The Socialize Strategy - Optimize Your Content
Welcome to the socialize strategy, the Friday edition of the socialize podcast, where we take you through the email newsletter and we take a deeper dive into the topic. Wow. I can't believe this week flew by. I was in production this week and that means long days and a lot of work in a very short amount of time. So oftentimes, I have trouble myself making content, but I managed to keep the wheels in motion.
Helen:And I'm always posting because I'm committed. As as Julie would say, I'm dedicated. She doesn't like to call me obsessed, but she likes to use the word dedicated and I I accept that word. So I'm grateful for it. Alright.
Helen:Let's talk about the topic for today, which is tips for optimizing your content before you hit post. What does that even mean, optimizing your content? We take that to mean make giving it its best chance of success. So right away, a lot of people think SEO hashtags, that's what optimization means because you think about search engine optimization. But that's not what we're talking about.
Helen:We're talking about making sure your content has all of the things done really well in it so it has the best chance of popping off. Okay. Let's let's go in no particular order, but I'm gonna start with one that is a pet peeve of mine because often when I'm working on commercial shoots and people are always used to filming in horizontal format for TV commercials and web videos. And now the clients are asking to make sure everything is, quote, optimized for all channels, which means they wanna be able to cut off the sides and make a vertical video or make a square video for Facebook or Instagram. Sometimes it's a 4:5 ratio.
Helen:So I'm gonna take a minute and show you something that is key about using the safe zone of your videos correctly. And that means putting titles, graphics, and and captions, all the things you want on your video in the safe zone. And I'm going to explain what the safe zone is using an Instagram video that I've I've pulled up. So hopefully, you're watching this on a platform where you can see the video. And if not, maybe go find it on YouTube.
Helen:It's linked in the in the Spotify. Well, I'm sorry. It's linked in the I can't even speak. It's linked in the show notes how to see this on YouTube because I think it's important. So let me show you this video.
Helen:Oh, hold on. I have to hold it up so I can see it. Here we go. So you can see this video. I'm not even gonna play it right now, but you can see there's some text at the top, and it's underneath her username.
Helen:The the good part about this, we're in feed. That means we're not tapped into Instagram. So I'm gonna show you. When we tap into Instagram, it looks much better because we have the captions visible. Her head is not out of frame.
Helen:It's all good. But when we go back let's turn it. I'm gonna turn the volume off. When we go back, you can see her head is still in a safe zone, but her titles are not really ideal at the top. They're kind of a little too high.
Helen:Now I'm gonna tell you that Instagram in the Instagram grid, this is probably labeled as the safe zone. So when I see that safe zone, I overcompensate. You wanna pull your titles down even a little more so that you're not having this situation where your titles are unreadable. Because a lot of people scroll the feed watching their videos and they don't tap in. Sorry.
Helen:That one's not tappable, is it? And they don't always tap in. Here we go. This should be tappenable. I don't know why this one isn't.
Helen:Okay. So when you tap in, you can see the full screen, but you wanna make sure your videos are in the safe zone so that you can have all the things that you want to see on the screen visible when you're in the feed. This is so important. So understand the difference between in feed and all the way in the app so that you understand when you're in reels versus in feed, what the difference is. That's really important.
Helen:You wanna make sure your titles are in that middle chunk. Think of it as a middle square. And as soon as you're aware of the safe zone, you really don't even have to think about it. It'll become automatic. A lot of times, I pull my titles down and they're even over my forehead because I know I didn't leave enough room at the top to to allow for my titles.
Helen:And even I make that mistake. So be aware of where your titles and your graphics should fall. Also, proofread them again and again. Read them over and over. Make sure you have no typos.
Helen:Go out of the app for a few minutes. Open it up again before you hit post. Look at the draft. A lot of times you don't see it when you're in it. But when you look back at it later or the minute you hit post, there it is, the the mistake.
Helen:So make sure you've got it proofread and no mistakes. That is key. Now let's talk about optimization on volume and music adjustments. So first off, you know I love a microphone. I hate to, like, be pushing the microphone idea on people if you don't wanna use a microphone.
Helen:When I'm out on the street a lot of times, I just run with it. I don't always use a microphone. But you can really appreciate a video that has a microphone when you scroll to another one and it doesn't, and you can really tell the audio quality is a problem. So if you can use a microphone and if you wanna make that leap, it's a good idea. I highly recommend it, but a lot of people don't wanna do it.
Helen:So whatever you choose to do about your audio of your speaking, if you add music, make sure you're lowering that volume down down to, like, 6 or 7%. Most of the music tracks are so hot on the app. They're so, like, high volume. Some of the more mellow music tracks, you can go up a little higher on the percentage because the nature of the music is more mellow. But don't get yourself into a place where you've put the music on and it's drowning out your voice.
Helen:It's so annoying, and people are definitely gonna scroll. So that's another part of optimizing your content. Alright. When you're thinking about your captions, make sure that you're not over captioning your videos or not using captions at all. So there's one extreme in the other.
