The Socialize Podcast

Helen: 00:00

Welcome to the socialized forecast, September 3rd. Happy September. Happy post Labor Day, and thanks for listening. Before I get started today, I do want to do something a little unusual, which is shout out a couple of people who listen regularly. And I don't always mention people when I get messages, but just this week, I decided I'm gonna write them down.

Helen: 00:22

And once in a while, I'm gonna give some shout outs. So the first one is Dee from Miami. I don't know if you're listening this week, but you made my day. She sent me a picture of herself in the car listening to the podcast on her radio. And it was so cool.

Helen: 00:35

And it just kind of made brightened up my day. So hi Dee, if you're listening today. The other person I'd like to mention is Joanna Voss, who was on a podcast a couple of I don't even know when it was maybe a month ago about now. And she's a talent agent and she responded to the newsletter and said, listening to the podcast and reading the value that the newsletter puts out every week is incredible. And she's so impressed and it was just so nice to get that kind of feedback.

Helen: 01:02

So thank you to both of those people. And I might continue to do shout outs as we go. Before I get into the trends today, I want to mention that we do have an expert workshop coming up this Wednesday. So if you're not signed up, get on the list now because on Wednesday we have a community building expert joining us to share all of her insights about how to build and curate a paid community and make it successful. Maayan Gordon has accumulated her own audience of over 2,000,000 across platforms, and she really, really knows how to do it.

Helen: 01:38

She knows this the tips to it, how it can be do something that you can do without completely taking it, taking over your life. However, it's gonna add value to your audience. I cannot wait to learn from her. I am really excited for this one. So Wednesday, come join us.

Helen: 01:53

It's free. And then it will be released as a podcast. But it's always fun to be there in person because you get to put your questions in the chat and then we can answer some things firsthand that you might be thinking. So do join us if you can. The other thing I wanted to talk about today is a little off topic for me, but cancel culture.

Helen: 02:13

Why do, like recently I'm obsessed with this because I see creators falling 1 by 1 and getting called out for things. And it's just, it woke me up to the fact that I just have to now I'm going to go a little bit off the rails, but let's go. That no one is really safe from this. And so if you are a person who's putting out a lot of negativity, inevitably, you're gonna get to a point where the negativity gets reflected back to you or gets bounced back to you. So that's the first thing.

Helen: 02:46

The second thing I was like, I was thinking a lot about cancel culture in general and how we society is so easily able to hop on and know about something so quickly. So go, let's flip back to like the eighties or the seventies or whenever. And when I was growing up, even my, the big thing for women who were stay at home moms were they watched soap operas. And if you think about that, why were soap operas so interesting? Because it was drama and people love drama.

Helen: 03:17

And so they would, even though the drama was fake drama, it was drama and everybody would talk about it. And I just remember soap operas being a thing. Even when I went to college, I was never into it. I didn't understand it. Like, why do you want to watch this drama when it's like, it's not even real?

Helen: 03:32

I don't know. The whole thing was not appealing to me. Never was. But I remember having friends where they would work their classes around being able to see this show at this time. I always found it amazing.

Helen: 03:43

And then skip forward to reality TV and people loving the drama of the housewives, the desperate housewives, and the the negativity, the shows, the Jersey Shore, and all of that. And people love drama. So what happened now is I think social media has just made that drama so much more accessible. It went from fake drama that writers were writing to reality TV, and it became real drama. And of course the news was always there.

Helen: 04:12

So there was always some drama of what's happening on the news, but it went from our entertainment went from watching fake drama to watching reality TV, real drama that was obviously contrived on a lot of levels. That's why I always used to say to my kids about reality TV. They're they're on a desert island. There's a cameraman right there. You know what I mean?

Helen: 04:33

So to me, I guess I always saw the the behind the scenes in my own head of what was happening on these reality shows, and I never really bought into it. But that's just probably because I was in production, so I had maybe a more of a cynical view of it. But anyway, that was a thing. And now cut to we have social media where drama can happen in the at the drop of a hat, and it can be so quick and so, like, rapid fire. Like, it just goes like a forest fire.

