The Socialize Strategy - Social Media Etiquette
Welcome to the socialized strategy and happy Friday. I'm still on a sailboat, but I'm ready for you anyway, so I have recorded this well in advance to share some social media etiquette tips with you for today. Before we get started, I am going to remind you that I am speaking at a women's conference in Jamaica, and I'm excited about it. It's a women's entrepreneurial conference hosted by Erica v who is tagged in the newsletter. And I'm so excited to be going because I've never gone to Jamaica.
Helen:I've always wanted to see that island, and I have never had the opportunity to go. And, also, I am looking forward to connecting in real life and doing a workshop in real life. It is so much fun to do tutorials and to share and have people commenting and to be here and doing the podcast and sharing tips and strategies. And it's great because I do appreciate the feedback. But there's something about being in person that makes it even more, I don't know, special because you're creating in real time.
Helen:I have visions of a socialized studio at some point where we have an in a real live in person event. So hopefully, that's gonna come to fruition one day because I just love it. I like to teach people how easy it is to make videos and sometimes doing it in real life with them right on the spot makes it more attainable from some but by someone who's makes it more attainable makes it more attainable for a person who seems like makes it more attainable for a person who it just might seem unreachable to be able to do it. So I love that, and I am looking forward to it so much. I hope to see people I know there.
Helen:I have no idea who's gonna show up, but it'll be fun no matter what. I'll make new friends. You know, I'll be dancing. It'll be it'll be a good time. I'm sure.
Helen:And May will be here before you know it. That's the funny thing. This trip that I'm on right now in Tahiti was planned over a year ago. And the fact that a year went by and here we are right now on this family trip is just it's so thrilling. It just seems like it was never gonna happen, and then all of a sudden it's here.
Helen:So the same thing with Jamaica. It seems like it's so far away, May 2025, and yet, just like a snap, it it'll be here in a minute. Can't wait. The other thing the other reminder before I get started is that I do have an editing workshop where I'm going to cover how to do interactive videos. So if you want to have a video playing and then do a commentary on it, stopping and starting the video, I'm gonna show you an easy way to accomplish that and do some back and forth, I guess, content where you're you're commenting and you're stopping and you're going back and forth and adding comp adding your commentary.
Helen:So I think that's gonna be a nice fun, but it's gonna be a beginner slow paced lesson. So if you want to learn it and feel that a lot of the tutorials you've seen have been just too quick, this one is for you. So come and join. It's gonna be fun. Here's the hot topic for today.
Helen:What is good social media etiquette? I cannot be happier that we are covering this because social media has been around for a long time, but I think there are a lot of people who don't really know how to properly interact, how to properly use it. And funny enough, you would think that young people would be the most well versed in the etiquette, but it's not the case. A lot of times, I've noticed that millennials in particular and, like, sort of in the middle, they they they were not really on the apps hardcore. They were more viewing, and now they're forced to use it whether it's for business or their, a project or their own personal branding that they're doing.
Helen:And they just don't know some of the etiquette things, and I find it amazing. So I'm here for you. I wanna go over them. I think it's just important. I don't think anybody means to not be socially etiquette able or do the right thing.
Helen:I don't think anybody means to make a mistake. I think it just happens. You know, we just don't know. So making up new words on the fly, that's that's what I love to do. Thanks for being here for it.
Helen:Alright. So let's start with the big one and the big one gets broken down into a lot of categories. So it's don't forget to tag. I'm gonna start with what does tag mean? It means that you type the at symbol either in a caption or comment or somewhere on the video.
Helen:On Instagram, you're able to go into your settings before you post and tag someone on the same thing on TikTok, but sometimes if it doesn't have you don't have the option, you can just type the at symbol and start typing the person's username, and it will pop up. It will auto populate with the people with that username, and you can choose the person, and that is called tagging, and that is giving that person credit, and it's also going to give them an alert that they were mentioned in a video. So let's start with what it does, and then I'm gonna tell you how to do it, in what cases to do it. Alright. So that's how you do it.
Helen:You type the at symbol, you type the person's username, it populates, you tap it. Make sure you tap it when it populates because it has to, I guess attach the tag and that and that's how it attaches the tag so that it automatically alerts the person. Alright. So what are some instances where you should tag people? Let's do the list.
Helen:Number 1. If you are sharing their content to your story or your feed and you want to give extra credit. Now I will tell you, if you just share someone's video to your story, sometimes it will alert them, but I find that a lot of times I didn't know that somebody shared my reel, so I don't know that it's a perfect science. So it's always better to make a little comment, maybe, when you share something. So when you hit the arrow and then post and it goes to your story, instead of just hitting share, type a little comment to say, love this video from at Julie Polisie or love this video from at Lorraine laddish.
