Be scrollstopping

This morning I was curious how a particular coworking brand was handling Instagram. When I clicked through to see, I said out loud, “Uh-oh.”

The feed was full of offers for offices, generic graphics and a lot of corporate-looking branding. I knew immediately that there was going to be zero-to-little activity there. And that was, indeed, the case. Most posts had zero likes, a few had two or three likes and the most I saw was five.

Now, Instagram likes are hardly a metric of a business’s strength. But they do say a lot about how engaged and invested the space, team and brand are in truly reaching and connecting with members, potential members and aligned organization.

And I hate to be the one to tell you, but ads for offices are just not going to get it done.

So there are two things to consider here:

You have to understand what works on each platform and tailor your content for that platform.
In order for your content to be scrollstopping, you have to focus entirely on helping, supporting and entertaining people.

I know. It’s such a big ask. And I see a lot of box-checking going on in coworking, where you put up a post just to check the box that you put up a post that day.

But if your content isn’t moving the needle, it’s a waste of time.

And, in this case, moving the needle doesn’t mean converting new members. The odds of someone going from an Instagram post to a member in one sitting are almost zero.

Moving the needle with Instagram content means boosting engagement, creating awareness about your space and community, positioning and differentiating your brand, celebrating your community and giving people a great reason to get out of their house and into your space.

And for those of us who are overwhelmed with content todos but understand that it is the cornerstone of our brand, we have to keep experimenting with new mediums and styles. You have to push through the cringe, be willing to try new things and have them flop, and keep going.

Yay, content!

But if you’ve been around for a while, what I’m about to say won’t surprise you at all:

Content marketing, including social media, your newsletters, video etc. is the most effective way to humanize your brand and business. You have to do it consistently and well in order to capture attention and stop people’s scroll.

Because human-focused messaging seen repeatedly and consistently, from a number of different mediums, helps people know, like and trust you. Which is the first step to them becoming part of your community.

So before you get people to stop by your space, get them to stop by your feed.