The Brand Messaging Strategy I Use to Transform Political Rage Into Resonant Content

Why a Brand Messaging Strategy is the Key to Posting Political Content Online

Unless you’ve gone into digital hibernation (I feel you!), you may have noticed the online space is a hot raging mess atm… 🔥

As a dual American-Australian feminist and progressive, I’m trying HARD not to rage-post and add to the toxic dumpster fire that is brewing.

From viral misinformation, fake AI videos, to emotional spirals dressed up as ‘hot takes’…the online sphere is one hot spicy and UNSAVORY rage laksa right now.

But I’m not here to talk about politics or recent events.

I’m here to help you navigate through the emotional gauntlet that is the internet right now so that you (and your brand) can show up in a way that may help both yourself (if you are feeling rage like I am) and everyone who follows you. 

WITHOUT pissing people off or giving your ideological enemies the satisfaction of knowing just how angry you may be.🤘

This advice comes from the core of how I teach brand messaging inside all of my SWAN Transformation Marketing Strategy mentoring programs.

It’s about helping online business owners and content creators to craft content that doesn’t just react, but that helps their audience transmute emotion into clarity.

So today, I’m going to show you the exact brand messaging strategy I recommend to turn political rage into content that connects, resonates, and actually strengthens your brand — without alienating your audience.

Continue reading, OR if you prefer listening because you’re hitting the gym, click below for the podcast version. 🪄 🎧💫

Continue reading, OR if you prefer watching, click below for the YouTube version, where you can spy on my book collection! 🪄 📺💫

First, let’s review some fundamentals of brand messaging and why it matters… 

Brand Messaging Strategy 101: Words Channel ENERGY 🪄💫✍️So Channel Wisely! 

A brand messaging strategy is the difference between “posting content” and actually saying something meaningful that will be understood by the brand’s target audience.

It’s the system that shapes your voice, values, and key messages so your audience knows who you are, what you stand for, and why your brand is worth paying attention to — and trusting.

As business owners, we POST online to grow our audience, to connect with people, and to sell our products and services, sure.

But we SCROLL online as users because we’re seeking connection, reassurance, inspiration, and validation.

And sometimes just to alleviate our boredom, which is often really an anxious, dysregulated nervous system.

Understand why your audience uses each platform so you can meet them where they are.

Content resonates when you match your audience’s energy.

Mediocre content creators believe that their content should align with the energy or the moment. Their goal is to simply ”be relevant.”

The message is, ”I am just as pissed off as you are”

And that’s an important aspect for showing solidarity and support, right? 

So they may be tempted to share, mirror, or add to the triggering rage bait, the misinformation, and the intensity of the emotion. 

But while these messages *may* often bust through the barrier of brand complicity, denial, or inaction, they won’t help you or your business stand out or be memorable.

When the political content is not aligned with a brand messaging strategy, it’s going to come off as performative.

Performative messaging is forgettable. It’s commodified thought. Not genuine to you or your brand.

Too much ”just sharing because everyone else is” content can come off as herd-like behaviour, instead of leadership.

People want and need leadership. Especially in stressful times.

So if there are issues your ideal audience is passionate about, it’s an opportunity for you as a content creator to step up and lead.

But to lead as a brand that’s also selling, you need an aligned brand messaging strategy.

Posting Political Content: Performance VS Leadership

Kickass content creators who go viral, get reshared like crazy, and get followed do one thing differently than those who temporarily blow up: 

They TRANSFORM the energy that they find online.🪄💫

You’re not just showing up and playing your small part in amplifying important messages or news events.

You are channelling it into specific, desirable OUTCOMES for people (and for your brand).

This is the work I’ve spent years studying, testing, and teaching — how to do emotional labour through language without burning yourself out.

Leadership is recognizing what people really need in times of crisis – and giving it to them.

So let’s review what outcomes people desire when they are scrolling and searching online.

Knowing these desired outcomes will help you channel the energy people don’t want into energies they do want. 

And it will illustrate how you don’t have to create content that is directly political to be aligned with your brand messaging strategy.

The copywriter Drew E. Whitman succinctly listed them out for us IN ORDER in his kickass book, Cashvertising: 

When I’m crafting content during emotionally volatile moments, I run it through one filter — human desire.

Drew Whitman calls it the Life-Force 8, and it explains almost everything people respond to online.

For example, the number one desire humans have is to survive, to enjoy life, and to live a long time.

So, with the general feeling of survival being threatened due to political upheaval, you may want to focus your attention on what helps people survive.

