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The Inverted Pyramid

How to Hook Your Audience with This #1 Content Creation Secret

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The Single Most Important Detail to Creating Great Content

“Tell your story backwards!”

There it is—the single most important detail when it comes to grabbing your audience’s attention and getting them to stick around to consume your content.

Stick with me for a minute, and I’ll explain the whole process and how it can revolutionize your content game. But first, I wanted to make sure I didn’t waste your time by beating around the bush.

👆 SEE WHAT I DID THERE? 👆

I started with the payoff of this article: The single most important detail to creating great content.

I began with the one message I wanted to convey to my audience: There is one quick change that will revolutionize your content game.

And I led with the hook: Tell your story backwards!

I could’ve started by telling you I spent 20 years as the host of a radio show and that my job was to grab and hold an audience’s attention within the first 5-7 seconds.

I could’ve mentioned that I now help small businesses, content creators, and entrepreneurs craft engaging content for their audiences.

Or I could’ve opened with a flowery story to set up my “big reveal.”

But there’s one problem with all of that: YOU WOULD HAVE ALREADY MOVED ON TO SOME OTHER SHINY OBJECT!

The Attention Economy Is Ruthless

We’re living in the most competitive era for attention in human history. The digital world pulls at us from all directions, demanding our focus every second of the day. (I received two notifications while writing this, both trying to yank me away from this very task.)

Experts often advise, “Make sure your content is compelling and engaging.”

😮 OH REALLY? THAT’S REVOLUTIONARY! 😮

Of course, creating compelling content is key, but they rarely explain how to deliver it effectively.

The Inverted Pyramid

The inverted pyramid is a storytelling strategy where you lead with the most critical information—the hook—and follow up with supporting details. While “telling your story backwards” isn’t a perfect analogy, it captures the essence of starting with the payoff.

Let’s compare two versions of the same story:

Version #1:
“I was almost killed by a Dorito last night in my own home!”

Version #2:
“Oh man, craziest thing … so last night I was watching football and eating Doritos. It was around 8 o’clock—wait, maybe it was closer to 7:30…”

Which story grabs your attention faster?

Version #1 hooks you instantly. Then, I can circle back to share the full details of my near-death Dorito ordeal. Version #2, on the other hand, makes you want to stab yourself in the eyes with a fork because it drags on forever.

A small shift in delivery changes everything.

Where Most Creators Go Wrong

Far too many creators, even podcasters, miss the mark:

Host #1: “Hey, thanks for joining us today. Kevin is with us. Hey Kevin, how are you?”
Host #2: “I’m great. How was your weekend?”
Host #1: “Good! How was yours?”

OH, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GET ON WITH IT!

Sure, talk about your weekend (if it’s interesting), but start with something that delivers value to the audience.

Your New Content Rule: Lead with the Payoff

You need to deliver compelling content right away. Then, provide a payoff in a reasonable amount of time because your audience has 247,000 other things vying for their attention.

With that, I’m wrapping up this article. I could give you five more examples to hammer home the same point, but I’d rather respect your time. Armed with this strategy, go out there and create great content!

This article originally appeared on LinkedIn

Meta’s AI Training Controversy and Instagram’s New Ad Format: What You Need to Know

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Meta’s AI Training Controversy and Instagram’s New Ad Format: What You Need to Know

In the ever-evolving landscape of social media, two recent developments have sparked significant conversation: Meta’s controversial use of user data for AI training and Instagram’s testing of new video ads designed to halt endless scrolling.

Meta’s AI Training Practices

Meta (formerly Facebook) has recently come under scrutiny for its approach to using user data from Facebook and Instagram to train its AI models. The company has clarified that it collects both public and private posts, including photos and captions, for this purpose. While Meta claims that this practice is essential for improving AI capabilities, it has raised privacy concerns among users (Beebom) (DeCrypt).

