Use The Relatable Expert Hook to Create Your Next Helpful Reel - Good Content with Shannon McKinstrie

Podcast Summary: Good Content with Shannon McKinstry
Episode: Use The Relatable Expert Hook to Create Your Next Helpful Reel
Release Date: May 13, 2025

Introduction and Recap

In this episode of Good Content, host Shannon McKinstry delves into effective strategies for creating engaging social media reels. Building on the insights from her previous episode where she emphasized sharing content you are passionate about, Shannon reinforces the importance of authenticity in content creation.

"There are no rules. It's about what works for you. It's what lights you up."
— Shannon McKinstry [02:15]

Authenticity and Passion in Content Creation

Shannon underscores that genuine enthusiasm for your subject matter resonates with audiences. She challenges the notion of strictly niching down, advocating instead for sharing content that truly excites you, as this passion naturally attracts and engages your audience.

"If you’re not excited, we aren't excited because your audience can feel it."
— Shannon McKinstry [00:45]

Introducing the Relatable Expert Hook (REP)

The core of the episode revolves around the Relatable Expert Hook (REP)—a formula designed to enhance the effectiveness of your social media reels. Shannon explains that REP integrates three essential elements: Relatable, Expertise, and Personal, to create hooks that captivate and retain viewer interest.

"REP stands for Relatable, Expertise, Personal. You want to add in those three elements, something that they can relate to."
— Shannon McKinstry [13:30]

Breaking Down the REP Formula

1. Relatable

Shannon emphasizes the importance of making your content relatable. This can be achieved through recognizable brands, common phrases, or shared experiences. Relatability ensures that viewers immediately see themselves in your content, fostering a connection.

"Relatable could be a brand they already know... It could also be a phrase... Something that they go, 'that's me or I'm interested.'
— Shannon McKinstry [14:20]

Examples include using popular sayings like "couch rot" or referencing everyday scenarios that your target audience can identify with.

2. Expertise

Demonstrating expertise builds credibility. Shannon advises leveraging your professional titles or unique qualifications to establish authority in your content.

"If you can't think expert, what's your title?... something that makes them go, yes, I believe you."
— Shannon McKinstry [16:05]

Titles don't have to be conventional; they can be creative descriptors that highlight your specialized knowledge or experience.

3. Personal

Adding a personal touch makes your content authentic and trustworthy. Sharing personal anecdotes or aspects of your life humanizes your brand, making you more approachable to your audience.

"And something personal. Maybe you're a fellow X, Y, Z or a recovering people pleaser."
— Shannon McKinstry [17:50]

Case Study: A Client's Viral Success

Shannon shares a compelling case study of one of her clients, a nutritionist and busy mom, who achieved viral success using the REP formula. After a brief hiatus post-childbirth, her client's recent reel garnered over 500,000 views, thousands of likes, and shares, significantly boosting her follower count.

"She’s gotten over a thousand new followers. She's had almost 4,000 shares."
— Shannon McKinstry [22:10]

Hook Example:

Relatable: "Current couch snack"
Expertise: "Nutritionist"
Personal: "Busy mom" and "15 weeks postpartum"

This blend made the hook instantly appealing to viewers who identified with being busy moms or interested in nutrition, leading to high engagement.

"It's the simple things like knowing what your target audience relates to and integrating your expertise and personal story."
— Shannon McKinstry [25:00]

Practical Tips for Creating REP Hooks

Shannon provides actionable advice on crafting your own REP hooks:

Identify Relatable Elements: Use familiar brands, phrases, or scenarios that resonate with your audience.
Highlight Your Expertise: Clearly communicate why you are a credible source of information.
Incorporate Personal Stories: Share aspects of your personal life or experiences to build trust.

"Work on that formula. Look at my reel. All about it. It will be in the show notes."
— Shannon McKinstry [35:45]

She encourages creators to experiment with different combinations and consistently apply the REP formula to produce engaging and trustworthy content.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Shannon wraps up the episode by reiterating the effectiveness of the Relatable Expert Personal hook in creating impactful social media reels. She advises content creators to focus on what they love, integrate their unique expertise, and share personal stories to foster deeper connections with their audience.

