The Socialize Podcast

Helen: 00:00

Welcome to the socialized forecast, Tuesday, February 18. I hope you were lucky enough to enjoy a three day weekend if you're in The States. We did have a holiday yesterday and now it's like today is Monday. So welcome to Monday on Tuesday. Gotta love a three day weekend.

Helen: 00:16

Alright. Let's talk about some of the things. I had a little extra time for scrolling this weekend because I was doing some intentional scrolling on behalf of a brand. When I do work with my UGC content, I end up scrolling extra to find ideas and inspiration and just get myself in the game of create content creation and seeing the creativity that's out there. And when I do that, I get to notice a lot of things.

Helen: 00:38

So I did have some extra time for that this weekend. So I wanna start with a few of the things. First being Doug's winter party. I don't know if I know that we talked about that last week. So many people were looking forward to it.

Helen: 00:51

I even had someone email me about how excited they were for Doug's winter party on Saturday night. And unfortunately, I don't believe they were able to go live at this party. So after all of the build up, I think what she said that there was maybe, I don't know, Internet problems, but also probably he was overwhelmed with having all these people at his house that he didn't wanna be on camera. He wanted to be in the moment. And so I think that was a lot of what happened.

Helen: 01:16

And I think the build up and the anticipation and in a lot of cases, the build up and the anticipation is even better than the event itself. So I think the whole social media excitement of the virality was the anticipation was more important and more valuable to people than the event itself, which is often the case in real life. So that's kind of cool. I love when social media imitates real life and vice versa. But anyway, I did see some of the posts after the fact and they were very grateful for all the things they received and they were donating things.

Helen: 01:51

And I think it just brought people together in a way that there's not a lot I can say, on social media that has brought people together in a positive way like that. So I love to see it. And I'm curious if you have any thoughts on the aftermath of Doug's winter party. Were you bummed out that night when you couldn't access it on live? Did you go to a party that was Doug's winter party that people were hosting around around the world?

Helen: 02:17

I would love to know. I would love to know how what kind of an impact it made. So if you feel inclined and would like to reply to the newsletter and tell me, I'd love to hear that. Onward to the next thing that has taken over the Internet a little bit is the Duolingo OWL. Let's take two minutes on this.

Helen: 02:34

As you know, many of you might know, Duolingo really was one of the few businesses at first that really got social media. They were one of the few businesses that tackled TikTok in a way that put them on the map right off the bat. They understood it, the trends. They were jumping on things in a way that no other brands had really done. They really forged a way for brands.

Helen: 02:55

And it was all basically due to their social media manager, who I'll name here, Zaria Parvez, who was recognized as a driving force behind it. She basically they let her run with it, and they let her create this platform for their social media that was embracing of all the trends, and the owl did the trends, and they had the mascot doing things and she really changed the game for and and upped the bar for other brands. So now recently, and I'm not too deep into this one, but recently, they did I know she has a whole team now. Obviously, things have evolved since since she started. But recently, they did a post where the the owl died.

Helen: 03:37

And there was it was like it took the Internet by storm. And all the other mascots and all these other businesses got involved with reaction videos to the owl dying. And anyway, so it's almost like an another aggressive social media. I'm not even gonna call it a stunt because everything on social media is kind of stunt esque if you, really think about it. It was a strategy.

Helen: 04:00

We'll go with the word strategy instead. And it got the attention that they were going for. And so we'll soon see how that all pans out. But what I find funny about these things is when the other brands do hop on it and then it's like this competition for creativity. Like, who's gonna be the funniest reaction video to the owl?

Helen: 04:18

The whole thing. It's just really, how social media can so quickly spiral something. Zero to like, as soon as somebody makes a video, there's like a new update. So that's what I find the most, incredible and daunting about social media is the speed at which things move and things change. The minute I see something and let's say I'm gonna post something within my post being live for a few hours, ten some things might change yet again.

Helen: 04:46

And this all kept happening with the TikTok ban that as soon as somebody would post something, then there was another update. It's just impossible to keep up, but it is what it's a wonder to see what it's like now to really keep up with things in life and not have to depend on the nightly news like we did growing up to get your information. And I'm not just talking about news. I'm just talk I'm even talking about entertainment news and things. So kind of curious and, a little bit overwhelming to us and it's a reason to take a break from scrolling.

Helen: 05:17

But at the same time, it's also how life is now and I accept it for what it is and I embrace it for what it is and I like to learn from it. So hopefully, yeah. Hopefully, some good can come out of learning. Anyway, the other thing I wanna highlight is that one of our studio members did the abracadabra dance and congrats to her. Queen of the nobodies is on the map because she got reposted by Lady Gaga herself.

Helen: 05:43

And we know Gaga has been on the scroll and reposting reposting reposting the dance the people who are dancing to her videos, at least the most impressive dances. And so it was really cool to see that. I was so happy for her. She did two outfits. She did some transitions.

