The Socialize Strategy - Engagement Tips
Welcome to The Socialized Strategy. It's Friday, so we have our unsponsored by segment first up. And I have two products I'm gonna share. The reason I wanna do two today is one is a personal product and the other is a tech product, which I think is important since the context of the podcast is about social media. I I feel it's important to share some kind of related items, if you will.
Helen:So I'm gonna first talk about my favorite water bottle, and why I wanna talk about this is recently on a workshop, I picked it up and was using it as an example. And there were so many things I was saying about it that I was realized why I really like it, and I thought it's a good one to use for this segment. So maybe they will sponsor me one day soon. Why do I like this water bottle? Number one, slim size.
Helen:So it fits in most cup holders. It fits in the side of my backpack perfectly. It has a nice lock mechanism so that you're not accidentally going to pop the top and spill the water. That's great. It locks really nicely.
Helen:When you do unlock it, you can pop it, and now you have either the option to drink it like regular water bottle or to sip it from a straw. I'm not gonna face it too far because I don't want it to spill on my computer. But the straw shape is flat. So this is a huge plus for women who are worried about sucking from a straw and getting smokers lines, which is when you purse your lips often, the cigarette smokers pursing their lips, they would get the lines on their lips. This forces you to more flat suck your straw.
Helen:So your mouth is not in that purse shape. It's more like this. So your mouth is flat, so you're not adding to your your potential lines. Okay. That is a major one that I like.
Helen:The other thing is it unscrews to fill it, but you don't have to unscrew the top to fill it. And that's probably one of my top favorite things about it. So for me, it's the straw thing, and the fact that I don't have to now unscrew it every time I wanna fill it. I just can fill it right in this hole in the sink, and then I can use the straw. So everything about this is a 10 out of 10.
Helen:Julie hooked me up with this. I also like that it's white because mothership, white and blue. So I really like the color. The other colors I'm not loving. They have different funky color combinations.
Helen:They have lots of branded ones, like Star Wars brands and such, but I really like the white and the size and all the cool features that I just shared. So that is my unsponsored by Owala brand, o w a l a brand, and it is my go to water bottle. Bingo. Now for my go to tech item, and I have always used a plug in microphone to my phone because I sit close to my phone and I don't need to be able to walk around and do things. But I finally jumped into the wireless microphone arena and I after trying several, especially those ones on TikTok shop, the cheap ones, do not bother.
Helen:You sound like you're underwater. The quality is so poor. Like, don't even waste your time. Like, forget it. Don't even use a microphone if that's what you're gonna use.
Helen:Boom. It's a no from me. But I did find a brand I'm loving, and it is called Hollyland. What I like about this brand is it comes with two microphones so you can interview someone, and it's magnetized. So this little puppy goes right on your shirt, and it magnets on so you cannot you don't have to be worried about where you're putting it.
Helen:Look at look at how nice that is. It magnets on. It does have a logo on the front, but I put black tape on the front. So the logo looks like this, and I black taped it. So this part goes inside the shirt.
Helen:This is on the front. I love it, and I like that it comes with a case. My only bummer bummer bummer of it, and they need to fix this, is that it comes with these two pieces and they don't give you a case for the pieces. So this is for the iPhone 14, this is for the Android or iPhone 16, this is for all the other iPhones besides the besides the 16. So you have these two pieces, really nice.
Helen:They do sell one just for the Android and that has a slot for this. But when you get the one with two pieces, no slot. So I have to have a separate case and you know I'm gonna lose these, but I'm trying really hard not to. But I do love it, and the brand is Hollyland, and it's the Lark m two. Boom.
Helen:I don't even have an affiliate link, but I will put the link to where you wanna purchase that if you have any interest in it. It's about a hundred and something on the low lower hundred side, like hundred 19. So it's not crazy expensive compared to some of the higher end microphones, but it's not a cheap microphone. And it's honestly worth it. It has not failed me.
Helen:So I'm really, really happy with it. Those are my unsponsored buy shares for today. Thank you for listening. Now let's get on to the content. Today's topic is how to make engagement easy on Instagram.
