Insider Strategies for Crafting Attention-Grabbing Content
Want to take your personal brand or business to the next level? In this episode, Adam interviews motivational speaker Hilary Billings, CEO and Founder of Attentioneers, as they discuss all things personal branding and short-form video content. Hilary shares her incredible journey from travel blogging to becoming Miss Nevada to building a billion-view business. Learn valuable strategies for grabbing attention online, sparking emotion in your audience, and more insights that you can apply to grow your own brand or business.
Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:
- How she got into short-form video content creation
- Don’t copy what the big creators are doing.
- The three key components of making a great video
- How to rise above the fear of getting in front of the camera
- Content creation frequency and quality
Episode Highlights:
[04:18] From Struggles to Success: Unveiling the Secrets of Short Form Videos
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- Hilary and her partner found themselves at a career crossroads during the pandemic, unsure of what to do next. However, after being approached by a friend to join a creator network for Facebook Watch, they decided to give short form video strategies a try. Initially thinking it would be easy, they soon realized they had underestimated the intentional engineering behind successful videos on the platform. After months of unsuccessful attempts, they took a deep dive into viral videos, studying patterns and techniques used to grab attention and spark emotions. Armed with this knowledge, their subsequent videos gained millions of views (and even up to a billion organic views), leading them to start Attentioneers to help others apply these strategies to their own short form videos.
- [11:50] When You’re Compying Big Celebrity Names
Hilary cautions against blindly imitating celebrity creators without an established audience. She emphasizes that big creators have built-in advantages, such as brand recognition and fan bases, which give them more flexibility in content structure. Comparing ourselves to these established creators is futile. Instead, she advises focusing on user behavior and understanding how people consume short-form content. Creators should consider their own habits as consumers to capture attention effectively. The key lies in intentionally engineering content based on proven formulas and prioritizing quality and intentionality over imitation of a big creator’s casual style.
[13:57] The 3 Components of Creating a Great Video
- Grabbing Attention – The video needs to grab the viewer’s attention within the first 2 seconds. This can be done through things like asking questions, using pattern interrupts, being weird/unexpected, etc.
- Sparking Emotion – The video should spark an emotion in the viewer like love, joy, surprise, fear, etc. Getting viewers to feel an emotion makes them more likely to share the video.
- Creating a Curiosity Gap – The video should leave the viewer curious by promising a payoff or answer that will be delivered. This keeps viewers engaged and watching until the end. The video should clearly set up what information/answer will be provided.
[37:18] Striking the Balance: Quality over Quantity in Content Creation
- Posting content every day just for the sake of it, without considering its quality or engagement, can actually harm your account. The algorithm learns from this and perceives your videos as subpar. Instead, focusing on a few high-quality and well-intentioned content pieces can quickly revive your account. It’s crucial to strike a balance between consistency and maintaining quality. If your content’s quality is compromised, it’s better to reduce consistency to prioritize quality. That matters more to us than anything else.
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