The Social Media Strategy - Content Gear
Welcome to The Social Media Strategy. Happy Friday. I am here with the craziest story from this week. But instead of telling it to you again, and I'm gonna say again because Julie and I did an in-depth explanation of it on our podcast together. So I'm actually going to suggest that if you want to hear about the most insane scam and very elaborate, it's worth a listen.
Helen:It is really worth a listen. So really go check out the Yours Truly podcast, the episode that is linked in the show notes. You will not be sorry. And you will also learn a lot about what to look for in the very elaborate scams that are now appearing in our world. It is unbelievable because I am Spidey senses when it comes to scams and somehow ended up deep in a situation where it could have been bad.
Helen:It wasn't bad. That's the good news because I figured it out. I figured out that it was a scam, but it cost me so much time and so much energy. And I think it's a really big learning experience for me. So it was almost hard for me to talk about it.
Helen:I was so embarrassed, devastated, felt so duped, and all the things. So go and listen to that episode of Julie and I covering it in-depth. You will not be sorry, and you will learn a lot as as I did. But for today, we're gonna talk about equipment, and I am going to share two unsponsored by things as I always before I start the episode. And the first one is Kiehl's Superbly Efficient Antiperspirant and Deodorant Cream.
Helen:Totally different than your typical roll on. I use this every day. This is my go to deodorant. I will tell you, if you're going to try this type of deodorant, you need to give it a week to get accustomed to it. And then you can never go back to that roll on stuff, the sticky stuff.
Helen:I can't even one time I didn't have it with me. Borrowed I think I borrowed a deodorant of Julie's or something, and it was just horrible. Like I can't go back. I'm not going back. I'd rather go without deodorant than not have my Kiehl's.
Helen:I am behind this. And Kiehl's reached out to me about sending me a PR package and I was like, oh my God, I love your deodorant. I was just so excited. And they were like, we don't, we're not gifting that. And I'm like, I wasn't asking for for free.
Helen:I just was sharing my love for your deodorant. And I also like it because it's got this nice rounded so you don't have to put it on your hands and rub it on. Then you have the stick you know, cream on your hands that you have to wash. I love so I love the design of the application. And I also have done work with Lumi, and I know Lumi is an amazing product as well.
Helen:So if you have severe body odor problems, I don't have that anymore due to hormonal things. I don't have the body odor I used to have when I was younger. So for me it's the opposite. Some people get weird body odor after they go through menopause. To me it was the opposite.
Helen:I don't really smell as much. Yay. But so I don't have to worry about that. But if you do smell a lot, the Gloomy is a great brand also. And they have not this type of applicator.
Helen:They have the you know, you put it on, you have to rub it on. That's what I don't like. But they have a roll on version that has the little hole that you can squirt the lotion out. And so they have an applicator similar to this. It's just that in it looks like it's a traditional deodorant stick, and even though it's not.
Helen:So I highly recommend that brand as well. I I can't say enough good things about that brand because the founder, amazing, genius, revolutionary woman who came up with the idea of whole body deodorant and literally changed the industry because now all the big brands have whole body deodorant. So if you don't wanna go with Kiehl's, I can really get behind Lumi because I know the product works. I've used it. I just had been using this before.
Helen:So I was already a loyal Kiehl's user, and I didn't want to change. I tried their deodorant. I like only the unscented one. In terms of Lumi, I didn't really like care for the scents. And this is unscented as well.
Helen:That is my story for deodorant. We're getting personal. We're getting in the armpits. Alrighty. Now I'm gonna tell you about my newest piece of tech equipment that I didn't know I needed.
Helen:This is a screen mirroring thing that you can put on the back of your phone. It sucks to the back of your phone. So that way you can use your back camera and you can see yourself like a selfie. I don't know if you can see this. It's hard to know, but on this screen, I can see my camera.
Helen:I'm filming this podcast with my back camera and I can see that I'm centered. I can see when I'm holding something up to you like, oh, that's covering my face. That's not. I can, oh, that's a little bit to the side, but not too far over. So I can see like selfie on here and I love this thing.
Helen:It's cool. So I can get behind it, and I don't have affiliate links. I'm not trying to sell you products. Just telling you that if you use your back camera or you have any need to use your back camera, this is a really handy little tech piece of equipment called the Snaply lens, s n a p l y. And I will link it in the show notes.
Helen:I don't have affiliate links for any of the things, maybe a couple of the things that I'm gonna talk about. I made affiliate links ages ago, but, you know, it's not something, I'm not doing like affiliate selling in this podcast nor am I doing that in the newsletter. These are purely things that I use. A couple of them might be affiliate links, but most of them are just me telling you what I like. I don't have the energy.
