The Socialize Strategy - Editing Tips
Welcome to The Social Media Strategy. Happy Friday. I just finished chasing a bumblebee out of my apartment because who would think that up high on a floor in a city apartment, if you open the windows to get some fresh air, that you'd end up with a bumblebee in your house. But there you have it. So I got rid of them, and I'm ready to go.
Helen:We're gonna kick off today even though we're gonna talk about editing. I want to bring my unsponsored by products, and one of them is probably gonna cause a little bit of maybe discussion and research amongst yourselves when you leave this when you leave me today. Because I have been looking for and this follows up from the the Ninja Creamy, but I've been looking for different types of crunchy toppings to put on the the healthy ice cream to make it tasty and crunchy and good. And I just started looking in the grocery store for different things. So, one of them is these crackers, which I actually do really like.
Helen:They're called Simple Mills sweetened nut flour chocolate brownie. They I believe they are gluten free, although I wasn't looking for gluten free. Yes. They are gluten free. Here you go.
Helen:Push them up closer. And they're chocolate. And so it's kinda like graham crackers in a way, but they have a little bit more toughness or texture than graham crackers somehow. Graham crackers are lighter and and these are a little harder of a crunch. So I am a big fan, and they are all the the ingredients are all natural.
Helen:It says all the things non GMO, gluten free, etcetera, etcetera, and then I read through, and I see what's in there. Okay. Fine. Then I go and I pick up, and I like them. So they get a they get a win from me.
Helen:They get a a plus. Then I pick up this Catalina Crunch. I'm not here to throw them under the bus or anything, but I just wanna point something out that I noticed. So here we go. Catalina Crunch protein cereals.
Helen:I'm thinking great. It's in the cereal aisle. It's got this one happens to be chocolate peanut butter, I thought perfect for on top of the ice cream. And it says all the things at the top. No artificial flavors or sweeteners.
Helen:New great taste, protein, excellent source of fiber, zero sugar, etcetera. So I bought it, and then I tasted it. And it tastes kind of it's not super flavorful, but the crunch is hard. And the taste is decent. It's good.
Helen:Like, you can put that on ice cream, and you're gonna get a feeling that you got something crunchy going on. I'm sorry that I'm looking up here, but I have a mirror there so I could see if I'm in the camera. So I'm just looking at my mirror for a second. Okay. So this is what it is.
Helen:Now I look at the ingredients and I say, okay, there's a lot of things on here. We got peanut oil, peanuts, leavening, baking soda, lots of ingredients. But it's on the front, let's remember, it says no artificial flavors or sweeteners. Oh, it does say here, with other natural flavors. So I wanted to alert the troops, meaning you guys, that when something has in the ingredients natural flavors, because it says it right back here, natural flavors, salt, stevia, blah blah blah.
Helen:Natural flavors. I went to look it up because I'm like, what does that even mean? Natural flavors. Right? In food ingredients, natural flavors refers to flavoring substances derived from a natural sort source such as a plant or animal through processes like extraction, roasting, or heating according to the FDA.
Helen:While the source is natural, these complex mixtures can undergo significant chemical processing, which leads to the product that may no longer resemble the original ingredient, but it qualifies under natural ingredient. It qualifies to be called that under the FDA's broader definition. Boo. Boo. Boo.
Helen:So then I go on and I read more. Allergy concern allergy concerns. So this is for people who are allergic. Because of the because the specific components are not disclosed, consumers with severe allergies should be cautious as they may contain undisclosed ingredients. That seems crazy to me.
Helen:Now I'm fine with this product. It tastes good. It's crunchy enough. I'm gonna put it on the I'm gonna use it on the ice cream, I'll tell you. But it just makes me realize that we can buy into not that I don't know this already from being in marketing, but we can buy into woo hoo, natural thing, ding, ding, and all the claims, and they can work around those claims within the FDA, but still not necessarily be the best thing if you are a person who is has really has allergies.
