The Socialize Strategy - Game Changing Tips
Welcome to The Socialized Strategy. Happy Friday. I'm just starting my recording with my Bluetooth clicker and I kind of love it, so I have to I had to point it out. Today is special and I'll it's special for a couple of reasons. So I'm gonna start with the first one, our sponsor, The Morning Brew.
Helen:The reason why I'm so excited to have them as a sponsor is that when I first started this newsletter with Julie and we had this vision of what we were gonna create with a newsletter and and share trends and share our learning and what we've done on social media and help other creators be successful, I kept comparing it to the morning brew. I used the morning brew as an example probably every day I would talk about it. I want to be the morning brew of social media. I want to be the morning brew of, you know, I want to compare, I want our audience to be feeling like they need us like the morning brew audience feels like they need the morning brew. So that's where I was at and the fact that they're a sponsor of this newsletter today is just like chef's kiss to where we landed, however many years later it has been.
Helen:I'm just really, really proud and excited and I thank my trusty partner Julie in this. She's really been amazing and she's such a good supporter. She's with me every step of the way and we're just having so much fun with it. But let's take that a step further because the other thing that happened this week is the Socialized Studio has moved to a new platform. And it was great to launch.
Helen:We started ourselves out on NAS thinking that was the right place to be and we soon found out that it just wasn't what we were looking for in terms of creating community. So we have now shifted our audience and everyone is on the Mighty Networks platform and it's so good. The whole thing works so much better. The way it's organized is better. We now have a community chat that I can type in and I can talk to everybody every day.
Helen:It's just so much more efficient. I am loving it. And the fact that this week both the Morning Brew is our sponsor and our studio has leveled up to a new place. I just feel so excited and I think really just inspired for the future and where this is all going. That's how I'm feeling.
Helen:So thank you for being with me on this journey and I hope that you learn something every day. That is my goal to always impart whether it's learning something on an app in particular, an editing tip, just a life lesson about how to not stress if you didn't get the shots that you needed. Today in the studio I was I did a lesson on how I forgot to shoot the second half of one of my videos and I had this transition plan that I was going to start at Penn Station. I step on my phone and then I was going to pick up my phone and land at my conference yesterday that I was presenting in Philadelphia and I forgot to shoot the second part. After the presentation was over I realized, oh, I didn't shoot the second half of my transition.
Helen:But I had the wherewithal to say, let me just shoot the foot stomp and let me just make it work. And I am including in the show notes today that video where you can see it looks like I didn't forget to do it. And what I taught in the studio was no matter how bad the shots are or no matter how you think you didn't get the shots you needed to do something, you can always fix it in the edit. There is always a way to make your content workable and interesting and engaging with editing. So I'm such a big believer in editing that that's what I focus on a lot in the studio and sharing my professional editing tips.
Helen:I literally shared that lesson because I wanted people to understand that if you forget to shoot the second half of your transition, all is not lost. You could still make a good video. You just have to think about a different way to do it. And that's the kind of thing that I feel that I was meant to do. And I'm just so happy to be here doing it, so thank you for being with me.
Helen:Let us get into the topic for today. And that is something that came to mind, which is things we wish we knew when we started on social media. These are the things that I look back and I think, ah, I wish that I had done this in the beginning or why didn't I focus more on that when I started? And having that hindsight is helpful to people who are starting it now. And it's funny, it's just like being the age I am now and I wanna try and, you know, tell younger people, oh my God, and just know how attractive you are and how your skin is so delicious and all the things.
Helen:I mean, they have to go through it to understand so you can't tell someone who's younger. But when it comes to having experience at a business or something that you've created and looking back and saying, oh my God, if I would have known this, I would have done it this way in the beginning. So I'm here today to share things that I wish that I knew so that I could have focused on that maybe would have gotten me where I wanted to go even sooner. And let me say the first one is probably not going to be that popular and that is start an email list. So even if you have 20 followers, 200 followers, 2,000 followers, whatever, you want to curate your own audience.
Helen:This is so valuable and we have all learned how valuable this is, our TikTokers have, because if our TikTok goes away, our audience is gone. And I really had the wherewithal to start a new a newsletter email list years ago. But I wish I would have done it in 2020. I think I started it more like twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three. I wish I did it in 2020.
Helen:And I wish I had the wherewithal to know to do that. So if you are just starting out or if you think I don't have enough followers yet to do an email list, think again. Think of something that you can share whether it's, I'm going to pick random businesses. Let's say you're in the crafting business and you think, Oh my gosh, I have nothing to share in a newsletter. Yes, you do.
