Scroll-Stopping Content: Inside the Creative Process of Stand-Out Brands

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Laney Goff: Welcome back to Untamed Social, the podcast where we talk and get real about what actually works in social media. Today, I'm excited. We're tackling one of the biggest roadblocks brands face, typically, which is coming up with fresh, creative content ideas that actually help you stand out because, to be honest, posting just to post isn't a strategy, which we've talked about a ton on this podcast, and I've got Ella Gunnell here with me today.

The one and only person that is fit for this conversation in my mind, Ella is our creative manager here at Strella Social Media. Uh, she leads us in the creative department to deliver campaigns that are as engaging as they are effective. Uh, in my opinion, Ella's got a real knack for storytelling, branding, and helping businesses connect with their audiences in meaningful ways.

Um, she's got experience across multiple industries and she really knows how to turn concepts into scroll stopping content. So, Ella, thanks for joining today. So we can kind of pull back the curtain on the creative process. 'Cause I think a lot of brands really wanna know this information.

Ella Gunnell: Yeah, happy to be here. You're really hyping me up right now, I like it!

Laney Goff: We're close. Okay. So just to give a heads up about what we're gonna be talking about in today's episode, uh, we're gonna go over kind of how to generate endless content ideas, where to look for inspiration. And some simple ways to kind of transform one good idea into maybe multiple posts or even weeks worth of posts, because repurposing is a thing if it's done correctly.

So to start, let's jump into Ella, why do you think brands struggle to come up with creative content ideas?

Ella Gunnell: Listen, my title is Creative Manager. That's it. That's, that's got some weight to it, right? That's telling people that I'm, I'm creative. Um, but even I struggle, right? It's just, it's hard to come up with something week after week all the time. Even if you are good at creative ideas, even if you have a company that lends itself well to social media, maybe you have something that's highly visual.

Um, a more fun product. A more fun business, right? Even then, it's hard to be creative. Not to mention if you're a business that, let's be honest, does stuff that's a, a little bit more boring. Maybe you're an accounting firm like, sorry, accounting firms, but it might, it might be a little bit harder for you to come up with content that's creative.

So I think that those are the two biggest reasons is like sometimes your content just isn't naturally going to be that fun. And so you have to like. Infuse it with that, and sometimes you just get a little burnt out and that's okay too. So I think those are the two biggest things that companies will struggle with.

Laney Goff: Yeah, I think the, the burnout is so real too, especially for like other social media marketing or management companies. They've gotta understand it too. Like it's one thing to run outta creative ideas when you're just thinking about your own brand.

But for us, where we're managing, you know, 15 brands at one time. It really, it, it's a struggle. So then that leads to, okay, so when you do get stuck or really any of us on our team, what is your go-to process for sparking that creativity again?

Ella Gunnell: I think that, um, one of two things for me is helpful because some days are just not as good of days for me. Like, maybe you didn't sleep that much before. I have a baby, right? So my, my brain isn't functioning, on all cylinders. Um, so sometimes, like literally just taking a break and coming back to it is helpful.

I do think we have like creative bursts and sometimes, or even like some hours in the day are better for creativity. Um, for me, like my creativity comes best when I don't have like a buildup of other things that I need to get done. So I'm thinking in the back of the head, like, oh my gosh, I have this, this, and this to get done.

And so the creativity is, is gonna be blocked because I'm just like feeling overwhelmed by stuff that I have to do.

So I would say for me, I like to get all of my other items done, um, on my to-do list, so that way I have like space in my brain to actually devote to this. Um, or sometimes you just need to literally like take a break, walk away, go on a walk, like shut that part of your brain off and then come back. In terms of like, actually, like, you're like, man, I just can't think of any ideas right now.

I would say go scroll on social media.

Laney Goff: Mm-hmm.

Ella Gunnell: Number one, it's gonna kind of like turn off that part of your brain and like just get you to like enjoy. Um, and second of all, you'll probably find some good ideas, like go look at some other companies in your industry or just go look at other companies that you like and that you enjoy following.