"Once you've really nailed that formula, do maybe one a week and that'll be your helpful reel for the week. And you've got it."
— Shannon McKinstry [40:00]

Shannon's insights provide a clear roadmap for social media enthusiasts aiming to elevate their content through authenticity and strategic storytelling.

Key Takeaways:

Authenticity and passion are crucial for engaging content.
The REP formula (Relatable, Expertise, Personal) is a powerful tool for creating effective hooks.
Combining relatable elements, demonstrating expertise, and adding personal touches can significantly boost content engagement and virality.
Practical application through consistent practice and experimentation is essential for mastering the REP hook.

For more detailed strategies and examples, listeners are encouraged to view Shannon's reels and refer to the show notes provided in the podcast.

Transcript

Shannon McKinstry (0:00)

Foreign. I am your host, Shannon McKinstry. Welcome to Good Content, the podcast where I remove the never ending content creation, guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked. Good content. So remember a couple weeks ago when we talked about are you actually sharing content you love and are excited about because your audience can feel it if you're not excited? We aren't excited because I know a lot of people been told, niche down or only share this type of content, don't share that. As I always say, there are no rules. It's about what works for you. It's what lights you up. We are here to follow people's journeys, learn from each other, laugh with each other, get to know each other, right? So with all that said, I did promise you I would, I would come back with hooks for you after you kind of really wrote down like what it is that you're passionate about and what you want to talk about. And what is it something that you can never shut up about. If someone brings it up, you're like, and it's so funny because I've seen a lot of people pivot over the years, right? Because whatever it is that they were talking about or whatever they first started showing up on social media and talking about, they're like, I'm actually bored. And they totally pivot and it's really fun to see. So I've always talked social media and marketing because that's what I am passionate about. If I tried to talk something else, you guys would be like, what? What? You can tell it's just not in me, right? So with that said, and I gave. If you didn't listen to that episode, it was a couple weeks ago, and I shared a few reels with you guys where you could really see, even though it was educational content, right? Where we know not all content needs to be helpful and educational. This type of content from these creators, you could tell, like they really want to share this travel tip or they really want to share that recipe, right? It's like they are so excited to hit posts. And that's how I want you to feel because you're going to have a lot more fun showing up and. And you're gonna have a lot more fun growing and you'll grow faster, you'll connect faster. People will feel that. So with all that said, I started really thinking about it because one of my clients actually did go viral recently and she kind of took a little bit of a hiatus for a While. Cause she just had a baby and you know that post baby Fog, it's a lot, right? And she's got two under two. And so we were kind of like, I was like, what is it that you we. Content can't be hard for her. She's got two kids, two small kids running her business, right. She's trying to fill her coaching programs. She's a nutritionist. Fun fact. She's my nutritionist and she's helped me in so many ways anyway, so I absolutely love her and it's so fun to continue to work with her and that she still, you know, she's gone viral several times with content, but it'd been a while since we had one really go crazy. We've, we've seen like study whatever and I'm like, girl, we need to make this so easy. And again, it's something that like is going on in your life right now that is very easy for you to record. And like I always say, with the helpful educational content it needs to come from, it has to have a personal element so that we believe it and that it's trustworthy and then it's casual and fun. So I know when I do a reel and I include a hook, like, here's how I edit my reels. As a social media strategist who's also a lazy content creator, right? Here's how I do this, that sort of thing, right? So I was like, what are you eating right now? Like, what is your go to snack right now? Cuz I know for me following a nutritionist, I'm obviously her target market too. So I was like, I want to know what you are filling your cart with. And she loves experiments. I was like, cool, this will be fun. Let's do it this way. And we're going to do it as the way I've, we've done it, we've gone viral with her this way so many times. The smoothie that helped her client lose 20 pounds, three ingredients, right? Or whatever it is like you want to add something, not just here's a smoothie recipe. Boring, right? It's like this is the smoothie recipe that helped her client. So right away it's establishing expertise, it's putting