The Socialize Strategy - Why Do Trends?
Welcome to The Socialize Strategy. Happy Friday. It's always a good day when I'm here chatting with you. And I have two unsponsored by products as usual. And I always like to say it's something I use in my everyday life.
Helen:And again, that rings true. So something that I have just started using every day and aside from another supplement I've started doing every day. So I am going to talk about both of them. I only have one of them here in front of me, But the first one is NAD, which I learned about on TikTok. And I started looking into it, I figured, well, it can't hurt.
Helen:And funny enough, every time I see one of my doctors now, they say, what's different about you? Your skin looks so good. And I don't notice a difference, but supposedly that does help your skin health. And so maybe it's working and I just don't notice it because I see myself every day in the camera. So that's the first thing that I've been taking.
Helen:But recently, I started taking creatine. So I'm going to hold it up, show it to you. I bought it in gummy form. This happens to be watermelon flavor. Let me show you how big they are.
Helen:If you like a gummy, you're gonna love this. Looks like that. You just take three a day. What this is good for is, brain health. And especially for people 60, it's supposed to help your short term memory.
Helen:And what are the benefits? Reasoning and neuroprotection. The other people that do take it are bodybuilders and athletes, and I do weight training, so I like to try and follow some kind of a good, regimen when it comes to health in terms of what I put in my body for that. So I decided that I'm gonna dive in. And I've been taking this for about three weeks now.
Helen:I don't really know if I'm gonna notice a difference, but having done the research, having spoken to my doctor about it just recently, she was like, yeah, go for it. I think it's I think it's a good addition. I don't do a lot of supplements, so it's weird to me to be having these things as a routine, but I will report back. I also got the orange flavor. So I have two flavors.
Helen:They taste yummy. So if you're a gummy lover, they're gonna satisfy a little sweet craving, and they're supposedly gonna help my short term memory and my brain and my brain function. I can always use help in that department because I'm going 80 miles an hour, and sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind. So this maybe will help me get my mind back. That's the first one.
Helen:The other one is for our folks who are now needing readers. I wear contact lenses so I don't need readers all day long. And I can read my computer. I can look at my phone. I don't have to be constantly pulling out readers.
Helen:But I noticed that in the morning and in the evenings, when my eyes are a little tired, it does help to put on top of my contacts a low a low reader, number just to give it to ease the stress on my eyes. And I do that just simply to help my eyes. I obviously take my contacts out at night, so then I have them next to my bed if my contacts are out and I need to look at my phone. But here's my brand. Are you ready?
Helen:EZPIZI, I Z I P I Z I. I think it's actually a palindrome. It is. Oh, I love that. Just figured that out.
Helen:So it comes with this really, these nice felt cases, which I love. I have tons of them. I get, my husband uses EZ Pizzi's. He's the one that turned me onto the brand. And it's funny because they're comfortable.
Helen:Hold on. Let me let me demonstrate them for you. They're comfy. They look kinda cool. They come in all different types of frame solids, clear, etcetera.
Helen:And they are just my go to. I always have a pair around for the evenings. I have them by both by my bed on both both my residences. I make sure I have them near me. And the other day, a couple of days ago, I was walking behind someone in in the city, and they dropped their easy peasies.
Helen:And I ran and picked them up and went chasing after him because I was like, you don't want to lose these because I know this brand. And I'm not saying it's a pricey brand, but it's I think they run from like 4 like around $40 each. So it's like a little more than a drugstore, but it's also cooler looking than the drugstore ones. Now I know some people love to do stylish readers because it gives them a look if they're gonna pop readers on. I know my friend Alicia Lenkin, who's a stylist, is very, very into she resisted readers for the longest time.
Helen:I used to make fun of her because the font on her phone was gigantic. I'm like, Alicia, get yourself a pair of readers or something. But she had struggled with it from a fashion point of view because she's really into what her look is. So she always has really funky looking readers. Now, I don't know if this brand would do it for her.
Helen:So if you're looking for that, this is not where to go. But these have some really, I think, some stylish looking frames. Okay. That is it for my little unsponsored buy segment for today. And if you don't need readers, lucky you.
Helen:But it's funny because I really very rarely do it, but when my kids will see me at night, when I'm on the couch at night and it's low light in the living room because everyone's watching TV, even though I put my brightness up on my phone, sometimes I just like that little ease of pressure on my eyes. Okey dokey. Here we go. What should you do sorry. Let's back it up.
