Do you ever wonder why sometimes your content takes off and other times it flops? I do too. I should say I did too. So I used AI to analyze hundreds of my posts across Instagram, TikTok, and my podcast. And what I found is completely changing my approach to content. Today, I wanna share with you and break down what I learned. I started this rabbit hole last week, and there's some surprising mistakes that if I didn't address them, they would kill my reach. So if you've listened to this podcast or you've consumed any of my content, you know that I am big on experimenting with content. I've experimented more in the past six months than I had the previous three years before that. So I was putting out all these different ideas. There's like a through line, of course, what I talk about, but I was really turning up the temperature on the creative dial, not sticking to just one subject like content creation, but really wildly experimenting with different things. And experimenting is awesome because you get to approach content from different angles, and it just feels fresh. And it gives you a ton of data to then go back and look at. But that's the thing. You have to get that data to go back and look at it, which is what I did last week. Because to be fully transparent, my strength is in momentum and volume. It's not in analyzing. I'm not a big analysis guy. I'm in a big let's move forward guy. I get into routines, and I can stay consistent like nobody else. But when it comes back to looking through all of the data, I'm not super excited about it. But I am always looking to improve, and you have to look at what you've done to look ahead. Right? So I used OpenAI's Deep Research tool in ChatGPT. I gathered data from Instagram, TikTok, and my podcast, and I put it into separate CSV files. And for Instagram, I created these columns that had basically data from the past six months of my posts. And so for each post, I would have data for the title, the format, if it was like a real, a carousel, or just a static image post. And I had views, likes, comment, shares, saves, watch time, follows, caption that I used, the transcript of the video, or the text that was on the carousel or static image. I had the similar data for TikTok. And then for my podcast, I grabbed the episode title, number of downloads, duration, episode description, a transcription of the episode. And then I created this 200 word prompt for ChatGPT, and I did it one at a time for each platform, Instagram, TikTok, and my podcast. After submitting it to ChatGPT, took about ten minutes to get the results back. I got an overwhelming amount of information. Honestly, way too much to process at first, so I would just take, like, little small peaks. I'm like, I need to sip away from the computer. My eyes are hurting at this point. But it confirmed suspicions that I had already had with much clearer insights around them, and that's what I wanna share with you. On Instagram, I thought reels were mainly for reach, but they do also drive new followers when the topic is trending. I assumed longer carousels were better, but shorter actionable ones performed just as well. And I hugely underestimated motivational quote cards or I call them quote cards. They're just images with text on it. These relatable messages drove some of the biggest engagement I got over the past six months. On TikTok, I believed short videos were key, but length had little correlation with overall success. I assume TikTok exclusive content was necessary, like, if you had to make the content contextual to the platform. It didn't matter actually. Cross platform posts did just as well, if not better. I thought motivational content would work also on TikTok, and I had just shared about this last week in my newsletter. I even linked to a couple of them, and I even mentioned like, hey. They're not doing good. This was before I analyzed them more. But it turns out on TikTok, at least, my audience prefers more practical, actionable advice. I also expected, like, fun facts to engage because those had done really well on YouTube shorts and did okay on Instagram. But they only did well when they were relevant or niche specific facts on things that I normally talk about, which completely blew my mind because I really thought TikTok would just show your video kinda to anyone. But the algorithm seems to be dialed into people who are a little bit more tuned into content that you normally post. Like, I thought I could make a video about absolutely anything, and it would take off on TikTok. But the data shows that's not necessarily what's happening, at least for me. On my podcast, I assume longer episodes were better, but shorter value packed episodes, like in the ten to twenty minute range performed just as well. Also, I had kind of thought that maybe sharing more personal stories might help connect more, but it was the actionable advice that consistently outperformed the personal stories. And I've really tried to cover a large amount of topics in the last six months. It's funny because sticking closer to core content creation themes was more effective. So my hunch was diverse content topics would keep things fresh but actually keeping that range tighter is the move. Now looking at what actually is working for me, like the patterns I'm picking up from the data. On Instagram, the most impactful posts, they had high saves and high shares. That was more important than the likes. Quote cards or these static image posts, they delivered the highest engagement per impression. Carousel posts had the highest save rates, and those are treated as more resources like how to stuff, educational stuff. On TikTok, there was no clear correlation between video length and success of the video. Hooks and a topic that's relevant mattered the most. Also having a structured format like listicles where you kind of do things like one, two, three, or like five reasons why you should blank or doing rankings that consistently performed well for me. Also having like a mild urgency or slightly controversial hooks increase engagement versus purely positive messaging that was less engaging. On this podcast, actionable insights solving a specific pain point consistently outperformed other formats. And, basically, the formula is starting with a common challenge then providing solutions. And underperforming episodes were focused on me rather than the audience, which not that I wanna make this podcast about me at all, but it's funny because in