Helen:And we're gonna focus on Instagram today because Instagram does have some nice features for engagement. But if you are not on Instagram, a lot of these tips, whatever you wanna call them, a lot of these strategy points, they do apply to TikTok as well, to YouTube as well. So you can there's just a couple that are specific to Instagram, but you should follow along anyway because all the things that that I'm saying here really do matter on any platform, but it's just that there's a couple of little things for Instagram that we point out. Okay. So it seems like sometimes it's impossible to see posts from people that you want to see, And we find this really frustrating as a creator because we're putting this content out.
Helen:People have chosen to follow us and, like, damn it. They're not seeing our content, and that's annoying. But there is a workaround that's really, really handy on Instagram. So that's why we wanna mention that specifically. There is an Instagram hack.
Helen:So that's going to come up in a minute. Let me just get to the first parts. So why does engagement matter? Well, you want to grow a real community around your brand and create trust and loyalty and eventually leads that could become customers. It took me five years before any of my followers were actual customers.
Helen:So it's a long time building that trust and that community vibe and people who really are going to care about your content. So you need to put in the time. It's not immediate. But if you really, really wanna grow, engagement does matter. It's just part of the game.
Helen:And the biggest creators, they do interact. And you'll see that even you look at Lady Gaga. She was reposting everybody who danced to her song. For the most part, you get a sense like she that was a strategy and she was reposting people's videos. You've got to purposely set ten minutes a day in aside and say I'm intentionally gonna intentionally going to scroll and engage and pay attention to what I'm engaging with and just do it more honestly, the word is just intentionally.
Helen:You wanna like, you wanna comment, make some thoughtful comments. If you're funny, make some funny comments because what's the what's funnier than the viral video is the comment section. I always say there should be a an award or some kind of a creator fund for people who have, like, comments that have thousands and thousands of likes. I was on a video recently, and they had the one comment had 60,000 likes. That person is getting notifications, by the way, unless they turn them off.
Helen:But holy hell, that's a lot of comments on it's a lot of likes on a comment, a lot of engagement on a comment. So you could find yourself when you if you are the high commenter, people are gonna come and visit your page, and they might see, oh my gosh, she's got content I'm interested in. So that's definitely a way to get followers if you're clever enough in your comment. I'm gonna tell you a hack on my side, and this is just, you know, me personally. When somebody's clever in my comment section on whether any video, viral video or just not a viral video, I will always go look and see what is their account about.
Helen:Do I want to follow this person? Like this was such a nice comment or that was so funny, that was so clever. I always go look. And I mean, you might say, oh, she has no time. How did she even notice my comment?
Helen:I look at the comments, you know. And I read them, and then I'm like, this person's so clever. And then I go and I look, and I'm like, oh, follow that person. Or or I'll realize like that person is clever. It's that person's on my radar.
Helen:Maybe it's not content that I wanna follow, but I take the time to go and see what the person is about that leaves a comment. That's just what I do. So you could get yourself if you're if there's a big creator that you're trying to get the attention of, you drop a clever comment, don't you worry. They're gonna notice it because I'm I'm telling you that the big creators read the comments. Like, a lot of big creators read their comments.
Helen:And sometimes I'll comment on a viral video, and I even think, oh, my comment's gonna get so lost in this person's video. And they'll they'll respond to my comment. And I'm like, oh my god. Even I don't think this person's gonna respond to my comment that, you know, it's a clever comment. But so listen.
Helen:You could get attention from being a really good commenter. So that's it. Now, let's talk about the hack. If you're on Instagram, there is at the top a favorites feature. So you can put 50 accounts into your favorites.
Helen:When you go up and you tap on that little icon to the top left on your Instagram. Let me just describe the icon. Let me actually do it in real time so that I'm saying it right. So when you're on the home screen, so you have to be on the little the little house in the bottom, you're gonna tap on on the word Instagram at the top here. When you tap on that word, a drop down menu comes and it shows you following and favorites.