Helen: 05:59

Kudos to her for, like, really embracing these types of transitions that, you know, I mean, I'm teaching them in the studio, but they're really taking things to the next level. And I love it. So that was great. So congrats to the queen. Kathy is her name.

Helen: 06:13

The queen of nobodies. The queen of the nobodies. So we'll put that link in the newsletter for sure so everybody could celebrate with her. The other thing I posted this week that is a topic that it needs to be discussed. So I'm gonna take a minute now and talk about it and spend less time on the trends.

Helen: 06:30

And that is your camera angles. Because I had a feeling when I posted about this, people were gonna come into my comment section with heavy duty opinions. And that's exactly what happened. And I thought it was funny because somebody said, oh, you just told us everything not to do but you never told us what to do. Well, if you're watching the video, actually, no.

Helen: 06:48

I did I did say what a nice angle is to have a connection with your audience. And that person just kind of maybe missed it. I don't know. But we did what I talked about in this video is what a low camera angle says, what a high camera angle says, what a front camera angle says to your viewer subliminally. I'm not saying every single person that's looking at a video that somebody that does a high angle, they're not saying right away, oh, that person's trying to look more beauty or they're not thinking it out loud.

Helen: 07:18

I'm telling you what a subliminal message your camera angle is telling your audience. So it's not it's not a hard and fast rule that someone's gonna look at your video when you have a low camera angle and they're gonna think, oh, she's being a boss. They're not even thinking that. I'm just telling you the vibe that your camera angle might be, might be causing an emotional reaction that you're not even aware of. Alright?

Helen: 07:45

And I remember one time and I'm gonna throw Tommy right under the bus because I love him and he's my son. But one time we were on Zoom call and all of us were it was a family Zoom or group Zoom or whatever. But Tommy, my son, had his phone down like he had it propped down on his laptop. So he was like looming over his phone in this way. And Julie said something like, oh, Tommy in the power stance or something like that.

Helen: 08:07

And that's when I realized, oh my gosh, that's what the low camera angle is doing. It's making that person feel more powerful, more important. It's like standing over you instead of equal to you. I just thought this was really interesting. And as soon as I thought of it, I'm like, I have to make a video about this because I think other people might find this interesting be because I see it as a cam a professional because I'm used to seeing angles and what kind of angles.

Helen: 08:32

We have to think about camera angles when we're doing doing a shoot. Like, are we gonna be front on? Are we gonna be side angle? Are we gonna be profile? Are we gonna be high, low?

Helen: 08:40

We have to think about camera angles. It's part of my job. And therefore, I am very well versed in what the angles are saying to a viewer. So I decided to share it on layman terms. And And it was kind of interesting how it was received.

Helen: 08:54

Most people were like, wow, I've never even thought about it. Thank you. And other people were like, oh, that's just overthinking. You know, a lot of people came at me for maybe, they don't look see videos that way. And I'm like, you don't have to see videos that way.

Helen: 09:10

I'm just giving you a professional outlook on how advertisers are thinking about these things when they're creating content. Believe me, a lot of thought goes into what the camera angles are gonna be on a shoot when they're doing commercials. Trust me on this one. So I thought it was fun and I thought it would be a good one to share. And, of course, my my favorite topic that I love to talk about is the people that don't look in the camera when they're recording and they're looking down here.

Helen: 09:37

Let me see if I can do it on this at this angle. So they're looking down here and they're looking at themselves when they're recording. And that is a very disconnected way to record because you might think you're talking to yourself and you have a per a connection, but your connection is with yourself, not with your audience. And so a lot of people came me up came at me for that. I don't think I didn't get a lot of hate.

Helen: 09:58

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying there was a lot of conversation in the comments. And so I'm gonna talk about that later. But that's what happens when you create a video that people might have an opinion about. Suddenly, you're opening up opening up a dialogue and potential engagement in your content.

Helen: 10:16

Now let's kick off and talk about some of the trends very quickly. What's the value of trends as you know already is getting more potential views on your content. So try to use those trends to talk about your niche so that it all ties together when someone sees one of your trends and they say, oh, that's what their topic is. They might wanna look at some of your other videos and that might prompt a follow. So the first one is a quick lip sync video where someone is offering you something and you're being sarcastic about like, oh, what an offer.

Helen: 10:45

Like, you know, thanks anyway kind of thing. So I'm not interested. So that's a fun sarcastic one. Those are always handy. These quick little sarcastic things are very easy to poke fun at something that maybe happens in your life that maybe you do feel annoyed about but you don't wanna make a big statement about it.