Users outside Europe have limited options to opt out of this data collection. Meta has made it clear that opting out is not straightforward and, in many cases, not possible. The process to request exemption from AI training involves filling out a form and providing detailed information on how this data processing impacts the user. However, Meta does not guarantee that it will honor these requests (Intego).

In contrast, European users have slightly more leverage due to stricter data privacy laws like GDPR, which allows them to object to the use of their data. Even then, the opt-out process is cumbersome and not widely publicized (Intego).

Instagram’s New Video Ad Format

Meanwhile, Instagram is experimenting with a new ad format that introduces video ads designed to stop users from scrolling further. These “persistent” video ads appear in the feed and do not allow users to scroll past them until the ad has finished playing. This format aims to capture users’ attention more effectively than traditional ads, which can be easily bypassed (DeCrypt).

This move is part of a broader strategy by Instagram to enhance ad engagement and provide advertisers with more impactful ways to reach their audience. However, it also has the potential to frustrate users who may find these unskippable ads intrusive.

Implications for Users and Advertisers

Both of these developments highlight the ongoing tension between user experience and monetization efforts on social media platforms. For users, these changes might feel like an invasion of privacy and an interruption to their social media browsing. For advertisers, however, they represent new opportunities to engage with audiences more effectively.

As Meta continues to leverage user data for AI advancements, it’s crucial for users to stay informed about how their data is being used and to explore any available options to protect their privacy. Similarly, with Instagram’s new ad format, users should prepare for a potentially more ad-intensive experience.

For those concerned about privacy, it’s advisable to regularly review and adjust privacy settings on social media accounts and to stay updated on policy changes by these platforms. For advertisers, understanding these new formats and user sentiment can help in crafting more effective and less intrusive ad campaigns.

Stay tuned to updates from Meta and Instagram as these practices and formats evolve, shaping the future of social media interaction and advertising.

For further details, you can visit the original articles on Social Media Today:

What’s working on Instagram in April 2023

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Don’t call it a comeback, but … gasp … pictures may actually be returning from the dead on Instagram! Crazy right? The social media site that built its foundation on pretty pictures that soothed our souls and gave us the escape from our judgemental Facebook peers has finally realized that they’ve been screwing everything up and ruining why people liked them in the first place.

I get it … TikTok got all popular and stuff. So then Instgram panicked and decided that they had to copy all of the success of our Chinese overlords in order to hold the attention spans of busty influencers and 13 year olds everywhere, and they gave Reels a boost. OK … they gave Reels a BIG boost and basically threw everything else in the trashcan and assumed nobody wanted it anymore.

Well guess what? Reels are REALLY annoying to have to constantly create, especially if you’re a small business owner who has 647 other daily tasks and jobs to deal with. Now, instead of being able to produce some well-curated photographs that were on brand, you had to spend hours trying to come up with 60 second sizzle Reels all the time just to keep up with the stupid algorithms. And that ended up creating a large group of brands that started doing Reels because they HAD to, and not because they actually WANTED to, thus flooding the landscape with a whole lotta crappy Reels that nobody wanted to look at in the first place (or create).

Thankfully the team at Instagram finally came to their senses and admitted they had gone overboard on pushing Reels in the past year. Now I’m not going sit here and act like everything in world has been healed and crafting an Instagram page for your business that has solid reach and engagement is by any means “easy,” but at least we’re returning to a more competitive balance of content.

So what’s the big takeaway from all of this? I see two things …

1. Always always ALWAYS grab content in as many forms as possible. If you’re taking a picture, don’t just take that one picture and move on. Take a vertical picture. Take a horizontal picture. Take a quick vertical video. Take a quick horitonzal video. Take a LONGER video. Then save ALL of it. Never ever assume that whatever is “working” right now in social media is what will still be the standard in six months … or a year … or six hours from now for that matter. You’re spending the time to grab the content … take the extra minute to grab it in multiple forms.

2. Never ever EVER try to copy somebody else just because something seems to be “working” for them. This goes for a small business trying to copy another brand on social media just as much as it goes for the multi-billion dollar social media company themselves that tried to copy another one. They didn’t do it becuase they genuinely believed in the process, they did it because they were merely following something that looked like it was working for a competitor.