Helen:So I'm just gonna alert you. I the Catalina story is kinda cool. This was a person who was diagnosed as a type one diabetic and she and he, she, created it because they they saw a gap in the marketplace for delicious options that met the needs of this person. Let's see. Who is this person?
Helen:Krishna. Don't even know. Male or female. Anyway, I'm not dissing the product. I'm not putting them under the bus or anything like that.
Helen:I'm just pointing out that we should be aware that when something says all natural and then on the back, it says natural flavors, those flavors not are not necessarily gonna be natural for for everybody. Okay? I don't even know if we needed to know that, but now we do. Now we get on to the next product, which is vest. I have got and it's not the vest itself, but it's Babaton brand.
Helen:So I love Aritzia as I wish I had the body for more in Aritzia, but I don't. Aritzia is for very slim young girls, but I love some of the styles. And I went in there. I'm always browsing in there, and I found this vest, and I thought, vests? Oh, I haven't seen vests on in the fashion world in a while.
Helen:So I popped it on, and at the day, I had a tank top on like this that I'm wearing now. And then when I put it on, I went, oh, this kind of dresses up my tank top to a degree. So if I am in a meeting and things and it's hot, instead of having to put a jacket or something over, I can dress up my my tank top with a vest. And so I bought it. And then just like when you buy a Volkswagen and you see a million of them on the road, Literally, the next day, I'm wearing the vest.
Helen:I'm out in the city, and I see vests, vests, vests are in. So if you didn't know, vests are back. So get yourself a vest. I think a lot of people were wearing them out with no with no shirt under it just as the tank top itself, which I probably could do on this. It's a little low though.
Helen:I don't know if I would go there. But you know what I mean? You can you can bring back a vest if you have one in your closet that you just tossed away and figured it's not in style. Bring it out. And what I also did was I stopped in a vintage shop and I almost bought myself a necklace like this that I'm wearing, this crystal kind of beaded necklace.
Helen:And I when I I thought, I think I might have one of those from my grandmother or something. So I went into my jewelry box when I got home, and sure enough, I do have one. So now I'm trying to pull things that I have in my in my house, in my jewelry box, in my closet, and just add them into my wardrobe again somehow. So, yeah, there is a woman who sells kinda chunky glass type jewelry. Her name is Lisa Fried, and she sells, like, designer style, the ones that get sold in Neiman Marcus and whatnot, and she sells them for very affordably.
Helen:She has a TikTok. I'll put I'll put her, link down here. But I it's funny because it reminded me of that because I thought, oh, I'm gonna put on a crystal thing that I might normally wear just to a wedding. I'm just putting it on to kinda jazz up my my vibe today. So pull the things out, mix and match your things.
Helen:We're gonna get into fashion in upcoming weeks. When I say fashion, I mean, getting camera ready, being camera ready, dressing for on camera. We're gonna get into that coming up, not today. I'm gonna have a special guest on, and we're gonna be talking about that. And, yeah, lots to say about that because things have changed in my life since I've put myself in front of the camera the way I the way I think about clothes in the morning.
Helen:Okey dokey. Let's get into it. Boom. Editing like a pro right from your phone. K.
Helen:So you know that I am well versed in editing from years and years and years in production. You know, I kinda love editing the most. I used I started more in the editing side, and then they I started doing the shoots. But for me, the way I learned how to shoot is by being in the edit room and realizing, oh, we didn't have this shot. They didn't shoot this shot.
Helen:We really could have used that shot. So I really learned from what was missing when I was editing as a junior employee for my boss. And I would he would be like, put a put a button push shot or something in between. Well, they didn't shoot that. So now I know, you know, when you're on a shoot, what shots you might need in the editing.
Helen:So I have editing very, very clearly, Oh, it's almost in my DNA at this point. So it's I try hard to teach the things that come naturally to me because I realize that most people don't know the things. I recently got on a one on one, and I said to the woman, you have four seconds before you start speaking on your video. You could just edit that off and just start right at the beginning. She wasn't even aware that she had four seconds on the beginning of the video because that just was not she just pressed record and thought about what she was gonna say and started speaking and didn't realize she could she had that much time on the beginning.
