Feel good content is everywhere right now, and a lot of it feels a little gross.
Someone hands a stranger cash on the street.
The camera is already rolling.
The person doing the giving ends up with a million views.
It usually comes from a good place, but it doesn’t take long before it starts to feel more like content than kindness. There’s a version of this that actually works without any of that baggage. Instead of helping strangers for the camera, you help your own community. Your community is the people who already care about what you're building and who naturally overlap with the audience you want to grow.
When creators show up for these people, something interesting happens.
The right audience shows up.
The content feels authentic.
And the people watching feel connected to each other.
I call this The Helper Effect.
The Helper Effect
Helping your community in small, visible ways creates stronger connection and deeper engagement than content designed purely for reach.
Example
Adam Burns has been running the playbook every Saturday morning.
Who is @adamleeburns
Adam runs a page centered around endurance running and personal transformation. He has around 22K followers on Instagram. His average reel views climbed noticeably once his aid station videos started gaining traction, more than they did when his viral content was hitting a million plus views.
On Saturday mornings Adam sets up an aid station on a popular running trail.
Water
Snacks
Electrolytes
Nothing fancy. Anyone running or biking by can grab something. Runners stop, chat for a minute, and share a little bit about what they’re doing that day.
Those quick interactions turn into a series of small stories, even inside a two minute video.
The content itself is extremely simple.
No cinematic edits
No heavy color grading
No trending audio
It feels like something your friend filmed during their Saturday long run. That simplicity makes the interactions feel real.
After his first aid station video performed well, Adam kept doing them. Each video pulled strong engagement and consistently outperformed most of his other content.
Because viewers weren’t just watching.
They were imagining themselves stopping at that table. Which makes people want to comment, like, and engage with him.
Why It Works
What Adam is doing works because it taps into something bigger than just content.
He’s not helping random strangers for views. He’s showing up for his own community.
That difference matters. When creators help their own community, the audience sees themselves in the story. It becomes a signal.
Runners see runners.
Cyclists see cyclists.
People chasing goals see people chasing goals.
You can actually see this difference in the numbers.
Helper Content | Viral Content | |
|---|---|---|
Average Views | 109K | 1.46M |
Like Rate | 8.6% | 4.9% |
Comment Rate | 0.27% | 0.037% |
Adam's viral content averages 1.45 million views per post, based on a sample of 14 posts. His aid station videos average 110K views, based on 12 posts.
So the viral content clearly reaches more people. But when you look at engagement, the story changes.
The Aid Station posts generate 77% higher like rates and about 7× more comments per view.
Viral content attracts attention.
Helper content builds connection.
And connection is what communities thrive on.
There's an untapped layer here too.
If Adam live streamed his aid station Saturdays instead of just posting the highlights, he'd likely build a die-hard following faster than almost any other format could.
And here's where it gets interesting. The runners stopping at his table are doing the same thing his live viewers would be doing. Showing up, connecting, sharing what they're working on. Their favorite trails. Their training goals. How they prep for a long run. That conversation is already happening trailside every Saturday. A live stream just opens that table to anyone watching from home.
It could also become a real income stream. People love to support things they genuinely believe in and a live format makes that easy. Viewers donating during the stream could literally stock the table. Gels, gummies, electrolytes funded in real time by the community that loves watching him hand them out.
You Can Do This
If you want to apply this strategy to your own content, think in terms of surprise and delight.
What’s something small you could do for people in your community that they wouldn’t expect, but would genuinely appreciate?
For runners, seeing an aid station on a normal Saturday run is a fun surprise. It’s something they’re used to seeing at races but not during everyday training.
That’s what makes the moment special. Those small gestures create real reactions. And when you capture those reactions on camera, viewers online start to imagine themselves in that moment too. They picture themselves running down that trail and seeing the table.
If you want to try this approach, start with a few simple questions.
Where does my community naturally gather?
Trails.
Gyms.
Meetups.
Events.
Online spaces.
What would feel like a thoughtful surprise there?
Not something huge. Just something that shows you understand the culture of the people you’re trying to reach.
Then capture the interactions. Use a GoPro, your phone, or even a Meta Glasses.
The only rule: give without expectation. If it feels like a chore your energy will show, and it'll create bad interactions. You're there for them, not the content.
Notice how Adam keeps his phone off to the side. He's not shoving a camera in anyone's face. The filming feels incidental because it is. And that's exactly why the interactions feel real.
In today's content landscape it's often better to be known as "that person" than to compete in a crowded category.
If I had to describe Adam based on the content that made me follow him, he wouldn't be "the guy who ran across Utah."
He'd be the aid station guy.
And that's a powerful place to be.
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and if you’ve seen similar strategies.