It could be something you offer in your business: self-care, financial resources, a calmer nervous system. Or simply assurances that their fear and anger are justified. That’s it, perfectly normal to feel as scared as they are, because their lives feel threatened.

Another example is to focus on the human desire to be informed.

There may be news issues relevant to your industry that you can choose to inform your audience about. Changes in visa applications if you work in travel. Where women can access reproductive health care if you work in women’s health.

When you focus on human needs FIRST, your content can be political without deviating from your brand messaging strategy.

‘To be informed’ was the need and desire I strategically chose to meet in my podcast episode, I’m an American Living in Australia: Here’s Why I DO NOT Recommend Moving Here!

In that episode, I covered all the ways Americans seeking to leave the US could apply to live in Australia, including the pros and cons of living here long-term.

It was not directly political, yet it did directly meet a need that has been on the rise due to the politics in the US, and was helpfully informative. And helping creative people become self-employed digital nomads is a core part of Hexotica’s brand messaging strategy, so there was zero deviation. No performance, no gestures without helpful emotional redirection.

I hope that episode also gave a few people some hope that they don’t HAVE to stay in the US forever. I hope it inspired someone to start planning their future exit, or at least a temporary reprieve overseas until the pendulum of power swings the other direction.

Btw – it ALWAYS swings the other way, eventually!

When you create content that is focused on meeting the emotional needs of your audience, it resonates more with them.

It serves them better than generic shared performative content.

And, it positions you as someone who understands them and who is a source of the emotional comfort they are seeking.

Whitman writes, ”We either satisfy these desires ourselves in our own lives OR through seeing others satisfy THEIRS.” 

When we understand that these are the things that people are most often seeking out from each other, it makes it easier to not only craft content that is relevant and resonates but also helps satiate needs and desires. 

This means readers get not only a hefty dopamine hit from your content, but they also remember you as the person who gave it to them.

And that makes people want to come back for more. 

So, as you can see, the more you learn about human psychology, the better you’ll be at creating messaging that hits home and resonates with people. 

But directing people to action is also its own can of worms. We have to be careful about telling already emotionally exhausted people what to do online.

Luckily, there is a formula for guiding people to take action without coming off looking like a jerk with a poking stick.😉

How To Transform The Emotional State of Your Readers Like a MARKETICIAN!🪄💫

Transformative writing that resonates with people is, at its heart, persuasive.

It persuades people to shift from one state of mind to another. 

And this is an art form all online content creators and business marketers need to learn.

You cannot sell anything without understanding how to persuade people to buy.

But when you’re not directly selling, you ALSO need to be practicing your persuasion writing skills to help people feel good. When you help people feel good, they remember you.

But as business owners, when people are suffering, we don’t just want to show up to make people feel good by offering them sweet platitudes and emotional outlets. Funny memes may meet the desire for entertainment and relief from pain, but they may also make a creator or brand look like they are trivializing important issues.

We want to empower people. 🪄💫

Doing this ”emotional labour” for your audience means putting in the work despite your own emotional state. 

This is NOT EASY when you may feel tired, full of rage, bored, or lacking energy.

But you have to rise above your own emotional state and serve your audience by doing the emotional labor for them.

And the more you do this for them, the more they will return for more. 

Here are a few questions to ask yourself before you post:

1. How is what I’m about to share going to help my readers go from how they are feeling now (disconnected, bored, angry, alienated) to how they might want to feel? Your job is to create an energetic bridge for them by showing them a new perspective that may help them feel better. 

2. How am I showing people that I understand their pain? People aren’t going to listen to you if they don’t believe you truly understand or care about what they are feeling. Your content must show them that you get it and you FEEL it too, which often means you’ve got to dredge up that pain, remind them of it, and talk about it. 

3. Does my content tell a STORY and is that story described specifically, viscerally, with emotion, drama, intrigue, and impact?  Stories are what people remember. All you have to do here is share a personal anecdote or something that you know, that really happened, or that you heard — or even imagined – happening. 

4. Does the content have a POINT? Why are you posting? What’s the goal? What do you want to help people feel, learn, or do? The point is the place you’re taking people when they cross the bridge. Make it worth their while! 

5. What solutions are you offering? Finally, you need to give people a path forward. Fresh POV, ideas, hope, or actionable things they can do.

Now, this part if you want to influence people: be sure you understand WHO you are talking to and that your solution is in line with who they see themselves as, otherwise — you’ll lose them. 

