gonna help them. It might not mean sharing every nitty gritty about you. It doesn't have to be like that. So. And with that, you don't have to create a mountain out of a mole hill. I have seen stories that literally nothing happened, but because it was high intensity and they were in the moment, they felt like they needed to share it.

Yes, they are their own personal brand and I'm very conscious of that. But at the same time, sometimes we feel like we're just sharing things to get reactions from people. We don't have to do that. You can share your lessons, your growth, your reflections, without opening up wounds for people to see. You don't have to put everything out there on display, and you also don't have to go, oh my God, that thing happened.

We have to create content about it. Sometimes making lessons for the sake of making lessons is not going to achieve anything, but it's up to you to decide that. If you feel really cool to share it, of course, share it. Do that, but always think about the person on [00:19:00] the other end consuming that piece of content.

I say all the time, life is content and this is to empower people who have zero ideas on what to talk about, to not feel stuck because life is content. You can make stories out of anything that is, I still completely believe that stand on my, my pedestal and say, I believe life is content. You can find something out of anything but.

Don't stress yourself trying to find a story that won't fit the narrative that you are trying to create in your brand. You don't have to do that. And sometimes the story is, the work you're doing, what you're working on, how you're helping your clients, how you are serving them. It doesn't always have to be about what's happened to you.

And the vulnerability, the emotion, the authenticity doesn't have to come from something that is, that happened to me today. You know, oh, I stubbed my toe. How can that help me teach clients about X, Y, Z, [00:20:00] insert industry? You don't have to do that and, but it happens. I see it on LinkedIn all the time. Propose to my wife how that works for B2B sales.

We don't have to go there. Of course, if you want to and your audience really connects with that, do it. But we don't have to. As I said before, we don't have to create those. Mountains outta molehill. So reflect on these questions when you're thinking about, should I share it? Should I not? Of course, always trust your intuition and go for it.

But why do I wanna share it? How would it help someone else? And am I posting just for engagement? If you ask yourself those things that will help you go post it, not post it, you'll get your answer. Again, trust yourself. You know your audience, you know your business. You are the expert in your business, which means you can market it.

You know what you're doing. You're just, there's just some blockers in the way, which we've got some amazing guests around mindset coming up and into the future. So, you know, keep listening for those. So instead of saying like, how can I find the most dramatic thing to tell, to get the likes, to [00:21:00] get the engagement, ask yourself, what am I building?

What am I learning? What am I creating and what would generally help someone right now? And that's where your content. Becomes from a place of being authentic, of being raw and vulnerable without feeling like you have to share the most dramatic thing that happened today, which was you stuck your toe.

Maybe you might make a good Instagram story, but doesn't need to be this five part series, right? If you're creating content to create hype, to create that burst of energy, you will deplete your energy and it won't be strategic. It'll be performative. You'll be working for. The person, the, the algorithm, the person making all their money from social media, you're working for them.

You're not serving your clients. And it can be really hard to get out of that loop, but I hope this podcast has spiked engagement for that. If you are not in that, oh my God, I feel like I have to post and share everything mode. [00:22:00] This might give you that confirmation that you needed to go, yeah, I don't need to have these dramatic stories all the time, or I don't need to be really raw, really vulnerable.

I don't need to air out my dirty laundry. That example of that client that had a really tragic, tragic story and built her business, there is a lot she doesn't need to share. There are some things that yes, she feels she wants to share 'cause it's gonna help her audience. But there are so many things that she's like, I don't need to share that.

That is not important. You don't need chaos to be interesting. You don't need drama to be magnetic. All you need to do is help your audience find their clarity. Yes. They wanna be entertained. Yes. They wanna be engaged with, yes, you wanna build community. And yes, as I said, you need to be consistent, but you do that through the trust you have in what you have to offer.

How. Infectious. Is it when you have listened to a podcast, you hear a video, someone is so passionate about what they do, so deeply passionate that you're like, I [00:23:00] want to buy everything for them. I have podcast guests that I'm, as I'm interviewing, going, I think I need to work with this person. 'cause I can feel their energy and I can feel their passion.

Work on that. Work on that and the stories will come naturally. You don't have to create stories out of nothing, but be your content queen or king. And remember that developing your strategy around your stories develops your business. Thank you so much for joining me today, and please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends.

You. If you share this one, make sure you share it in a way of, I'm not telling you your content is traumatic, I just thought you might like it. 'cause some people might think, are they trying to tell me something? No, we're not. But if you love this episode or you have any feedback or comments, put them in the comment section on Spotify or leave a five star review on Apple or email me at information@contentqueenmariah.com or come over to Instagram at content Queen Mariah, share your thoughts, share what you think.

I'd love to hear from you and I'll talk to you next week. Bye.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment