The Socialize Podcast

Helen: 00:00

Welcome to the socialized strategy. Happy Friday. We made it. We made it through another week. And this one, it seemed like we were running on a race, a digital treadmill like never before with the ups and downs of what's happening with this TikTok ban.

Helen: 00:15

Couldn't even keep up with it. It was it was absolutely exhausting. I finally had to make a video to that effect just sharing how drained I was from the ping pong, pinball machine effect of going to this app, going to that app. Don't go to this app. That's not safe.

Helen: 00:28

Go here. Go there. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Helen: 00:30

I was really, like, burnt out from it. So I'm glad that I I think that a lot of people were with me when I posted that video saying just take pause, take a pause, take a breath. Let's just wait a little bit and see what's gonna happen before we panic. Everybody hits the panic button. And also then every video on the page, it's you're watching it, trying to enjoy social media and you're watching everybody promote their other channels and everybody's saying what's, you know, what's gonna happen when the ban when the ban happens or telling you people to go to this app and that app.

Helen: 00:58

And then it's no fun at all. Like, who feels like you're watching social media? It's just adding stress and anxiety. So I'm not a fan. I was like, whew.

Helen: 01:06

And then on top of all that, I had an interesting thing happen this morning, a banking thing that I wanna share because I never knew about this. That this this is what would happen if You know how we have mobile banking now and when you deposit the check, you know, now you you still have your check-in hand whereas before you go to the bank, you give them the check and then they have the check. Or you put it in an ATM machine, it goes away and so that you know it's deposited. So now we have mobile banking. So people taking the picture and putting the check-in the drawer.

Helen: 01:31

So this morning drawer. Julie always makes fun of how I say that word. But anyway, I digress. This morning I got a fraud alert from my bank that somebody was had deposited a check and it was a quite a big check. It was a business check.

Helen: 01:44

And I was on the phone trying to get someone on the phone. I couldn't get anyone on the messages back. Immediately hit the alert and said, no. I did not make this transaction or do this transaction or write this check. And so hopefully that paused it.

Helen: 01:56

But I've heard these horror stories now so I was like trying to get someone on the phone to say, can you see? Can you make sure? So while I'm trying to get someone on the phone, I'm also on my phone going into the app trying to see is, like, is there a picture of the check? And I'm doing this whole thing. And so what I did learn is that someone accidentally, or so they say, had gotten a check from me a year ago, literally a full year ago, and said that her colleague or her, bookkeeper had pulled it out of the drawer and thought it wasn't the drawer again and thought it wasn't deposited.

Helen: 02:31

So they deposited again. Oh my god. But let me tell you what happened to me. I'm gonna be a 100% honest. I thought, oh my god.

Helen: 02:41

I downloaded Rednote. Somebody hacked into my bank. Now why did I think that? Only because I was on a TikTok live the other night when somebody said that, another user had bought coins and then somebody hacked into their bank account. But I hadn't put in any information into Rednote.

Helen: 02:56

All I did was make a username, post a video, la la la, the end of it. So but of course, when that happened, like, I I'm like, could this be a coincidence? So I was immediately, should I do delete the app? And then I realized, well, deleting the app doesn't help because I already made the account. They've already done the damage.

Helen: 03:13

So I really, really had to say to myself this morning, like, boy, Helen, you moved too fast. You didn't even look into that app and you immediately downloaded it. And I know I'm very trustworthy when it comes to apps and technology. I think that I always think it's safe. I don't know.

Helen: 03:28

I on the side of thinking it's safe versus thinking it's not safe and a lot of people go the other way. I mean, my dad wouldn't put a credit card in to buy anything online. I see He still won't. I don't even think he knows that we do it on his behalf. Anyway, that's what I learned this morning that if you have a check and you try and deposit it, it does luckily flag something on the other side.

Helen: 03:50

But still, it was the same check number and it allowed that person to put it into a machine and almost get it paid again from my account. Are you kidding me? That was scary. Okay. Hopefully, that was a lesson to you all.

Helen: 04:06

Please, when you deposit a check, don't put it in your drawer without putting, like, an x on it or something on it that says deposited when you put it away so that you don't accidentally do that to someone else. Note to self, I'm doing that from now on at any time I make a mobile deposit. But that's the learning for today and that is not what we were here for. So I'm gonna dive into what this topic was today, which is not just the latest about the TikTok ban because in a way, it looks like that's gonna be okay. As I've said from the beginning, too much at stake.

Helen: 04:35

It's not gonna go away in a blink of an eye. I've stuck to that every single time I've made a video, honestly, and I'm still sticking with it. I still think that we're gonna be fine. This is not going away next week, and And it's gonna be a much longer process if it is ever gonna go away. So I'm not stressed about it.

Helen: 04:51

But what I did I do think we should all have as a takeaway and a learning is that we should not have all our eggs in one basket. Okay? So if we're gonna take anything away from this experience And the first time and the second time it happened years ago, I did the learning and I made an email list and all of that. So I am going to now make sure that I take you along for the ride. We're all gonna know that that we cannot have our eggs all in one basket.

Helen: 05:16

So if you are a TikToker and this is where you're leaning, you need to make sure that you're diversifying. Diversify your portfolio. Okay? How's that? We're gonna diversify our social media portfolios this week.

Helen: 05:32

Okay. So I'm gonna start with, yes, it seems like there's hope that, as of writing of this, 2 nights ago, it was reported that the administration is looking for ways to keep the app around. So thank god for that. We included the article that coincides in the newsletter so you can read up on that this morning. But this but we are going to now provide an exhaustive list for you to choose from with a little bit of the outlines of each the benefits and the drawbacks of each of these other apps so that you can be fully informed when you make a decision about what's your backup.

Helen: 06:06

And so if you are not impacted by the TikTok ban, I urge you, if Instagram is your platform of choice, to even think about what a backup is to Instagram. Because just like this happened to TikTok, something similar or something different in any way still could happen to you on Instagram. So don't have your head sort of your safety net. You're like, it's not affecting me because my following is on Instagram. Well, what if this was happening on Instagram?

Helen: 06:34

Are you prepared for that? That's what you need to think about. Not think, oh I'm safe. I'm good. Think, okay.

Helen: 06:42

What am I gonna learn from these people who are in more trouble on TikTok because that's their mainstay. Alright. So let's talk about the other apps. We know that we have Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter which is x. So those are 4 everybody knows more or less how they work.

Helen: 06:57

And most a lot of you may be listening and a lot of my studio people, their first love is Instagram. And that's where their audience is. That's where they feel like their their people are. And so they're in a good safe space over there, but I think they shouldn't be complacent. I think we still wanna think about, how to make well, round ourselves and have an out another outlet.

Helen: 07:19

And I've been talking to them hardcore about building an email list. Like, we're really, really talking about building an email list over there in the studio because I do think that's that's the safest of all because then you can always lead your people to wherever you're going so that if you pick the wrong if you make the wrong choice and then another app gets banned, you still have your email list cause you own that audience versus the platform owning the audience and that's the difference. On any of these social media platforms, ultimately the platform owns your audience. So if you're gonna do one thing and only one, you might want to really consider the email option. And we talked about that a couple of weeks ago.

Helen: 07:54

So go back and scroll back. If you weren't interested then, you might be interested in now. Go back and listen and read the newsletter and see if that's something you'd want to consider. Now let's talk about some of the new players. The new players.

Helen: 08:07

So Blue Sky is the alternative to Twitter and X. It's definitely heavily text based. It is not for me. I'm not a you would not think so because I am a talker, but I'm not really a words person. I'm more of a visual.

Helen: 08:22

I like to tell my stories in visuals versus words. I mean, that's why Chi ChiPT is so nice for me because I will write thoughts and then I let the app clean it up for me a lot of times. I like to have the original thought first and then have the app clean it up, but I'm not words first. I'm video first, words second. So blue sky, if your words if you love writing, if you love blogging, maybe that's the one for you.

Helen: 08:47

And the same with threads. Also very heavily text based. The thing about those two platforms is you is that you can attach photo video links and photos into the post, but it's led by the text and then it's supported by the video or photo. Whereas, all the other platforms are led by the video and photo and then supported by the text. So it's a little bit of a flip.

Helen: 09:11

Now let's get into some of the others. The one that scared me this morning, let's start with that. Yikes. Red note, by the way, it is really kinda cool over there, at least for the moment. And I have enjoyed watching people's videos.

Helen: 09:25

I have enjoyed seeing the migration and how how much of an embracing community it has been. I just don't know that it's gonna be right because of now that they are going to separate the IP addresses that are American and put them in one server, and there seems to be that the interaction that everybody was loving at first, I don't think is gonna remain, unfortunately. So I would say you can flock over there if you'd like, but do keep your, eyes open and make sure that you're not putting in any information, buying coins, putting in any banking information. Don't do that because I was I I did hear that somebody had a problem with that. So I don't recommend doing that, and I wanna make sure you're safe.

Helen: 10:07

And I think that if they are gonna push US users to a different server, the technology still is cool. I liked the app itself. I liked a lot of the functionality and I was like, oh, man. I get this. I'm gonna be teaching this soon enough.

Helen: 10:21

But I I didn't wanna rush and start doing tutorials and building an audience there because I really wanna make sure I'm not spreading myself too thin and not effect impacting anything. I wanna make sure that I'm staying to my mission. So that's the other thing. Always keep your core corp North Star mission in mind and make sure the app you choose is gonna serve that mission and it's not gonna put you into too many places. So I would say, start with like one second one and start there before you start spreading yourself too thin.

Helen: 10:52

If you'd like to just put the things put the videos in all the places, that's fine if you have the time. But I would lean I would pay attention to one as your first one and your second backup second. Like, kind of just keep those 2 in mind first before you go go and spread yourself too thin. So you can check it out. It's funny.

Helen: 11:11

Some things were funny that I noticed, a creator had recorded himself and then put it into an AI dubbing platform, and then he was speaking Chinese, which was so cool. And I immediately downloaded the app like a big loser, and then ended up paying for the stupid app and then finding out that you had to pay every time you do a translation. So I'm I'm so dumb. I jumped in to I just thought it would be fun to make one video of myself speaking Chinese, which I never even did because I'm like, as soon as you download the app they make you pay for the video that you're gonna translate. So it's a it's a bit of a scam, so be careful about that.

Helen: 11:43

Alright. The next one is PixelFed. Now we don't know much about this one yet but it does seem because it does seem to have some initial bugs. But it's one of the ones that is more of a direct competitor to, like, an OG Instagram, how Instagram used to be. And so, I don't know, more about posting photos, seeing from content from people that you follow more, and not seeing ads every other post.

Helen: 12:06

I don't know how much that is giving you reach to new viewers. So small businesses might not be the right fit for this one quite yet until it figures out the algorithm. But we will be coming back to you with more learning on pixel fed because that one is brandy, brandy, spanking new, to me anyway. Pixel, p I x e l, fed like you fed yourself. That's the name of it.

Helen: 12:31

Clapper. I think I've talked about this before. It's been around forever. Hasn't It's it's really well loved by a certain audience. I don't love it.

Helen: 12:40

It doesn't feel It feels almost too I don't wanna say reality TV And maybe it's just the way the algorithm was algorithm was feeding me videos. But it wasn't It was more kind of Not even unpolished. That's not even the right word. Like street. Like grungy.

Helen: 12:58

Like, I don't know. Some It's like arguments in the street or people just posting themselves walking down the block. It just wasn't, it didn't have the texture and the artistry maybe or the creativity. At least I didn't see it and maybe that's just me because I'm I'm not using it enough. But you can Once you As soon as you scroll over So you go there, download it and scroll a little bit, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Helen: 13:23

So you don't have to even make a username to go scroll and look. I don't think you can go look at it. Not my favorite. Fanbase. Another platform that's supposed to mimic tick mimic TikTok.

Helen: 13:34

I have my username. I am going to be looking into this one if I feel that I need to. I don't feel I don't feel pressed to do it just yet. I feel that of all the ones that I'm looking at as a secondary, right now I'm leaning more on Instagram as my secondary. And lemonade, I like and I'm hoping it stays, which I'm gonna talk about next.

Helen: 13:53

But those are my 2 favorites, I think, from off the bat. And then I'm gonna see where these other ones which one leads the charge. And then I will focus more on the one, whichever leads the charge. I like to watch and see because I don't think I think waves happen. And it's not like you can control the wave, you have to ride the wave.

Helen: 14:11

So I like to wait, pick up a wave, decide which wave I'm picking up, and then I go and then I ride that wave. So right now for me, lemonade, it's pretty good because it grabs all your audience immediately when you join it. It asks you ask x's it x's you if you want to follow your followers from TikTok, which is interesting. So it kind of can grab your following. It didn't do that when I joined it.

Helen: 14:34

It just I had to start a new username. So I didn't get to pull my followers over there. And maybe I could after the fact, but I didn't I didn't get to when I signed up. But I've noticed that my I gained following because I think a lot of people are doing that. They're like, oh, yes.

Helen: 14:47

I wanna follow everybody. And then it just picks that up and moves people over there. So it's a quick way to to take your followers with you if you get in it now so that they so that you're there when they arrive. Okay? Was that clear?

Helen: 15:00

I'm, like, kinda tired from talking already. I think that was pretty clear though. If you're going to do Lemonade, get in it, get your same username, and hopefully the people that come over from TikTok will be able to follow you quickly just from from that connection with the apps being automatically connected. And then back to fan base, really not as well versed in that one yet. I have to play with it a little more to see how much it how similar it is.

Helen: 15:27

And another one is called Flip and this is more of a shopping network. I like to call it the QVC of social media because it's very specifically a shop app. And if that's what you are focusing on, you could do really well there. Just post those shop videos. If you're a TikTok shopper and that's what you mostly do on TikTok, I might suggest flip first of all the ones.