Helen:So it's really about assessing what you're doing and then seeing how to edit it to make it better. Okay. So the first thing is to keep it simple in editing. You don't necessarily want to put tons of things and stuff on top and make your video really complicated to try and distract people. If anything, simple and tighter editing will give you a better result.
Helen:That that is I'm sorry to say everybody, but that is definitely a fact. Like, you can wrap your head around that. Trust me. You're gonna be a better a better creator overall because a lot of people just think, oh, I'll just put some text all over it, and I'll, I'll throw stickers on top. And I put I can put effects with moving hearts and things like that.
Helen:It's like you're almost scaring people away when when you do that. You're not welcoming them in when you do that. It's the exact you're almost doing the exact exact opposite. But when you have a speaking video, let's stick with the the topic at hand first. You think everything you say is important and is part of the story.
Helen:But if I took your video and chopped out chunks chunks where you went on a little longer about this and maybe you added something in that was a little off topic that I do a lot on this podcast, for example. If this podcast was going to social media, I would be chunking out batches of it because it's too long winded for a social media post. So chop, chop, chop, chop, cut, cut, cut, It really helps to keep your story moving. It really helps to keep your audience interested, and you you need less than you think. Okay?
Helen:So when in doubt, edit it out. That was a line from the newsletter. But, well, I will tell you, and I almost wanna say this example. I don't wanna put it in the newsletter because it's too, people will get too, literal. But when I did that video where I showed how to do the Nicki Minaj trend, I recorded six minutes to do that.
Helen:And the video itself is only like a minute and a half that I posted. So I edited out so much of the process, and I made the cuts so short so that people would keep watching it. And I knew there was parts where I needed more explanation, so I'd leave a little bit longer in for certain parts. And then short, short, short, short. So if you watch that video, for those of you who know which one that is, maybe I'll even put it in the newsletter.
Helen:Who knows? But if you watch that video, you'll see there's an explanation, and then it's cut, shoe on, shoe on, show and shoe, do do. So it's like four quick cuts and then explanation. And then it's cut, shoe, boom, pot, book, like when I piled up the things on the table. I know as a professional when to do it.
Helen:And so what I'm trying to do here is, I guess, teach you the things that are innate to me when I when I put content together. So you can have a long explanation and then cut, cut, cut, cut, then a longer explanation, cut, cut, cut. You can do, and I'm gonna talk about speed ups too. Actually, I'll get to that when I get to it. But the thing is to think about short, short, short, a little longer.
Helen:Short, short, short, a little longer. Think of that as a style and try to do some of your content that way. If you're especially when you're in a talking video because talking videos can go on and on and on. You're gonna lose your you're gonna lose your audience. I swear to god if I posted this, I'd lose my audience like twenty minutes ago.
Helen:I don't even know how long I've been talking, but it would be I would have lost them from from the beginning. Right? So the next thing is to master your editing app, and this is when you really wanna I mean, pay attention to some tutorials. Watch the editing tutorials. Learn so that you're not sitting there staring at the screen and you can't find the overlay button or you don't know how to use it or you can't find how to you don't know how to cut and drag so you're in parallel paralysis trying to do it.
Helen:Learn how to do the basics. Learn watch a few tutorials. If you don't wanna watch mine, fine. That's okay. Watch ones that you connect with.
Helen:I mean, for me, I'd have the CapCut. I have the Instagram and the TikTok, all those editing platforms. I have tons of tutorials, and you can come into the free part of the studio and you can just see the tutorials. But I don't have InShot because I don't use InShot. So go if you like InShot, go watch some ins InShot tutorials on YouTube or something.
Helen:Learn how to do basics so that you're not having to stress about that when you're just trying to edit. And I also put here pro tip, animated auto captions on your speaking videos. I've got a lot of comments. Please add captions to your speaking videos. So I've been doing it.