Helen:You wanna make sure your captions are informational, valuable, and relevant to your video. You also don't necessarily need to repeat things in the captions that you're saying so you can add other bits of info. People have good brains on on social media, and they can read and hear and and comprehend 2 things at once oftentimes. So you can use those captions to enhance the things you're saying, provide a little more information to what you're saying in case you left something out. I oftentimes forget to say a thing, and I'm like, I didn't say it, but I put it in a caption because I know people are gonna read it.
Helen:It's also when you do that and you're talking, it's a good idea to put that caption somewhere maybe in the way in the front of your face so people don't miss it. Because if you put it at at the top, a lot of times people are focused on your face, and they're not gonna read that extra caption that you need them to read. So depending on what the caption is, if it's supporting, you can put it above out of the way. If you want that caption to interrupt or be definitely read by someone that's maybe focused on your face, make sure you put it somewhere so it can be read. So definitely give your captions their best shot.
Helen:Make them big enough. Don't make them too obnoxious. You've gotta play with the size and just use this to your to the best of your ability without without having it sabotage your content. Alright? So that is a good one.
Helen:As I always say, you wanna you wanna watch and reread and double check your editing. You want to do this not only with the text on screen, but the lower caption as well. If you do add your own captions to your videos, your own, auto captions, you'll wanna proofread those because some people get really annoyed when the captions don't match what people are saying. You'll have creators that say, really get over it, move on. And they sometimes purposely leave the captions with mistakes, maybe to elicit a comment, maybe to, maybe just to save time.
Helen:And they think, who cares if, you know, somebody somebody they'll they'll get it. They they know what I mean. But if you're, one of those, I love this word, persnickety type people, you might wanna check your captions and make sure they're good. But it is helpful because if some words are misread, by the, by the auto caption system, your content message in the algorithm isn't being received properly. So just really think about what those things are and make sure you double check your editing.
Helen:Okay. Another thing is to maximize your SEO. Yay. Okay. This is one thing I I don't like to think about because I'm not an analytical person.
Helen:I go by instinct. And Julie will tell you, I'm a more instinctual poster versus a strategic poster. You might not realize that about me, but I but I am. I tend to think, if it's good, it's gonna be seen or, I don't have to worry about SEO, whatever. I I do save a a stack of hashtags in my notes.
Helen:And in a recent video that I posted, maybe I'll try and find it and put it in the notes, I had a bunch of comments about how did you get the captions to paste to on there so quickly because I did a copy paste from my notes into the into the captions area on my TikTok. And that's what I do a lot of times. I'll be on my computer, and I can think more clearly and type with 10 fingers and get my caption written. And then I put all my hashtags in, and I put it in a note, which then is shared on the cloud by to my phone. So when I post text do my video, and I edit the whole thing, I don't have to thumb, thumb, thumb type a caption and, you know, have mistakes.
Helen:I can have a nice, neat caption all ready to go, copy paste from my notes right into my video. I love that tip. And it doesn't even matter if you're, you know, cop copy and pasting a stack of hashtags. It's it works great. I do it all the time.
Helen:And then you could always add a couple of extra if you wanna change your hashtags from video to video or you can delete some. So you I I I definitely suggest that you're gonna put hashtags that are partially about the video, partially about who you are as a creator, and then partially about your audience. So you wanna think about 3 groupings of hashtags that you're gonna use so that you can get to the right people. So a lot of times my hashtags change from being tutorial and teaching based, and I'll be posting something about New York City, so I have to add in a few NYC hashtags so I can really push that out. But if you think about it in 3 buckets of of hashtags, it's a very easy way to make sure you're accommodating all the possibilities with your hashtags.
Helen:It's so helpful. I love that. Another tip is if you don't wanna have text on screen, think about doing this. Think about the subject of your video. What is the key subject of your video?
Helen:And a lot of times, mine will be how to, for example, how to do landscape mode in TikTok. So I will type that in a in a main text as if I was gonna use it as a heading. But sometimes I don't wanna put it on there because I'm saying it already, so I don't need to double say it. Sometimes I put it on, sometimes I don't. But if you don't want text on there, but you want to make sure the algorithm and is optimizing knowing what the text is, you can make it really small, slide it off to the side.
Helen:Here's a perfect opportunity where I say you can make it really small, slide it to the bottom because it'll probably be not even noticed if it's the far, oh, sorry, if it's in the far hit the microphone. If it's in the far bottom right behind the record the music button, for example. So little tips like that will tell the algorithm what the video is about, but you don't have to have that text on screen if it's just too, ordinary or you feel like it's too boring to put in text. So give that some thought. It's a really helpful way.
Helen:You can put a lot of things on screen that you might want the algorithm to grab onto and then make them small and slide them somewhere. I don't necessarily think that's necessary. I don't I would say one major subject is good. And then from there, I think you can use your lower caption to get the rest of your message out. So those are some of the tips for optimizing your content and giving it the best chance of success.