That's gonna be helpful. Um. Then I would say even AI is a really great way these days. I know that people are kind of weird about it, and I, I understand that, but, um, I think that when putting some information, um. We just attended a really great conference last week, the American Marketing Association Conference, and they talked a lot about using marketing the right or using AI the right way to help with like idea generation in your marketing.

Um, and so I definitely do think there's a right way to go about that. We could do a whole other

Laney Goff: Literally.

Ella Gunnell: Podcast episode on like all the tips and tricks to like actually get good ideas, but if you can get good at it, then AI is also a really good tool to help you.

Laney Goff: Yeah. Yeah, and I think that also, like it's talking about the AI thing, it's, it's also important to know that like, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to utilize the ideas that AI gives you, even if you are good at it.

But the thing for me is that it will spark an idea for myself. So like we've got somebody on the team who helps me with my personal LinkedIn content, and so she sends me ideas weekly and I always tell her, I'm like, I feel so bad because if she were to, if she looks at my feed on LinkedIn, like they're not the ideas that she sends me, but what happens is she sends me these ideas.

And then it sparks something else for me that feels more natural and flows well as to who I am and it's more authentic. Um, so I think that that's a really good point too, is that just because you're utilizing either someone else or something else like ai, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to use those ideas, but they do help to spark creativity for yourself.

Ella Gunnell: Oh yeah. And it doesn't mean you're going give me content ideas. It could be like, pretend that you're my audience, ask me some questions that like my, um, ideal customer might have about this, this, and this. Like, there are several different ways that you can go about using AI to give you ideas beyond just like, give me a 30 day content plan.

Like those usually suck.

Laney Goff: Yeah, no, literally. And how many people are out there doing that? You know, like, or one way that I like to utilize AI to help with creativity is that if I'm evaluating content that's done really well, I will provide AI like, a lot of details about the post and say, this performed really well. Can you help me to come up with ideas that are in the same realm as this, that, you know, I could kind of, you know, spin off into another lane with it and that helps me also. Um, I know I did that for LinkedIn and it gave me like a bajillion ideas and I just started making lists and lists and lists of content ideas.

So I think evaluating kind of what's performed well is also a really good idea whenever you get stuck. Um.

Ella Gunnell: So true. Mm-hmm.

Laney Goff: So, obviously, you know, we're a little bit different 'cause we're a social media management company, so we are focused on other brands. We do of course, focus on our own marketing, but typically we're looking at other, other clients and, and who we're speaking to today is really gonna be the brands who are in it themselves, looking at their own brand.

So. Let's talk about like, 'cause it might be helpful, even though we are a social media management company. I think it's good to have that insight into what companies do. Can you kind of walk us through how you slash we at Strella typically brainstorm ideas for a client's content calendar?

Ella Gunnell: Yeah, so just thinking about like when we get a new client and we're thinking about like, how are we going to, like, what's the strategy for them? What kind of content are we gonna post? Um, how often, like things like that. Um, I'd say the first thing that I like to do is when we onboard them, we say, who do you think your competitors are? And then we go ahead and we check them out. Either because they're doing a good job or maybe they're not doing that good of a job and we kind of like to see like, oh, these people have, um, high followers, but they get terrible engagement. Why is that? Or, um, maybe the opposite is true. Maybe they are doing really good job on social media.

They're kicking butt. And we're like, okay, why? You know, why is this the case? So we do a deep dive into their competitors, and I would definitely recommend that for any brands out there who are trying to decide what ideas should, like, what should I be posting on social media? That's a really good place to start, but I also think that ideas can carry across multiple industries.

Um, so it doesn't just have to be your competitors or even people in the same industry as you. Um, I would just go to companies whose social media that you like. You would can kind of look at it and say like, what can I take from this that would work in my own brand? Um, you know, what videos are doing well?

Are they doing trending audios? Are they, like, what are they kind of doing that is working? Um, and then I would just think about yourself as a consumer on social media. Like, what do I like to watch? What do I find entertaining and what do I. Look at from other brands that actually like is capturing my attention.

