The Socialize Strategy - Social Media Don'ts
Welcome to the Social Media Strategy, and I'm smiling because well, I'm always smiling. But today, I'm smiling because by the time you hear this, I am going to be in Athens, Greece, beginning a twelve day, I think it is, vacation. I'm so excited about it. I have not really done a vacation like this in a very long time. As a matter of fact, the last one we did as a family, it was a sailing trip.
Helen:So we spent a week on a sailboat, which is very similar to camping. I mean, might say, oh, really? You know, you're on a sailboat. But actually it is. You're in close quarters.
Helen:You're living out of a very small space. The bathroom is not like luxury. You know what I mean? So it's it's a different kind of vacation, and we're going properly now to, the Greek Islands. I wanted to do it since I'm in my twenties.
Helen:I'm so flipping excited. So that's where I am right now as you're listening to this. Probably I have just landed shortly ago, and I'm off on my first tour. Very excited. Yay.
Helen:I'll have lots to report, and I'll be making lots of travel content, and I will be posting tutorials because what I have done the last two days is batch create. Boom. And I wanna talk about that for two seconds before I get into the topic and then the unsponsored by segment. We are learning in the studio this month how to batch create and how to create a strategy for planning your content. We've had two meetings so far that have been really productive, brainstorming content pillars and explaining what that means and how to think about your content in terms of buckets and how to so listen.
Helen:If this is something that has been driving you nuts and you haven't been able to deal with it or figure it out, there's a lot of learning happening right now in the studio. And Julie, my daughter, who is really, really good at analytics and strategizing, is gonna take the next meeting for me. She's gonna run the next meeting. So this next week coming, you're gonna have a new host for the meeting, but she's really smart in that area. So even if I was running the meeting, I would probably be calling on her to share her expertise for the most part because that's her really her sweet spot.
Helen:So yay to that. Get in the studio if you're not in there yet. Hooray because it's so good. Okay. Now, the unsponsored buy for today is so uncanny because I love this particular skincare brand.
Helen:Maybe you can see part of it sitting here. I do love it for its ingredients, its packaging, the way it feels, how my skin has been since using it. So Ron is a cosmetic chemist, meaning he knows what ingredients go into the products. He's worked for other companies where he has been a scientist on-site, a chemist doing it. So he now has his own brand, and I did speak about this brand on an episode a while ago.
Helen:And so I had been using the products, and I was coming to the end of my wonderful balancing cleanser. And I was like, oh, I gotta order more. Maybe I should let Ron know that I'm gonna place an order. Maybe he'll throw a few things in for me. And lo and behold, I didn't even reach out to him, and he reached out to me.
Helen:It was the most uncanny thing. Like, I I willed it. I thought about it. I said, oh, I gotta place an order, and then he messaged me. Hey.
Helen:Can I send you some more products, and would you be interested in making content, you know, and talking about it on on your podcast or whatever? So I said, oh my god. Yes. Because I love the products, and I would be happy to get a package. So that's fun.
Helen:So, this is the cleanser he sent me that I already use and I'm at the end of and I've been using it so sparingly because I didn't want it to run out. The wrinkle relaxing moisturizer. I also love the packaging. All comes in different like, kinda cool colors. Look at the colors of the boxes.
Helen:And very simple. I love the matte finish of the boxes. I mean, I'm into the details too of packaging. I like even the inside. It's like the checkerboard.
Helen:I don't know if you could see that. But I also like that the it's light, so you're not carrying, like, a heavy container. So if I travel, by the way, I'm taking both of these on my trip. I'm putting them in my bag because I have this. I have a half full one left of this.
Helen:It's my favorite, the wrinkle balancing wrinkle relaxing moisturizer. We need that. Right? And my face wash. Taking both of those with me.
Helen:But he sent me some new things. So guess what's coming in my bag now? Okay. So c lip serum's coming in my bag. I've I've already put this on this morning once.
Helen:So I'm gonna be addicted to it. I'll be using it often. It's nice and smooth. It doesn't feel sticky. It's also got a citrus scent.
Helen:If you know, you know. I'm a citrus fan. So whoo. List 10 out of 10 on this beauty brand called Beauty Stat. I didn't even say it.