Helen:And you can tap favorites and then you can just scroll the videos of your favorites. So you just add, you know, ten, fifteen, 20 people in there. You can add up to 50, and the post will show up in chronological chronological order just like the old Instagram. You don't have to fight through ads. You don't have to look you know, people's they're sending you suggested content.
Helen:This cleans up your feed for the minutes that you're on it. So you choose to stay on your your favorites feed the whole time. You're only gonna get chronological videos that were just posted, from your favorite creators. It's a hack, and Julie's the one that told me about it. She's the one that added it to the newsletter, of course.
Helen:But you can add your close friends, your favorite creators, collaborators, small businesses, the things you want to support and see and spend ten intentional minutes looking at those people's videos. Number one, it's likely gonna trigger the algorithm to send them to you when you're not on the favorites feed. So when you go back to you unclick it and you just go back to the regular feed, you'll probably get more of those, of those videos. It'll it's gonna teach the algorithm to send you the things that you like. So it's really worth it, I I have to say.
Helen:Just take a minute and look for it. Go to Instagram. Tap the little home in the bottom left. Left, the little house. Go to the top.
Helen:Tap on the word Instagram. I'm describe it for people who are listening and not watching. Tap on the word Instagram in the top left. It's the logo, top left, and you'll see following or favorites. And you pick favorites, and then you enjoy your favorite creators.
Helen:Oh, hallelujah. Actually, I'm gonna write that down. I'm gonna make a tutorial. That is clutch. K.
Helen:Tutorial for IG favorites. I'm doing it. I'm doing it. Alrighty. Next, comments equal content gold.
Helen:K. Think of your comments, your comment section on your videos as your idea bank. That's your tank of ideas. Your audience is maybe asking a question. They're maybe making a comment that's gonna prompt you to have a response.
Helen:They're maybe curious about something so it's you can make your next video. Some of the strategies that I teach on my one on ones is when people are trying to become an expert in a field and they have, like, one viral video that get hits. As soon as that viral video hits, like, start posting responses to the comments and keep that engagement on that video going. Keep the topic going. You'll probably that's the next videos when their replies to comments usually do pretty well, and then they feed people back to that viral video.
Helen:And then also in that viral video comment section, you you know how you see videos in the comments at the top. So people will when they're when they're on that viral video, they're gonna go and tap and watch your second and your third reply. So it's it's literally like feeding more views to you. If you can see what I'm doing on the screen here if you're listening. It's my hands are going everywhere.
Helen:But do it. If someone left a funny remark, use it as a creative prompt. If you're seeing a common theme, turn that theme into a post. If people are asking you a question, answer it in a new video. Keep the conversation going.
Helen:That's gonna really help you and just keep you alive in in terms of engagement. Okay. Now we're just gonna do quick do's and don'ts for engaging with other creators. Okay? Let's just be kind.
Helen:Number one, leave thoughtful and genuine comments, not just emojis. It's nice if you put a few emojis, but then put words. By the way, this is a hack. The apps will often, flag, filter the comments that are just emojis. So I will find sometimes when I go into my filtered comments, so many of my sweet followers who just did like flowers and hearts and like 20 flowers, 20 hearts, 20 smiley faces, and they get flagged into the filtered comments.
Helen:So if you don't put words with your comments and you use a lot of emojis, very often you your comment will be filtered. You won't know it, by the way. You won't know that it's filtered. It because there's no way for the viewer to realize if their comment is filtered when filtered once you leave it. Okay?
Helen:The other thing is to save and share the content you love because the algorithm values that more than likes. So if you like someone's video and you want to support that creator, don't just like it and leave a comment. Make sure you save it or hit the little share arrow and share it because that's the higher algorithm. It's the more it's the more beefy thing that you could do to help a creator. So if you have a friend that you guys are trying to support each other, always do that.
Helen:You're gonna copy you're gonna tap the arrow, copy the link. You're gonna tap send it to someone. Okay? Also, watch the videos all the way through because the completion rate is huge. That's another high rating for engagement is to watch the whole video through.