Like as you're on Facebook or as you're on Instagram, notice the, the ads that you are actually like staying and watching, or that you're scrolling by, or, or even just con— like, it doesn't have to be a paid ad. It can just be content in general. What, what's keeping your attention and what's not? So I would say, um, if you're going to do a good job at managing your social media, you definitely have to be an active user of it, right? You're not gonna, it's not gonna come through. And, and in fact, you're, in fact that's gonna come through to your audience if you're posting content. Um, and like it's gonna come through if you are not a good social media user, because it's gonna be obvious in what you're posting and it's not gonna resonate with people.

Laney Goff: Yes. I feel like that has been such a common theme this season on Untamed Social is that there's been this continuing conversation of when a brand is just too, being too much of a producer of content and they're not consuming enough content. Um, and that's something that even with some of the people on the team, like if we're talking about strategy and really learning social media strategy, my first suggestion is always gonna be, just look at yourself as a consumer, because a lot of times the content itself may not be bad, it's the delivery of it. Um, which is to me where the creative aspect comes in. I mean, if you know your business and your brand down to the core, then you're not gonna have that much trouble coming up with what, like the messaging in the content is gonna be. The problem is how do you deliver it creatively to, to keep attention, grab attention, you know, and to keep them coming back for more. So I think that's a big thing, is just like you said, like you've gotta actually participate on social media if you wanna see success.

Otherwise, what are you doing there? Like, you're, you're literally just going to fall to the wayside and everyone's gonna scroll past you. Um. The other thing that I wanted to say too is you mentioned competitors and I love that 'cause that is exactly what we do. Um, but in addition with that, you know, it's easy to get trapped into like just looking at what your competitors are doing and what they're posting.

And sometimes can lead to, you know, replicating what they're doing and maybe not having some originality. And I would say if you find yourself like in that space, 'cause we've all been there to stop looking necessarily at the content that's being posted, but to take a look at the engagement with the audience.

Like what are their followers saying? What questions are they asking? Things like that, because that's gonna help you if you are in a place where you're like, okay, I don't know exactly what the crux of the content is gonna be about, that's gonna give you a lot of answers to see what are your, uh, your competitors' audience asking for?

What are they discussing amongst themselves? That's gonna give you a ton of ideas. So that's a place that I would start if you're looking at your competitors, for sure.

Ella Gunnell: Yeah, I would say that's one thing I failed to mention is that like, you're not just looking at your competitors to see like what they're doing well or what they're not doing well. It's also like, how can I differentiate myself in this space? Because social media is so crowded. Like there are just endless, endless, endless people in your industry.

Even if you're like, I'm kind of in like a unique industry, a unique niche, like people are already there on social media and that's the great thing, right? There's always an audience for what you have. Like I, I know I mentioned accounting firms earlier, sorry, um, accounting firms again, but, um. I think that people with businesses like that tend to think like, my audience isn't there on social media.

Um, there isn't an audience for this and there always, always is. So never think that like, I don't care how niche your brand is, there's an audience for it. And so it's just a matter of how can I set myself apart and differentiate myself in this space that's just so noisy, so crowded.

Laney Goff: Yes. And where are they? I mean, like, and that's the truth of it, is that it, I think that like for a lot of brands, it should be simple, but I mean, I've been there myself, like we're all guilty of it. Where you're like, okay, I know my audience well, because I was my audience, typically, a lot of times a brand starts because somebody finds a solution to something, whether it's a service or a product.

They find it a solution to a problem that they themselves were having. And so you've missed that a lot. Whenever you're so deep in like the everyday business operations, you forget that sometimes. So that's another thing to consider is just understanding that you were your audience. So you have to kind of take a step back and say, okay, what was I wanting to know? You know, when that was me before I had this solution? And that helps a lot too. So audience is like a big thing in my opinion, like you mentioned. Definitely. Okay, so then here's where I feel like a lot of people you mentioned like accounting firms being boring, which is true.

