The Socialize Strategy - Tips for Going Live
Welcome to the Socialize Strategy. Happy Friday. We are gonna talk today about tips for going live. As you can see, if you're watching, I'm broadcasting again from a hotel room. I like how I say broadcasting, like I'm live on air.
Helen:Anyway, I'm recording in a hotel room after a very long shoot day. I'm gonna drop into bed after this. I'm I'm not even kidding that I came back from a 100 degree heat shooting a fourteen hour day or something like that, and we've been going day after day like this since Monday. And it is really I'm not gonna say it's grueling because, you know, I love it. But the heat today was about a 101 degrees, I think, where we were.
Helen:We're in Toronto. I've they think the production keeps coming here again and again. And this trip, even more than any of the other ones, it has been nonstop since I touched down. Meetings, an evening workshop, another meeting, shoot day, shoot day, shoot day, long days. Then come back to the hotel.
Helen:Fifteen minutes later, meet downstairs for dinner with clients. It's gone it's gone like this night after night. And then I just come back, do some TikTok comments, do some content of my own, post whatever I have to do on my for my own content, and then drop into bed and do it all over again. So it has been that kind of a week. But I have two unsponsored by products to talk to you about this week, and that is because I've been using them every day on set to film content.
Helen:So the first one is something I'm using right up here in the scene to light the room, well, to light me in the room, is my small LED light. And this is about a two and a half by three and a half inch light panel. I know that it was known on TikTok for a while as the Alex Earle light because it's this tiny little thing that clips onto your phone, and you can use it to light yourself. And the funny thing about this light panel is I rarely have to bring it out. I never I'm always using natural light.
Helen:But I was in a meeting for the shoot, and we were sitting around at a table with terribly a terribly lit room, and the one of the people in the meeting, a guy in the meeting, was like, ugh, can't just seem to find any getting light on my face. How come you ladies look all look good on your video? And he was on the Zoom meeting as well. And we were all around the table on a Zoom meeting, and he couldn't seem to get lighting on his face. So I said, hold on.
Helen:I could fix that. And I go into my bag, and I pull out the light. And so he of all there's all women in this meeting, and this is the guy with the with the Alex Earle light on his laptop to try to make himself look better. It was so funny. But the funnier part part about it is that every day this week, I've taken this light out to use it because sometimes I'm in a section of the house where I have to film and the lights aren't in the right place or the windows aren't in the right place, and I have to light products sometimes to get some, like, kick lights on products.
Helen:So whatever. This light has been saving me this week, so that's why I wanted to talk about it. I don't even think I have the brand called Neweer and something like n e w e e r. You can find any small LED light panel as long as it has wrote some different types of light, the warmer light and a dimmable switch on it so that you can adjust it. That is the light you want.
Helen:I will put the link in the show notes. And the other thing that I used every freaking day this week is my SmallRig tripod. I'm not gonna stop and demonstrate it because I don't have I have to hold on to my microphone. But this one what's funny about this one is when you extend it I say I'm not gonna demonstrate it, and then right away I'm demonstrating it. But I can extend it, and then this is the funny part of it.
Helen:You pop it you can pop it on the ground. I'm gonna do it right on this table, but and it opens up like that. And people are so impressed when I do that. I just, like, slam it on the ground and the thing pops open. And they're like, wow.
Helen:Ultimate content creator gear. And that brand is SmallRig. And they do make this in different sizes. So they come with a Bluetooth remote. They'll they, you wanna get a taller one so that if you are standing and doing a video that you're on eye level.
Helen:So look at the sizes, make sure you get a tall enough one. If it's something that you like, I will put, again, links in the show notes for these. These are not affiliate links. I'm just gonna give you the links where you can buy them. Okay.
Helen:So that's it for my unsponsored buy because I love these two items. I use them every literally every dice when I'm filming content. There you have it. Alright. Now let's get into tips for going live.
Helen:I feel like I'm on a marathon, and I'm still going. This is so funny. When you finally have the ability to go live and you are really excited about it, but then you're panicked because you're going, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna say? What if nobody shows up?
Helen:All the things that spin around in your mind. And I think I've talked about this before, but in the studio, we did a live lesson where I had some of the creators who were nervous about going live join me in a live, and we did a live lesson on how to go live, which was really, really fun. They were so cute because they were all talking about how much they love the studio, and they were like, I said, this is not I swear if people that are with listening, this is not an infomercial because they were so effusive and happy about being on the live and being in the studio, and it was really kinda cool to hear them kind of I I guess, I won't even say promote, but speak so highly of their experience working in the studio with me. So that was a lot of fun, and I think they learned a lot about the comfort of going live. So first off, let's talk about what the idea that you're worried about not having people there is so it's a good idea to think about posting about it and announcing that you're gonna do it and sharing it on your platforms, maybe sending it out to your email list to alert people.
Helen:There is a brand, a skincare brand that does this. It's called In Your Face Skincare. And every time in the evening, I'll get, like, one of those sales emails, and it says, we're live tonight at 7PM. And so it's it does alert me. I mean, I know that they're going live at that hour.