Helen:You're going to share something. You can share your videos that you're making in your newsletter because your followers are not seeing all your videos. So you can say, here's my favorite videos that I made this week and this is why I love them. So you can do a little commentary about your videos. So it's another way of getting things to your audience.
Helen:But if you want to get people onto your email list, you've got to think what is the value proposition for them to sign up for your email list. So you've got to think of one thing, whether it's a while we're on the crafting topic, whether it's a special craft that you're going to share in PDF form or something that you are going to offer to them that if you want to learn the detailed steps and where to buy the materials and blah blah blah blah, sign up for my email list because that's where I send all those details. You've got to have a little something that lures people to want that thing So they're going to sign up so that they get that thing. And that will start your ball rolling. It'll give you something whether you send out an email once a month even.
Helen:You don't have to send it out once a week. It doesn't have to be added pressure. It should just be something that you do. Do it for yourself. Trust me you'll thank me.
Helen:I promise you'll thank me because you'll never be sorry that you have a list of emails from people who are your core followers who really want to hear from you. I promise. You have my word on that. The next thing I would do differently is I would focus more on the content I love doing and not worry so much about what I think I should be doing. Okay?
Helen:So I do think that when you love doing something, you tend to do it easier and more often. So it will add to the consistency of your posting. So even if you are thinking, okay, I have to be clear on my messaging. I have to think about what I'm doing. I have to put this kind of content out.
Helen:Otherwise, I'm not gonna get the right audience. If you are figuring out a way to tell that in a way that's comfortable for you. So if you're a person who doesn't like to speak on camera, do voice over videos. If you can do them quicker, do that style. Find your style that is easy for you to create and comfortable for you to create quickly and the most fun so that you can put more content out.
Helen:And when you're excited about doing it, you'll do it more often. So that's a fact. The next thing I would say is, and I didn't do this, and I'm sorry I didn't do this, but post more consistently in my niche. So if you have an area, like once I when I was in my baking era and I was doing baking videos, yes, was doing those pretty consistently. But when I decided, when I randomly landed into the tutorial era by somebody asking me a question about how to do a video and I said, I'll make a tutorial.
Helen:Once I realized, hell, I'm onto something here. People really like my tutorials, I should have done them more consistently. And I still use my platform more for like silly, irreverent, fun things in between those posts. And if I had focused on more tutorials balancing out than fun videos, I would have grown my account more quickly. And that is just a fact.
Helen:That's just a fact. So you've got to just weigh it out. Like, yes, do the fun things because you're going to do them more. But when I say do the fun things, do the style you like but do those things in your niche. So if you want to grow an audience of Gen X women and you want to share stories for Gen X women, just I'm saying like stay on that topic but do a style of video that's fun.
Helen:So if it's dancing with titles on it, do that. If it's voice over where you're showing things from from the Gen X past, whatever the things are that's on topic, the style of video should be what you like to do but the niche should be focused if you really want to grow followers in that area. So I didn't necessarily do that. I'm I'm being honest. I look back and I think, I might have had a couple million followers if I had focused more on that.
Helen:I'm I'm not I'm not unhappy with where I am. I don't I don't look back and think, what was me regret? I think let's learn from what I would have done differently that might have gotten me a quicker outcome to where I want to be now. So take that and run with it and use it as your benefit. I don't have regret at all.
Helen:I just think that if I was doing it over, I might have focused a little more. I might have focused on tutorials more than in between content. And now the in between content I find fun. But put your focus where you want your you know, see the end game and stay focused on that. The other thing that I would have done sooner and I don't, I'm still guilty of not doing this enough, I'll be honest, is putting a call to action on all of your videos.
Helen:Okay? It's maybe not a popular opinion but I'm going to say it anyway. It shouldn't be at the beginning of your video because you're going to lose your audience if you start trying to tell them something, go somewhere, do this, follow, whatever the hell it is you want to tell someone. If you're doing it at the beginning you're going to annoy your audience. But if you have people who are already watching your videos because they like you and they're watching them till the end, they should have a call to action on there because that'll be the one time that you go viral that you don't have it on there.
Helen:And it's like, so if you're trying to build an email list and you have join my email list to get the PDF of my closet clean out. Okay? You're a fashion stylist and you're you wanna share how to do a closet clean out. So put that on the end of your video, but put it on the end of all your videos. So this way, the one random one that goes viral, tell me it's the truth.