Helen:Beauty Stat. Okay? If you don't know it, I I highly recommend trying it. I always like to try different things because that's how you learn what you like and what you don't like. And I like.
Helen:I like. So yay. Thank you, Ron. More more content to come on that. Okay.
Helen:Now the topic for today. I don't even have the newsletter written yet. So usually I have the newsletter and then I I talk based on the newsletter. But I did have this idea last night, and I was like, guess what? We're gonna do what not to do on social media.
Helen:And it was so easy for me to come up with a list that I have to I have to pare it down for the newsletter. So this all of this is not gonna be in the newsletter. So you're gonna get like the bonus material here, because I don't know what. Gonna hand this off to Julie and let her decide what goes in the newsletter. Well, these are all my things.
Helen:There's a lot more I'll probably think of as I'm saying them, but let's just power them out not in any order. Number one, you probably know. Don't start your videos with hi. Hi, friends. Hi, TikTok.
Helen:Hi, everybody. Oh, you know, hi, my it sounds like, hi, my fans. The whole thing is like a turn off. You don't need a hi. You're wasting time at the beginning of your videos.
Helen:Do not start with, hi. My name is hi. My name is you can if it's supposed to be a funny video. Okay? There's exceptions to all of the rules.
Helen:But for the most part, if you're starting, hi. I'm Ron, and I make a beauty brand. No one's interested. If you say, if you're struggling to find a good skin cleanse, if you're struggling to find a nice, smooth, gentle skin cleanser, I have got the brand for you. I have got an idea for you.
Helen:I have the perfect solution for you. Whatever it is. Forget hi, my name is. Somebody's already scrolled. Okay.
Helen:That's enough. I'm not gonna make a rant on that. Next, do not make your music too loud on your speaking videos. There is a volume adjustment. You can lower the music.
Helen:I also don't love when people put music with lyrics behind their speaking videos because I tend to start listening to the lyrics no matter how low it is, then and I'm distracted by what the person's saying. That's just me. Maybe I'm in the minority on that, but think about that. Lower the music. Here we go now.
Helen:Don't make videos complaining about your views, because who wants to listen to someone complaining? Also, the people who are there are giving you views, and then they're insulted because you're talking about the people who aren't in the room. It's like having a party. I've said this before, and inviting people over and then sitting there at the on the soapbox complaining about who didn't show up for the party. Okay?
Helen:Don't do it, you wouldn't do it in real life, don't do it on social media. Amen, thank you. Do not speed up your speaking videos. I think that we have a few people in the studio that do that. It's coming to my mind, and it sounds wacky.
Helen:You may think, oh, I talk slow, so I've gotta speed it up. By the way, this is not directed at you, Amber, because you talk slow, you don't speed up your videos. Okay? I'm not talking to you, in case you're listening. But if you speak slowly, that's okay.
Helen:That's your vibe. That's your style. You can make cuts to tighten things up. You can take things out, make less is more type of content where you hint at the thing and you don't wanna give too much detail if you think you're a long winded storyteller, whatever the thing is. Okay?
Helen:You don't have to speed up your voice and you sound you sound like Mickey Mouse. It sounds silly. Your facial expressions are gonna sound silly. Every eyebrow raise is gonna sound gonna look frenetic. It's just not good.
Helen:That's just, and maybe again, that's my personal opinion. But people, if they wanna watch it fast, they can press and hold on the right side of the screen, and they can speed it up themselves. So if they don't mind that, they'll do that. You don't have to do it for them. Don't make the decision for them.
Helen:Let them listen to your content. Make edits and cut to tighten your content up if you are too long winded. Don't don't speed it up. The other thing is the same goes for like if you're doing scenery and you want to pan a whole room or pan a whole venue of, you know, vista or whatever. Speeding that up is not pleasant for a viewer.
Helen:You're better off doing a little bit of it and then making an edit. So show a little at normal speed, cut, and let the camera move a little for and then start again and cut. And make cuts and take out some of the pan versus I'm making a noise because it's the only way I can explain when I watch these, like, real estate videos. It's like, we're running through a house. I mean, in some cases, it's a style to show speed, speed, speed, slow, slow, slow.