Helen: 11:03

That's what's really fun about trends like this. You can, you know, hint at a little thing that annoys you without insulting anyone in your life. The next one is crying and this one will succeed if really if you channel your inner comedian and show off something that would make you cry and it could either be a happy cry or a sad cry, but it's like being a little dramatic. This creator was poking fun at needing her sisters to help her make a decision. And so it's it's very specific, but it's also relatable because a lot of people won't make a decision on something until they talk to that key person in their life.

Helen: 11:34

The Instagram trends are nice. One of them is my favorite but I'm gonna start with this one which is because we are together. So this is a nice one to do if you have a friend or a partner and you show you can show off and highlight how much you love being with that person even if you're doing something mundane. So it's a little two shot. You go you shoot yourself.

Helen: 11:53

That person is a shot, then you're a shot. Then you do it that way. You could do it all as a two shot together. However you wanna do it. And it's this particular couple showed off how they just get to spend time together at Lowe's doing their thing.

Helen: 12:05

I can kind of relate to that. I spent a lot of time at Home Depot in my day with my husband. He's always look trying to get things to do projects. Okay. The next one is procrastinator.

Helen: 12:15

This is the one that I like because sometimes oh my goodness, I am the queen of procrastination. And I will honestly say that I have used TikTok for the past four years as my procrastination tool. So when I get frustrated and I'm like, I just I can't get something done or my go to is like how to put it off is to I have to like look at my TikTok, check my TikTok messages or find a TikTok trend or whatever it is. So I have used TikTok as my procrastination, social media in general. A lot of times it's Instagram depending on the day.

Helen: 12:48

So this is a nice easy one where you can do, use the audio to show off something you tend to procrastinate about. You could lip sync or not. So you don't have to feel pressured to do a lip sync if you don't want to. Alright. What do we have up next?

Helen: 13:02

Oh my goodness. A workshop this week. I have got so many requests for this clothing fly on lesson. And let me tell you how long it takes me to film a tutorial for some of these complicated things. It's a lot and I decided, you know what?

Helen: 13:18

I'm gonna do it as a workshop. I'm gonna teach it on the spot. You know why? Because then I don't have to sit on my phone and edit my video because sometimes editing a tutorial when it's a difficult one to teach is just long. Meanwhile, I can just show you in a classroom setting.

Helen: 13:35

So I'm gonna have my phone, I'm gonna show you step by step exactly what I recorded and exactly how I put it together. In real time, I'm gonna show you. And I think that helps a lot of people to see that it is attainable because I think even sometimes watching my videos, they'll be like, oh, it took a lot longer because she had to edit this video and so it probably took a lot longer. I'm gonna actually show you in real time. So you'll see exactly how long it really takes to do it and I'm gonna break it down slowly.

Helen: 14:03

So I'm excited about that. I think, I have a lot of people interested in that one. It is a webinar style where you can come in, you can be in the comments asking questions. Julie will be managing the chat while I teach the lesson. I will have so you know, in case you haven't attended one of my workshops before in this way, I will be on one window screen in the Zoom and my phone will be on a separate window screen with another facing my camera.

Helen: 14:31

Sorry. Phone facing phone. I always call my phone my camera and a lot of people question me on that. And I'm like, yes, it's my phone camera. Okay.

Helen: 14:39

I call my phone my camera. It's mostly what I use it for. Okay. So I'm gonna have my second phone facing my my second phone facing my first phone and I'm gonna demonstrate the editing in real time and I'm gonna show you how I edit. That's how that's gonna happen on Wednesday.

Helen: 14:56

So if you have any interest in learning, it's a really good one to learn. Alrighty. Now let's get into the original content ideas. And the first one is inspired by the fact that I shared my expertise about camera angles. So because I shared a unique piece of advice about something that is in my wheelhouse to understand and teach, this idea is something you can do.

Helen: 15:17

Just think about a short and simple tip or something that you know about that you wanna share your expertise on. And you can make a concise video sharing your advice. You can do it with a list of the top things I recommend as, I'm making this up as a realtor doing an open house. What are the things that you recommend as a realtor doing a house? What snacks should the realtor bring?

Helen: 15:36

How long I don't know. I'm just making it up. Like, I'm thinking about what would a realtor need to remember at an open house. Think about your niche as a salon owner. What are the top tips that you make sure that you provide your customers in your salon?

Helen: 15:51

Just examples like that. They're they're very normal to you, but they're not necessarily normal. And maybe a salon a person we all go to salons. Somebody might be like, oh, I love that the salon owner thinks about that. And maybe they'll recommend it to their salon when they go next time.

Helen: 16:06

So that's a great example of how advice that, is in something in your world might be valuable to someone that's not in your same realm. The next one is inspired by what I said earlier in this episode, which is to dance it out. There have been so many recent viral dancing moments and just like Kathy queen of nobody's found out, if she did she did her Lady Gaga dance and she got reposted by Lady Gaga. So now she has lots of views on that video. She's getting lots of attention and I'm curious if she has gotten new followers from doing that.