Helen:That one that goes viral is not gonna have the call to action. It's always the way. So if you consistently put it on there and not put it on where it's gonna interrupt your content, not put it on the beginning or the middle where people are gonna be annoyed by it, but at the very least have it at the end so that if you randomly have that one viral video that at least some people who are watching it at the end are going to receive your call to action. Okay? Alright.
Helen:The last thing is be confident. I look back at some of my videos. I'm going to say cringe is a good word. But I look at myself timid and speaking softly and like not with confidence. And I look at my former self and I call it like my teenage years on social media.
Helen:It's like embarrassing. I won't delete them. But I look back at them and I'm like, oh my God, why didn't I just have more confidence when I was presenting? Like I do now? But I had to grow up.
Helen:I had to go through it. And all I can do is say to you that in a when you're looking back, trust me, you're gonna say, why did I not like that? Why was I not like this? Why was I not like how I am now? It does take time to build that confidence.
Helen:But if you can somehow channel your inner badass and say, I don't give a flippin' care who is judging me. I am going to show up the way I am in real life. I'm going to show up that way on social media. You're just going to be so thankful that you did. Because you'll look back and you won't want to go, I look at my videos and I'm like, oh my goodness, why was I talking so quietly?
Helen:Why was I so timid? And I wasn't a young person. I was still this age. I was in my sixties and I was still like, ridiculous. Come on.
Helen:So don't be afraid of what other people are going to think. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't. You're not there for those people. If they don't like you, you move on.
Helen:I told, I've said this before, I have changed my people pleasing persona from social media. I can thank social media for me changing my attitude and not thinking like everyone has to like my content, everyone has to like me. The fact is everyone isn't everyone else's cup of tea. So I don't need those people. If they don't want my content, that's okay.
Helen:Let them go where they find connection. Let's answer a couple of questions before I sign off. Here's a favorite question. Can you change the shape of an overlay in CapCut? For example, I want to use a picture or a video and I have it show as a circle instead of a rectangle.
Helen:So yes, you can. You can change the shape of an overlay by tapping below when you tap on your overlay after you add it to make sure it's highlighted. Scroll along the bottom and tap mask and there's other shapes. There's heart shapes, there's star shapes. I'm looking at it.
Helen:There is a not a lot of different shapes, but you've got a rectangle, a circle, a heart, and a star. So yes, you have some other shapes you can play with. What's the latest on hashtags and in particular how many should we use? Okay. This is interesting because this changes now on Instagram.
Helen:Instagram doesn't really need hashtags anymore. I've done a test of my own content. I have removed hashtags from my last couple of posts, and both of those videos got categorized perfectly on based on content. One was categorized because it was a speaking video and it took some of the words and it put me in the right category. And the other happened to be a random little transition video but in the caption I had written something about what I was there for.
Helen:It was being at a small business conference and lo and behold, I showed up right at the search in the small business social media workshop. So there you go. I think that finally we don't have to worry about hashtags on Instagram. In terms of TikTok, I'm still using them just to make sure that I'm getting in front of the right audience when it comes to my tutorials. I'm definitely not as stressed about it.
Helen:I kind of think probably the SEO is already grabbing it from the words in my videos and and my lower caption. But just because I haven't seen proof yet in my own content that things are gonna work perfectly without hashtags. I'm still using them. However, I'm going to say it now. I'm going to record it here.
Helen:I'm going to try and not put some hashtags on my next couple of videos and I'm going to see what happens. The thing is I like to have my own, my the mothership hashtag. This way when someone searches the mothership hashtag by chance, my videos might come up. But other than that, I'm going to remove all the hashtags over the next couple of posts and we're going to do a little test. And on next Friday, I will report back and let you know how my hashtag less life is going on TikTok.
Helen:Okay? You heard it here. I'm going in. I'm always willing to be the guinea pig. I'll I like will throw myself on a sword and let's go.
Helen:Alright. So I'll be back next week to report in. And in the meantime, if you are interested in the studio, if you wanna try it out, good news. Oh my gosh. I forgot to mention this earlier.
Helen:We're offering a seven day free trial. So if you're thinking, oh, I don't know if I can't commit, I'm not sure, we have a seven day trial in place. You could try it and see if you like it and then you can bail out if you don't like it, but trust me, you're going to like it. Because I'm addicted. I'm I'm I'm on it all the time now.
Helen:Alright. I'll see you next Friday. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks for being here. Big hugs.
Helen:Have a great weekend.