Helen:And if you just even if you're like, ugh, I really don't feel like watching this, but I really like this creator, put the phone down, go do something. Let the video play. You know what I mean? You can do that. It's fine.
Helen:Sometimes I'm I don't even realize I do it. I put the phone down and I have a video plan. Boy, I really helped that creator out. It went like 10 times while I was doing something else. It's a nice thing to do, you know.
Helen:Why not? It's an easy way to spread good vibes, paying it forward. And it doesn't cost you a dime. You don't have to donate anything. It's literally just your kindness and your time.
Helen:That's it. So that brings me to my last do, which is be kind because the Internet needs more of that. Okay? Just try to if you see something and you go, oh, I was just gonna scroll on by, take a minute, take a pause, leave a nice comment. You know, say something nice to someone.
Helen:Someone's going through something, say something nice. Someone looks particularly nice on this in their video, make a throw a compliment. To tell you the truth, I love to do this in real life. I will be out and about in my world, and I will always take a minute. I'm at a store.
Helen:I see the the checkout person, and she's, like, ringing me up, and I'll be like, oh, that's such a pretty ring, or, oh, I love your haircut, whatever. A compliment is free. It's give it away. It doesn't cost you anything. Just think about it as the receiver of the comp compliment.
Helen:When someone will say to me, oh, I really like your haircut. I'm like, oh, I just feel like a little more pep in my step that day, or somebody compliments some something I'm wearing. It's just it's not that hard. I wanna I don't know. We should do it more.
Helen:We should do it more. Okay? Let's do it more. I'm gonna do it more today. When I go out to do my errands now, I'm gonna consciously leave a compliment to everybody I encounter.
Helen:I think doing it intentionally is like a little exercise that we can use. Look. I'm gonna go deep right now. Sorry to say. But I met with someone recently who wrote a book called Your To Die List.
Helen:Make your to die list, not your to do list. Your to do list is your stuff. Do your laundry, you know, wash the dishes, etcetera. Your to die list is, did I make someone feel good in my life? Have I shared something valuable with someone?
Helen:Those are the things you wanna be remembered by. I mean, in her book, she talks about writing your own obituary or writing your eulogy or something. And I'm like, oh, that's deep and that's intense. But there's something to it. This idea of how you wanna be remembered as, like, something that you don't think about you don't wanna wait and think about this in the last month of your life.
Helen:So listen. I I was, you know, helping her with social media, but, boy, I learned a lot that day. I learned a lot. I absorbed the things that she was saying, and I because I ask all the questions because I wanna help her make content about it, and so I needed to get to know her. And it was just so interesting to start thinking about the things that she was sharing in her that she shared in her book and the things she wants to talk about on her social media.
Helen:And I think sometimes I feel that the encounters I have and the different personal one on one trainings I have are all for a reason. I just love it. I've every time I learn something. Okay? So that's what I'm gonna share with you today.
Helen:The last, well, I I hate to leave with the don'ts, but we're gonna leave with the don'ts. I don't know. That's the last thing on the list here. The things not to do. Don't drop one word replies or just an emoji because those do look like bot activity.
Helen:So give yourself like a three word minimum or something. Like, make sure that you are dropping enough words so that you don't get it's not even about getting filtered. It's just that it will start to look like if you're copy if you're copy pasting the same comment on a bunch of videos, sometimes when I'm replying to comments, I'll do I wanna say, oh, tutorial coming next. So I copy and paste it, and I'll go copy paste copy paste when people are like, can we have a tutorial? And I'm like, coming up next, coming up next, coming up next.
Helen:After about 10 times, I change it and I write something else and I copy and paste it so that because the app will recognize it. It will stop you from doing that. You can't copy paste, copy paste, copy paste. So if you're oh, that's really important to say if you're replying to comments. Do not copy paste, copy paste, copy paste.
Helen:It's gonna catch up with you. If you once you get to to I think my limit is 10. I go 10 times and I'm like, okay. Because sometimes I have a viral video, people are asking for a tutorial on something and I just my god. I'm trying to move fast, so I'm copy and pasting the same response to a bunch of comments.