Helen: 16:37

I mean, I'd I'm gonna have to ask her this week. We're gonna find out. But, yes, if you can pick up one of one of these dances and you could be the lucky one that gets reposted by the artist or maybe goes viral because of the way you did it. And you don't always have to do it perfect. I'm gonna tell you, like, sometimes doing them a little messy or a little off gets more attention.

Helen: 16:59

Take it. I mean, take that and run with it because it's it's true. I've seen it before. I'm I'm sometimes I see this creator and, like, she'll do it in a really wacky style. And it's like, she doesn't obviously know how to dance.

Helen: 17:09

She does it like, like a parody, like a spoof. And she always gets a lot of views on her content. So maybe not being perfect is is a easy way to not worry about do your dance moves. And maybe you can go viral. And then the last one is tell a story.

Helen: 17:24

And this one could be a story about you, anything that you wanna share. An embarrassing moment. That's what Julie and I are gonna talk about today on our podcast recording. So that's why it's in the top of mind. It could be a story about something that you did as a mom that you would do differently now.

Helen: 17:40

Could be a story about something that happened to you at work and you didn't like how you reacted and if you knew what you knew now and you knew that then what you have done. I can think of one right off the top of my head for that. I can probably think of a lot of things off the top of my head for that. Oh my god. We have learned so as we have learned so much.

Helen: 17:59

Everybody at every age has learned something. And it's I always say, like, the advantage of being older is how much how many mistakes we've made to learn from and this makes us better and more resilient to mistakes. So that's why I don't get too stressed about mistakes. Anyway, think about something that you might wanna share and tell that story. And don't start.

Helen: 18:21

I have a story that I'm gonna tell you because you've just lost three seconds and you're gonna lose your people. Start with the story. Okay. When I was 13, I wish I knew this or when I was 12, this happened to me and I'd add that. In my last job, I had a situation that I would never let happen again.

Helen: 18:39

Those are great hooks by accident. I'm just coming up with it here on the set on the fly. But it's like the minute I hear something that I'd be like, oh, what am I gonna learn from this person's mistake or from this person's mishap? Immediately, I'm tuning in. Alright.

Helen: 18:50

So think about it. That's a good hook, actually. Yay. Alright. Next up is, my tutorial for today which is gonna be the camera angles one.

Helen: 19:00

Yes. Yes. It is. So if you are trying to understand how best to place your camera for your content, you wanna watch this little recap. I gave a demonstration.

Helen: 19:09

I walked through the angles. I showed it in real time. I explained it, I think, in a nice way. Others might think I didn't give enough information. I thought I gave plenty of information, and it was all very, very real professional information for me having done this for a lot of time in my life.

Helen: 19:29

Alright. So that's that. Let's see. My last thing I have in the newsletter is about my my Montego Bay retreat in Jamaica. Wow.

Helen: 19:35

That's coming up soon. Oh my. And I have a lot coming up soon. I should mention this too. This is important.

Helen: 19:41

Two more important things. Oh my goodness. I almost forgot. Number one, in the studio today at 1PM. This is so important.

Helen: 19:50

I can't believe I didn't say it first. Anyway, today at 1PM, my casting director, Don Case, is joining me for an exclusive an exclusive meeting where he's gonna share how the industry has changed. If you're an influencer and you wanna get into other types of video content, commercial work, video work, whatever work, sitcom, whatever. He shows anything. He does all of it.

Helen: 20:16

He does like web web content for pharmaceuticals. I mean, he does it all. So he's gonna share with us some hot tips and hot takes. And if you're not a studio member and you've been thinking about it, this would be the day to do it because you could get in on this one. I have a lot of very helpful content coming up in the next four weeks that you could get in on.

Helen: 20:35

So you could try it for a month. It'd be worth it just for the casting meeting in my opinion. But anyway, alright. So that's one thing. The other thing is on Wednesday, I have the free workshop of the outfit flying on transition.

Helen: 20:47

I mean, get in on that one. It's free and you'll learn how to fly your clothes on in real time as I said in the middle of this broadcast. And lastly, this week, if you are located in the Connecticut area, I'm going to be speaking at a luncheon in Darien, Connecticut where I'm doing a workshop on social media, and I can't wait. So I have a bunch of people who have already found out about this through my Instagram post, and they're coming. So I'm very excited to meet some new followers that have been following me for a while, and I can't wait.

Helen: 21:17

That's gonna be a whole lot of fun. Alright. So that's the week. That's what I got. I will be back on Friday with a nice hot topic, and I I've just, like, got a blur of a week ahead.

Helen: 21:26

I can't wait. Many, many fun things coming. I'll see you soon. See you on Friday and I'll have a nice recap by then. I'm sure.

Helen: 21:33

Lots of activities. Have a good week. Bye.