Helen:Even though I get distracted sometimes on content when I see captions, I end up reading it instead of watching. But I realized that a lot of times I'm watching my content in bed at night and next and my husband's asleep next to me, so I'm watching, and I'm like, I don't wanna turn the audio on or I don't have headphones on at the moment. And I'm somewhere, and I don't have headphones handy. I'm reading. So I decided to jump in.
Helen:Jump in the game. I'm adding the captions even though I never did it. So and my content has been getting a good a good amount of engagement. So I do think auto captions can really help with engagement just because somebody that might scroll, instead they're gonna read and stick around if they like what they're reading. Okay?
Helen:So just think about it. Next is the pace, playing with the pace, which is the same thing as tightening up your editing. But in this case, different techniques. So instead of, k. You're you have a video.
Helen:It's a minute. It's a it's a minute and a half. It's it's ninety five seconds, and you wanna put it on Instagram, so you need to speed it up or something like that. Like, it's two minutes instead of ninety seconds. And some people just speed the whole thing up, and it's like you're listening to Mickey Mouse.
Helen:Or you're watching them. I immediately scroll on those videos. I I get it just bothers me. It just doesn't sit right with me to watch something that is completely sped up from beginning to end. Do I watch videos where it speeds up and then it slows down to norm or it goes to normal speed, and then a little bit of speed up and then normal speed?
Helen:Yes. That'll stick around for because that's a style. So I'm doing and I don't do it much, but I should try it when I'm doing my vlog things and if I'm showing, showing, showing, and then I do a pan, I tend to break up the pan into three shots. But you can just speed up the pan and then slow, slow, slow, speed up some walking. Slow, slow.
Helen:I don't mean slow it down. I mean regular, regular, regular speed up. Then regular, regular. It's called ramping. When you speed up a part of a shot and then you let it go to normal speed, that's called ramp speeding, if you didn't know.
Helen:So play with ramp speeds for a change. Do something a little different. Always experiment. That's what I do with my content all the time. I do a test.
Helen:We're gonna test it. I went live in the middle of the day the other day. What a great idea. I'm gonna do it more often. So I test things all the time.
Helen:Next one is to get creative with overlays and split screens, and now I'm going to share a very cool thing that happened to one of our members of the studio, Linda Desjardens is her name. I finally figured out how to pronounce it. Linda had a viral video, crazy viral, like 2,500,000 on Instagram. It went from 700 followers to I thought it was 16,000, but I think it's 14,000. I don't even remember.
Helen:But over 10,000 followers from one video because she did a split screen with herself. And she learned it. You know, she's like, oh, all the videos I do, I I learn from you. So cute. She's adorable.
Helen:She's also an older creator, so she's, I'm guessing, in her seventies, you know, and she's figuring it out. And she's determined and finding joy in it, which makes me so happy. And then I see a success like this, and I'm like, yes, girl. She embraced. She got creative.
Helen:She had a fun idea in her head, and she made a video. And I'm gonna be honest with you right now. Is it perfect? Like, the perfect video of a character video? Who cares?
Helen:Who knows? I don't know. She said that her wig was crooked. It doesn't matter. She she touched people with her with her video, and that is what is important, that you're making some kind of an impact.
Helen:So congrats to Linda. So happy to celebrate her. While we're doing little celebrations in the midst, I must say, time out break, we're gonna shout out to Carla. That's at FabFit. Fab and Fit by Carla.
Helen:I will also put her in the newsletter. She was featured she's on The Golden Bachelor this season starting it airs on September 24. So if you're a reality TV connoisseur, I have never watched The Golden Bachelor, but I'm going to watch it this season so I can see my girl, Carla, one of our founding studio members from the beginning when the studio first launched and I saw her come in as one of the first members. Like, I wanna almost say the first member. I was like, oh my god, Carla, because she's already a really good content creator.
Helen:I was thinking, oh my gosh, she's joining the studio. And she she said to me, I just wanna up my game. I wanna learn how to do better, and I know you're the person to learn from. And so she has been with me since the beginning of the studio. I'm celebrating her win so big.