Helen:I can't seem to get through to these companies to get affiliate links, and I'm like, I can't be bothered. So on would I go. I'll just tell you what I like. Unsponsored by. That seems to be my theme.
Helen:Okey doke. Next, besides that, we'll get into gear in general. So why because you don't need to have that, by the way. That's like a little bonus. What you need if you're trying to start out as a content creator as at a very basic level is just a few inexpensive things to make your to level up your content that much more.
Helen:So can you do all of these things without a tripod, without a microphone, without a Snapply? Yes. Of course. You can make great videos and with nothing except your phone. But it helps to have a few things to level yourself up, to make your life a little easier.
Helen:I have evolved through the years of tripods. Meanwhile, I still the one I'm using right now to record, that's in front of me right there, is the one that I found in Jonathan's room one day. And I was like, oh, I'll put a selfie stick topper on it, and I'll make this a tripod. That's how I started. And I'm still using that for my tabletop videos always and only.
Helen:That is my tabletop video thing that has been with me for so long. I managed to find it online, so I was was able to get a second one. So I have two of them. But it's nice because it's tabletop height. When I put the selfie stick topper on it, it's the perfect eye level.
Helen:When I use my other tripods, which are really nice, when I put them on the tabletop, they're a little too high. So I'm looking up at my phone, and I don't like that because it's it's giving a weird, not authentic look. When you're not looking directly eye level to your into your viewers, it does give a different vibe even though it's subliminal. Okey doke. Let me tell you my favorite tripods.
Helen:So right now, I got my, what is that one? Sunpack with my selfie stick topper. So we got that one. Second up is this brand called SmallRig and they have different sizes. They don't even make this white one anymore which is sad because I really like it.
Helen:What I like about this is, boop, and it looks really impressive when you do that. You just pop it and it opens. It goes up. It does, it goes really tall. This particular one, it goes to like five feet, so I can be maybe even six feet.
Helen:I have this in front of me and I can be eye level when I'm standing. That's what I like about this size. It also, you can tilt it this way, so you have your vertical and then you have your horizontal. There is one drawback about this tripod, which is when you are in vertical mode, like so, you can't tilt this way. It won't rotate.
Helen:So if I wanted to point a little bit down, I can't do that. It doesn't do that. And that is a very annoying limitation of this tripod that I love. So I have another version. So I do like this one, but it also has the Bluetooth clicker so you can start and stop your videos.
Helen:Love that. And it's really slick. I love that it's white and of course they don't sell the white one anymore. Bummer. But, although it is looking a little scratched and dirty so maybe just as well that I have a black one.
Helen:Looks cleaner. Black one is a little this one's a little shorter, has the same feature where it pops open. Here's what I like about this one. It also has the clicker. So the little Bluetooth clicker.
Helen:When this one goes up, instead of oh boy, let's get it here, hold on. Instead of it, the whole thing turning so that it gets like off kilter with the weight of the phone, this one turns like so. So you can put your phone in it this way. Let me see. Why is this showing up on my phone every time?
Helen:I don't understand. Okay. So you can put your phone in this way and then you can tilt it at any level. So you can have it tilting down a little, tilting up, you know what I'm saying? So you can tilt And I like that.
Helen:And then it works the same way in horizontal mode. It can tilt your phone. So that's a key feature that I think is important in a tripod. So if you're looking for a brand, make sure it does the tilt because you're gonna want it. Trust me.
Helen:I have been on shoots where I was using this wow. Loud. Been on shoots where I've been using this one and I wanna tilt it just slightly to get an angle of the product and the freaking thing doesn't tilt. So then I always have to pull this one out. And this one doesn't go as tall so I have to prop it on something.
Helen:Oh my, the problems of the content creator. This is real life. So I'm just telling you what the things are so you understand. I also have this one which is basically selfie only because you can't turn the camera around in this one. If I turn the camera and try and use my back camera I can't access my controls.
Helen:In these two small rig ones I can access the controls with the back camera or the front camera. The other thing about this one that I like, hold on, let me lock it so it doesn't keep opening, is that it comes with a ring light and it's separate from this. So this isn't in the middle of the ring light. This is below it. So I can tilt the ring light, bounce the light to the ceiling.
