Jeff Harrison (Swingpoint Media) advises local business owners who feel they’ve run out of video ideas to mix personal-interest content with business topics to build rapport with their audience. He gives examples (hobbies like golf or pickleball, food/wine, family, pets, local events, even charging a Tesla while on vacation), warns against polarizing topics (politics, religion) and overly strong opinions, and encourages honest, personal videos (e.g., gardening) to strengthen audience connection.
Chapters
I'm often asked this question, well, what should I make my content about? And eventually I'm going to run out of things to say about my business. Well, that's where things change a little bit and you can do things that are not always specific to your business. Hi, my name is Jeff Harrison, Swingpoint Media, and I wanted to share with you an idea today. Something that helps you build a little bit more rapport with your ideal audience. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been to an event and every time you're with somebody, all they want to talk about is business and yet you would like to get to know them personally? Why? Because if you get to know them personally, you begin to build a relationship and decide, hey, maybe I like this person and they have a product or service that I find valuable. Well, the same thing can be held true for the content that you put out. Every once in a while. It's a good idea to mix in some content that that has nothing to do with your business and everything to do with you personally. It may be something like, you know, maybe you like to play golf and you had a round of golf and this is an aha moment about golf. And maybe they, you know, maybe you played pickleball and you met people, you love pickleball for these various reasons and maybe you learned a new shot. Who knows what it is. It may be something you love, eating out and you found a great restaurant town and you want to share that information and you're a bit of a foodie or you love wine. For me, as an example, today I'm a little out of my normal. I drive a Tesla, so I'm actually at a Tesla charging station while I'm on vacation here in Southern California in the San Diego area. And so by doing this you can start building rapport. Now I want to give you some what I would think and, and again, this is just my opinion of things. Maybe some do's and don'ts. The things you don't want to do is you may want to be careful about speaking about things like politics. This can be alienating and you can really start turning people off. As an example, if I had a heating and air conditioning company, the chances of you watching this and having a heater and air conditioner inside your house, well, in the Coachella Valley is 100%. But you may not like the particular politician that I like or the party, so I'm alienating you. The other thing you might want to be careful about is having real strong opinions on things and it doesn't mean you can't have an opinion on something, but maybe you'll do it in such a way as I would love to hear your feedback on something after you say it. Do's. Hey, I think you can talk about your family. Some people choose never to talk about their family and that's a discussion you have to have with your family. Some people might talk about, hey, they have particular type of pets. Like as an example, one of my clients who has an H vac company in Southern California, he has a lot of interesting animals. In fact, one day when I was over to his house, we were filming some things and about air conditioning and next thing you know, I felt something nudge my foot and it was a turtle that was probably. I don't know how big this turtle was, but it got my attention. Well, this could be something to talk about. They have goats, they have rabbits, they have chickens, and they live in a pretty, I'm going to say non rural community. Well, these are things as an example that people could communicate with you and what get to know you look better. You know, in the Coachella Valley we now have a hockey team. Maybe you love to go to the hockey, hockey games and you have an opinion or you have an excitement about that and you have an affiliation with maybe a certain section in the hockey arena. I mean, let's face it, that the acrisure is a phenomenal location. So keep in mind when you're making videos. What can you make videos about? Well, pretty much anything except probably something that, you know, they say religion and politics. Probably keep those off the table because you're going to alienate other people, potentially alienate other people before they have a chance to really get to know you and realize, hey, because of your affiliation with either one of those parties or maybe a particular religious belief, it really makes no difference. You're still a good person. But if you get too strong on any of those points, you could miss an opportunity to build or bond with your audience. So what's your next step? Go be honest about who you are and what you're doing. If you love gardening, maybe shoot a video out in the gardening area and talk about what you love to do and you know, share that with your audience. You might be amazed at how much of a better connection you make with them. I'm the name of Jeff Harrison and you've been listening to Swingpoint Media and the question today was, hey, what should I make videos about?
