The Socialize Podcast

Helen: 00:00

Welcome to the socialized forecast, Tuesday, November 19th. Gosh. When you're hearing this, I hope I got through Monday, because I had one heck of a day yesterday. It was just like rapid fire. And, I managed to record this before the sun is setting, which is a miracle in itself.

Helen: 00:18

It's been that kind of day. I wanna start off talking about formatting content, and I know that I have done a a whole newsletter on this at some point. But I've noticed recently, and I think this is because that there's talk of the TikTok ban again in 2025, and I'm getting a lot of questions about that. And a lot of people I think are trying to hedge their bets. And I'm so happy that I can freely talk about YouTube here on the podcast and in the newsletter because I don't tend to talk about other platforms when I'm in my TikToks.

Helen: 00:47

I find that the platform doesn't want you to be either promoting another platform or sending you anywhere that's off the TikTok app, which is obvious. They wanna keep you on their platform. So I often wonder how some podcasts get so much traction on TikTok because I know they don't like people going to other places. And so sometimes I find it funny when I'll see a lot of viral podcast clips, But none of those podcast clips usually say in it, like, podcast. They just avoid the word.

Helen: 01:16

So if you're talking about something in your videos and it's on another platform, it's a good idea not even to say the word just because let's save yourself the headache of getting your video flagged for quote sending people somewhere else. But also, it just I don't know. It's a good idea to be aware of words can get flagged in your videos. And I think that there's some truth to that. When they flag, they have some presets and they are gonna be mindful of who's gonna keep you on keep their audience on their platform.

Helen: 01:47

So I'm happy I can talk about YouTube here because I do wanna address the fact that I think a lot of people are starting to think about multi using their content so that they can get traction elsewhere, just in case. Just like I always say, you know, start getting your audience off the platform is because that also does help. So you can reach people if you're and not have to depend on the algorithm to do so. When it comes to YouTube, though, it is challenging. We have always known YouTube videos to be in horizontal format straight across like a wide screen, and then YouTube shorts came.

Helen: 02:20

And so, of course, now you can do vertical videos, but still the traditional YouTube that we watch on our laptop are TV format, widescreen videos. So how does a content creator deal with that? First of all, especially if they've been posting content in vertical format all this time and now they wanna start putting some of their content over there. So that's one thing. And the other thing is if you decide you wanna really go hard on YouTube and you wanna start filming horizontally, how do you then make sure your videos are going to be effective when you post them to social media?

Helen: 02:52

So I wanna take a minute to address this. I think it's an important topic. It's something that I'm going to go over deep in my studio this week really in detail. And I just wanna give you some of the top line thoughts here and let you know that I have tutorials posted in both directions. Since I'm getting the question a lot, I'm like, this is timely.

Helen: 03:11

Let me post a tutorial. So I have tutorials which I am including in the newsletter for going from vertical to horizontal and from horizontal to vertical because I do think both of those are gonna be useful skills if it's something you think about you you're thinking about. Now, also, I wanna share that I take my vertical videos that I make my TikTok tutorials, my Instagram tutorials, whatever my tutorial content is that I've shot in vertical format. And I just put it over there in vertical format and I just let it be. And yes, when you open it on a laptop, I'm in the middle of the screen and there's black on the sides, so be it.

Helen: 03:48

If someone wants my lesson, they're watching it no matter what. And the reason I do that is because I don't wanna spend the time to what I show in the tutorial about putting a background behind it and re exporting it in the horizontal framing. I just I don't you have to choose wisely how you're gonna spend your time. And I have when I look at the week and I say, how am I gonna get this content out at the quickest pace without making an extra work? And that is a decision I've made.

Helen: 04:14

If I really, really wanted to, could I say, oh, on Sunday night before I post the tutorials to over to YouTube, my TikTok tutorials and my Instagram tutorials, I'll format them horizontally. And could I take the extra whatever whatever would take maybe 10 minutes, maybe more to put them over there, put a background on it, export them again, drop airdrop them to my laptop, post them up to YouTube or post them directly from my phone. And then I have to manage those extra videos, either delete them so I don't have so much data stored up or airdrop them again and store them. It's just a lot, and it's all a lot. Believe me, it's all a lot.