Helen:So you can use your email list. You can even just email friends that you have in your life that you maybe you know are on the platform and would might wanna support your live if you're comfortable having people you know come to your live. So that's one. Also, many platforms like Instagram and YouTube will have will allow you to set reminders so that it will remind your audience that you're going live. And if you have that alert, you know, if you are like a creator, let's say you wanna always make sure you don't miss my lives, you can go to my profile, and at the top, you can tap the bell, and then you can set the alert for what you wanna hear about from me about if I'm going live or if I post a video so you can set alerts for creators, which is really a helpful thing.
Helen:Let's see what else. Asking friends and family to join so you have someone there that kinda maybe will support you, and at least you'll have someone commenting so you don't feel lonely. And also think about setting a time, and this I don't do. I don't even follow my own advice a lot of times, but go live consistently around the same time so that your people know to expect it. I don't do this because I like the opposite situation.
Helen:I like to have new people come into my lives that don't always get a chance to come because of what time maybe the time isn't always good for them in the evening. So I like to do a surprise live on a weekend on a late morning or something like that, and then get different people in my lives. So depending on your strategy, you can decide if you want it to be recurring or have two different times in the week to cover different time zones or whatever. Okay. Now let's talk about preparing for your live, which is key to eliminating the stress.
Helen:If you have a list of topics that you're gonna talk about, this makes it so easy because you can right away know when I am in panic mode and I have nothing left to say, you can look at the list. Also, you can ask your viewers questions. And this is so underrated even for me because I realize that if I do that, I can rest my voice. Because a lot of times talking for a straight hour on a live is siring. And I'm like drinking a lot of water, and I'm trying to stay hydrated, and keep my audience entertained in a way.
Helen:And so I do. I tend to go go like a marathon. So it's really nice to stop and say, oh, so where's everybody joining from tonight? And then maybe speak about the cities that you see come up. Or ask somebody, like start a topic about your favorite something.
Helen:Your favorite music, your favorite song, your favorite, what did I do recently? Your favorite tea. What because I was drinking a tea, I was like, let's everybody guess what kind of tea that I'm drinking, and that way I could take a minute, take a sip, and read the read the guesses. So you can have things like that that you do. I really had a good live once when I did TikTok trivia.
Helen:Made sure I had a list. I had answers, and I would do some true and false so that was easy for people to answer. I'd ask some open ended questions, see what answers I got. Really a good way to create engagement on your live. That, I do find when people land on lives where something is going on, they tend to stay a little bit longer, and they'll ask, hey, what's going on here?
Helen:So it's a good idea to have something like that in your back pocket. It's also important to set a level of expectation for yourself, like, kind of especially if it's the first time, picture that you're gonna have three people and get over it. Picture that for a minute, you're gonna have no people. Get over it. Just go.
Helen:Just start talking. If you start talking, someone will join. And especially if you start scrolling and you're showing up on the FBP, if you're standing there staring at your screen, people are gonna scroll right by. So be engaging. Be talking.
Helen:Be getting your audience warmed up. That's important. Oh, this one's a big one. Post a video before you go live. It doesn't have to be about being live.
Helen:Post any other video that you want to try and give some boosts to because when you go live, your videos get pushed out. This is a fact. So I always, always, if I have a tutorial that I really want to give some extra love to, like I really want people to see this video, because I think it'll be a good one, I make sure I go live after it. And I don't do it every time, but at least try I try and go live once a week, and I try and and I make sure I post a video before I go live. So that's very important.
Helen:It number one, it'll give you something to talk about on your live too. You can say, oh, I just posted a video about that. So if you're interested, go and look at it because I posted a video about how to do this type of vlog. For me, that's something I posted about once recently. And I was like, go in and look at it, and then you can, let me know if you think it was helpful, and then that people will go and watch and come back to your live.
Helen:That kind of thing. So those are some key things. And then in general, just being confident and not feeling scared. And if you are nervous, listen to me. Tell your audience, oh, I'm so nervous.
Helen:This is my first live. Oh, these buttons are intimidating. Trust me. There are people out there who know what the buttons are because they are they go live. And so they'll say, oh, well, the one on the right is where you can flip the screen.
Helen:The one on the left, like, they'll tell you things. The people in the comments, so much smarter than me so many times. Like, I'm like, oh my god. I even know that. And I'm pressing the buttons and someone's giving me advice.
Helen:Literally, people are there. They want you to do well. They don't want you to fail. You're gonna get very few people that come in and they're like, blah, blah, blah, what are you doing? It's mostly people who are gonna be positive and be like, hey, you know, don't be nervous.
Helen:This is fun, whatever, whatever. And if you do get a troll, and this is important, very important, press on their name, press the three dots in the upper right corner, and then mute or block. You need to know how to do that so that you don't get stressed out. Because if you don't have a moderator, if you're new to live and you have nobody that's you're doing you know, allowed to be a moderator, you're gonna be stressed out when someone comes in and they start trolling on your live. So know that, number one, the three dots, the same process, pressing on the person's name, pressing on the three dots in the upper right, will then get you to allow them to be a moderator if it's someone you know and trust.