Helen:Lorraine c laddish as it is. But I love to do that because I think it's it makes sure that they get an alert in case the platform doesn't do it automatically. And that is number 1. Plus, when you share a video, it's nice to add your your comment with it. It's instead of just doing the share thing and just letting it live there, it's kinda cool to, like, add a little something to it.
Helen:Add a little little of your own special sauce to it. That's, it's a good thing to do. The other thing I'm gonna say, oh, I'm gonna say this for Lorraine in particular, because I don't even know if you know this Lorraine. This whole lesson is strictly for Lorraine, but you can all listen. So when you're in Instagram and you're typing the caption and sometimes it wraps the text and it makes it like a big block of text that's like 5 lines long, you can there's a little dot on the left hand side of the text where you can drag the dot down and you can and it'll wrap the text that was 4 lines onto 2 lines.
Helen:Okay. Now, I'm gonna I think I made a tutorial about this a long time ago, so I'm gonna link that tutorial in the show notes today. I'm definitely gonna do that. I'm gonna write it down. So I'm gonna link the text wrapping.
Helen:I'm writing it down. Standby. Text wrapping tutorial because I wanna make sure it's sometimes just hearing it. It's it's easier to see it and instead of stopping right now and showing you on the video, I'm gonna link link the tutorial. But there's a little dot on the text and you just you slide the slider.
Helen:It's like a slider. You slide it down and it wraps the text from 4 or 5 lines into 2 lines. So this way you don't have to make the thing so tiny and have this big block of text, Lorraine. I noticed that sometimes your text is like a big block. I maybe you do it on purpose, maybe not.
Helen:But in case you didn't know, you can wrap it. You can make it on two lines. That way the video that you're sharing, you could keep it bigger. I don't know. I've noticed a lot of people do that and it just came to my mind.
Helen:And I thought of you, Lorraine. So I hope you don't mind that I that I mentioned your name. Okeydokey. Onward. Because we all can learn things even no matter how.
Helen:Like, I learned things every single day. People think I know everything. I do not know everything. I know so little in the big scheme of things there are to know. So I love to learn the minute I see something and Oh my God.
Helen:You know what I just learned a minute ago before I started this recording this? That on YouTube, you can turn on closed captioning. Hear me out on this. This is a good lesson. This is a hot take.
Helen:And then you can tap settings. So if you're watching a video, you can turn on closed captioning, then you can tap settings and you can auto translate. So, let's say you're watching a video in another language and it's in Spanish and you're like oh gosh, I don't know it's going too fast. I need to hear it in English. You can tap the closed captionings and you'll see the Spanish closed captionings, and then you tap settings and you can auto translate it to English.
Helen:I am I am amazed by this. Honestly, I didn't know that YouTube had that option, but here's some learning that just happened for me today because I was very concerned. I was trying to figure out how to make some of my videos available for Spanish community, and I realized I don't have to do anything. All they have to do is know to tap the closed captions and then tap and change the language. Who knew?
Helen:Now we all know. Okay. Fantastic. Back on topic. That was totally a a side track a side track that was worth traveling.
Helen:Alright. So next reason to tag someone in your content. If they appear in it. This is obvious, right? You're with people.
Helen:You're at an event. They're with you in your video. Tag them. Type the at symbol and tag them in the Instagram. You can when you tag a bunch of people in the Instagram story You can make a group chat out of it So that's always fun to do you just tap the little toggle on and it'll make a group chat But if they if someone appears in your content if it's in a real whatever tag them if you're at a store Tag the store because maybe they'll repost your video.
Helen:I mean, this tagging is such a great way to socialize. There it is again. But it is. It's a great way to make your content social because it's bringing other people in and then maybe they'll share it too. Listen.
Helen:We're in a world where people need content. Brands need content. So if you are doing the work for them, they are going to share your video. If it's decent, they're gonna share it on their feed because it's more content for them. And they're under pressure.
Helen:Brands are brands are under pressure to to provide content continuously. So take advantage of it. Alright. Another reason to tag someone is if they filmed your content or photographed your content. Tag them, give them credit, filmed by, photographed by, great photo taken by, etcetera.
Helen:It's the right thing to do. You you really wanna make sure that you are including someone and giving someone credit for something that did. They did. If they edited a video for you, you want to give them credit. It's just the right thing to do.