Helen: 04:50

You know this as a content creator. But if you're adding more and more and more, where does it where do you draw the line to say, okay, that's enough. I'm not gonna add that onto my plate as well. So you have to make that decision. I'm not here to make it for you.

Helen: 05:03

I'm just giving you the tools and the information if you wanted to record your videos in one way and format them for the other platforms. The other thing I know this is so not a good idea, but, you know, if it's something that you that you wanna do, you can record the content both ways. You can record a vertical version and record a horizontal version, and then you're covered. I will say, like, the podcast, I always record horizontally. All of my TikTok tutorials, I always record vertically.

Helen: 05:30

My Instagram content, vertical. So I stick with the formats for the places they're going to live. But because this is a podcast and sometimes I might wanna use a clip on social media, I take the time to back my camera up a little further, give myself space so that if I do wanna crop this vertically, if you're watching, I'm doing hand signals like a like a one of those, like, airplane, traffic controllers. You can cut it down. And so I'm back far enough.

Helen: 05:55

I have enough top room to put text up here. I've left myself a nice wide framing so that when I crop this in, it doesn't show just my face like this really tight. So you just need to think about the a little planning and a little extra thought will get you far when it comes to repurposing any content in either direction. So that is my little topic for today. Before I dive into the trends, I gotta say the studio is so much fun.

Helen: 06:21

I know I'm not gonna talk about it every time, but if you're if it is definitely a place where I feel that I'm going to grow the right type of community and help people in a way that I could never help before. It feels so inspiring and exciting. So if you don't know about it, I'll put the link. I always will have the link in the newsletter. Just ponder it.

Helen: 06:41

You could try for a month, get out, whatever, and that's it. Okay. Alright. Without further ado, let's get to the trends for today. And the trends are so much fun as they they always are, and you can always find a way to use them in your niche.

Helen: 06:54

So this is another thing that I'm doing in the studio where I'm giving people a lot more information about how to use trends in their niche and more trends to do, but I still wanna provide the information here always. So you're gonna hear it and you're gonna have some examples, and we're gonna learn from one to the next, how to think about a trend. So the first trend is flip the camera, and this is a fun one because you're gonna show off something, and then towards the end, you're gonna flip the camera and it's supposed to be a surprise. So, for example, you're gonna do it so that it didn't you didn't mean to flip the camera, so that if you're filming something and it's supposed to be the point of view of the dog and it's actually you filming and if the camera flips and it reveals. So you have to this is a creative thinker version.

Helen: 07:35

Like, you really gotta think outside the box what would be the surprise? So you might be filming something as if it's the point of view of you and then I'm sorry, the point of view of your husband and then you flip the camera and it's actually you there, for example. So it would be a surprise reveal. Or you're filming something and it's the point of view of if you're in a business, it's the point of your of your customer opening the box and you're pretending that you're making a video. This is a really fun idea actually that I just came up with right on the spot is that you're an pretend you're unboxing as if you're one of your customers, and then you flip the screen and it's actually you, the CEO, demonstrating your products.

Helen: 08:12

That could be funny and it could almost be like a little fake behind the scenes of revealing you shooting content and then, oh, it's actually you shooting the content. You know, you pretend to be an influencer kind of thing. So there's a lot of fun things you could do with it if you're creative. So take some time and have some fun with that one. The next one is I'm still Gibby.

Helen: 08:30

And this one I just tried 3 times to explain. So I'm gonna give it one more shot and if I can't do it, I'm just gonna tell you to go click and watch it because it's very clear. But it's a trend that you can be used for any niche business, anything where a statement is made about you or your business and people it's a statement that is about you that's true and but people are quick to discredit it. But then you can say what how they discredit it, but then how it's still true. Even if they say so if somebody says, I'm 22 years old and someone says, that's impossible.

Helen: 09:03

You look like you're 30. And then the person comes back and says, I'm still 22. Like, it's not gonna change the facts. Even though someone doesn't believe the facts, it's not gonna change the facts. So if you think about it that way and you can click and look at the trend and see how it's used, and it's pretty easy to do.

Helen: 09:19

It's just gonna be a little bit of creative thinking to think of how to use it per the niche. I'm trying to think of how I'd use it for myself. Oh, I got one. Here's how I would use it. So I might say on screen, I'm the best TikTok teacher.

