Goooood afternoon!
This week’s thoughts are around trust, and using trust-building to stand out in a crowded content space where anyone and everyone can make a video in 5 minutes.
Featured Video
Here’s my NYC travel vlog! It’s about 40 minutes long, so only watch if you have the time.
I got it edited and published early this week, and I’m pretty happy with it. It’s a completely different type of video than what I’ve made before. It’s really meant to be a passive viewing experience. First time experimenting with this format.
What is trust, and why is it important?
Content production is pretty crazy right now. Anyone with an idea, a business, or a POV can immediately start cranking out videos with today’s AI technology, and it’s already happening. It looks something like this:
Feed your idea, business, or POV to ChatGPT/Claude and ask it to come up with a content strategy.
Have ChatGPT/Claude use that content strategy to write 100 posts & video reels.
Film the reels or have VEO 3 generate them.
Automate post scheduling with Lindy or another tool.
Publish 5 reels a day that all sound like AI but contribute to an overwhelming sea of content noise.
Obviously, this is not the approach we want to take if we want to actually make good videos that elicit an action from our viewers. But how to we 1) stand out from the noise, and 2) convince our viewers that our videos are actually worth watching?
I think the answer to both is this:
Make trust-building content.
The goal of making content online has always been about building an audience that trusts you and likes you. But now that informational content (including video) has been commoditized, simply posting content isn’t going to build that trusting audience anymore.
So the content we make should specifically be made to build trust.
But what builds trust? Here are some examples:
Stories. Your stories, your customer’s stories, your struggles, and the real problems you’ve solved can’t be replicated by AI. Stories also make examples tangible. Storytelling has long been the center of how humans communicate ideas. Think of all the experiences you’ve had in life that nobody else has. How are they relevant to your audience? Use that to connect.
Faces. Real (consistent) faces with real expressions are difficult for AI to replicate. I don’t know how long this will be the case, but making content with your face in it is still one of the ways to hold trust with your audience. People connect with people, and increasingly more and more consumers become aware that faceless content is largely AI generated.
Collaboration/community. This one’s a bit less obvious, but hear me out. People connect with people, right? So how powerful is it to see content where multiple people are working together? If I make a video about my experience visiting NYC alone, I need to hold a conversation with the viewer. But there will be times when the viewer still feels separate from my experience. However, if I make a video visiting NYC with a friend (see above), suddenly our interactions become very real because they are relatable to just about anybody watching. And those human interactions are inherently unique and irreplicable by AI.
I’m also curious what ideas you have for building trust in your content. It’s already extremely important, and I think it’s going to become increasingly essential as more and more mass-produced content takes over the internet.
Send me an email, let me know.
(No photo this week because I forgot to take one.)
If you have questions about YouTube or video production for your business, book a call with me :)
Talk soon,
– Matias