Helen: 05:01

And then everyone's got an opinion, and there's more people piling on piling on piling on. And then sometimes you don't even know which end is up. I just noticed, a creator sent coming on, a a video and saying, I'm not the person I'm not the person who posted that video. They mistook her for someone who has posted something that was surrounded by drama. Now this poor innocent woman who has a feed that has nothing to do with the drama is being accused of the per of being the person who posted the video, and it's not even her.

Helen: 05:32

So I just think we're in such a dangerous part of, I guess, history in a way that we can so quickly persecute someone and not always with the right facts. I don't know. The whole thing is just troublesome. It really is. And I just wanna say that I sometimes I think, well, I could never be caught up in drama because what am I really doing?

Helen: 05:55

But I just don't know. Like, anything could happen. As I said to you another time on one of these podcasts, somebody was accusing me of saying a word in a video, and I hadn't even said the word. And I'm just listening to that video over and over. And there was hundreds of comments accusing me of saying a word that I didn't say.

Helen: 06:12

And then finally, I just answered a comment and said, do you mean beginner? Is that the word that you're hearing? And then they went, oh, yeah. Sorry. But something like that.

Helen: 06:20

Like, you might be accused of something you didn't even do. It's crazy. And you get canceled for it so quickly. It's intense. So I I guess my warning is that if you put yourself out there, we're all putting ourselves to some degree at risk.

Helen: 06:37

But what is the alternative? Are we gonna hide under a rock and not move forward and be scared to do or say anything? Oh, gosh. I don't I don't I'm not coming here with the answers today. I'm just really opening up the conversation to say, if you're a a person who likes to watch that kind of thing, that's why you're getting caught up and getting more of it.

Helen: 07:00

Because as you know, when you watch something in your feed, more and more of it, that similar type content will come up. And I was watching, a creator who's a musician, Benson. I think his name is Benson Boone. I think it was his video. And he was like, people, go outside.

Helen: 07:14

Go do something else where every video on my feed is drama. And that's the other thing that went into my head. I'm like, even this young guy who's like posting about music and is really into, like, performing for people and spreading good vibes. He's even saying, like, get up and go outside because we are we're screwed by the stuff we're watching. Oh my god.

Helen: 07:34

Anyway, it was so amazing. And it was so, to see that and to see him although it was funny because he's making a video about it, but still. So he was still in it, but he also was acknowledging, like, I'm swept up in this. I'm gonna go outside. Anyway, I just thought that was fun.

Helen: 07:49

And it was it's worth it's worth pondering, as what as to why we are like that. Well, it's not like all of a sudden people are like that. My point is people have always been like that. They have always gravitated towards the dramatic or the accidents or the, you know, it's what it is. It's like, as people say, you can't help, but look at a train wreck.

Helen: 08:11

You know what I mean? You wanna not put that in your your mind, but we do it. So I don't know if there's any changing it. I think just being aware and saying, we're going to try and do better, be better, maybe scroll past it when it's ridiculous. And now it's just someone else's opinion bashing on someone else, because it really is damaging to some some people that it happens to here on the the on the social media platforms.

Helen: 08:37

So let's be kind. That's my message for today. Let's get into the trends. I'm not gonna go too deep into them. Like I said, I'm just gonna mention them and tell you maybe ways you can use it.

Helen: 08:46

So the first one is for TikTok, the suspect. And I've been hearing this one and laughing every time I see it. The idea is that when you're running from the police and they say the suspect is the pretty, the attractive woman in the blue dress or the funniest guy in the office or whatever, and that makes you stop in your tracks and turn around and come back. Like, did they just call me the funniest person? Did they just say I was the most attractive woman in the blue dress?

Helen: 09:10

So it's a funny trend. You could use it for anything. So I would be running away and I would might stop and have my text say, the suspect is the best teacher on TikTok. That would be a good one for me. I think I wanna write that down.

Helen: 09:23

But you can do the same thing. If you're in book talk, it's like the suspect is the best writer of the, you know, the one on the bestseller list or the one who the next bestseller list author or something like that. You can do that. You can be put it into your niche if you're a baker and it's something that you're, you know, you've made the most beautiful cake that has ever been seen. You know, that's coin a phrase.

Helen: 09:45

Okay. So that's that one. The other one is the hug yourself trend. The reason I know this one is going hard is because I've already had multiple people ask me for the tutorial. And I don't know that I'm gonna get to it before this podcast releases.