Helen:This is so huge for her. I told her this is gonna change the game for her as an influencer. She was already an influencer, but now she's going to be able to really monetize her her page because now she has network eyeballs, baby. Okay? So anything can happen and this makes me so so so happy.
Helen:Okay. The next one. I really I really went off the rails but we're going to keep going. The next one is to add text and captions. I mentioned the caption things already.
Helen:But text popping on, text moving, pointing to text, all of that keeps your audience engaged. It is so easy to do. So easy to do. I am going to. I have a full lesson in the studio on how to do this.
Helen:Very elaborate, slow, and detailed because I think my studio people love the longer, more detailed lessons where it's where I have to when I post a TikTok lesson, sometimes I'm just quick. Instagram lesson, I have to keep it quick. Gotta keep people interested. On in the studio, I know people are there to learn. I will hold their interest even if I go very, very slowly.
Helen:So those lessons are a lot more elaborate. So if you'd like some slow paced editing lessons, join us over there. But popping the beats, boom, boom, boom, and boom, boom, boom, that will make your content more engaging. Fact. And then the last piece of advice is think about your audio music, meaning, and how it's gonna elicit some some emotion in your video.
Helen:Because a lot of people put music on, and if you take the music off, it wouldn't have been even been that emotional. But hearing that music and then the person saying the thing or doing the thing, you're immediately in tears. It happens to me all the time. Oh, so often. Even on my own, I'm making a video, and the minute I put music on, I'm like, oh my god.
Helen:Now I'm crying about my own video. But you have to make it low enough so that if you're talking in that video, it's not blasting because then it looks like you're really trying to get that emotion instead of just like it's a subtle thing down low. So low, low, low, like 7%, if you can see percentages, really down low. The music always kind of comes on louder in the final, I find. So just make sure you're adjusting that volume so it doesn't overpower your voice.
Helen:Okey dokey. The moral of today is that you don't need to be a professional editor to edit great content. You don't you can certainly go to AI, pop it in, have it edit. I mean, there's tons of AI editors. I wanna talk about that before I say the final thought because there's tons of them.
Helen:You can put it into wherever. But as a person who edits, I found because I want I said, me try it. Pop it into I I forget which app I used. I think I put the podcast in. I said, make me some teasers.
Helen:All it did was take out sections of the podcast and gave me teasers. And it wasn't, in my opinion, the way I would have edited tea because I would edit a bit a bit a bit and put them together, not one section chunked out. So that's like an example of what I thought was unsuccessful AI use. Because I got the thing back. I said, I'm not using this.
Helen:It's boring. It's not gonna be engaging. So I edited my own teaser. I took the the three sections it gave me that it chunked out. I took two sentences from each of those sections and made my own video.
Helen:So I suppose if I went back and forth with AI enough and trained it, I know that there's ways to do it. But to me, the length of time it's gonna take me to do that, it's quicker for me to actually just do the editing. I don't know. That's just me. But I am willing to learn.
Helen:So if someone here wants to come in and say, Helen, you're crazy. You're spending too much time editing. Use X, Y, and Z app. It's going to make magic. I'm all ears.
Helen:You see this? I'm all ears because I spend a lot of time editing. So I'm happy to learn how to condense my editing time. But I'm also very picky because I like I like to edit and it's part of I think it's part of the content creation. Maybe it's my favorite part.
Helen:So do I want to take that away? Oh, I'd rather have someone doing some other part of my content creation than taking away my editing because that's where I express myself in my style of editing. Okay. Final thought. You don't have to be a professional editor to make content that counts, but you need to know how with some solid guidance and lessons.
Helen:You know where I'm headed. Come on into the studio for a month and get some solid guidance and lessons. I will maybe see you there. And if and if you're already there, I will see you later because I'm recording this on Thursday, and we have a meeting this afternoon where we're gonna talk about going live. So hi to my studio members, and right now, thinking of you, Kara, because I know you're listening.
Helen:And I'll see you at the meeting shortly, I hope. Alright. Bye, everybody. Thanks for being here. See you next week.