Helen:Ramp speed, it's called. Speed speed speed, slow slow slow. But if your entire video is speeded up, depending on what you're going for. If you're going for a look or a comedy, something like that, there's, again, always exceptions. I'm just talking about overview.
Helen:Someone's like, oh, I wanna make this ninety seconds, and the edit's actually a minute and a half. I'm just gonna be at speed though. The edit's actually two minutes. I can't even do the math. Oh god.
Helen:Anyway, if the edit's two minutes and you're trying to make it ninety seconds for Instagram when it used to be ninety seconds, and they would just speed the whole thing up to ninety seconds, like crazy making. Please don't do it. Please, my god. It's not good editing. It's not a good style.
Helen:It's not a good look unless it's a comedic look you're going for. I wanna completely caveat the things. These are not like, do not ever do this. This is just like, hear me out, think about these things when you're doing them, and decide is it really good. Okay?
Helen:Next one. Do not immediately react to a negative comment with a video without taking a beat and deciding, does this fit with my vibes? Do I want to portray this on my content? And I have a personal example of this where it was a while ago. There's no Bed Bath and Beyonds anymore out in the universe, at least not at, not brick and mortar stores, don't think.
Helen:But when there was one near me, I went in and I was, I can't even tell you, the people were so rude. They had just revamped the store, it was beautiful. I asked a question. I was treated so rudely, and I was like, oh, you can make the most beautiful store here, but if you have nasty employees, it's not a it's not a good look. And I almost wanted to make a video about it because I was so annoyed.
Helen:And this isn't about a negative comment necessarily. This is about a negative experience, but I just because I was annoyed in that moment, I've I even recorded something like, boy oh boy, this play, you know, blah blah blah. But I didn't post that. I didn't post that because that's not my vibe. And I was annoyed for a minute.
Helen:It's not gonna on the internet it's gonna stay for a while, you know? So my annoyed for a minute, I usually get over it really quick anyway, and then I'm like, ugh, that was annoying. It might have been the circumstances. I was in a rush. I was hot.
Helen:I was annoyed about other things or some busy day or something, you know what I mean? Then I would have made a video and put it out there permanently, somewhat permanently, and being like complaining about a brand. I'm like, I don't need to do that, you know? So it's just an example of we can all be annoyed. It doesn't mean we have to make videos about it.
Helen:And the people that do, maybe they want to just make videos about being annoyed all the time. I can think of creators who are just like their whole platform is built on what they're annoyed about. Whatever. That's their prerogative. I'm just saying, they might you might have the same situation.
Helen:You get a negative comment. Boom. React. Reply. And then that's out there.
Helen:And then you look like the nasty biatch that reacted to something like that instead of just, okay. How long am I gonna be annoyed about that comment? I don't know. Just think about it, I guess is what I'm saying. Take a beat and decide if it fits with your content, your personal brand, or your morals if you want that out there in the universe.
Helen:That's just a personal piece of advice. That's motherly advice from the mothership. Okay? It might be not the best social media advice because I'm too nice. Okay.
Helen:The other one is do not spam do not spam like people's content without thoughtfully watching and dropping a comment. And this was a thing where people were claiming that you get shadow banned if someone comes to your page and spam likes your content. How absurd. Like, you're not gonna get punished for something someone else does on your paint. I mean, that's kind of absurd.
Helen:Anyway, I hated that when that was going around. If you know, you know, because it was back in the 2020, 2021. Anyway, don't spam like. Just watch the video and then like, and make sure you watch enough of it before you hit the like. You can watch it.
Helen:You can hit the like button, but keep watching it. If you go, oh, this I love this creator. Like. I love it. Swipe.
Helen:Like. I like. Swipe. That doesn't really help because you're it's like fake engagement because you're just trying to be nice by power liking the comments. Okay?
Helen:So it's better to watch one video all the way through and drop a comment than it is to just swipe a bunch of videos and and like them. It happens to me still. I see it because it's like so and so like like like like like, and within a minute, they've liked five videos. They couldn't have possibly have watched them because one video might be five minutes long when I have tutorials. Okay.