Helen:And I'd love to hear from you if you have experience doing changing up your hashtags or what you might have done. I I highly recommend you test different things because that's how you learn. I try to test, and I've tested something 5 times on a video because I wanted to see if it made a difference if I did it this way or that way. So don't be afraid to use your own own account, your own page as a learning ground. I have no problem doing this.
Helen:Even at the level of creator that I am, I still consider it a place to learn, a place to experiment, and I really have a lot of fun doing it. And I like to take my followers along on the journey of how I learn how to do these things. So don't be afraid. You'll you'll probably get better traction if you're really authentic and more yourself. Alright.
Helen:Now before I go, I wanna take a few questions because I haven't done this in a couple of weeks now where I take questions from the submissions and answer some of them here. So first question, actually, there's a lot of people that have asked this question. I want to start posting, but what's your best resource for getting started? Good afternoon. I'm new to the app.
Helen:I don't know how to do voice overs. Your help would be appreciated. So my answer to this is I have a free beginner TikTok course, and it doesn't cost you anything to learn. You just need to go click on the link. Down hellosocialize.com gets you there.
Helen:You tap courses, you click the link, you sign up, and you have a free learning session of the beginner TikTok, how to make a video, how to put voice overs on, how to add music, all of that. So that is my little plug for my class. Another one is here's a great cash question from cakes by Carissa, which is my IG views have hit rock bottom like single digits. My videos do okay on other platforms, but I can't seem to get any traction there on Instagram. Any advice for increasing?
Helen:This is always where you'll see content that performs well on one platform and then not well on another platform, and it is so frustrating. Also, I find that when you're not getting the love on a platform, you tend to fall off the wagon a little bit, and you're like, I don't wanna post there anymore because my videos aren't getting views and you don't feel compelled to stay with it. So the tip here is to get more consistent on that platform and make sure that you are posting on a cadence and you're not inconsistent because you're frustrated. The other thing is make sure you're answering every comment and and feel and sharing the love of for your current audience. So instead of getting frustrated, think about the time when you only had a few amount of followers and you were just excited to get comments and get that engagement going and that excitement going for those followers on that platform.
Helen:It can be very, very frustrating. One of the things I like to say on a a platform like Instagram, poke around and see if there's a new feature that they're introducing. And if there is, use that feature in a video. Try and start capitalizing on something that you know the platform has introduced this, and they want people to start using it. So for example, on the Instagram story, they introduce this little AI background where you can put a photo of yourself or photo of your pet or something, and you can take the background off the off the photo, and you can put an AI background back there and place the place your puppy anywhere.
Helen:So it's a really fun one, and it's an easy feature to play with. So if a platform is pushing out a new feature or has presented a new feature, it tends to be pushing out that feature. So it's a good idea to capitalize on that and try and use it so that you can maybe give yourself a boost in content. The other thing is use your story. Because don't forget that your most loyal followers are watching your Instagram story.
Helen:They are the ones that are I I'm telling you, it's a totally different thing for me with my TikTok follower. Again, my TikTok story, same thing. And my TikTok story, Those are where your most loyal and really your your most loyal friends and followers are gonna be watching because it's more personal. And so use that to your advantage and make sure you're sharing things and you're interacting with them so that they know that you're seeing that their their love and you're showing them the love back. It's a really, really helpful way to keep your engagement going is to care about your audience more than you care about the fact that your videos aren't doing well.
Helen:Hey. That's a wrap for today. I hope you had fun. I love being here. And if there's anything you'd like me to share while I'm here doing my thing and spending time with you, I would be happy to do it.
Helen:So drop me a comment. You can send me an email. I'm very accessible. And I'd love to hear from you because I really do take to heart when someone reaches out and looks for help. And you probably know this if you're a person who has reached out.
Helen:So if you happen to land here via a podcast form, make sure to subscribe to the email newsletter by visiting our website hellosocialize.com because that will get you in your inbox all the links of the things that I'm talking about. It gives you the framework for the bullet points that I just shared today on this podcast. And it's really, it's just a useful tool to help you as a content creator. And also on the website, you'll find free workshops and the TikTok course course that I mentioned. Alright.
Helen:That's it for today. Have a great weekend. I hope it's a good one. We hope we have some nice weather in the New York City area. I'm actually off to Tampa, believe it or not.
Helen:So probably when you're listening to this, I am going to be on a flight heading out to Tampa well, down to Tampa because I will be presenting a social media workshop at a conference down there, and I am so excited. The one thing I do love is doing the in person collaborations, the in person present presentations, and I really make it interactive, and I really enjoy it. So if you have a need for that, just, send me an email. I'd love to hear from you. I'll put I'll put my contact info in the show notes.
Helen:Thank you again. Have a great weekend. See you on Tuesday. Bye.
