Why your views don't pay you: 8 story questions to understand your real community

Before you start: ask the questions in your stories (one a day)

You don’t need to post them all at once. One question per story, with the “Question” sticker (or the same question in a direct message on TikTok). Replace “your topic” with what you talk about.

1. What made you follow me? Say it in your own words.
2. What do you do for a living?
3. What is your biggest difficulty right now with (your topic)?
4. What have you already tried to solve it?
5. If one thing changed in the next 3 months, what would it be?
6. Today, concretely, how do you go about (your topic)?
7. Where would you like me to start?
8. If you could only ask me one question, what would it be?

When you have at least around ten answers per question, take screenshots or copy them into a document. Delete first names and usernames before pasting.

The message to copy

You are going to help me understand who is really watching me, based on my community's answers to my story questions. Talk to me in simple words and go one step at a time.

Rules: invent no answers and no figures. Rely only on what I paste. If the sample is too small to conclude (fewer than 10 answers to a question), say so clearly. Quote exact phrases from the answers, never paraphrases, when you talk about their words.

Step 1. Ask me my topic, what I sell or want to sell, and who I think I'm talking to. Note my answer: it will be my assumed target.

Step 2. Ask me to paste the answers, question by question (or all together with the question as a title). No first names.

Step 3. Give me this report:
a) Who is really watching me: the profiles that come up (job, situation), compared with my assumed target. Tell me if there is a gap.
b) The 3 difficulties that come up most, ranked, with 2 exact phrases supporting each.
c) What they have already tried and why it wasn't enough (in their words).
d) The 10 words or expressions they use most to describe their problem, to reuse in my content.
e) The signs of a good audience in the answers (specific problem, has tried solutions, ready to act) and the signs of an audience that won't bring me anything (only curious, looking for free things, off topic). Give an order of magnitude as “many”, “a few” or “almost none”, never an invented percentage.

Step 4. Suggest 3 content ideas that answer directly what I learned, with a hook written in their words. Then the next story question to ask to dig into the most important topic.

Step 5. End with a decision: “keep your message as it is”, “adjust your message towards X” or “change target towards Y”, in one sentence, with the reason.

How it works

1. Ask your questions in your stories over several days, and collect the answers.
2. Open a new conversation in your assistant and paste the message above.
3. Answer its questions, paste the answers without first names, and read the report.

To get the most out of it

• Open questions, never “yes or no”. That is the difference between a word and a usable sentence.
• Use their words, not yours. An exact sentence from someone in your community makes a better title than any idea.
• A poor audience is not a failure. It just tells you what to change: the topic, the angle or the place where you post.
• Redo the exercise every three months. Your community changes when your content changes.

Frequently asked questions