Making Your Reels More Fun Through Storytelling
Reels are a critical component of engaging your online community. Although the most successful Reels (or TikToks or YouTube Shorts or any short form video) start with an original and authentic perspective unique to the creator, there are always best practices emerging that can elevate and improve performance regardless of your desired outcome.
As part of our community membership offering, Hay There provides a monthly Professional Development session on a wide variety of subjects. Recently, we were honored to meet with Hay There friend Heather Parady to expand our minds when it comes to storytelling, and had a lot of fun, too! In the past, Heather has joined the Hay There community to discuss web3 fundamentals, and advocates for women to actively participate in this major evolution of the Internet.
Heather is a content creating expert, infectiously energetic, and offers a wealth of information. A sought-after subject matter expert, Heather is a million+ download podcast host, a creative content expert and an advocate for women reaching their potential. Heather shared her professional journey from a degree in therapy to photographer and military wife turned freelancer. As a creative at heart, she regularly participates in storytelling slams (yes- that’s a thing), scriptwriting, and looks to the arts industry to help her captivate audiences strategically. Heather’s professional path resonated with so many Hay There community members who are also creatives that see a professional need and fill it in a way that allows us to work flexibly.
Heather Parady shares fresh approaches to Reels with Independent Hay There Social Media Managers
The members of the Hay There community able to attend the Professional Development event live had the opportunity to present client examples, and receive feedback they could immediately put to use. As Heather put it, a few years ago, it was all about simply getting content posted. Today, it’s more complex. In order to gain visibility, content needs to stand out creatively. Heather provided some fundamental “guardrails” that can be applied to most reel creation to yield relevant, entertaining Reels for clients. One incredibly valuable take away was approaching content creation with intentionality. Start by asking yourself “where is the viewer in the proverbial funnel?” Typically, they fall into three categories, and the creative should meet the viewer where they are.
Heather emphasized that spreading out the three types of content is just as important as creating it in the first place. Layering the targeted messages versus clusters of the same category will not optimize visibility. Also, trying new strategies as a series allows you room creatively to truly explore a new approach, but is short enough to have a beginning and end by definition, to see how it performed.
Real Life Learning
Independent Hay There Social Media Managers loved the opportunity to walk through both service and product based clients, and left with a refreshed creative energy to apply to their work. There was also a message of accountability, making sure our community of creators supports each other to go the extra mile.
The team at Hay There takes pride in our relationships with a vast array of experts and organizations that help our community gain success professionally and personally. Another benefit of becoming an Independent Hay There Social Media Manager is that our entire library of recorded professional development sessions with dozens of experts is available to you at any time, regardless of when you join.
For more information on merging into Hay There’s proven training and to join our community, click here or schedule a call with us today! And be sure to check out Heather Parady’s show here.
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