Helen:So if you are a person who wears glasses or doesn't like when the ring light is in your pupils at night, I see that on a lot of people's videos, you can tilt your ring light, bounce the light to your ceiling and down. And that way you don't have the light in your eyes. But this one is only good for selfie and this one only goes up to about four feet. So it's, I still, if I'm going do a standing video, I tend to put it on a chair or on a bench to get a little higher. Alrighty.
Helen:All the links for these things are in, like I said, they're not affiliate links. Some of them might be, but that's not the purpose of this newsletter, not the purpose of this podcast, not to sell you things, just to explain to you what kinds of things you need and what you should be looking for when you're buying them. So that if you choose a brand or if you see something on TikTok shop, make sure you look for the things that I'm mentioning, like the tilting of the camera, the height. Make sure if you're getting a standing tripod, you want it to go as tall as you are. Some of them only go to four feet.
Helen:So look for one that's a little taller if you want that eye level standing type of video. Okay. Also look for being able to shoot self front camera, back camera. It's an important feature I think for me. I'm oftentimes shooting things and I don't want to have to be only in selfie mode.
Helen:Okay. The next piece of equipment that is nice to have is a microphone. And I have been through the gamut of microphones. I used to use for four straight years a wired microphone that attached to my phone with a wire. So it would go from here to here.
Helen:It would plug right in and I would put it on. And it was pretty far, so I could travel quite a ways from my phone, but it would always be attached because I trusted that it was gonna work. I knew that if it was plugged in, it would be working. But I finally have upgraded to a wireless one and that took me a lot because I've had, I tried many. Some of them sound weird.
Helen:They sound like you're underwater if you get some cheap ones and they don't work. They're glitchy. They're disconnecting from the Bluetooth a lot. This one is the Hollyland Lark M2. It is my favorite.
Helen:I highly recommend this one. It comes with two. Two pieces so that you can be interviewing someone and you can hear both of your voices. It magnets on so that you can put it anywhere on your clothes, you can put it under your clothes, but it magnets like this. So there you go.
Helen:You see? I can put it anywhere so I don't have to have a certain type of collar to attach it to. I can magnet it anywhere. I really like that feature. I also love that it comes with two kinds of connectors, although they should have a case, a slot in the case for these, that connects to a regular iPhone or an Android or a computer.
Helen:So you can see I'm using my little screen to see if I'm holding these up correctly. Ah, too high. Okay. So it has the iPhone and it has the Android or laptop computer so that I can use it with those. So I really like the double whammy of that.
Helen:Okey doke. It can change the game for your videos because some people go far away from their phone to show an outfit and then they're shouting at their phone and it sounds absurd. You also look like an amateur when you do that. And I've noticed a lot of people in ads do that. The other thing to note that if you have a microphone like this and it's not this one, if it's another brand and yours has a switch on the bottom that you can slide to stereo or mono.
Helen:Some of them have switches. Make sure you're in mono. Mono, mono, mono. It is not a sickness when it comes to a microphone. It's a good thing because mono will make sure that your sound is coming out of both headphones.
Helen:This is very important. Both headphones. Okay? Because when you put it on stereo, it assumes that you're going to be going back and forth to the speakers or something. It does something in the world of audio where you will hear sometimes when you're wearing headphones and you're watching an ad on TikTok, you'll hear only sound in one headphone.
Helen:That's because they had their microphone set wrong. They had their microphone set on stereo. So now that you know that, if you see an ad like that, feel free to drop a comment. Oh, sound only coming out of one headphone. Please adjust your microphone to mono and you can look like a real smarty in the comments.
Helen:A little bit of a troll, but a real smarty. I've wanted to do that so many times, like please put the microphone on mono. But I just decide to be nice and I don't say it. Although I want to. And if it's somebody I know, I write to them personally.
Helen:I don't like to drop a comment publicly. That's going to diss somebody. But you can gently let the person know. Alright? For sure.
Helen:The next thing I think is lighting, Important. And I don't use light a lot. I like natural light. I try to keep my filming in the daytime just for my own brain. It's more pleasant for me to film in the daytime and not be stressed out at night trying to make videos.
Helen:That's just the time that I have. I'll do it in the middle of my work, take a break, make my videos, end of my workday, whatever, whenever is convenient, but I tend to look for the light out a window. If you cannot do that, you can do a ring light. You can also get this nice, inexpensive, little LED light called the Neewer, n e e, Neewer, n e e w a r. It's a tiny little square.
Helen:I don't even have it here because I rarely use a light. Tiny little square LED panel where you can just adjust the settings, make it really bright, make it dimmer. You can make the light warmer or cooler and it really will make your videos look better. So if you're shooting at night, get yourself a light for sure. I do think it's important unless you can have a nice lamp that you can place exactly in a good spot and make sure that you're lit well.
