Authenticity Sells: How to Create Genuine Content That Resonates on Social Media

Living in a digital world means more than having access to the latest trends and most up-to-date news stories. It's also a place where people we care about, as well as strangers we find on various platforms, come to bare their souls. At the end of the day, most of us are looking for ways to connect and maybe even be seen. Knowing this, and respecting the fine line, can be a tool for anyone attempting to engage with an audience.

When most of the planet is on social media to one degree or another, the competition to be seen in any category can be fierce. Being able to stand out has less to do with using the right buzzwords or participating in the latest viral trend and more to do with just being authentic. Creating content that touches someone on the feels is the best way to cultivate a following. While that may sound a bit like a canned response, it is as simple as that.

Authenticity builds trust and connects others and a community forms from the engagement. Here, we'll share ways to hone in on that vibe to keep your audience coming back.

1. Understand Your Audience

Making content focused on a particular group means more than just knowing who you are trying to attract. It means understanding who these people are on a deeper level. What do they value? What motivates their online behavior? This goes beyond statistical demographic data, we're talking about hearts and minds.

Analytical Research

Each platform has social media management tools on the backend. If you haven't explored a particular app, start going through the settings. Get comfortable with the chosen medium. In analytics, you can see a wide range of metrics, such as what people are typing to find your content, whether they are male or female, ages, locations, and what has performed the best. On the flip side, there are also social media monitoring tools to tell you what kind of content might do best, in relation to what you've been making. That will show you the first insights into what your audience wants to see. Knowing what they want to see is like a very general window into an audience's soul.

Create Personas

Get out a pad and pen, the tangible kind or on a digital tablet, and write out an audience profile. This isn't necessarily a one-size-fits-all ideal, but it's a representation of what your audience looks like. Generally speaking, age, gender, profession, passion, and struggles, are all examples of what you'd write down. The more info you have, the more patterns you can derive from it. The more patterns you see, the more a persona comes to light. There may be a few different creations, but it helps to get a better feel for who is on the other side of your content.

Engage One-on-One

Don't be afraid to get direct. Everyone wants to know they've been heard. Whether you have a million followers or one, any comment that's responded to will make someone more apt to engage with your content. While you're at it, use polls or just post a question asking what your audience would like more of. Feedback is a direct line of understanding.

2. Tell Stories with Feeling

Storytelling is probably the best way to engage any audience. Whether the person watching has been through a similar situation or just enjoys the way you tell a story, it's a great way to pull someone in. Who doesn't love a good story? Add humor, passion, curiosity, education, or all of the above, and you've got viral potential.

Be Relatable

Share real stories! It may seem to get the attention you need to create outlandish stories with wild outlines. This may work for the short term, but it's a bad policy in terms of longevity.

Eventually, you'll get called out, if not canceled, for being fake. Whether you're just trying to be a storyteller or gain interest in a product, be a real person. Talk about challenges, share behind-the-scenes drama, and detail the unexpected. Get vulnerable.

Craft a Narrative

Talk about people that your audience could see themselves in or root for. Everyone likes a good underdog. When crafting a narrative, remember it needs to have a beginning, middle, and end. Don't leave people hanging and avoid stretching out any story over several parts.

Get Visual

As much as viewers might be fine with seeing your face, it really helps boost a story to get images and videos in there, too. These images don't have to be perfect. No one is expecting documentary-level editing. In fact, a little goof here and there could add to the appeal.

3. Stay consistent

Once you've hooked a viewer, they will be eager to see more from you. Sometimes that person will go directly to your profile to enjoy more similar content at the moment. To keep a subscriber, you'll want to give them a reason to keep coming back. If they never know when to expect something new, they may leave.

Create a Content Calendar

Without a doubt, the best way to stay organized and ahead of the game is putting together a content calendar. That way, for the month, you can cover everything you want. Being able to look at it from a bird's eye view, you can see gaps in content, where to change topics, and how to stay equally light-hearted versus serious.

Mix Up Formats

Speaking of changing things, you don't want to do the same thing all the time. Of course, depending on the platform, the algorithm might prefer it. However, viewers typically like at least a little variety in formats. For example, if you like telling stories directly to the camera, try to add some photos. This keeps your typical audience happy while branching out to new people who like visuals. If you narrate videos, perhaps sometimes you can feature your face in a video talking about the behind-the-scenes of the trip involved. If you notice a slip in engagement, post a poll asking loyal fans what they'd like to get more of.

Megan Isola

Megan Isola holds a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality and a minor in Business Marketing from Cal State University Chico. She enjoys going to concerts, trying new restaurants, and hanging out with friends.