Helen:And then what I do after ten is I change it, and I'll add I change a word around, and then I add a heart, and then I copy paste that 10 times, and then I change it again. So there is a strategy there. I have strategies for everything. I think I have hacks and workarounds for so many things from doing this for so many years. And I always find new ones, so stay tuned.
Helen:Okay. The next one is don't don't only like and scroll. When you get to a video and you go, oh, I like this creator, so you immediately like it. If you just scroll because you go, I gave them a like and I'm gonna move on. I don't wanna watch that right now.
Helen:You've done them a disservice. It's like the opposite problem. You need to watch it. You can like it right away, but stick around for the video. So if you see my video when I have a tutorial and people like, oh, like your video the minute I see your face show up.
Helen:I'm like, how nice is that? But stick around and watch some of the video. Otherwise, you're you're messing with my algorithm because you're just throwing me a like and you're moving on. And I'd rather not. I'd rather you don't do that.
Helen:Just scroll on and don't bother. But the likes aren't as powerful as they once were. So if you're just liking and then you think you did them a favor and you're moving on, like, you probably did them a disservice more than anything. So watch some of the video, even if you don't wanna stay till the end. Or hit the save button and think about if you wanna come back to it later.
Helen:Okay. Last thing is, you don't wanna comment just to be seen. Make sure that you comment in a meaningful way. So just take that extra minute to think about what the comment is that you're leaving before you just slap it out there to the universe and think that's the end of that. If this was helpful and you'd like more help with social media or more guidance, a good idea would be to try out the studio.
Helen:It's a seven day free trial. You can check it out. I'm gonna tell you some of the things I do every single week in there for my members. Number one, we have a challenge and a lesson. It is a dedicated fifteen minute slow paced video tutorial lesson.
Helen:It is well beyond the tutorials I post on TikTok. None of these lessons are shown on my social media. These are strictly for my members. And with that, we have a challenge. So everyone gets to learn the lesson and participate in the challenge.
Helen:We all support each other, look at each other's videos, and I'll help and say how this could have been improved so you get a lot of good feedback. That comes out once a week. We also have a small business center where we share four ideas per week for businesses. So if you are running a social media account for a business, we're your best friend because we're gonna give you the ideas. We're like your social media manager built right in.
Helen:If you have a small business and you're at a loss for what to post, you're gonna get your ideas every single week. We also share tutorials every week. Those get put in. The minute I post a tutorial, it gets filed in there for you, very organized. And we also have a live meeting, and that is probably my favorite thing.
Helen:And I look forward to it so much because I get to see a lot of new faces, a lot of familiar faces. We have a really good vibe in there, and we take turns out. Everybody asks questions. Nobody monopolizes the meeting. It's very kind, and it's I think it's we've all we've all learned things from each other, and it's also a space to talk about the frustrations that you're having on social media, and that is every single week.
Helen:And, damn, I really love it. So come to a meeting. It's also a community chat where you can chat with other members and see what other people's struggles are. There's a q and a. You can drop a question and a tutorial request.
Helen:So if you have a specific tutorial request, you can put it right in the chat, and I will I always post the tutorials, then I put it I file them right in there for members. Alright. That's my wrap up for today. Thanks for listening. Thanks for being here as always.
Helen:Have a wonderful weekend. Julie and I are off to Vegas next week to work with a client and create content, so you're gonna see a lot of my Instagram story will be lit up with Vegas activity. So come along for the ride. If you're not following me on Instagram, that's kind of where you wanna be next week. I I post I tend to post more to the Instagram story than I do to the TikTok story for whatever reason.
Helen:I think it's mainly because I like my family to be up to speed with what I'm doing, so I post over there much more strategically and consistently for them. And, yeah, that's it. But I'll be back next Friday even though I'll be in Vegas. I'll be I'll be recording on the fly as usual. My portable recording studio will come with me.
Helen:I might even bring in the nice microphone. We'll see if my packing fits it. K. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you next week.