Helen:Okay? That's important. And some of the other recommendations, which we can say you can yay or nay to, if you are somebody who finds that your fat fingers are multiply pressing the wrong buttons on your phone, you know I always use my stylus when I'm teaching the lessons. So you can get yourself any old stylus. That way you can, you know, be a little precise.
Helen:I don't really use the stylus to edit. I actually just use it to teach the lessons. But you may want it to edit. You may find that it helps your precision in your editing. Feel free to use a stylus.
Helen:This other recommendation, which is this back camera lens, there's many of them. I'm recommending this brand mainly because I like that it connects with a screen mirroring and not a Bluetooth. This way it's, I can still use my microphone in my phone because nothing's taking up the port. Okay? That's why I like this one.
Helen:And then another thing you might want to consider is a Steady Rig thing. Like one of those, oh my god, what are they? Like a step stabilizer type of thing where if you're doing a lot of moving videos. I'm gonna be honest with you. I do not recommend DJI.
Helen:Every time I've purchased one of those, I'd be shooting, shooting, and then flump, my camera disconnects from the Bluetooth and flumps down. And I end up not shooting with the thing. I've had two of them. I've tried with an older phone, a newer phone, ah, bah, bah, bah. Every time I try these DJI Osmo things, they do not work for me.
Helen:And that is just my honest opinion because I don't want to tell somebody go get one of those and then you're stuck like me with the thing flopping and messing up your videos every time and making you look like a fool because I always do this with clients. I'm at a shoot and all of sudden, boom, my phone just flops. So I ended up walking around with it like this because, okay. So don't I don't wanna put you in that position. I am told that Insta360 has a stabilizer that is really good.
Helen:I'm told from one of our, studio members who uses it religiously, she said it's her most used piece of equipment. So I'm going to put it here so that you can go and look at it for yourself and see if it's something that will work for you. I don't have an eye through Insta three sixty, but this is a stabilizing tool, not the camera itself. I'm told she she said this is a Insta360, whatever, this pro something stabilizer. So I should have looked it up before I started recording, but here I am.
Helen:Not prepared. Anyway, I will put that in there. Our our studio member, Regina, swears by it. She said it's amazing. And I trust her because she's a avid creator who is doing a lot of video content of all sorts.
Helen:So you can go and investigate that for yourself. Now let me just say, and the takeaway of this whole thing, you don't need to buy every single thing I just recommended. Start with what you feel like you can handle. Start with, okay, I need a tripod. I'm gonna talk on my videos.
Helen:Maybe I need a microphone. Just start with something simple and work your way up. I did not go out and buy all this stuff. I didn't. I would one tripod for like a year.
Helen:And then, oh, maybe I'll try a new tripod. Oh, maybe I'll try a microphone. Like, I little baby stepped my way into the gear that I have. And if you're a person that feels like, oh, if I'm going to take up tennis, I have to have the whole outfit, the racket, the bag, the thing, thing. If you're that person, go get it all.
Helen:Go ahead. Go ahead. You can. I'm not going to judge you because you're a person that's like taking it on and that's okay. So if you wanna do it, go for it.
Helen:And then take your time figuring out how each piece of equipment is gonna work for you and make your content better. But don't get so lost in the forest for the trees that the the key thing is that some of the most viral videos, nobody's using equipment. The guy on a skateboard, he's holding up his phone. And he wasn't using a stabilizer. He was holding the phone on the ocean spray guy.
Helen:It goes back to, you know, here's the woman who the We Do Not Care Club probably just sat her phone down and leaned it on her coffee cup or something. You you don't need I just hate to I don't wanna say go get all this stuff because you don't need it to have successful videos. You need to know how to create good content, and these tools can support you. But in the studio, I'm teaching you how to create create good content. If you don't wanna do it with a tripod, it's still gonna work if you hold up your phone and you make a a loop video with a good hook.
Helen:You're gonna have a good video with or without a tripod and a microphone. Okay? So that's my take for that. And, again, scam alert. Please go listen to the Yours Truly podcast for this most elaborate insane situation that I can't even relive here right now because I just was exhausted from having that podcast with we recorded yesterday together, and it was hilarious.
Helen:But I also, at the same time, was tired from just reliving what I had gone through with this elaborate scam situation that happened over like a five day period. You can't make it up. The mothership, I was renaming my my grandma nickname to cuckoo. That's where I'm at. So you can call me cuckoo.
Helen:I'll see you next week.
