The Socialize Strategy - Filming in Public
Welcome to the socialized strategy. Happy Friday. Before I get started, I wanna talk about our sponsor for today because this has been a long time coming in my content creation journey to say that we are collaborating with my favorite microphone brand, Saramonic. Thank you so much for the sponsorship. And I want to just tell you, there is a funny story with how I got connected with the brand in the first place.
Helen:So I'm going to share that with you now. What happened is when I first started using a microphone in my content for social media, I would I ordered a basic cheap microphone off Amazon, and it was a wired mic that plugged into my iPhone. And then I'd at one point decided, oh, maybe I'll upgrade. And I got myself a wireless one, again, off Amazon, and it would continue to fail me. So I always went back to the wired one so that I knew that my sound was being recorded.
Helen:Well, one day, of course, these microphones, they wear out after a while. I don't know. One day it just stopped working and it wasn't available to order a new one. So I was beside myself because now I thought I have to depend on a wireless microphone. It's It's never going to be consistent.
Helen:And I was so frustrated by it. And I even did a few tutorials with the wireless microphone and I would record them. And then the sound wasn't there when I went to edit. So it was really, really frustrating. And my husband heard me complaining about this.
Helen:And if you don't, if you know him, he's a fixer. So when he hears me talking about something that's not working, he's a solver and he's trying to solve it. And he did some digging and found a wired microphone by Saramonic on their website. And I have been using I ordered 2 immediately and I have been using this microphone consistently for my content for years and it has never failed me. So I am such a fan of the brand.
Helen:I'm so grateful for them, especially because they make it for iPhone, they make it for Android. So there's and you can plug it right in and you always know it's working. Well, I've since now been gifted some wireless microphones from Saramonic, and I'm very excited to get started with these. If you're watching and listen, not if you're listening and not watching, I'm holding up a new model of the microphone. And what I love about it is that you, you can wear it on your shirt.
Helen:It's magnetized. So it magnets under either there's a magnet underneath and you can just clip it anywhere on your shirt. On the front of it, you can customize it. So it has your logo on it. So it's a digital face and you can have it have no face on.
Helen:It can be, it can be in sleep mode when you're recording, but when it's on, you can have your logo on the front. And I'm so excited about it. So really, really pumped to play with the new toy. So big shout out to Saramonic. Thank you for the sponsorship.
Helen:And if you are interested in ordering any of their products, whether it's the simple wired microphone or something a little more high end and wireless, If you use the code mothership 10, when you check out, you'll get a 10% discount on your order, and they'll know that we sent you, which is even more important to me. So thank you so much for your interest in the brand. Now let's get into the topic for today, which is a lot of fun. Tips for filming content in public. And I always every week I say, oh, this is my favorite one of my favorite topics.
Helen:But this week, we're really hitting a sweet spot for the mothership because I love to film in public. And recently I did a tutorial on the off the cuff when I was traveling in an airport lounge and I made a piece of content in public about making content in public. So it was like inception. So I'm including that in the newsletter today and I will link it in the show notes as well. So you can watch that tutorial, which most of what I said then is going to be covered now in this podcast.
Helen:But you might want to watch that because you can see how I did it in public very discreetly. And I think that's the interesting part of that tutorial. All right. So the first thing you need to think about when you're filming in public is that it can feel very overwhelming, embarrassing, stressful, but it doesn't have to be. As long as you have the right mindset about what you're doing and why you're doing it, it will be very easy to execute seamlessly and not allow yourself to feel self conscious.
Helen:So let's talk about it. It starts with your mindset. Remember that you are the main character in your life and your support, you know, your supporting characters, your family, your friends are around you. But then there's what I call the extras, which are people out and about, and you're interacting with them. You're passing them on the street or they're you're encountering them in a vendor scenario, whatever it is.
Helen:So those I like to call those people extras. But if you think about it, every one of those people is their own main character and you're an extra in their world. So if you think about this mindset and realize that the people around you that you think everybody's looking at you, everybody's watching what you're doing, very unlikely that that's happening. And if someone is and you've bring you bring them a little, I don't know, something fun and interesting for them to watch. So what?
Helen:It doesn't matter. You're not you're you're not a victim of someone else's thoughts. You are only a victim of your own thoughts. Think about that for a minute. So if you can remove yourself from the stress of the judgment or worrying about what people think of why you're doing what you're doing, you'll be free to just carry on and create your content the way you wanna create it.