Helen:Alright. Next one, if you are inspired by something that they posted and you're using their idea to some degree, if there's a trend, if there's a dance dance you're doing and it's a dance the dance credit should be getting be given. And by the way, there's little and on on the platforms, there are some little shortcuts like DC, dance credit, IB, inspired by. There's different ways to do it so you don't have to write it all out, but you can definitely you wanna do, like inspired by or got this idea from or thanks so much for the tutorial at the mothership. When you do something that I show, that's always fun because I get an alert and I could see how people are learning.
Helen:My goodness. I love it. And people might think that's annoying. Absolutely not. It is not annoying.
Helen:It's the exact opposite of annoying. It's exciting. Oh my goodness. So that was the other one. If you're doing a dance that they choreographed, you wanna do that.
Helen:And the let the other reason to tag, there's probably tons more, but I'm gonna go with this at the last one, is if you wanna get their attention on your content for some reason. So a lot of times people will just tag me in the caption and say, oh, at the mothership taught me how to do this. And they I mean, I love it. I love to go and see if somebody learned how to do a transition to transition for me or an outfit change or a head turn, and then they tag me. It's just like it's so nice.
Helen:And I I'm I pay so close attention to when I'm mentioned and I'm tagged and I go and I look and I always show support. I think it's such a good thing. So make sure you do it. And it's also good a good practice to mention in your caption why the person is tagged. So if you're posting about a photo shoot, it's good practice to say the who the photographer was, who the stylist was.
Helen:If you're if it's not sponsored content, but you might wanna get a brand's attention, you could tag the brands like this shirt, all this cute little sweater with the heart that I'm wearing today. It's an Anthropologie's sweater. And when I wear this thing in content, I tend to tag Anthropologie. Maybe they'll see theirs, see me wearing their sweater and offer me a sponsorship. Not likely, but when a girl can dream.
Helen:Alright. The next thing that is good etiquette as we go beyond tagging is the asking permission. And this one is got it's a little bit of a hot button and it's a little bit ins what inspired me to want to share an etiquette, podcast and an etiquette newsletter because I do think it's important. Because in our world now, things moving quickly, I'm working I mean, I'm helping people. Sometimes I make videos for events I go to.
Helen:Oh, you know, bridal events that I'm at, and I send the video I'll send a little video to the bride and say, oh, here's a little video that I'm you know, I made for you. And the next thing you know, friend of bride posts video. And I'm like, what? Like, friend of bride should not be posting video before bride posts video. You get it?
Helen:So she got excited. She shares it with the friend. The friend posts the video. And, I mean, if they're fine with it, that's fine. But I think etiquette wise, you want to remember that the person who the video is about, they should have the first right of refusal to post it before you do.
Helen:I like to use that term, first right of refusal. It's a, film term. When you're putting someone on hold, like an actor or an actress, you are giving them the first right of refusal when you put them on hold because then you have to check with them. They have to they have to tell let you know I have another project. Do you wanna book me or release me?
Helen:And so this is like an etiquette in the film biz. Anyway, so first right of refusal person who the video is about should post the video before you do. So make sure you ask permission. You don't want to be that person, the mom, the mother-in-law, whatever that posts the wedding, the baby announcement, the job promotion, whatever before it is public, before the person who announces it is posting it. Don't be that person.
Helen:I'll tell you one thing. I'm not gonna be that mother-in-law or that mother. Right, Julie? I'm not. I I think I'm so into the etiquette that I'm over the top.
Helen:I'm I'm checking all the time. Is it okay if I post this? You know, I'm checking with my kids all the time because I wanna make sure I'm not posting things or sharing things that they don't want me to post. I'm a big etiquette mama. Alrighty.
Helen:Next one is to remember to use the in app features. So when you are adding things like music, filters, stickers, titles, it's always better to use the feature in the app for a couple of reasons. Number 1 is that the app is usually pushing those features out, but number 2, you're less likely to get a violation on your video. So if you post a video with music on it and you forget to add the music, on Instagram, they're so nice. They put you right into the music bucket.
Helen:They don't get annoyed. They just say, oh, you've your video has been added to the such and such hot to go song by Chapel Roan. Okay. Unfortunately, TikTok doesn't do that. It gives you a community violation the minute you do it.
Helen:If you forget to add the music in TikTok, boom violation. Same thing happens on YouTube shorts. Boom violation. You have to add it in app. So one thing I'll give credit for is Instagram doing it when you make the mistake and it recognizes the sound, it kindly puts you into the mix.
Helen:None of the other apps do that. So it's a little annoying. Alright. Next thing is next etiquette thing, and I'm gonna use the word again. So don't make fun of me, but socialize.
Helen:Engage with content. If you take the time to watch a video all the way through, do the right thing. Be social. Give it a like. Give it a comment.