Like there's a lot of just like unsexy, non-sexy industries out there. And that's just the truth of the matter. But there's a lot of them, like if you think about like Nutter Butter, a cookie. A peanut butter cookie, that's like what, you know what I mean? Like it's not anything crazy. So you know, why are they doing so well?

Obviously it's because they have taken a different route with their social media strategy to grab attention. How do you feel like, how do you balance creating content that's on brand with content that's kind of unexpected and made to grab attention?

Ella Gunnell: Yeah. Um, this can be tricky. This is making me think of an ad that I saw the other day. It was from Rascals, which is like a diaper and wipe company. You can tell what phase of life I'm in right now. But it was that trend. Um, there's a trend going around. It's like a Nicki Minaj song and you like balance on something.

Laney Goff: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ella Gunnell: Have you seen those? But they took it and um, they spun it. And so they basically. The lady was holding like a toy baby in her arm and she's—

Laney Goff: Oh okay. Good.

Ella Gunnell: Yeah, yeah. It's not a real baby. But she was balancing, and then with one hand she would opened up the white package and was pulling out wipes. And the caption was something like demonstrating, like showing us, showing you how easy it is to still, um, use our wipes one handed.

Laney Goff: Mmhmm.

Ella Gunnell: Because that is something that we as moms have to do.

We don't have a lot of hands. And so they took a trend. That was popular on social media that was getting a lot of attention. And they took that and they used it to highlight their brand in such a creative way. And that ad had, I think, over a million views, tons of likes and people in the comments being like, I'm gonna buy this just because of this, like of this ad.

So that I think is a really good example of finding that balance, taking something that is trending and something that is going to get you attention because people are into the trend, but turning it into something that is on brand. And not only that, but like highlights something good about their brand. So. I understand that that is really tricky. Rascals did it really well in that situation. A lot of brands really struggle to do it well. Um, I think that you have to realize that not every trend is going to be for you. Um, and just because other companies are doing it, if there's not a good way for you to do it, like you might miss the mark and then it was worthless to begin with.

So you don't have to be part of every trend, but I do think if you can find a good way to do it, then that is, I mean, that's how you're gonna see success on social media.

Laney Goff: Yeah. You actually, it's so funny because you bringing up Rascals, so I haven't seen that specific video. But what I did see was another video that for about Rascals and it was actually just another content creator. So this kind of goes into our next conversation, which is repurposing.

So I love that this happened because, I saw a video of a content creator originally, and she was holding her baby, and she was basically just shitting on Pampers. And she was like, Pampers like, and she's got her baby in her arm and she's got her wipes right there, and she's trying to pull the wipe out and she can't, and she's like, I've had it.

Well, the next video Rascals sent her a PR package, tons of diapers, tons of wipes, and was like, try our wipes. Do it now. And so that's the video that I saw. Um, I don't know if you saw, did you see that one?

Ella Gunnell: No, I didn't see that one.

Laney Goff: Okay, so I saw that one of the lady, and she was like, okay, Rascals, and she's holding her baby and she's pulling it out.

So it sounds like what they did was they took that for that content creator, creator, which they got, you know, a a lot of reach there for themselves as a brand, even though they didn't post that content. But then they repurposed that and utilized it.

Ella Gunnell: The same idea. Mm-hmm.

Laney Goff: Yeah, I mean, like that alone right there, like it goes back to, okay, what type of content is performing well?

It doesn't necessarily have to be something that you've posted yourself, but if you have, you know, customers or clients who have seen success talking about your brand, how can you take their content, spin it, and come up with more creative ideas based on that? So, um. That's one idea of, you know, repurposing there.

What are some other repurposing ideas that you have so that you can utilize multiple different pieces of content for one idea?

Ella Gunnell: Yeah, I love repurposing and I think that people, I just wanna start off by saying that like,

I think that people fear that they're going to sound repetitive or like, oh, I just posted about this last month, or like even last week. I just, I just posted something about this last week and I want people to understand that content on social media is short-lived and the same people might be seeing it.