Helen:Next, look at me. I I haven't run out of things, and I'm talking for a long time. I am gonna keep this brief. So I'm gonna do just a couple more, and then I have other content I have to shoot because I'm batch creating today before I take off so I can have content so I've gotta move. Blah blah blah.
Helen:This is the tip. When you batch create, don't belabor the videos so long. Like, if you have to do a lot of them, just keep them short and move to the next. Keep them short, move to the next. So next one is don't send oh, I hate this.
Helen:This is a big pet peeve. Yikes. Don't send your videos to your followers and ask them to please engage in my post. I hate this. Oh my god.
Helen:I hate this. I and it happens to me more on Instagram than on TikTok, honestly. A lot of people send me videos on TikTok. I cannot even tell you. Like, I couldn't keep up with the annoyance of it.
Helen:I just have to go, whatever, delete, delete, delete. I I don't I can't watch videos from people who send me videos except when it's me and Julie communicating with each other. You have a buddy system, you send each other videos, boom. Go for it. You have a group, you send each other videos.
Helen:Go cool. Go for it. Now I'm not gonna throw anybody under the bus, but I had worked with someone professionally. It was a colleague. It was not anybody on social media, so if you've had a personal lesson with me, this is not about you.
Helen:This is somebody in my professional life who I advised some things when I was working with the person. Now all of a sudden and it was an acquaintance. It was not even like a tight colleague, so it was kind of an acquaintance that became I got to know a little bit. All of a sudden, every time there's a video posted, hey. Please like, engage my post engaged.
Helen:Please post my what? No. I'm not your assistant. What the hell's going on here? You know what I mean?
Helen:I'm getting, like, videos to like and comment on. Like, it's my job now because I you know, we had a a chat on one of my productions, and the next thing you know, I'm getting now all these videos or whatever. Okay. So I'm complaining about that, but I'm not putting this on the worldwide web on social media. I'm complaining about it to you to to make a point.
Helen:So I just realized that I say, don't complain on your content. And I'm like, this whole entire podcast episode is about me complaining. I'm I'm sharing my peeves for your benefit, though. Okay? So it's different.
Helen:This is a teaching moment. I'm also not really angry. I just, you know, need to share some things that are, I think, not great. Okay. If you know me, you know that this is all intended in a nice way.
Helen:Okay. The last one I'm gonna say, because it's also a bit of a pet peeve that I wanted to make a viral video. I've wanted to make a video about on social media, but again, this is not really my vibes and to to put somebody else down to make my content better. But I'd like to and then, of course, I wouldn't put a single an individual down, but somebody would take this personally. Do not take the advice of every guru who says, here's how to go viral.
Helen:Just engage from the bottom up. Here's how to go viral. Make sure you watch this video to the end. How's that helping me go viral? Looking around.
Helen:Anybody? Anybody? I feel like the guy from that movie, The Teacher. You know the one. I can't think of the name of the movie.
Helen:Tom Cruise. Anyone? Anyone? Do you think that you as a viewer liking, commenting, engaging, saving, and watching that video to the end is going to help you as a viewer creator, go viral on your content. I mean, does it make it make sense?
Helen:This is not okay, and all those videos are viral. Why? Because of the people who believe that. And so don't believe everything you see on the internet. I'm gonna leave you with that.
Helen:I have to get my other content shot and get out of town. Get to the airport. But I just want to leave you with some thoughts about what not to do. What not to do? And I deliver these thoughts with love.
Helen:So have a great have a great day. Have a great week. I will be out and about in the, land of Greece doing islands, island hopping, and such. So excited. And I I really have to plan some concept for that because I've been planning all my tutorials for when I'm gone.
Helen:I'm like, I haven't even thought about what kind of fun travel content I could make, but I'm gonna pay my pay attention to that when I get to the airport. Okay? Okay. Bye. This was so much fun as always.
Helen:Thanks for listening. Thanks for hanging out, and, I'll see you next week. I think I'm gonna record another episode, I think. I'm going to do my best. If I can't, you might have to have a repeat episode next week if I don't get to it.
Helen:Alright. Bye. Love you so much. See you soon.