Any solutions you offer need to help your reader take ownership of the issue while keeping their identity intact.

So, for example, I would use empowering language to underline any solutions or ideas with an empowering tone by saying things like, ”Look it up yourself here,” or ”Think about how we can change our approach to this issue.” 

Any solutions that you offer beyond simply lifting people’s moods up need to ASK people and help them WANT to do it. 

You cannot tell people what to think, how to feel, or what they should do. ❌

That’s the golden rule in effective persuasion. 

It’s better to suggest, recommend, or point out things or give them new ideas for them to consider if they choose.    

That’s one thing I’ve seen a lot of pushback on with bad content over the years as a social media manager. When brands or content creators lack persuasion skills, it pisses people off.

Then you’ll find in their comments, ”Don’t tell me how to feel!” and ”LET people be angry FSS!” 

So if you want to avoid collecting a bunch of angry haters in your comments, keep these messaging and persuasion fundamentals in mind. 

And if this all sounds like simple ”common sense” to you, congrats to you for having either very high social intelligence or being neurotypical!  😅

I know many other neurodivergent people like me probably would agree that seeing good messaging and the psychology of it all spelled out is tremendously helpful, as I personally do not find good messaging comes ‘naturally’ to me. 

I’ve had to study and practice it! 💪

You have the power to make someone’s day…so don’t be afraid to speak up!🪄💫

If you’ve been silent, confused, or emotionally charged up because of politics or ANY beliefs that you and your audience share together, I hope you found these brand messaging strategy tips helpful. I hope it helps you better connect with how your audience is feeling online.

And be a better bridge between a brand just doing business as usual, and a brand that actually gives a shit about what’s happening.

I know it’s a craaaaazzzzzzy time out there atm, and may get even crazier over the next few years.

But people want to hear from other people right now.

They are craving connection, new perspectives, opinions, and ideas — even if they are challenging to what they may believe or feel. 

They want to hear from you. Yes, YOU.

Just remember the 1% secret to becoming a content creator.

Though it may seem like everybody is speaking at the same time, the truth is the majority of people are lurkers, consuming but NOT creating. 

✨ Your voice is important. ✨

Have the courage to do the emotional labor for your friends, family, and brand audience. Do it for that ONE stranger who just happens to stumble upon your post at the exact time she needed to hear exactly what you wanted to say. It may be that you’re selling wire-wrapped witchy jewelry on Etsy, but ICE is raiding your city.

Or you’re a tarot reader in England, but you’re also concerned about what is happening overseas.

Your emotional needs are valid, and they are most likely shared by your audience.

So you can address them.

We are never running our businesses in a vacuum.

That is one of the most beautiful synchronicities time online can offer people, and it makes the internet a better place to be for all of us! 

So don’t be afraid to create the content that you know will help people right now.

Your audience is waiting.

Ready to craft your transformative brand messaging strategy?

If you’re listening to this thinking, “I get the concept, but I don’t trust myself to do this consistently,” that’s exactly what my S.W.A.N. mentorship programs are for.

”S” is for Signature Systems, where we define your brand’s core messaging.

”W” is for Walkaway Workflows, where we implement the cyclical brand marketing strategy.

”A” is for Analytical Amplification, where I show you how to make data-informed decisions to do more of what is working, and less of what is not.

And ”N” is for Ninja Networking, where we focus on nurturing your leads and existing customers to strengthen the referral and retention rate of your business.

There are 4 levels of the programs to meet you where you are at now in your business journey:

Academy for noobs and organic traffic,

Executive for automation and paid ads, and

Agency for freelancers and service providers ready to build systems for outsourcing areas of work. And finally, my year-long mentorship program,

SWAN Vault, for women and gender diverse creatives who are ready for ongoing hands-on support and accountability.

But if you’re not ready for mentorship just yet, you can get a sample taste of what it’s like to work with me through my SWAN Audit And Treasure Map.

I take a look at your online presence, what’s working, what is not, and present what I found in a PDF guide and 1-1 consult. You’ll gain clarity and direction with your business and marketing, and know where the gold treasure is buried for you online!

It’s a $300 AUD investment; one-time payment.

So you can start digging!

Brand messaging strategy is a money-making skill. Learning this skill is an investment.

And it’s a skill I teach by working directly with people who want to lead conversations online.

Not react to them.

If you want to learn how to do this with clarity, confidence, and integrity — not just during political chaos, but always — you can work with me directly.

Find out more about my mentoring programs by applying here.