Helen:But firstly, you wanna think about why are you filming in public? And do you need to be filming in public? Is this something that's gonna help your content? Is there a reason for it? Or is it just because you wanna get attention or you wanna be out there?
Helen:What, what is the purpose? It's really thinking about that first because a lot of times I'll film, I film a lot of my content in my home, but but then occasionally I'm out and about, and I wanna get some content done when I'm on the move. So that makes sense. I gotta film in public. I'm on my I'm traveling.
Helen:I need to be in an airport lounge, and I need to make a video today. So I'll sit and I'll do it then because that's the only time I have. But if I'm home, a lot of times, I just want to change my location, keep my audience interested instead of sitting in the same place every time for my content. So if you have a reason why you're shooting in public or filming in a space that's more that's more out there, that will help you to be true to yourself instead of being worried about it. You'll think I'm doing this because of this reason.
Helen:And so, so be it. I'm not gonna mind if who's watching or who's or who's paying attention to me. So it's really just getting in your own mindset on why you're doing it. Do you need to be in a public setting? We can you achieve the same thing privately?
Helen:But is there a reason you don't wanna do it privately? Because maybe you just wanna change your location. Maybe you just want to film in public and just kind of see what happens. You have other people in the background, have some extras, whatever it is. Just know your purpose.
Helen:And and that is then leads to the next step, which is how to pick your setting. So think about if you're out in a very quiet place and you're in a peaceful space and then someone comes into your zone and now they're talking loudly on a cell phone or they're they bring and they disrupt your peace and serenity. So think about that. When you are choosing a location, you don't want to come into a scenario where people are peaceful and all of a sudden you're disrupting their peace. That's rude.
Helen:It's not necessary. Think about the scenario and why you need the scenario and also that you're not going to, I don't know, really infiltrate on someone else's Zen. You pick a place and, and this is and will. Okay. And I will give you tips on how if you do have to do it in a place where you want to be discreet, but you still need to do it in a place where there are other people.
Helen:There are tips for doing it very discreetly. We're going to get to that next. But think about why you're picking the space, make sure you're aware of your surroundings. If you think there are people maybe having a private conversation near you, obviously put yourself where they're not in the background of your scene. Make sure that you're not infiltrating on someone else's privacy privacy or invade.
Helen:Make sure you're not invading someone else's privacy. Okay. Now when you're in a place where it is kind of quiet, you might want to consider a microphone. Now I always carry a microphone almost always in my purse. So I have something if I do, or if I am in a noisy area, I can pull something out, plug it into my phone, and quickly have good audio.
Helen:But the bigger reason is that you can hold a microphone much closer to your mouth when you're out in public like so. And then you can speak more quietly So you don't have to speak in a full voice, so you're not disrupting the people around you. You can speak quietly into the microphone like this, but it is going to be heard very well because you're very close to the microphone and you'll have the same impact if you're speaking like this or you're shouting when you're further away from your phone. So consider a microphone. And that brings us to our amazing sponsors for today.
Helen:And they offer you so many options in microphones. Go to the website, saramonic.com. It's linked in the show notes. It's linked in the newsletter and use the code mothership 10 if you do buy something. In the meantime, you'll find lots of different options there and lots of different price points that will be right for your iPhone needs, your cell phone needs, your mobile needs, your computer needs.
Helen:They have it all. Okay. So microphone. Next, think about a tripod. You can carry a very small tabletop tripod in a purse.
Helen:I have one even smaller than this. I didn't pull it out, but I have a nice small one that's on the go. I have a, very tiny now, we call that a selfie stick when you stretch it out, but it's also a little tabletop tripod when you don't stretch it out. So there's lots of options for portable tripods that can be very useful. Pull it right out of your bag, set it up this way.
Helen:Your content is not very shaky for your viewer. And a lot of times it's good to start off a little shaky and then call their attention to the to the content. But then it's helpful to have the phone be still so that you can get your message across with across without making people seasick. So think about a tripod. Maybe you can set it up and come into a scene, Or maybe you can start with the camera handheld in your hand and then put it into the tripod and continue your contents that you have a steady camera.