Helen:Why should you do a trend once in a while? Why should you do trends? I really want to talk about this because I think a lot of creators are resistant to it and they think, ugh, I'm just like conforming if I do trends. No. You're not conforming.
Helen:You are showing that you know what social media is about. You are reflecting that you are up and current, and it's not something that you should be avoiding because it's like everyone else does it. I don't want to do it. It's almost the exact opposite. What you want to do is embrace the trends, show that you get it, and show how to use it that reflects back to what your purpose is on social media.
Helen:I can't emphasize how important this is because the algorithms, they favor the trends. It's a fact. This has been proven again and again and again. And it just was proven to me yet again this past week, weekend, because last week I posted three times the same type of trend. And it was that don't you trend where you hold up your phone and you whip it around and you do the moves.
Helen:I did it once at the beach. I did it once in an airport. People love when I do the public ones because they're like, oh my god, you're so brave. How do you do that? How do I do it?
Helen:I'm the main character. I really don't care what people think. If they want to be worried about what I'm doing, they should be worried about their own life. Like, I I don't know. So I don't really get bothered.
Helen:I'm very, very unbothered by people looking at me. It doesn't faze me in the in the least. So I did that one, and they both got a lot of views because it was a trend. And if I just walked around holding my phone and doing it to any other song, no question, this would not get views. So I'm here to tell you, I then did it a third time with my producer on the set, and it did well again.
Helen:So your your your resistance to trends is not your friend. It's just gonna hurt you in the long run. And I'm not saying you have to do a trend every week, a trend twice a day week. No. No.
Helen:You can do a trend once a month. But once in a while, do it. I recommend more than once a month, to be honest. I'd say, if I was giving hard cold advice, I would say you should do a trend a week. That's what you should just rotate it into your content and and put it out there.
Helen:Pick one that relates. We send out the trends in the newsletter. You know, if you're listening to this podcast, you're you've received the newsletter. You just wanna pick one. You just wanna get to be at one with it and say, alright.
Helen:This is the one for me. This will work for me, and then go for it. You will you will thank me because one of them will hit. Now there was a creator right now who followed looked at the tutorial, posted it, didn't even do it right because she didn't wanna zoom out her back camera, so she didn't zoom out. And she still has something like 8,000,000 views by now, I'm sure, on this on this video.
Helen:It's crazy when it when the algorithm picks it up and somebody likes it, even if it's not done perfectly, sometimes that's even better. When you're not perfect, then people will come and support you and go, you did great. Even though you, you know, didn't do it perfectly, you did great. So people support, the community support is there. So let's talk about some of the things about doing trends and why it's not just about the trend itself.
Helen:And of course, it's about showing how current you are. But that was my point. It shows that you're current, but you're not trying to be 20. It doesn't mean you're pretending to be younger. It means that you're aware of what's happening.
Helen:You are in the know with the lingo of social media and that you can play along. So if you're worried about fitting in, you're worried about like, Ugh, this is going to be embarrassing, or whatever, this shows your audience that you know the lay of the land, that you get it. Okay? So that's important. The other thing to know is that it will expand your reach because it does get pushed out and it will get you out further.
Helen:That is just a fact. Most of the time if you use a trending sound, a trending or trend specifically with a trending sound, It does it. Now I'm going to use some examples because we have people in the studio that did it this week. Vicky, one of our studio members did the trend in again, she didn't do it right in Australia. She couldn't figure it out.
Helen:She posts she was she was, like, really frustrated, she's like, I don't know. I I know this wasn't right, but I posted anyway because I didn't have much time. That has more views than anything she has posted in the last couple of weeks. She she said she's never even she doesn't even think she's had a video that hit that many views. It was like 5,000 views for her, And she was really, really excited about it.
Helen:So it will help you expand your reach. The other thing it does is it will bring out some kind of community relatability thing because it shows you're trying. It shows you're interested in having some fun. You're not afraid to have some fun. Oh my god.
Helen:I have to show you something funny. I have to digress. One second. So I put these shoes on for a TikTok just now. And now in my room, there's feathers flying around.
Helen:These are some old kitten French kitty heels that I bought at one of those vintage shops just because I got a kick out of them and I needed them for a costume years ago and I've stuck them in my closet. So I was making a TikTok and I needed to put on a cute pair of shoes, I was like, I'll throw these on because maybe somebody will comment on it. It'll increase engagement. But now, because they're vintage, the feathers are flying all around the room. This is so funny.
