This article originally appeared on Medium on September 6, 2018.

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Social Media is a game of who can capture the most attention and get other people to share/multiply that attention on their behalf. At this point, it’s widely agreed upon that having a content strategy is necessary for all companies and applies to capturing the attention of all demographics, not just “millennials.”

The rub then becomes, “what is good content?” And furthermore, what is content that people feel compelled to share?

High production quality is a trait that is commonly attributed to “good content”, but the virality of many creators on Vine, Snapchat, and Instagram stories would beg to differ. 4k content looks great….if you have a 60" TV. At a certain point, better resolution has diminishing returns on my iPhone.

Celebrity is another go-to trait for companies trying to create compelling content. However, Kohl’s and Hasbro could not have asked for a better representative than Candace Payne, or “Chewbacca Mom”, reaching nearly 200 million people after recording herself in a Star Wars Chewbacca mask in a Kohl’s parking lot.

If these traditional traits of “good” content are not the exclusive ingredients to engagement and connection, what is? There are three traits that all engaging content adheres to: Entertaining, Emotional, and Educational

Entertaining, Emotional, and Educational

The thesis is that a piece of content must embody one or more of these traits in order for someone to consider sharing it. And the more of these Three E’s a piece of content can exhibit, the more likely it is to be engaged with, get shared, and have an impact.

Entertaining

Entertaining is the most obvious trait of the three. It may also be one of the hardest to hit. Hollywood spends hundreds of millions of dollars on movies and TV shows that it hopes are entertaining, and many of these dollars only result in a “rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes. Additionally, entertainment value is extremely subjective.

Entertainment is an art and comes from knowing your audience and their interests. There’s a reason partnerships between entertainment companies and B2C companies are such a big deal and a lucrative business. If you’ve got the money and no creativity, just partner with Marvel to sell your midsize sedans.

Fortunately, Youtube is full of examples of commercials with high entertainment value. Here are 10 companies that had some fun with their branding:

Emotional

Emotional value is likely the most important trait of the three. Content with emotional value appeals to people on a very deep level, often compelling them to act or increasing their connection to a brand (there’s a reason Sarah McLachlan’s ASPCA commercial has run for years).

The key is identifying what a company’s customers will have an emotional response to. At GHStrategic, we describe the identification of this emotional aspect as the “Mirror of Desire.” Much like in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when Harry stood in front of the Mirror of Erised and saw what he most desired (his parents), companies should communicate their purpose in a similar fashion. A company’s “Mirror” is what makes their customers feel like a better version of themselves for having used their products or services.

When Apple ruled the creative technology market, creators didn’t buy Apple computers for the specs or for the hardware. Creators bought Apple computers because they believed Apple would make them a better screenwriter or musician or graphic designer.

Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan makes their customer feel like a more active person. E.g. “Because I am a Nike customer, I feel more compelled to wake up early to go running.”

By identifying your brand’s mirror, you also identify the emotional trigger that will connect with customers. Below is a brilliant film by director Casey Neistat for Nike.

Note: Notice that the product is only featured in the first 8 seconds of the 4:37 video. This film is purely about emotional impact, “Make It Count.”

Educational

Perhaps the easiest of the E’s to hit is educational, a concept so simple and so important, it’s amazing every company is not doing it.

As it relates to content marketing, educational content can be put in two boxes:

• How to…
• How did…

“How to…” content is based on the idea that the sale of a product or service is not the end of the customer journey. Each product or service has a job to be done.

There are several obvious examples of this.

When you go to a hardware store, you are not going because you collect power tools, you are going to purchase a power tool to build a shed. Lowe’s and Home Depot have invested heavily in video content marketing their selection of power tools not by saying how great their tools are but by producing DIY videos of how to build sheds, furniture, etc.

Makeup companies are selling beauty and lifestyle, not makeup. Therefor, a good content plan would revolve around makeup application tips and blog posts about the type of events their customers like to go to when wearing the company’s make up.

“How did…” content is most applicable for product or services that have an artistic or creative component to them.

With a music recording, you don’t need a video to tell you how to listen to it or what to do with it. A much more interesting piece of content is “how song X was written.” The job of the content changes from how to use the product to how to better appreciate it.

More Examples

Anderton’s Music Co. from Guildford, England does an amazing job of combining entertainment and education in their Youtube channel, giving them a level of attention that competes with behemoth competitors like Guitar Center.

Love him or love to hate him, Gary Vaynerchuk has taken his entrepreneurial message mainstream by combining all three elements: entertaining vlog-style content, education around marketing and business, and emotional messages of motivation and encouragement.

Mailchimp has made their case studies more dynamic by turning them into a blog series and allowing the successful users to speak for themselves, thus combining education (case studies) and emotion (showing customers the level of success the could have by using Mailchimp). Read What’s In Store.

Final Thoughts

1. The difficulty with the Three E’s is that two of them (Entertaining, Emotional) are entirely subjective. Any endeavor into content marketing is going to be an iterative process until you find out what works with your audience. It is the balance of art and data that fuel content marketing.
2. I came up with the concept of “Entertaining, Emotional, Educational” while in discussion with my good friend and marketing professional, Matt Mannino. The idea seemed novel at the moment, but after a quick Google search, I have inevitably discovered that I am not the first to think of this concept. While I came up with the idea independently, I would be doing a disservice if I did not link to the writers that thought of this long before I did:
   - Using Emotional, Entertaining and Education Content in Travel and Tourism Marketing by EvokAd
   - What Is Content Marketing? by Outbrain
3. Have any good examples of content that adhere to the Three E’s? Shoot me a tweet at @drservantes.