my mind, when I was experimenting over the past six months, it wasn't me trying to talk about myself. Like, that's the last thing I wanted to do. I was experimenting with if that's something I should be leaning into of talking about myself. But there is a specific way to talk about myself that doesn't make it about me as the center, but more as a tool for sharing how something I learned can benefit you, which is, I think, something I just wanna get better at and, honestly, probably my intention there from the beginning. So if anything, that data is probably just showing me trying to get better at that. And so that's a lot there. But how is this actually gonna change my strategy on these three platforms moving forward? For number one, on Instagram, I'm gonna be prioritizing content for more saves and shares. Things like actionable carousels, relatable quote cards, and more of both of those formats because 95% of what I post on Instagram are reels and videos because I post them everywhere. So it's not like I'm, like, not gonna post videos, but I'm gonna increase the amount of carousels and quote cards that I do post because those are working. I didn't feel like they were working for some reason, and reels kinda feel like the hot thing. I don't know. Video, short form video, especially. But I need to be prioritizing more carousels and quote cards. Then when it comes to carousel slides, I'm gonna be making sure, of course, that each one is packed with clear value and keeping them tight and concise. On TikTok, I'm gonna be doubling, tripling, quadrupling down on making strong hooks, focusing on that first seven to ten seconds, and then really going more into topic relevance over video length. And I could do a whole episode about just topic relevance alone when it comes to, like, TikTok. Topic to me is everything. Also on TikTok, I'll be confidently now repurposing successful cross platform content because if it works on TikTok or even if it doesn't work that well, that doesn't mean it won't also work on other platforms. Like, people on YouTube are interested even if I make something just for TikTok. That's cool. Also, I'm gonna create more structured, easily digestible formats like that listicle or ranking type content, which you might have already seen me do. Now on this podcast, couple of ways I'll be changing up my strategy is better directly addressing your pain points with practical solutions. So if you wanna make my job easier there, which, hey, who doesn't wanna make someone's job easier? Especially if it benefits you is share with me. Like, what is not working for you? Where are your pain points? Send me an email. Send me a DM. Call me in the middle of the night. Say this is your problem because I wanna know. I wanna know that I'm utilizing my time most effectively when I'm making these episodes for you, so we'll help each other out here. You told me your pain points. I'll provide practical solutions when I have one for that. Also, I'll be balancing my own, you know, personal stories with immediate actionable insights here. So it's not just me, me, me, which, again, I don't think I came off that way. That's where you have to interpret the data so you don't go off on this tangent of like, oh, maybe I was making it all about myself. Like, I don't think I was doing that. I just really want to, be aware of that too. Now if you are curious on how you could audit your own content, maybe you're like, Dylan, that sounds awesome for you. How can I make it more personalized to me? This is what you can do in three steps. Number one, you could gather clear data. So export your platform data into CSV files, which you could use something like Google Sheets. Just create the columns like I mentioned. Number two, you wanna ask AI the right questions. So you can have AI either write you a prompt, like ask ChatGPT to write you a prompt. And what you wanna ask it is basically, help me identify the common traits of high performing content. What do I need to do more of? And do it for just one platform at a time because if you try to do all three at once, I don't think it's gonna go as deep as you would really want. You wanna go really deep with each platform because there's nuances to each of them. Now after you get the feedback of the data from each platform, then you could have it analyze all the platform information that you got back and say, now notice all of the trends across these platforms so that you can, number three, focus on actual patterns so that you can repeat more of the successful formats themes. And so you can look for ways on how you can best create content that rides the through line of each of those platforms because, like I just said, there's nuances, but there are overlaps. So you wanna find those overlaps. Those are your strengths. That's what you need to do more of. To cap this episode off, my homework for you is to analyze your content. You don't have to go super deep like I did, but don't just spend time in the moving forward phase that you don't pause for a moment to look back and see what you're doing and how you could make it better. That's all I got for you this week. I'll catch you in the next one. Let's talk about something I'm really passionate about, helping creators break through invisible walls that are holding them back. Maybe you're creating great content but you're struggling to monetize it or maybe you've got all these amazing ideas but something keeps stopping you from hitting that publish button. Here's the thing, every creator's journey is different and that's exactly why I love doing one on one work. What I do isn't your typical consulting where I just throw a bunch of strategies at you and hope that something sticks. No. What we'll do is we'll work together to really dig deep and identify what's actually blocking your progress. For some creators I work with, it's about cracking the code on how they're gonna monetize. For others, it's about breaking through those mental barriers around showing up consistently. Whatever it is for you, we'll figure it out together and we'll create a clear path forward. This kind of personalized work isn't for everyone. It is an investment, not just financially, but in terms of your commitment to make real change. But if you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making genuine progress, let's talk. The first step is simple. Just send me an email at hi@dylanschmidt.com. Thanks again for joining me today. Until next time. Keep creating.