Helen:Don't let anyone you don't know be your moderator. And it's a good way to get rid of people if they're bugging you. Okay? So keep that in mind and have that in your back pocket. Okay.
Helen:Now you're done with your live. Now what? TikTok is really helpful in that it allows you to save clips from your lives. You can go through it suggests some clips, or you can change what it suggests. So you can scroll through and pick.
Helen:I don't know what the length is. Maybe it's a minute. Maybe it's thirty second. I don't even know how long. But it will give you clips that you can download.
Helen:So you don't have to download the whole thing, but you can you can download the whole thing and do your own edits, or you can download the clips that TikTok suggests. So you can do that after you're live and use it for some content. And this way, if you're nervous about making content and talking to the camera, you can use your live as your videos. And then once you start doing that, I know I have a private client that I worked with, and she was so comfortable doing lives because she's got a history of QVC, and she was so nervous to make videos because she's used to being live. So I said, good.
Helen:Take your clips from your live and post them as your videos. Soon as she started doing that, she started being able to make videos that emulated her being live. So she was able to channel her live self into her videos only after she used those videos and post them, and could see what they looked like as pieces of content. Okay? A little complicated, but hopefully you followed that.
Helen:And then the next thing is really to reflect on it and think how did it oh, I forgot to mention Instagram. Hold on. If you have your settings set on your Instagram lives to archive and save after you go live, you will also be able to download download your live and edit off the beginning, let's say, if you're welcoming people in or take something out. I don't I didn't know this for the longest time on Instagram. I thought you had to immediately post your live.
Helen:And as is with all the, hey, everyone, at the beginning and welcome in, everyone, you don't. You can archive it, you can save it, and you can post it later, okay, with it being edited. So those are the things. And now lastly is when you're done, maybe it helps to watch it for a little bit, especially in the beginning. Watch your own live and see how you did.
Helen:Do you say a lot? Are you staring a lot? Are you, like, looking down the whole time? Are you repeating every single comment? Don't repeat the comments out loud until you read them in your head first.
Helen:But you don't have to say every comment. You could pick a couple. You could answer and mention a person. You could welcome people in. You can engage with the comments and use that as anyway, use that as content, but also look back and your at yourself and do some self assessing because you wanna get better.
Helen:That's the whole idea. You don't wanna just do okay, like, improve. I listen to my videos and and I got rid of a lot of my filler words. I used to say, you know, a lot, and I still do. I'm trying hard not to.
Helen:When I record tutorials, I don't say it as much. I say it more in conversation or when I'm on the podcast, I think. But I have some words that I or little phrases I repeat, and I try hard not to do it. But listening to yourself, you hear the things. They will trigger you when you are recording or speaking live, and you'll hear yourself saying, there's nothing worse than being on a meeting, on a Zoom meeting, when someone's presenting, and every five words is, or at the end of every sentence.
Helen:You don't have to fill every space with a word. You don't have to say Pause. Like that. Take a beat. Think for a second.
Helen:It's much better than having your audience listen to Okay. That's it for today. I'm fried, and I have one more shoot day before I head home. It has been so much fun being here. I will say that the people I work with in the production industry in general are so kind and fun, and we every time I meet new people on a shoot, I'm like, oh, they're so awesome.
Helen:And this particular agency that I'm working with is excellent, and they're just just really nice to be around. They're very respectful. They give me time to shoot my things. If anything, they piled on so many, ideas this time. Usually, they lean on me, and they'll say, yeah.
Helen:Just just shoot what you can, and I can just kinda capture stuff and I make it up on the fly. They came to the table with a bunch of ideas and wanted me to shoot my other stuff on the fly. And I was, like, running around like like a chicken without my head trying to figure out, okay, when should I shoot my stuff that I have scripted, and when should I shoot their stuff that they want me to get? Mamma Mia. Live and learn.
Helen:We're getting better as we go. We are always improving and did some really fun pieces of content. I had the opportunity to do an outfit change where I had the girl who was wearing leggings, like, pull on her leggings, they magically come off. Everybody loved it. So I definitely had some fun with the content this week.
Helen:And I I can't wait to start sharing some of these things from the shoots that you can see the things I'm talking about. So I'm gonna remember to do that. I'm gonna go back in the studio. We're gonna have a little session of, like, some of the thing like. Why am missing like?
Helen:We're gonna have a little session about the things that I shoot for brands so you can see the types of content I'm shooting and understand how you can create using very simple concepts where you don't even have to be in your own videos. And yeah. So I'll be sharing that. Alright. That's it for tonight.
Helen:Everybody have a wonderful weekend. And if you want to learn about podcasting in the studio, we're doing that big time. I thought I would be able to shoot the last part of the tutorial this week, but it's been gangbusters every single day. So that's gonna have to happen this weekend. So next week, I'll be releasing the last part of the podcast series so you can see exactly how to edit, exactly how to post to YouTube, exactly how to upload to your podcasting site so it goes to all the platforms.
Helen:We are going to break it down and show you. I am, anyway. Have a great weekend. I will see you next week. Bye.
