Nobody does this, but everybody should do this.
The last month I’ve been way more consistent with high-performing social content, especially video – but what I’m going to share in this article will work with any channel: 𝕏, LinkedIn, Threads, etc.
The images below are from only Instagram – they show the performance increase in December compared to previous months.
And the reason I’ve been consistent with high-performing content is I started doing one thing different – and this is something anybody can do that will benefit you right now.
Tracking
I’ve talked about evergreen subject matter before – subject matter that is always interesting. Subject matter where, 4 out of 5 times, it will perform better than the rest of your content.
It’s absolutely real. I’ll often make multiple pieces of content about the same interesting topic and every piece of content will get a lot of views.
But then I started thinking about how there are also evergreen hooks.
And the most viral content will have strong subject matter and a strong hook.
So I started going through all high-performing social content in my niche – from anybody, not just me, tracking:
Column 1: The hook
Column 2: The topic
Column 3: The URL
Column 4: The benefits named
Column 5: The topic category
RELATED: The exact step-by-step method I use to post the same video across Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Facebook Reels – and how often you should post.
Here’s what this trains you to do
This trains your brain in a few ways.
- You actually have to be thoughtful about your niche. What content do you like posting? What do you want to stay away from? What do you want to post more?
- The act of writing down successful hooks makes you better at coming up with new ones yourself.
- Writing down successful topics, as framed by a piece of content that presented it well, helps you understand how to frame topics in the first place.
- This is why I added a column for Benefits Named – because the best performing videos were always clear on explaining the benefits of what was being shown.
- Simply put, you develop a more intuitive sense of what people care about, and what they don’t.
My method of gathering viral content from creators in my niche
Honestly, my method was crude and there’s definitely better ways – but it worked.
I really wanted the bangers – the highest performing pieces.
I went to TikTok, which allows you to sort from most viewed – and did that for myself and for other creators in my niche.
I just realized you can do this with YouTube Shorts too, so I’ll definitely be heading there after publishing this article.
With Instagram, there’s no way I know of to sort by most popular – but usually creators will pin their best stuff, so these are worth looking at.
Did I just rip off other creators’ topics and hooks as my own?
You might be thinking at this point, this is what I did.
The answer is no, I didn’t.
My most viewed video this month, 4.7 million views, is on a topic I previously covered that did well, with a new hook informed by me constantly looking for good hooks.
Sometimes I reuse others’ hooks – but really I’m mixing and matching topics and hooks from me and from everybody.
And if it performs well, I’m adding this back into my spreadsheet.
Something else I noticed from doing this is that videos about Google Search Console tricks are always interesting.
So I started posting near-daily Google Search Console hacks. Like this one with 100,000 views.
I noticed this by looking at a lot of my SEO content that had been doing well. From writing it down, I observed a pattern, formed a theory, and tried it.
Do this anywhere, start now
Like I said, this will work for any platform.
I see people on 𝕏 constantly using as a hook: “REPEAT AFTER ME” – this is a hook used by different people in different niches and it works because it’s highly opinionated, which people like.
I bet it would work on LinkedIn too, and Threads, and a text Facebook Page post.
So start now.
Create a spreadsheet.
Column 1: The hook
Column 2: The topic
Column 3: The URL
Column 4: The benefits named
Column 5: The topic category
Track high-performing content.
It will make you way more consistent at getting serious engagement.
Do the same thing for your SEO
For most people, including myself, one-off hits aren’t good enough.
You want a system that can give you repeatable success.
You made one high-performing social video? Good, but you really need to be able to scale it into many more.
You ranked one SEO page? Good, but you really need to be able to scale it into many more.
And with both, you need conversions at the end.
All my Google Search Console trick videos promote my SEO course, Compact Keywords, at the end of them – and I’ve had a lot of recent purchases from people specifically citing these videos as the reason they purchased.
And with the course, Compact Keywords, it’s for putting up SEO landing pages specifically built to convert.
Not just that, but Compact Keywords is a repeatable system for doing it again and again and again, across any niche, any language, and any business size.
And believe me when I say I’ve yet to encounter a space where it doesn’t work.
Here’s a recent video testimonial from Dennis in Germany showing his analytics and explaining how it’s working for his German website: https://edwardsturm.com/compact-keywords/#dennis-dickmann
Here’s Angel in NYC, showing how he made back the cost of the course in 39 days, using it to drive sales to his Men’s Skincare ecom: https://edwardsturm.com/compact-keywords/#angel-olavarria
And here’s Omar in Houston, who used it to sell a $4,000 bed in his first six weeks of the course: https://edwardsturm.com/compact-keywords/#omar-abu-shaaban
Here’s William in Missouri, who used it to win back previously churned clients to his agency and train his entire staff on my system: https://edwardsturm.com/compact-keywords/#william-bremer
The best things in marketing are repeatable systems, shown in detail so they can be recreated, that work anywhere.
That’s what Compact Keywords is for your SEO. I hope you’ll check it out: https://edwardsturm.com/compact-keywords/