Helen:Save it if it's something you want to look at later again refer to later. Share send it to someone if it's something that makes that made you laugh and you think someone else might like it. Those are great metrics for the creator, and if you wanna support a creator that you like, it's so good to do that. It makes them feel good. It's like a lot of times I'm gonna say, we're out here putting in the time, sharing our joy, sharing our knowledge, and so many people scroll my videos and never comment on them.
Helen:And I'm gonna say this because I can't even call anyone out, but sometimes I'll run into somebody and they're like, oh, yeah. I feel like I just saw you yesterday. I watch your videos. I would never know this person watched my videos. Never a like or comment, nothing.
Helen:Hello? I had no idea you even watched my videos. I don't care. It's funny to me, because I think, I guess it's a little weird to me to to realize that because I don't see the person commenting, so I don't consider them a a viewer, so I don't even notice or whatever. And then I see them in real life, and then I find out they know, you know, they are watching my stuff every day and it's kind of funny And it's fine, but a good a good thing to do, it's good practice to make some engagement if you're enjoying someone's content.
Helen:It's just a nice thing to do. Why not? I mean, does it really take you that long to tap the little heart or double tap the thing to make a like? No. It takes 2 seconds.
Helen:Just like the thing. Even if it's just like you're only gonna like and move on. It's it's really, really nice to do. Okeydoke. I'm gonna go on to say one more thing about this though.
Helen:I've noticed, there's a big creator dance duo, and their names are are they're called the 2 j's, and they're on TikTok. They have, like, 4,000,000 something followers. I don't even know if she listens to the podcast, but if you do, hi, Joan. I really like her. We're friends.
Helen:Anyway, their content is dancing content, and it's been consistently feel good vibes dancing content from the beginning. They don't they didn't sway out of their lane. They still doing what they were doing day 1 on TikTok, and it's quite amazing, actually. But what I've noticed about their content is that they have lots of likes. They don't have as many comments or saves as you would, as I would think, actually.
Helen:Sometimes I look at the videos, I go, oh my god, this video has so many views, but it only has, like, a hand like a 100 and some comments or whatever, 200 and some comments, But they have thousands of likes, thousands of likes. This tells me that people scroll their videos and even if they're not gonna make a comment, if they have nothing to say about it because it's a, you know, a dancing video, feel good vibes, they're liking it. And so likes can go a long way. Take a minute, double tap the video. It doesn't take more than a blip of a fraction of a second.
Helen:Double tap. Double tap. Like the video. The end. Move on.
Helen:Okay. That's my soapbox for that one. So funny. I am a goofball. On we go.
Helen:The last one's funny too. Don't be a troll. The Internet is full of trolls and people who are quick to leave mean snarky comments and then they're behind their screen. So it's very easy to do. If you don't have anything nice to say or if you're in a grumpy mood and something pisses you off, take a pause before you type the snarky comment.
Helen:Just take a pause. I'm gonna tell you something personally, and I'm gonna share. I'm gonna do a personal share here. I sometimes, I am in an some a video will annoy me, or I'm like, I'll watch something, I'm like, you know, and I think of something like and I I like sometimes I wanna make a comment that's not, like, snarky necessarily, but I'm gonna give you 2 examples, actually, and I'm gonna I'm gonna bear my soul right now on 2 examples for for you. This is not something I wanna make content about and put on TikTok, but I'm gonna share it here on the podcast.
Helen:There's a creator on Instagram named Mosseri. We all know him. Right? He's Adam Mosseri Mosseri, I think is how you say it. He is the guy who talks about Instagram.
Helen:He's like the CEO or something on Instagram marketing or whatever guy. Anyway, this is how he says the word creator. Have you ever heard him say the word creator? It's got an e in it. He drops the e.
Helen:The man says the word crater. Crater. If all craters like this, if we want to create content, crate, crate, crate, crater and crate. No e in the word. It's gone.
Helen:I don't know. How does a guy who's like running Instagram not know how to say the word creator? Baffles me. And so many times I will hear his content and that word comes out because he's talking about craters all the time. I am dying to sometimes say, you drop the word is creator with an e.
Helen:Like, I just wanna but I don't and then I scroll the comments. Didn't anyone else notice this? Am I the only person that's not hearing the e when he says the word creator? Creator. Anyway, Adam, if you're listening, it's creator.
Helen:So that's that, but I don't type it is my point. I want to so many times, but I realize what kind of energy is that putting out into the world. There is no need for me to type that. There is no need. I have had one more time where I listen to someone speak about woman, a woman, a woman, and then multiple woman, multiple woman.