Helen: 09:56

So what I did in the newsletter is I gave you the steps. And it's very involved because it involves a website, first putting photos together, then a website. Because you can take a video, a photo of yourself younger and older, and you can have them hug, which is adorable. You can also pick a celebrity that you might maybe wanna hug from, and you can put that together. So it's an AI trend.

Helen: 10:17

So it needs a special website to make the AI hug. 1st, you need to put the photos side by side, then you need to export, then you need to put it into CapCut because CapCut does the the little effect where before it gets posted. And everyone's saying, oh, it's a CapCut template and it's not. So if you want the steps, it's in the newsletter. Okay.

Helen: 10:35

Now let's talk Instagram. There is a very hot simple trending audio that you can use and run with, and you can put any type of content on that. It's definitely has viral potential because a bunch of the ones that I keep seeing come up on my page have a lot of views. So it's quick. It's lit.

Helen: 10:52

Just tap the thumbnail photo in the and you can see how to use it. You can put any type of text on it, and then you can have, you know, an easy video. One thing I have noticed about Instagram that I have to say that to my I don't know. My opinion is very different than TikTok is everybody and their brother is using this style of the caption tells you to read the caption. Okay.

Helen: 11:18

So the text on screen is, like, read the caption for more. I mean, I don't know. For me, I'm like, I don't feel like reading a book every time I open up a an Instagram video. I gotta go and tap and then read. Oh my god.

Helen: 11:30

Anyway, I just think it's must something to it. So if it's if you're interested in getting people to stay on your video while they're reading this caption, you better be a good writer to hold their attention, or you better have some value in that caption that you're gonna keep people for. But I know it's a thing, and I know it's an Instagram thing much more than it's a TikTok thing. Because a lot of people on TikTok don't say go to the caption and read. But in Instagram, I swear every other video is like, if you want tips or if you want hooks or if you want whatever, read the caption.

Helen: 12:00

I don't know. I'm not a fan, but I know that it works. So it doesn't I don't have to be a fan of it. If it works, go ahead and do it. The next trend is the Oma.

Helen: 12:11

Good Lord. Someone pour me up a double shot of whiskey. So that's now going hard on Instagram for some reason. There's a creator that has been viral twice in a week with the same sound and a similar caption. When she hers is when you realize in 6 years that the eighties will be 50 years ago, which is also intense.

Helen: 12:29

And that whole idea, she's not the first person to come up with that concept. I've seen that on videos for months now, but she put that caption on there and here we are. She's got like a 1,000,000 of views on one video and 500,000 views on another video. So I don't know. Use the sound and put some realization that you have and see what makes you want to take a shot of whiskey and see what you see, what you can do with it.

Helen: 12:52

Alrighty. Next up I mentioned in the newsletter, the workshop, the expert workshop, which I already talked about. So come and join us for community building and all the talks about how to monetize your audience. If even if you don't have a large audience, you might have something to offer to a paid community to have some side hustle money or supplemental income. So I welcome you to come.

Helen: 13:16

And I want to learn a lot from her, from Maayan. So join us. Okay. Now for some original content ideas. Whoo.

Helen: 13:25

Of course, I have to mention fall sweater, sweater weather. So get ready to jump on the trends, which are sweater weather, pumpkin spice latte. The templates are going to come. And if you get ahead of them, you could be one of the early, early virals in that realm. Alright.

Helen: 13:42

Do something clever. Do something a little different maybe, or maybe be annoyed at pumpkin slice lattes, whatever it is, go for it. But the other one that's gonna come up quickly, and it always comes and goes. And I'm like, I, damn, I missed it again. So I'm gonna put it in the newsletter and remind myself the 21st September.

Helen: 14:00

It's the gonna it's gonna trend on the 21st September. Line it up, find something, put a piece of content into your drafts and be ready so that when you wake up on the 21st September, you're not panicking to try and think of something. Alright. The next one is fall fun. I like this because somebody sent me a video recently of, a roller coaster that it's goes through the fall.

Helen: 14:24

It's like goes through the mountains. I think it might be in mountain creek, but it's like some long roller coaster where in New Jersey, I think, where you can ride a roller coaster through the fall leaves. So I'm excited about this. But anyway, it came to my mind that, oh, that's a thing I never heard of. So what's your favorite thing about the fall season?