Um. But probably not, it's probably showing it to different people every time. Your followers might not be seeing it every time, like, um, Instagram is so different now that people aren't really seeing their, the people that they follow their content in your feed all the time. And then thirdly, like, even if they are seeing it multiple times, that's okay because people often need to see a message multiple times and that's what's gonna start building trust.

So that's just my disclaimer, like, don't feel like you're gonna post about something too much. Um, and that people are gonna get like sick or bored. I mean, if you're posting the same thing every day, that's one thing, but people are going to want to, to hear and odds are they're, they're not hearing everything that you're posting.

So just a general disclaimer. Now, in terms of how I like to repurpose stuff, I think that you can kind of run with the same content like content and repost it in different ways. So maybe one day you're doing a reel on it, maybe one day you do a carousel on it. Maybe the next time you talk about it in a reel, you are framing it in a different way.

So maybe you got a question about that. So now you're answering that question. Um, I also am a big, big fan of series, um, on TikTok in particular, which is literally posting about the same thing in multiple videos. Like you're kind of doing the same thing.

Um, and I think maybe people could view that as lazy, but series are huge for your growth and are gonna keep, like series are often what makes me find new people to follow and then they keep you coming back for more.

I think a lot of people who have found success on TikTok will tell you that series have been really big for them. Um, so that's also a really good way to like, run with something that you think that people might want to know about, um, and then just kind of keep the ball rolling. Um, and then, I think I mentioned this earlier, but like, just depending on feedback, like dms or questions that you're getting, um, comments that you're getting about particular content, you can kind of get a different angle on it that way.

Um, so I think that that's kind of the biggest thing is you talked about the delivery. Um, make sure that your delivery is different. So like, what forms of content are you delivering? Um, you know, and then like, just kind of framing it differently, like, are you answering a question this time? Well, maybe this time you are, um, doing a talking head video about it.

Maybe this time you're responding to someone's comments. Um, I'm putting it up there in the corner of your video. So there's a lot of different ways that you can go about and, or maybe you're posting about the same content type across different platforms. Um, your TikTok talking head video about that probably isn't gonna do well on like Instagram and Facebook.

So taking something like, oh, this did really well on TikTok. I bet it would do well on Instagram and Facebook if I just tweaked it. Right? So that's another way you can repurpose across platforms just in different formats.

Laney Goff: Yeah, definitely. Those are all like, great, great suggestions. 'Cause I think people get overwhelmed with repurposing sometimes and they think like, it literally means taking content that did well three months ago and then just reposting it, which isn't necessarily the case.

I mean, you can, we've definitely done that before, if we, you know, make a slight tweak in the beginning or change the hook a little bit. But typically, you know, there are so many other ways to repurpose, um, and to help to spark that creativity because at the end of the day, I don't feel like you should just be spending all of this energy and trying to come up with all of these ideas.

It's not necessarily about your messaging. If you're come— having trouble coming up with ideas about your messaging. There's a bigger issue here. The real, the real test comes into, like you said, changing the different formats. Um, you know, I love how you even mentioned replying to people's comments. That is a way of reformatting if somebody responds to one of your videos and they, um, it's something that you can talk further about.

Yeah, definitely reply to that comment and just keep it going. Just like you said about a series and things like that, there's way to take one topic and just extend it out as far as you possibly can. Wait a couple months, revisit it again.

Ella Gunnell: Yeah. Nothing wrong with that.

Laney Goff: Nothing at all. Well, Ella, you've given us a lot, a lot of insight, and I think there's some really, really good nuggets here for the brands who are out there who are feeling stuck with their creative ideas.

Thank you so much, uh, for sharing your process and really how to create things that are scroll stopping and make you stand out more as a brand. And even for the boring ones, if you take nothing from this conversation, just remember, you don't need to wait for inspiration to strike. There's practical ways for you to spark it yourself.

Um, so. If you enjoyed today's episode, if you think that it helped you think differently about your content, make sure that you hit subscribe. Leave us a review and share it with someone whose social media is long overdue for a creativity boost. And thanks again, Ella. We will see you next time.

Ella Gunnell: Thank you.