Helen:No. Women. When it's multiple, it's women. When it's 1, it's a woman. And I don't know if that's generational.
Helen:I don't know. Somebody needs to come and save me. But when I hear someone say, all these women, all these women, no, all these women. Anyway, I constantly wanna comment, and it's for me, I guess, it's grammar that pisses me off in the most, and that's what makes me wanna make a comment. But I just say, listen.
Helen:Don't be snarky, Helen. Move on. It's not gonna change one thing or another. They're still gonna say woman when they mean women. Adam is still gonna say crater instead of creator.
Helen:My little comment is not gonna change the game, so just shut up and move on. So I don't leave the comment, but so I'm telling you that we all might accidentally leave an insulting comment without even realizing it. I've had a couple of times where someone's left snarky comments on my video, and I just answer back, like, nicely, and then they go, oh my gosh, sorry, I didn't mean that. And I'm like, oh, God, they didn't even mean to troll. So the so I relate.
Helen:I relate. As a person who's a viewer, I don't want to be the mean person, so I just take a pause before I actually post that comment. Occasionally, I've even posted one that I think, oh, that might be taken snarky. I'm gonna take it down. I'd delete it.
Helen:I just don't wanna be I don't need that energy out there. So that's that. Let me ask answer 2 questions before I leave you for today because hopefully we covered all of the etiquette things I could possibly think of, and Julie is so thorough on these newsletters. So bless her soul for helping me through it. But here are the 2 questions.
Helen:1 is related to the topic of etiquette. What if I can't find the person who inspired the video to tag them? This is a great question, because I can't tell you how many times I'm doing a dance trend. I have no idea who started it. I search through the sound to try and find the first person.
Helen:They're not always the most viral person, so it's not always at the top. It is so difficult sometimes to find a person who inspired a trend or a video. Some are obvious. We got the demure trend. We know it's Jules.
Helen:Super easy. We can figure that out, But and even in that case, a lot of people doing demure, they're not tagging Jules. You can't, she would be I mean, she'd have billions of tags on her videos. You can't it's just not realistic all the time to tag the person. You you do the best you can.
Helen:But if you can't find the person, or you want to make sure to give them credit, this is a great strategy. You can say in the caption, or say verbally in your content, or say in a comment, could not find the person who did this originally. Please tag them if you know who they are. Or you talking on a video and you say, I learned this thing this tip and I can't find the person who I heard it on a video. I can't find the video.
Helen:So if you know who this person is, please tag them. That's all. You're just acknowledging that you're not stealing someone's idea. You're acknowledging that you don't know who to tag, but you wanted to do the right thing. That's my answer to that one.
Helen:Okay. Again, the last one is, should I write a long caption? So meaning, I guess, in the caption, the lower caption of the video. Here's what I have to say about that. You can.
Helen:I don't like to write long captions. I feel like it's enough time in my life to edit, create content, and edit it, and then tell me I have to write a long caption? No, thank you. But supposedly, SEO is helped by this kind of text that you have attached, so sure, write a long caption. What I have noticed is that on Instagram, captions are like the thing.
Helen:You know, read the caption, like, it'll have the shortest video with the thing that says read the caption. These kind of annoy me. I'm, like, do I have to sit here and read this caption now? Why don't you just tell me the thing you want to tell me in the video? I don't like it.
Helen:That's me personally, so I'm not gonna make a nasty comment or anything about it. It's just like I I don't enjoy it. So when I see those things, no, thank you. I don't feel like reading the comment the caption, and I just move on. But I noticed that a lot of those videos are viral because when they say read the caption, if they give you enough of a hook to want to read the caption, you're gonna stick around on the video.
Helen:It plays over and over while you're reading the caption, so it's a strategy. It's a strategy, and so if you're into it and you want to hop on that bandwagon, as they say, go for it. It's just personally not for me, and I can't do everything just because it's the thing to do. I do what I like doing, what makes me happy, and that's how I proceed with my content, being true to my fun filled self. And that's the end of that.
Helen:Alright. So aloha from the sailboat. I'm sure I'm having a fine time while you're listening to this. I hope the weather's good and I hope our sailing will be pulling into port tomorrow. If you're listening to this on Friday, I think you probably are.
Helen:Like, most people listen to it on the 1st day it releases. So I am on this boat until September 21st. And so that's what's happening. You will have me back on land next week, although I am still going to be away for the Tuesday issue, and then I'll be back again in real life on the following Friday. Thank you so much for being here.
Helen:And this was a long one, but I think it was worth it because I really I think etiquette is so important as we socialize on social media. Have a great day. Leave a review. Love you for it.