Helen: 09:36

And then the person might say, yeah, but you're you're old and you didn't grow up with technology. And then I would come back and say, I'm still the best TikTok teacher. So that's how I could use it. Whatever. That's how I would use it if I was gonna use it.

Helen: 09:49

Okay. The next one is Instagram. And this is hilarious because I did this trend, and I didn't know that Julie was gonna put this in the newsletter. And this is, everyone, we have an announcement. So it's 3 little music hits.

Helen: 10:03

You could put 3 titles to introduce something. This one, run with it. It's so easy. You can announce anything. It could be silly, ridiculous, business related, personal accomplishment.

Helen: 10:15

It could be something that you are like, I'm I'm so good at. I won the gold medal in laying on the couch. You can do anything. You'd be funny. So much potential with this one and it's gonna go.

Helen: 10:27

So grab on it. Okay? Get on it. That's a good one and it's an easy one. Next is a trending holiday audio.

Helen: 10:35

It's so nice when, Julie picks some of these because these are so nice to make when you're decorating or you're preparing for a holiday or you have if you're a person who takes great photos and videos, more like landscape y type things. I don't do a lot of that type of filming. So I really enjoy watching other people's videos like this because it's not something that I do a lot of. So you can take it and run with it. It's a nice easy one.

Helen: 10:58

Just put the audio on there and show off your excitement for the end of this year. Show off your holiday decorations. Celebrate the 1st snowfall. I was on the beach yesterday on a live. Everyone thought I was in the snow and it was the sand.

Helen: 11:10

Maybe I'll go to the sand and make a snow a snow video. Anyway, that's a good one. Okay. Next thing to talk about is original content ideas. In the middle of the newsletter, we did mention that there are a few spots left for the discounted, core creator thing in the studio, but this is really going well.

Helen: 11:29

And I must say I am very excited about it. It's so much fun to do. I am so happy that I waited till I was ready for it to actually embrace it and go for it because I think that's what's making it so great for me. It's something that I'm not forced I didn't force fit it in a year ago when it wasn't the right time. So I feel really, really excited if I haven't said that once or twice or 5 more times.

Helen: 11:53

Next up, original content ideas. So the first one is holiday excitement. And so we have that the holidays are approaching. We're already seeing content and audio trending. So you might as well get on get it in on it early instead of waiting.

Helen: 12:05

Like, just be ahead of the curve and just start posting some things. You can show off some holiday hacks, gift boxes. It's really never too soon because a lot of people like to get ahead and they start making decisions and they start, you know, start watching rapping videos and maybe you can share your own how to wrap something video. There's just, it's a time to get in it, like, get in it while those types of things are being viewed. I think a lot of us are looking to get ahead of the holidays always, so we appreciate the content being put out there early.

Helen: 12:34

It gives us food for thought. The next one is to create a multi character video where you are embracing 2 roles of a conversation you might be having with yourself. And why I like this is you don't have to be in costumes. You don't have to put a hat on for 1 and not for the other. You can just be at 2 angles and talking to yourself like in the same space with the same clothes on.

Helen: 12:59

It's just a way of highlighting what your inner thoughts are thinking about a situation. And I think it's if it's a good, it's a good one if you're a person who likes to do speaking content, but you feel like you just don't wanna be a talking head the whole time. So you can create a little interview with yourself or a conversation with yourself to to share the information. So it's just a little bit of way. It's a little way of changing it up.

Helen: 13:22

The other one. Oh, I like this. I put she put this in, pointing to text. So funny, I didn't really realize it was gonna be in sync with the trend that I talked about earlier, the wicked trend. Because the wicked trend, you can put text up there and you can point to it or not.

Helen: 13:38

You can just do it as a generic video, but pointing to text with any audio is good. So if you're hitting the beats, boom, boom, boom, boom. If you pick a sound, there's I mean, we can go to the trending sounds for today and you could pick a different one if you don't wanna do the wicked one. And if you wanna just announce something or laundry list something, pointing to text and hitting those bullet points, boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm telling you, you catch people's attention with that.

