About a decade ago I came up with a theory that one scene from the Bruce Lee movie “Enter the Dragon” was the key to creating a successful social media account.
In it, Lee tutors a young pupil that he must harness emotion to successfully land his kicks.
“You need emotional content,” Lee tells the pupil.
I’ve seen this move 100 times, and that line still strikes me like lightning. And I think there are some key lessons that we, as higher ed marketers, can put into action in our day jobs.
When watching the clip, there are two moments that you should pay special attention to.
- The first is how Bruce responds to his student’s opening kick. “What was that, an exhibition?” I’ve felt this way so many times when talking to social media managers. You get so caught up in the act of doing that you forget there should be meaning behind your content. If output is your main goal, you’ve already lost. Your content needs to make people feel something, whether it’s pride, joy, intrigue, anger, fear, or satisfaction. The only thing it can’t be is apathy.
- The second moment is when the student finally throws quality kicks, and Bruce asks him how it felt. What follows is a lesson on why feeling can be more important than thinking, and then Bruce drops the coldest line ever: “It’s like a finger pointing away to the moon, don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.” I get it, channels matter. They matter just as much as using a finger to help someone know what direction they should look. But, no matter how you spin it, they are still just tools. If you use those tools to direct someone to something uninteresting or irrelevant, then all you have are missed opportunities.
A lot has happened in the world and in digital and social media since I first devised this theory more than ten years ago. Still, it feels just as relevant now, if not more so, than it was then.
Look around at the most popular creators and content these days and what do you notice? Storytelling creativity and craft that utilizes and maximizes emotion to connect create audience-building connections:
- Unlocking core memories. Here’s a Facebook post of a Penn State student playing a song from “Super Mario Bros. 2” on the Marimba. This video didn’t resonate on TikTok or Instagram, but it managed to amass over 850,000 views on Facebook, with the 30-50-year-olds sharing their memories of the game in the comments.
- Creating the sense that you are experiencing a real moment. This is a clip of the band South Arcade, and this is content creator Morgan Evelyn Cook. Both do an amazing job of building a connection between themselves and the audience, making you feel like you are there with them.
- Building intrigue by teaching something. Here are videos from two of my favorite creators, Dami Lee and kurzgesagt. Notice how they use attention-grabbing animation and mix it with easily digestible voice-overs.
- Speaking directly to the audience like it’s a call on FaceTime. TikTok creator @Jordan_The_Stallion8 is great at this. Here’s just one of many examples.
- Edits! Edits! Edits! I’m addicted to TikTok edits and have a special affinity for anime and sports. If those aren’t your bag, just know that there are so many out there that take advantage of trending songs and sounds.
And that’s just a small taste of recent content that has shown the ability to make the audience feel something to the point where they want to engage. In a world where digital oversaturation is real and declining reach and engagement is is ringing alarm bells, it is essential that you create content that resonates with your.