something personal in it and it's relatable because if the person wants to lose 20 pounds, that's their goal, they relate to that hook immediately. So when I really study all these hooks that do so well for my clients and almost every time we do this structure, it goes viral. I'm like, why do we do. Why reinvent the real, right? So I want to share with you so I again, this is not the only type of content to create. This is not the only way to structure your reels. But this is a sure fire bet the like it will help you get views. I call it now repeat. So I was like, I need to come up with a phrase for this so people know how to really nail it, right? You guys know I love my POV hooks. You know I love did you know da da da da. Like those simple on screen hooks. There's two ways to do it. This is the hook on the screen. So in other words your anchor hook, your title hook, whatever you want to call it. It's the, it's the thing that sticks on the screen right when they see the reel. So they immediately know am I interested or not? And this is under the helpful category of my four Hs. But the R means relatable, E means expertise. P is personal. So you want to add in those three elements, something that they can relate to. Now I want to preface this because this is where I don't want it to get tricky. Relatable could be a brand they already know. Nike, Amazon, Old Navy, right? Trader Joe's. It's a brand they recognize. Okay. It could also be a phrase. There's little phrases, you know your people right in that word bank you've been working on me. One of my phrases that my people relate to is 200 view jail. Okay? So something like that that they relate to. So it's either a word, a phrase or an identifier. Something that they go, that's me or I'm interested. Numbers are great. Relatable location is the other. Okay, so again, relatable for her was £20, £10, whatever that is. They go, that's my goal too. I relate to this hook location so great for my hyperlocal people. Local bloggers, realtors, best cozy coffee shop in Washington state from a coffee connoisseur. Like that's the flow. It gives the expertise. So it says something about why they should believe you and what I do. Sometimes I don't even say like from a social media strategist. I'll just be like my client. My client says that's my expertise is I have a client, I have a customer, whatever it is. So that's another way you can do it because I don't want you to overthink this. So that's relatable, right? We got relatable covered for expert. This is where people get thrown For a loop. I noticed in the comments on my reel when I talked about this and they were like, well, I'm not an expert. I'm like, what is your title? So if you can't think expert, what's your title? Bookworm, mom of two type B. Business owner. Right. What's a title that just says why you're reputable, why they should want to hear again, 200 pounds down, that could be your title. If you don't want it, you could just say a busy mom who's a seven figure business owner. That's your title. It you don't have to say business coach, realtor, shop owner, cop. You know, just, it's a seven figure business owner. So expert is also does not have to actually mean your title. Just like relatable doesn't actually have to mean something deep. It's just the word Amazon relatable because they attach to it. It's anything, a word, phrase, et cetera that they can attach to. So if you're struggling with that E expert or title, something that makes them go, yes, I believe you. And then P, personal. So what, here's what Katie's said that went viral for her. Now again, I do want to preface this. I think when people hear viral, they hear, I talked about this last week. They're, they hear, oh, then she must have gotten 7 million views. No, viral just means the way there's no technical for it. But even if you look it up, if you ask ChatGPT, it's like any content that just gets more views than what you normally get. So I usually look at it as like if you normally get 50,000 views on a reel, if you're over 500,000, like that's like, you know, if you quadruple plus your normal standard views, that's viral. So if you have a thousand followers but you get 10,000 views and you normally get 500 views, like that's viral for you. It went beyond what you typically get. So hers got over 500,000 views and it's still going because it was 400, I think 50,000 a couple of days ago. She's gotten over a thousand new followers. She's had almost 4,000 shares. Okay, this is what's so fascinating to me. 42, 200 likes, 3700 shares. So almost likes and shares are almost the same. That's crazy. So this is what her hook said and it's her actually doing the thing. You guys know how I'm always saying make sure in your video you're demoing if possible it's not necessary. You can have a pretty quote with a waterfall, right? But if you're giving a tip especially, or you're saying pov, you're an author who, like, maybe in the video show you writing a book, right? Like, you try to make it so they know you're in. You know, the video tells a bit of the story. Okay, so she's demoing. She's eating the snack, and the hook is. It's the rep. Ready? My current couch snack. And we came up with that together because we were like, we need. Like, what do we all say now? Couch rotting. Right? Like, that's like a popular saying in culture. So I was like, we got to do something about couch. So current couch snack as a nutritionist and busy mom underneath in a smaller print as, like a little subtitle. 