Helen: 14:04

Even if they don't wanna stay, they're sucked in. If they're going quick enough, boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm sure this is not pleasant to listen to when I'm like pop pop on the microphone, but you get the idea. So those are the ideas for today. I did in the newsletter and in on my TikTok, I posted about formatting, and I do think the formatting thing is gonna be a hot button that I'm gonna be talking about a lot because if I have seen so many videos with the black on the top, and so the first thing we're gonna tackle in the socialized studio is how to get rid of that black on the top of your videos.

Helen: 14:37

I don't know why a lot of people's vertical videos, what they're doing in cap cut, I don't know that it's not filling the frame. What's going on? I'm gonna get to the bottom of it. I've got to figure it out. So that's happening.

Helen: 14:50

And then, I also have music, of course, in that newsletter. So let's get to a couple of questions for today. One person writes, this is a such an odd one, and I love it kinda from body walk. I went viral with a random video and I think I found my niche. Should I start a new page?

Helen: 15:09

Okay. Body walk. You have an audience already on your page. Apparently, she was in the health and wellness space and this video was totally different. So if you already have an audience, it could be a problem that they're in a different space.

Helen: 15:24

But what will happen is at least you have a base to start with. So I would recommend staying with that account and starting to steer the account in the next direction of wherever you're gonna go. What will happen is it'll start going out to those original followers a little at a time, and if they don't engage or they're not interested or they really don't like the new content, they'll unfollow. So I do recommend you have a base, why not work with it? They might enjoy your your other direction.

Helen: 15:51

It's at least a better way to start than starting from 0 because then you have to build from nothing, whereas you already have a base. And the way I think these TikTok plat these platforms work in general, TikTok and Instagram, is that it first sends your videos out to a core percentage of your followers. And if you're starting with a percentage of 0 is gonna be lower than a percentage of 5,000 or whatever, however many followers you have. So I always say it's better to start with, you know, keep going with the followers you have and then go from there. Hope that helps.

Helen: 16:22

And that's that one. And the next one is oh, this is a good one. Does my username and name at the top of my TikTok and Instagram matter? And this is a big yes. So if you're not a person that's paid attention to this before and you just have, like, a, b, c 123 as your username and it doesn't really say anything or mean anything, and at the top then maybe you have just your name, your actual name, or you have some other name.

Helen: 16:46

The username is pretty important and the name, the name and the username, because memorable will help you keep people around or get people back that are like, oh, where is that person? So if my username was, you know, let's make it up. Helen 543, I will say gen x even though I'm kinda technically a boomer, but let's say I had something like that as my username. It would be a lot harder for people to say, oh, oh, who's that woman that does the teachings? Oh, what's her name?

Helen: 17:16

Was her name Donna? Was her name Laura? No. They're not gonna remember my name, but the mothership is more memorable. So I'm a little easier to go, oh, yeah.

Helen: 17:25

She had that name, the mothership. They might spell it wrong. They might not actually find me right away, but something memorable will help you. Also, something that's about what you're doing, like your niche. So I just met with a woman this morning with a private consultation, and she had a random a b c 123 username.

Helen: 17:43

And she actually, works with pets, and she changed her username right on the spot because she's a pet sitter. And I was like, you need to make sure people know what you do. So she changed her name and it's like eye opening because now she's gonna be able to see people are gonna see right away what her business is about. The algorithm is gonna know right away that she's involved with animals, and it's gonna start to feed her followers, feed her content out to the right people. It's gonna start to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Helen: 18:12

And to that end, the bio is equally as important. If you have nothing in your bio, people don't know anything about you, and this is your opportunity to give a little sentence that describes what you're about. So I'm gonna credit Pam with that question because she asked it this morning in our consultation. And it made me think I need to talk about it because I think that everybody knows it. And now and now hopefully every everybody does know it.

Helen: 18:37

K. Thank you, Pam. I think that's it for today. I'm gonna wrap it up. It's like I think I talked right through the sun setting.

Helen: 18:44

So I think that means that I should wrap it up. And it's been a happy it's been a good start to the week. I have lots in store for this week, and I'm always inspired. So if you are if you have anything you'd like to ask, please do submit it in the newsletter. I love to answer the questions.

Helen: 19:02

And if you want to check out the studio, go to the link because it tells you everything that we do every week, and you might be interested in it. It's just fun. Alright. Thanks for listening. I'll see you on Friday with a nice hot topic.

Helen: 19:15

Okay. Bye.