The Socialize Podcast

Helen: 00:00

Welcome to the socialized forecast, August 6, 2024. I have so much to say. I don't even know where to begin, so I'm just gonna plunge right in. If you have not listened to Friday's podcast with talent agent Joanna Voss, please go back. Scroll back one more.

Helen: 00:18

If you're on the Spotify right now, scroll back and listen to the last episode. There is so much learning there. If you know anyone who wants to be an influencer or is thinking about getting an agent or if it's something you aspire to, there's there's so much you can learn from her. The things that she shared, her complete honesty about her pet peeves, so worth listening to. So if you missed it on Friday, please make sure you go back.

Helen: 00:42

And I've also included the link to her website in this week's newsletter because I neglected to do that last week. So that is in there. If you wanna reach out to her, you can now contact her. I'm sure if you wanted to find her, you could find her easily. But let me just make sure that I provide her website.

Helen: 00:59

Next thing I wanna share is that last week, I was featured in Aegist Magazine. And I think at one point, I probably would have been, I don't know, a little bothered by them putting my age right in the title of an article. But I am so at a point in my life where I'm embracing my age and I'm enjoying my age. So it doesn't even bother me, which is funny because I know that at least, I don't know, maybe 5, 10 years ago, I would have been really annoyed by it. So the first thing I wanna say is that they used a word in the article title doyen, and that's how they referred to me.

Helen: 01:32

And I had to look it up. I didn't even know what the word meant. So it's pretty cool to find out that that the definition of a doyen is a woman who is the most respected or prominent person in a particular field. Wow. I was honored.

Helen: 01:46

This article is written so well. I felt that the writer really understood me, and they sent me a bunch of questions to answer upfront. So I think just based on the things that I said, the research they did, maybe looking at my social channels and getting to know me a little bit. It was crazy. It was written as if they know me better than I know myself.

Helen: 02:05

It was really cool. I just loved it. So if you haven't read the article, click on the link in the newsletter. I'm gonna put the link here as well in the show notes because I just thought it was so I don't know. It was so exciting.

Helen: 02:17

I knew the article was going to release that day, but I was with my sister bringing her home from knee replacement surgery. So I it was off my radar, and I had completely forgotten about it. So when I got a text from Jenna, who said my my aunt sent this to me and it was the link to the article, I was so thrown because I had forgotten that this was coming out on that day. So it was really cool. And that's what made it even more, I think, more special because it didn't come into my email box.

Helen: 02:41

It was sent to me from somebody that had seen it. So that was pretty cool. So check it out if you haven't already. And, I thanked the Aegis magazine for the feature. And if you don't follow that publication, it's a good one to subscribe to because they highlight lots of people, different ages, who are inspirational for aging.

Helen: 02:58

So even if you're not a person who is over 40, over 50, over 60, over 70, you might want to just lot look at it and read some of these inspiring stories to to realize that you're not running out of time. You can always do something that you wanna do. You can always better yourself at any age, learn, be curious. And it's seeing that and seeing more people that are putting this themselves out there doing that type of thing, I think normalizes the aging process. So we're not afraid of it.

Helen: 03:28

So I don't know, give them a give them a little subscribe if you are not already subscribing to their newsletter, because it's a really a good one, because it's really a good one. Next, I wanna talk about the TikTok shop experiment. And I wanna talk about that here in-depth even more than I've spoken about it in whatever I'm going to post on social media about it, Because I wanna make sure that I can be have full transparency without having any implication on my account by something I say on that platform. So here's what I've learned. Number 1, when you join the TikTok shop as a creator so a seller is the person who owns the shop that makes the products.

Helen: 04:05

The creators sell the products on behalf of the sellers. So it's like you're an affiliate seller. And you make content and you share about it and then you put the little link and then you get a percentage of the proceeds. Very small. I got, like, a dollar 78 for every tripod sold.

Helen: 04:19

And it was pretty cool because I've made about $300 from this post that I did. But I wanna say that when I first joined to the shop, before I even made any content, I was so overwhelmed because I immediately got in my inbox flooded with messages of people wanting me to to promote their products. It was overwhelming to a point where I was frozen, and I couldn't even look at the shop messages anymore. Thank goodness they come in a separate link on TikTok, but that was the first thing that was really, really overwhelming to me and almost, like, stopped me in my tracks. So I didn't do anything about it for a month.

Helen: 04:51

And then I percolated a little more and I said, maybe I'll just see if this one tripod that I happen to buy that I really like, maybe that one will be in this TikTok shop, and I can make a video about that. And then I could do my test. So when I found that the tripod was available and figured out, okay, I'm gonna make a video. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna promote.

Helen: 05:06

I'm gonna learn. It was very interesting. So a couple of things learned. I think when you post a video as a larger creator, I think automatically your video gets shown to a higher percentage of people because you have it goes out to a percentage of your following. So if you 20% of 20,000 is if it's 20%, I'm making up a number, is gonna be a less than 20% of a 1000000 followers.