Personally, I don’t understand why all of these gigantic tech companies feel like they need to monopolize EVERY market. Why can’t they do one thing really well and serve their customers instead of feeling the need to be a retail outlet, streaming service, game hub, health care provider, social media network, and whatever the heck else they can try to control?

When you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody.

Keep that in mind when working to grow your business. Do what’s genuine to you and what you do well. The rest will follow!

The JPG Top 3: SEO isn’t as hard as they make you think it is, the suckitude of organic reach and more

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We comb the interwebs to bring you the top 3 stories for small business social media marketing, branding, and engagement. Get it even sooner by subscribing to our FREE Top 3 email. Subscribe now

#3 SEO isn’t as hard as they make you think it is

Ahhh … good ol’ SEO.  First and foremost, SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.”  The digital marketing world LOVES to throw out goofy acronyms all the time to sound smart like SEO, KPI, RFP, HIJKLMNOP … you name it and there’s an abbreviation for it.

When I first started in this industry I was someone who didn’t have a fancy marketing degree or whatever.  I just happened to be a person who knew how to tell a story and reach an audience.  Then all of a sudden I saw all these acronyms and thought, “OH MY GOD I AM SOOOO DUMB AND THESE PEOPLE ARE ALL WAY SMARTER THAN ME!!!”  I was totally intimidated by all the terms being tossed around and wondered if I was making a huge mistake trying to get into this business.

Then I actually sat down and looked at everything and realized that a lot of these terms and metrics that sounded hard were actually very basic.  So then I thought to myself, “Well why the hell did they have to make it sound so hard?” 

The reason?  So YOU will be super intimidated and will just fork over ungodly amounts of money to pay an “expert” to handle it for you.  We don’t roll that way at the JPG Agency.  Our goal is to actually empower YOU with the information.  Sure … we can help you (for a reasonable price) but we also want you to understand the HOW and the WHY behind everything.

So today here’s a great read that helps simplify SEO in a way that is much easier to process

#2 Privacy changes and your ads

Things continue to evolve after Apple’s iOS privacy changes, and one is a decreased ROI (oh crap … one of those acronyms again!) on your digital ad spend.  Now let’s be super clear, there are still a TON of ways to target specific audiences this way, but it has gotten a little more harder to figure out.  Additionally, many are heralding this as the rise of influencer marketing as a way to combat these privacy changes.

We are on board for influencer marketing as an effective way to reach your audience, and we also encourage you to think SMALL when it comes to your strategy.  You don’t need to shell out millions of dollars to get Mr. Beast to promote your product.  Simply find members of your industry or local community and utilize the passionate and engaged followers that they have (and for way less money).

And just a further reminder that the single BEST way to reach your audience is to OWN YOUR AUDIENCE.  We say it here all the time.  When you control the engagement point, you control everything.  You also don’t have to rely on somebody else’s algorthims and motives, which leads us to …

#1 The continued slow death of organic reach

Social media marketing is a beast for many many reasons.  It is absolutely necessary to tell the story and create the voice of your brand, but is also an endless grind of frustration. Not to mention the constantly changing landscape where you’re seemingly at the mercy of a bunch of robots and their algorithms (side note: you are). 

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “it sure does feel like my post performance stinks and nobody is seeing it.” I’m here to let you know there’s a really good reason for why you feel that way … because it IS that way.  Organic growth continues to get crushed by both Facebook and Instagram, and here’s a great analysis that highlights exactly that.

So what the heck do we do about it?  First and foremost, you need to shed the concerns about any of the vanity metrics given to you by these platforms.  Ultimately, what does it really matter how many likes or comments a post gets?  What truly matters is your business being successful and making MONEY.  So start thinking of your content with that filter … does this post tell the story of my brand and invite my audience take action?  If the answer is yes, then you’ve done the right thing regardless of what some algorithm tells you.

