I’ve been a blogger for 10 years now, and every day is something new. Food blogging is something I’m a little newer at, but ever since the beginning, I’ve always wanted to make recipes that were easy and accessible, even to people who didn’t cook as much as I do.
I also work primarily in the vegetarian/vegan space, so that adds another layer of education to anything I write.
Personally, I love working with new (weird) ingredients, but my readers may not. Worse, they may not have access to, say, purple yams in their small town in the US. I’m incredibly fortunate to live where I do and to have access to such great raw ingredients from many places and cultures.
As content producers, it’s our job to create blogs, vlogs, podcasts and photos that nicely fit into a sweet spot that exists somewhere between accessibility and aspiration.
Let me put it to you this way: I could publish a recipe for a grilled cheese sandwich. While it’s accessible (pretty much everyone has bread, cheese, butter and a pan) it’s not particularly aspirational content. Pretty much everyone knows how to make a grilled cheese sandwich. You’re probably not going to try my recipe, because it’s something you’ve done before. However, if I write a post about how to make the best grilled cheese sandwich ever… well, then than becomes aspirational. You’d maybe learn something from my post, and up your grilled cheese game.
In order for people to want to follow you, you need to be human. I know lots of people follow Kim Kardashian, but I just feel like I literally have nothing in common with her, so I’m not interested. If you’re too perfect, then, yes, you’re aspirational, but you’re not accessible. I want to follow someone that I feel like I could just hang out with, have a coffee or a glass of wine, and shoot the shit. I don’t want to hang out with someone with whom I’m going to be always on edge that I will do something or say something wrong.
Our content has to challenge the reader, but not too much. Make it too much of a challenge, they won’t even try. But challenge them just enough… that’s the sweet spot.
For you as a content creator, what’s your sweet spot?