Helen: 05:31

So I think possibly it helps to have a larger following to start off with because maybe your video is gonna get seen by more people off the bat in the very beginning. And then if your video is engaging enough and it holds people attention enough, then you'll be rewarded and you'll go further and you'll have more views. That's just a hypothesis. There's not that's not based on anything but fact and maybe instinct. But what I learned is when I posted this video, I had people right away that were saying in the comments, I don't usually watch shop videos, but because it was you, I wanted to hear what you had to say.

Helen: 06:05

And I also think it's because I chose a product that was in my wheelhouse. I didn't right away decide I'm gonna start promoting makeup or lip care or nail polish or something like that would be off the radar of what I might talk about. I posted about a tripod. I teach TikTok. I teach content creation.

Helen: 06:24

So it makes perfect sense that I would be talking about content gear. So I think partly the products I chose partly starting with a larger audience helped. And then the third factor in that is I really know how to make concise content about something. So I didn't start off wishy washy, beating around the bush, talking about something and trying to hook you in by some fancy hook line. I literally just said, I'm gonna show you a tripod that I own and I'm gonna tell you why I like it.

Helen: 06:53

So I went right to the I cut right to the chase. And I was showing the features and I edited it tightly. So you didn't have to wait for me to talk about the next feature. I went boom, boom, boom. And I think those three factors are like a little bit of a trifecta to make a video hit.

Helen: 07:08

But when people tell me they're making 1,000 and 1,000 of dollars in the TikTok shop, here's what I have to say to that. I had about I think I have about 90,000 views on that video right now. I'm not even sure. I should check. But 90,000 views.

Helen: 07:21

That's a lot of views. It takes a lot to get a video to have 90,000 views, especially if you're a smaller creator. So So 90,000 views, I made $300. Not many of my videos get 90,000 views and nor are they going to. Even with a 1000000 followers, I don't have a lot consistent amount of videos that are gonna get 90,000 views.

Helen: 07:43

And the percentage of the views that I had to get in order to make the $300 it's not gonna happen on a consistent basis in the TikTok shop for me or for anyone that is maybe a small sized audience. So when I see people on this, the TikTok app that are telling me they're making 1,000 of dollars a month on the TikTok shop, Boom. My mind explodes. And I'm not saying maybe there I would love to know. If you really are, please prove me wrong.

Helen: 08:13

Make a video, whatever. Call me out. Write me, reply to the newsletter and tell me otherwise. It just seems unbelievable to me given the experience I just had with one video, which immediately did very well. But if you think about it, very well got me $300 and all my videos are not gonna get those kind of views.

Helen: 08:34

So that's my little rant on the TikTok shop. Thanks for listening. I won't be selling products on my channel. I I don't wanna muddy up my my content with sales videos. So that's not happening.

Helen: 08:47

And when I say sales videos, I mean with links that you have to buy things. So I'm not doing that at the moment, and I just think that it was a good experiment. I learned what I needed to learn, and I'm really happy about it. And I think I'm gonna do some videos explaining how to do the TikTok shop for those people who do wanna try it and take try their hand at it, and maybe they'll be better at it than me. So good luck.

Helen: 09:07

And if you wanna tackle it, I I wish you well, and I hope that it works out. And that is not meant sarcastically. I mean it for real. I hope it works out because it's a really nice way to make money. I mean, I was happy with the $300.

Helen: 09:20

I just don't think it's gonna be consistently like that. So I'm not gonna put all my eggs in that basket. Alright. Let's get into the trends this week. I was happy to see the first one Julie picked here around the world because I have seen this on my for you page a lot.

Helen: 09:32

So I know it's hitting. I know it's trending, And it is where you show pictures of your travels and experiences. So it's really easy because it's a photo carousel. And if you don't have a travel a big trip to to share, you can always share just, you know, snips of your hometown or somewhere where you are that's more, you know, your day to day life. So you don't have to travel around.

Helen: 09:52

You can use it use the audio almost sarcastically and be, like, around the world and do clips around your house. That could be funny. Sometimes I think of these up right on the spot. That's a fun one. Grab the audio and give that one a try.

Helen: 10:05

The next one oh my gosh. I wish I had my purse here right now. It's called What's in My Bag. And it's a funny lip sync audio that Charli x e s I think it's her voice. And it's the idea is that what do you have in your purse that is kind of unique that no one else is really gonna have in their purse?

Helen: 10:21

Wish I could get my purse right now, but I am gonna tell you. I have a water bottle that's like the size of, almost like a little flask. And it's my little tiny water bottle. And I also have a clip that clips onto a table. So if I'm in a restaurant, I can clip the clip onto the table and hang my purse from this clip.

Helen: 10:38

And I have those 2 wacky things in my purse at all times. Along with my little tripod that I made a TikTok shop video about. So 3 wacky things, tripod, table table holder, purse holder thing, and a tiny mini water bottle. Those are my things. Maybe I'll make a video.

Helen: 10:55

Alright. The next trend is I'm jealous of you. And this one is funny because it's like you can be if you're a dramatic person, this is a fun one. If you like to make wild faces, because it's a screaming audio of someone's screaming, like, I'm jealous of you. And it's like, they're screaming.