Helen:When I was in the airport lounge, if you go to the video that's linked in the show notes and in the newsletter, you'll see that I set a little, I think I handheld it actually that day. I didn't even take out the tripod, but it's very still someone asked me, did you have this on a tripod? And I actually had to look back at the video and I saw that I was handheld. Not shaky at all, though. I have steady hands.
Helen:But that's a scenario where I could have pulled out a little tripod and put it right on the tabletop. And that would have been just as effective as holding it as still as I did. So thinking about your setting, thinking about your sound, thinking about now what's next, your lighting. Do not sit where you have overhead lights pushing down on your face. That is gonna be very unattractive.
Helen:It's gonna cause you to have have circles under your eyes and very strange shadows. You need light coming on your face from the front. I'm doing this right now with my laptop computer and raising the brightness. So I have more light on my face since I'm filming. I'm filming this right now in the evening.
Helen:It's much nicer when you have your near window and you have daylight coming in or if you're near a lamp where a light, a lamp can shine front facing on you versus top of head facing down. It'll be much more attractive and better lighting gives you better engagement. So consider your steady camera, your audio, and your lighting on your face. Make sure you are putting out the best quality content, because even if you are out in public, quality still counts, and it will make a difference in your engagement. Okay.
Helen:Next up. Where are we going now? Serve confidence. Know why you're doing that video that you're doing. Are you gonna do a dance in public?
Helen:Are you just gonna do a speaking video in public? Are you going to maybe interview someone? Oh, boy. Let me show this again. Two microphones.
Helen:You can put 1 on the person, 1 on yourself, and you could do an interview. I'm holding up my ceremony wireless pair of microphones. So there's lots of fun things you can do on the go. And I love to interview people with my, with my iPhone. So I'm very excited to have this now that I'm gonna play around with.
Helen:But I really do like to get that camera, get engaged with someone maybe that I didn't know before and and really connect with them in public. It's really fun. And a lot of times when I ask people to film a video of me dancing, doing a dance trend, I then film them with me so that I can show people this is who filmed my video today. So get your audience involved, get your people around you involved. If they feel like they want to be, I love to consider doing a dance in public and then figuring out, how am I gonna get someone to film this for me if I don't carry a big tripod with me or find a place to prop it.
Helen:But I'll often ask a stranger because it's fun to get someone in your zone. It gives you more confidence. You could ask you could stop someone and say, would you mind filming this TikTok for me? Or would you mind filming this video for me and getting the stranger involved? Because number 1, it'll give you confidence because now you have someone with you doing it.
Helen:So even there even if they're a stranger, they're usually into it. I find that a lot of people love it if I say, will you film this TikTok for me? And they're like, oh, yes, of course. And then they get into it and then it becomes a whole just fun encounter. And if you're not that kind of person, no pressure.
Helen:Just saying it's a nice way to make yourself feel more comfortable because you're not so alone in that case, then you now kind of have a friend with you that's helping you film. So it makes it really, really it brings I don't know. I think it brings joy out there and it, and it puts out some good vibes. But at the end of the day, if you don't feel confident enough to film in the public, don't put that pressure on yourself. Do what makes you feel comfortable.
Helen:If you wanna challenge yourself, fun, go for it, but it's not mandatory. You don't have to be a person that films in public. You can let it go if it's not in your zone. However, if you find yourself with the need to do it for reasons of time is of the essence and you need to get content done. These are the tips to help you make it happen and feel good about it.
Helen:Before I sign off, I'm gonna answer a few questions, but I want to remind you that on Tuesday, July 30th at 5 PM EST, I'm having an expert workshop interview with Joanna Voss, a talent agent for influencers. I'm so excited about this. We're gonna have such a fun chat. We've had some very crossover in our professional life. So we're going to be talking about that and how that happened.
Helen:And we're going to answer the questions that you want answered about influencer agents, how to get one, what are the requirements, what do they look for, how do they help you, what types of things do they do for you, And how do they negotiate rates? We're gonna hear all of it from Joanna on Tuesday. I'm gonna ask her a ton of questions. And if you join live, you'll be in the chat you'll be able to submit your questions for consideration. So as Joanna would say, come 1, come all, join us on Tuesday for that workshop.
Helen:It's going to be a lot of fun. Now let's get to some questions. Someone wrote in that they posted a TikTok to their story by mistake, and they are nervous if they take it down and then post it to TikTok, they're gonna get a violation for it not being original content. So first she wanted to know if she could change it from a story post to a regular post. And unfortunately, once you post to the story, you cannot change the post.