15 weeks postpartum. So if someone's postpartum, they're gonna relate to that phrase. If someone loves to eat snacks on their couch and rot, they're gonna relate to couch rot. You see what I mean? So those are just relatable words that she used. And then her expertise, she dropped that. She's a nutritionist and something personal. Busy mom. And she also added in 15 weeks postpartum. So someone's postpartum and wants to get their nutrition up. They see right away, she's a nutritionist, she's whatever, right? And it shows the snack, so it's already something they desire. And then she takes them through, which I like to call the book reel. So that hook was about two and a half, three seconds. And then it shows her step by step, making it. So, like, I always love to tell people, especially when. If you are in food, interior design, things like that, we love a before and after, But a one formula I love is when you actually show the after and then the process, because you immediately grab them with that desired feeling, right? So she did it perfectly. And then it shows Greek yogurt real quick. One second, second clip the protein powder, third clip the peanut butter, right? And she just stirs is genius. And she got over a thousand new followers. Yeah. Standard. She gets between 4. Usually about 40,000 is, like, her average views. So 500,000 is a huge jump for her. And again, so many shares that she got so many new eyeballs. So that is the rep. So when I talked a couple weeks ago about, like, are you guys really sharing stuff you want? How would you fill out an rep hook? You're a hairstylist. My go to hair color when I'm bored of my hair from a 10 year stylist. I don't know, something like that. The curly hair routine I swear by as a hairstylist and a girl who used to hate her curls. My go to workout regimen as someone who hates to work out from a fitness coach and avid runner. Okay, what is it that they're going to relate to? So again, $20 screen free Amazon fine for all my fellow toddler moms. So right away it says oh she's not just telling me she's also a toddler mom. So again this, this comes down to writing down those relatable words. So for me again to interview jail watch time. What are other phrases right. That my people love? Instagram is obviously reels. Cap cut is a great relatable catchy word that because people love cap cut Personal I would say social media strategist or I would say lazy content creator and expertise obviously marketer of 20 years. I can say social media manager for 10 plus years. So just think of that and then what's a tip you can give them and you've got your rep real. But again I want to make sure when you are writing these out that you this is a good exercise to really make sure you're talking about things you love. Like Katie talked about something she loves. A protein snack that she makes every day on the couch where she gets five minutes to herself and you could tell it was organic and real cuz she's sitting there eating it on the couch. She's not making this up. This isn't just something she saw. This is a snack that she fuels her body with and enjoys eating. And you can tell. Now for people that work in digital perfect. You could say the three components I add to every canva or I don't know, maybe something about a canva hack if you're a web designer. My favorite Adobe blah blah blah font for the girlies who love blank tiny under subtitle from a web designer. Things like that. You can even start with that hook of you being like pointing to it pointing to the text bubble classic reel style. If you don't find that too cringey and then you flip the camera and show them my favorite design hack. What's cool. Another thing, my favorite guest room color palette. So if they're in the process of they know they have guests coming this summer they're right away gonna go oh, guest room. Yep. I need to spruce up my guest room for people coming this summer. So think of things like that and then how can you use a relatable phrase, whether it's the name of a store, a brand, a phrase that we commonly use, a location. How can you squeeze in that you have a client, a customer, right. Or what your exact title is or that you're a busy mom, whatever it is. And then how can you end it with something kind of personal? Maybe you're a fellow X, Y, Z or a recovering people pleaser. Okay, so there you go. I hope that helps. Work on that formula. Look at my reel. All about it. It will be in the show notes. And use that hook. Listen to that pockets from a couple weeks ago and last week's too is really good if I do say so myself. And work on this hook. And once you've really nailed that formula, do maybe one a week and that'll be your helpful reel for the week. And you've got it. And they'll trust you off the bat. They'll love you off the bat. There you go. Love you friend. Talk to you next week.