Helen: 11:10

And the joke is that you it's you put yourself as the point of view of someone who is claiming that you're jealous of them. But meanwhile, whatever the thing is that maybe you're better at. So let's say I was gonna scream, like, I was gonna put POV. This younger creator thinks they're the best at tutorials, and I could be, or thinks is thinks that I'm jealous of her tutorials. And it would be me laughing like, no.

Helen: 11:35

I'm not jealous of her tutorials. Something like that. So you can relate it to your own niche. The manic laughing is what gets me. I probably I don't know if I'll do that one, but this is pretty funny.

Helen: 11:45

Now I'm gonna tell you about the next free editing workshop, which is on August 13th at noon. So I'm changing up the time. I like to make sure it's inclusive of everyone no matter where you are. So this one is at noon EST, and we're going to cover how to make cool transitions, whether it's outfit transitions, head turn transitions. I find that those workshops are so enlightening for so many people, and I love doing them myself.

Helen: 12:09

So it's a fun time for me to teach it. So come and get on the list for that because we're gonna do some different ones. I'm not gonna do the one that's in the, image on screen, which is the umbrella transition where the pedals fall since that's an old trend. But I'm gonna do maybe I'll talk about the newer one, the, 911 emergency one where all the outfits changed when I was dancing. I will go into that in a little more depth so it's at a slower pace than the tutorials.

Helen: 12:34

So come and learn. I'm excited to teach. Now let's talk about some of the original content ideas this week. The first one, I already did it because it was my crazy idea of what Olympic sport would I win gold in. And when Julie asked me this question on our Together podcast, and if you don't know, we do have a Together podcast.

Helen: 12:54

It's a mother daughter podcast we record once a week, and it's called Yours Truly with Helen and Julie. That was a little plug on the side. But what we talked about in that in that podcast was what sport what would we win a medal in if it was an Olympic sport? And I said smiling. So I immediately decided that's a piece of content and I'm gonna make a video.

Helen: 13:15

And I posted that. So you can use the Olympics music. You can use any other kind of music that you want and show off what you think should be considered an Olympic sport and why you think you would win gold in that that activity. So I had a fun time with Jonathan who put the medals on me. He took us all Special Olympics medals and he put them over my neck, which was really, really cute.

Helen: 13:34

So I will I will put that in the show notes as well. And and it's in the newsletter. The next one is we're calling it Better Than That. So lots of people share tips, tricks, products they use. Sometimes those things tend to be overhyped.

Helen: 13:47

So this is an opportunity to say, my thing is better than that. So something simple, like people are trying to buy a fancy I forgot the water bottle brand. The Stanley water bottle water cups. And I like this, like, simple slim one, s s slash m one. I don't even know what the brand name is.

Helen: 14:04

But just the idea of, you know, you don't need this fancy thing that everybody's getting that's trending. You might want something that's a little more simple. So that's a fun and you never know who might have it. And then people might be asking you, where'd you get it and the link and you make an affiliate link and hula la. You're on your way.

Helen: 14:21

Okay. Lastly is, the TikTok shop. It's inspired by the TikTok shop experience. So if you've seen that video where I did that experiment and shared the results, maybe there's something that you have done either in your TikTok shop or something you've purse purchased from the TikTok shop or from an Instagram video. And why did you purse purchase it?

Helen: 14:42

What did that video do that it hooked you in? What made you buy it? And then talk about if it delivered on its promise. That's always a good one because a lot of people really love those sometimes controversial videos where you're sharing the truth about something when people are saying one thing about it. And you're like, actually, no.

Helen: 15:00

It doesn't work that well. So you can have some fun with that. And then if you're not into contra anything controversial, fair to feel free to share something that you love that you bought from a shop. Alright. Next up is the tutorials.

Helen: 15:14

So for this week, the tutorial is how to use a censored sticker. Never thought that one would have as much traction as it did, but you can find a censored sticker on Instagram and on TikTok where you can put it in the stickers game, and you can take that sticker and add it to your content to cover something up that's in your scene. So if you if there's a license plate or something on the wall hanging in the wall in your house and you need to put something back there to cover it up, they do have censored stickers and you could set the duration for how long the sticker is. Also, in TikTok in particular, if something is moving through the scene, like, if you're holding something up and you're moving slow enough, you could put a censored sticker and have it track. And that's the tutorial that we have for you today.

Helen: 15:57

I also I'm keeping the emergency dance trend up here because I think it's still trending enough where people would want to learn how to do that dance if they missed it last week. So that is the one where the outfits change as you're dancing. And again, in the workshop on August 13th, I am going to be teaching that in more depth, how to do an outfit change either in the middle of a dance, in the middle of a jump, in the middle of a snap, whatever. We're gonna talk about lots of different types of transitions. Well, that was fun.

Helen: 16:27

I'm gonna table the questions until Friday. Running out of breath, and I also am running out of time because I wanna go out for a run before the day gets away. Thank you for being here. Thanks for hanging with me. I hope that you had a nice weekend and that your week was off to a decent start.

Helen: 16:43

Lots of fun things coming. Really planning some, I don't know, cool things for socialize, which we'll start talking about soon. And I hope you're gonna be here with us for it. Okay. I'll see you next I'll see you on Friday.

Helen: 16:57

Bye. Thanks for being here.