Second, it comes back yet again to the OWN YOUR AUDIENCE mindset.  Don’t sit there and rely on Instagram to arbitrarily decide how many people will see your post.  Instead, figure out ways to collect direct contact information of your audience and use it to your advantage.  Take control of your information!

The JPG Top 3: How to post Reels content without totally losing your mind

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We comb the interwebs to bring you the top 3 stories for small business social media marketing, branding, and engagement. Get it even sooner by subscribing to our FREE Top 3 email. Subscribe now

#3 How do I get to be a “recommended post” on Instagram?

You know all those “recommended posts” Instagram likes to clog your feed with?  While you may shake your fist at them and wish they would go away, Instagram execs have made it clear they absolutely aren’t going anywhere (if anything, you’re going to see even MORE of them).  Instagram’s real goal is to make these recommendations just so darn awesome and perfect for your interests that you’re going to be happy to see them (and stay scrolling on their app longer and longer). 

So instead of trying to fight the impossible, we encourage you to embrace the inevitable and learn how the Instagram algorithm selects recommended posts.  These posts are going to be present whether you like it or not, so you might as well have it be YOU who’s being recommended, right?

#2 Email ain’t dead!

We see it all the time … we recommend email marketing to a prospective client and they roll their eyes and say, “Does that even work anymore?”  

The answer?

Yes.

Actually let me say that more emphatically … YES!!!!!

96% of consumers check their email every day, 81% of online shoppers are likely to make additional purchases because of email, and 60% say they prefer email communication from brands versus any other method.  Oh and it is free (or relatively cheap) to send them an email. (Thank you EmailIsNotDead for the factoids.)

Our clients see great results from email marketing as a way to sell products and events, but also simply as a way to stay top of mind with their customers and we HIGHLY recommend it as a tool in your marketing arsenal.  Still not convinced?  Read this … and if you do and still think email marketing sucks, well then we can’t help you and you should probably just delete us.

#1 An easy way to post some Reels content without losing your mind

Welp … here we are talking about Reels again.  If this makes you want to chug from the nearest bottle of tequila and pray to the Internet Gods that Instagram will change their minds, let’s run down some simple facts …

FACT #1:  Everybody is mad at Instagram.  

And yes, “everybody” is an over-exaggeration, but when you see articles like “Why Instagram Sucks Now” and top influencers are bagging on the platform, it’s pretty obvious that people are annoyed.  That said …

FACT #2: Instagram ain’t going anywhere.

Even if they “suck” and “everybody” hates them, Instagram is still a multi-billion dollar company that is owned by a megalomaniac who seems hellbent on world domination (or at least virtual world domination).  You would have to roll the cold dead corpse of metaverse overlord Darth Zuckerberg away before he would give up on Instagram or have it “lose” to TikTok.

What we’re getting at here is you can be rest assured that IG will be part of your social media plans for quite some time and that means it is important to incorporate best practices for the platform, and right now that’s with Reels.  It remains the single best (and free) way to have your brand reach new eyeballs.  But here’s one more fact …

FACT #3: Reels are a pain!

Posting a cute picture with a fun description is SO much less time consuming than a dang Reel!  Buuuut … if you really want to up the reach and engagement of your brand, you gotta suck it up and do ’em.  Doing Reels from scratch takes a lot of time and a little bit of skill (we’re happy to help if you need it BTW), but there’s also a way to balance that with something that is super easy … repurposing old Stories and turning them into Reels.  Meta has just added the ability to easily do this from your archives, and it is a great way to breathe life into some old content and post some Reels without going insane.  Is this the best practice for ALL Reels for your brand?  Probably not, but it’s at least something you can use to supplement your content.

Also, in other great news, you will soon be able to schedule Reels directly through the Instagram platform (as well as any third-party resources you may use), which is incredibly helpful if you’re someone who likes to stockpile and schedule content in one session versus having to develop it on the fly.  It’s still the added effort of creating Reels, but it’s at least a helpful way to schedule them out.

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