Helen: 14:41

Share something unique to your area, your town, your family, or your life that you do routinely when fall hits. So I'm gonna tell you that when my kids were growing up in September, it was always apple picking. That was the thing. And also a lot of people waited and did it when they did pumpkin picking. So you pick apples and pumpkins, and it's all like holiday, like October.

Helen: 15:01

I would get on that in September because September is when the best apples are ripening. When you if you wait till mid October, it's all the mushy ones on the ground. That was a big thing. So raising kids in New Jersey, that was the thing that we did. Apple picking, get those pumpkins and get the that content and early and maybe share where your favorite farm is that you go to, or if you do corn mazes, whatever it is.

Helen: 15:24

So get ready for to share some fall fun. And now the third idea is on the flip side of that, If you're a person that refuses to let the previous season go and you can and you're just, like, holding on to it. Everyone else is, like, jumping into the holidays or whatever. Get on your soapbox, rant it, or pick a sound that speaks to your sentiment on how you feel about it this time of year and add some text. You can act it out.

Helen: 15:49

You can be clever. Pick a sound that's like, I don't know. Even using the, oh, lord, the double shot of whiskey, like, when people are talking about summer's over and I just I can't even handle it because I wanna have another summer cocktail. Like, that's a great sound. Spin it to be something that you're complaining about, but that could be very relatable.

Helen: 16:08

Like, a lot of people don't like to let summer go. The one thing I said in a previous podcast is that every viral trend started as someone's original content idea. So maybe think about that. Think about how you could be the next viral trend without even realizing it. So just making a video like that, that's so relatable.

Helen: 16:30

Someone might jump on that. Now granted, if you're using a trending sound, that's not original. You're using a trend. Maybe you have an original idea, original spin on the trend. But if you really wanna be creative, find a sound of your, you know, pick and find a sound, but do something that's so relatable that it has a chance of going a little bit viral.

Helen: 16:48

And then maybe you'll be the next trend. I love it. Alright. Now the feature tutorial today is an overlay overlays because I am constantly asked the same questions over and over. How can I put something on the screen when I'm talking?

Helen: 17:02

How can I put something behind me when I'm talking? How can I stop and start a video and talk about it and put it on the screen full screen and then cut back to my face? I get these questions. If I don't get it, I get them. I'm I'm telling you, 10 times a week at least, I get that question.

Helen: 17:16

So I said, okay, here we go. I'm gonna post an overlay tutorial, and I'm gonna show it a little different version of it. So I I had, this one shows the thing on the screen, the thing full screen, and then also the thing behind me, and then shrinking myself down where I start large on the screen and I shrink down to a smaller size of myself where the content that I'm talking about is behind me. So that's a nice Chuck full tutorial and it's worth a watch in case it's something that you might like to do. Okay.

Helen: 17:47

Music is music is lit. Gave you some music suggestions. Happy, happy, very excited about some music options and feel like it's an easy it's always easy to do when it's a new season because you know that the ones that are gonna come lit and the ones that are over I'm already seeing. So I've got a bunch for you that are September related, fall related, and also just trending musics. And I'm not even gonna stop and answer questions today because to be honest, it is currently Labor Day.

Helen: 18:15

I'm recording this the day before it releases and my whole family's at the beach. And I stayed back to record this, and I am going to wrap it up and go and meet them at the beach right now for the last day of summer, officially. Have a happy Tuesday, and I will see you back on Friday. And then I will take some questions. Submit your questions.

Helen: 18:34

If you want some questions answered, please do. And don't forget to review this podcast. It would be so appreciated. I'm trying to get it to, like, rise up into the chain of social media podcasts, and I enjoy it so much. So it's helpful if I can get more listeners and therefore potentially get it sponsored at some point because it's something that I really enjoy doing.

Helen: 18:53

So thank you for being here. And one day it's going to be sponsored by this lip stuff that I just purchased called Milani. This brand really stays on. I've gotten a lot of comp compliments on my lip color recently. So I'm giving Melania a shout out.

Helen: 19:07

It's called Stay Put Liquid Lip. Anyway, let's get them as a sponsor. Shall we? Have a happy Tuesday. See you Friday.

Helen: 19:14

Bye.