Helen:You have to delete it and repost it. And if you save it without the watermark, no problem. You just post it and it's still considered original content. No one's gonna give you a violation for posting something twice. If you post it only with the TikTok logo because you forgot to save it and you download it, and now it has the TikTok watermark on it that might get flagged for being not original content because there is something in the algorithm now that recognizes when there's a logo on there and it does consider it unoriginal.
Helen:So be mindful and think watch carefully before you hit that next button. When you're going for the red button, look carefully. Make sure you're tapping. And when you go for the white button, make sure it says drafts and not story. And when you hit the red button, make sure it says next and not post.
Helen:Otherwise you're posting. Okay. Next question. Should I use the TikTok editor versus CapCut because it'll help my engagement? So I've been doing my own test on this now that I have the TikTok studio as an app, and I also have the editing capabilities in TikTok.
Helen:And I'm not noticing a difference in my content if I use CapCut versus the TikTok editor. Quite frankly, it all looks the same on my side. I'm getting the same engagement. If anything, I'm getting better engagement on my cap cut ones. So I don't know if what they're saying and there's a lot of, I'll quote, experts, gurus on TikTok saying you have to use the TikTok editor to get better engagement.
Helen:I don't necessarily agree. I have very good engagement on tutorials that have been edited in CapCut, and I also edit tutorials in TikTok, and I don't have better engagement. If anything, I'm finding so far that my engagement is a little worse. We'll see moving forward. I'm still testing it out.
Helen:So I wouldn't be stressed about it. I think overall the type of content and the, the substance of your content is way more important than what editor you're using to create it. And that is just my personal opinion, but we can keep on testing it and learning as we go. The last question is, is posting more or less better? Should I post more times a day or is once a day enough?
Helen:Okay. My experience is it doesn't really matter too much. It's about what the posts are. When I posted yesterday 2 videos back to back, The second video, they were very similar. There were 2 dance things on the street in New York.
Helen:The first one didn't get a lot of traction. The second one got a lot more views. I don't know why. And by the way, after that, I posted a tutorial and I didn't notice if anything did better or worse because it was posted multiple times in a day. The day before I got the same amount of views on video on a video that I only posted one that day.
Helen:So I would say to you, you can test this out, post 1 in the morning, post 1 in the afternoon, post 1 in the evening. I would say to this, there's a lot of people giving different opinions on it. But I would say test it out for yourself. See if it works for you to post maybe 3 times a day. And if there's a cadence where the morning one does better, then say maybe a few days later, you're gonna post just once a day for a few days in a row and see if the videos in general do better when you do them 1 at a time.
Helen:See what happens for you. I think it also depends on the type of the content. So if you're posting 3, if I was I'm gonna use my example. If I'm you posting 3 tutorials in one day, obviously, one of them is probably gonna do better than the other 2. So maybe that's a waste and maybe I should just be posting 1 a day if I'm doing tutorial and tutorial tutorial.
Helen:But because I alternate my content, I have a tutorial, then I have a dance video, then maybe I do a trend. I don't think it matters if I post 3 in a day. Whichever one was gonna get the best traction is gonna get the best traction because it's the content that people want. I don't know if that really answers it because it's it's so depends on what you are creating and what your flow is and what your audience likes. So test it out for yourself and don't follow a rigid rule because somebody on TikTok told you to do it that way.
Helen:That is my advice for today. I hope you have a great weekend. Last reminder, if you're gonna order from Saramonic, use the code mothership 10 before you check out. You know how many times I go to I have a code and then I forget to put it in, and then I have to call the company and say, I forgot to put the code in. I'm I'm famous for that.
Helen:So don't forget to put the code in if you do go and get yourself a microphone. Click on the link in the newsletter, in the podcast just to check out what they have because it's worth seeing. Go see this new fancy fangled microphone they have that has my logo on it now. This little double, this digital one. Go check it out because it's really cool.
Helen:Even if you just browse and don't get anything, give us give us a little peek on the link. And lastly, don't forget about the workshop. Give it give that, a quick sign up and it's free if you wanna join us for the conversation with with an influencer agent and for workshops, for social media course, for help tutorials, hellosocialize.com as always. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks for being here on a Friday with me, and I hope you have a great weekend.
Helen:We'll see you next week. Bye.