Helen: 15:47

Because if that's where if that's what you're good at, you're obviously selling products on TikTok and you're doing well, I mean, put them over there. That's a that's, I think, a good one for people who are into the shopping part of it. Big one for the shopping part. Alright? Now I'd love to know what apps you're mostly gonna lean on.

Helen: 16:05

If there's a way you can reach me or comment if you're watching this on YouTube, tell me what you like. What I'm really enjoying is the people in my studio. We have now, a conversation going about which apps, who likes what, why we like them. And we have now upcoming in my what in one of the next upcoming Zoom meetings because we meet weekly on Zoom. I'm gonna have everybody bring their own bring one tip of what they learned and they had success with on social media.

Helen: 16:33

So everyone's gonna bring their hottest take to the meeting. So we're gonna learn from all the different people because I can tell you what works what things have worked for me, maybe what a hot tip is. But there's been some really cool learnings in these meetings. I'm like, we're gonna dedicate a whole meeting to everybody bringing their their best tip. That's what we're gonna do soon in the studio.

Helen: 16:54

I'm loving it. And we're also doing this week, we did a challenge of, a clothing piece flying on which is a lot of fun. I think next week I'm gonna do, the clothing piece flung being flung off because I think people need to learn how to do that one. That's gonna be a lot of fun for my people. So each week we're doing a challenge and we're having a learning where something new is learned.

Helen: 17:17

So a new skill is learned and acquired every week. We are having a lot of fun in there. So if you're in it, you know because you're in it. And if you're not, you might wanna try it for a month and see what you think because we do have a good time in there. And there's a lot there's a lot of learning.

Helen: 17:31

I've gotten a few tutorials shot today because I thought of some of the things that people were asking. I'm like, oh, if these people don't know this and they are in my creator program, there's probably a lot of people that don't know how to how to do these two things. So I've made a couple of tutorials as well today. So And that's what my day was. And you know what's crazy about the winter?

Helen: 17:51

Constantly beating the light. Constantly. The days are too short. I feel that I'm always rushing and it's like 4th What time is it right now? 5 o'clock as I'm recording this on, recording this on Thursday.

Helen: 18:03

5 o'clock. It's already dark. It's already dark in here. It's so frustrating. And I feel like I just woke up.

Helen: 18:10

I mean, it didn't help that I woke up to a banking problem which sucked an hour out of my morning. So very, very annoying. Very annoying kickoff to the day. Is there anything else we should talk about today? Does anybody else have any ideas?

Helen: 18:23

I just wanna make sure I'm covering the bases on this band. Oh, here's a good one. I was contacted by the TikTok creators to make a video about what I let's see. Let me read what the email said because it wasn't like I think it was like how TikTok has changed my life. They invited me to submit a video that will celebrate my unique voice creativity and success while also sharing my personal story to inspire others and illustrate the tangible ways TikTok has changed lives.

Helen: 18:53

I struggled with it because it was very emotional for me. It was so hard. I made a video. It was tough. It was tough.

Helen: 19:05

Because I I started to talk about my cancer journey, then that gets me emotional. I didn't want it to be like I this and I that. And I have speaking engagements now. And I'm doing workshops. I don't like making videos that are I, I, I, I.

Helen: 19:19

So I struggle with that part of it. But they're asking me from my perspective. So, of course, it has to be how it changed my life so hard. It's really tough to do. But I may edit it down and post it to TikTok this weekend if I can feel the moment.

Helen: 19:34

You know? I might I might do that. Because it is important to to understand how it has changed me. I start I talked about that maybe 2 weeks ago on an episode here about the kind of opportunities I've had, But it was kind of kind of cool to have to put it into video form. You know?

Helen: 19:49

Interesting. Alright. That's a wrap for today. Thanks so much for sticking with me. Thanks for listening, and I hope you have a great weekend.

Helen: 19:57

And by the time the weekend is over, by the time I see you next, we will know if the app is gonna stay. I don't know if we're gonna know ultimately how long the app is gonna stay, but we're gonna know if it's we get another 270 days, which it looks pretty promising. And then I think what we need to do, all of us together, is maximize those days. So we have to say, okay, what did we learn from this what we're gonna call, fire drill? What did we learn from fire drill number 3, I think we are at?

Helen: 20:25

And we're gonna take that learning and we're gonna act on it. So we're not gonna sit still. We are gonna be in motion trying to figure out how to better diversify so that we can be prepared if this happens again or if it happens on another platform. Alright. Are you with me?

Helen: 20:41

Fist bump. I'll see you next week. Have a good weekend.