Helen:Alright. Let me put them back on. Anyway, just a side note. When you come to the podcast, you never know what I'm gonna talk about. And now I'm talking about my kitten heels.
Helen:I hope that it does well on the video, by the way. That that'll be fun. Again, putting something in your video that could spark spark a conversation is a strategy, not even on purpose. But when I took them out, said, oh, someone will comment on these heels because they're so I know that they're such a they're like a Zsa Zsa Gabor thing, if anybody knows that reference. Really dating myself on this one.
Helen:All right, but so back to it. When a viewer sees you participate in a trend that they've seen 10 times that day and they go, Oh my God, she's doing it too. Trust me, this is a win. I've had it so many times where I do one of these crazy ass trends from like some transition thing and someone sees someone my age doing it and they're stopping on it, even if they're young. Well, couple of times they'll stop and they'll be like, Granny knows what's up.
Helen:I don't like that necessarily, but hey, you know, I'll take it. So whenever you do a trend, it shows that you know what's going on. It will show up on people's For You page. And if they know you, they might be more likely to engage and give you encouragement. So it builds connection.
Helen:I don't know. And you'll get people that will say, Oh wow, she did this? I can do this. And then you start like picking up momentum from people using the sounds from your video or saving your video for reference later, adding it to favorites because they might want to try it. So all the things, you get it?
Helen:All the things. My biggest thing and my last favorite thing is that it brings you out of your normal content and inspires you to think outside the box. It inspires you to be a little more creative. Maybe you're in a rut and you're like, can't think of what to do. Okay.
Helen:Pick a trend. I'm telling you, it snap you out of your rut. I do it often when I'm in that like lull and I'm I don't I know I have to post a tutorial, but I'm not the mood to make one right now, or I don't have anything that I'm inspired to teach at the moment, I just pull out a trend. And the trend could be about me teaching TikTok or about so I use it to spin it about to what my account is about, but I also get myself out of that rut. So use it to get yourself inspired.
Helen:Use it to give yourself a reason to do something different. Like, don't be afraid. Okay? Don't be shy. You're the main character.
Helen:Don't forget that. And so, my my wrap up in the newsletter was really like, should you do every trend? No. But what should you do once in a while? Because you should do them once in a while.
Helen:So the goal is to pick one that feels fun and relevant and gives you a creative way to highlight your niche. That's mainly. Keep it simple because as I told Marilyn in the studio today, I was like, listen, what you need to do when you're busy and you're traveling, she does a lot of travel and she doesn't have time to make long winded pieces of content when she has a group with her that she's traveling with. So I said, keep the easy, quick, fun lip sync ones where you can just lip sync and push the camera towards someone or do something simple where you have a group behind you and you're lip syncing. Keep the simple ones in your arsenal.
Helen:Put them in a little folder in your phone, wherever you can easily access them and pull them out on the fly. So they're not meant to be perfect, they're not meant to be elaborate, they're meant to be quick, And imperfect can almost be your friend in this kind of thing. Like, make it playful. And the last thing is to use it as a chance to test your reach because sometimes just your your just for fun video is the one that brings you a lot of followers. It just happened to that creator that I was talking about.
Helen:Her name is Harley Girl. And she posted this thing. She has 7,000,000 plus views on it, I think probably 8,000,000 now. She got a lot of followers from it because she showed that she was trying something cool. She didn't do it perfectly, And so she got people rallying around her.
Helen:So trends can help you get a rally going. All right. That's it for today. If you didn't know, the studio now has a free access section where if you can go get just the TikTok tutorials that I post on all my channels and they are now housed in one place and the free TikTok beginner course. If you go into that space, instead of scrolling my page and looking for, oh, when I know she taught green screen, where is it?
Helen:You don't have to do that anymore. If you go to the free space, you can type the keyword green screen tutorial and it will show you every green screen tutorial I've posted. So it limits if you wanna know stop motion, you type it in, it shows you the tutorial. So you can finally search my tutorials in the new Studio FreeSpace, and it's called the Studio Preview. So if you're not interested in joining the studio yet, if you haven't, like, taken that leap into the fun zone, you're missing out.
Helen:But in the meantime, you can do the free space. Okay? I'm putting the link here in the show notes, and I hope that you will consider that and then maybe at some point jump into the studio and join us for the fun times. Alright. Take care.
Helen:Have a good weekend, and I'll see you next week.
