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Social media updates, trend alerts, original content ideas, music/audio suggestions, tutorials and more!
Welcome to the socialized forecast, December 3, 2024. We're nearing the end of 2024. It is hard to believe. For all of the US people listening, hope you had a happy Thanksgiving. It was such a fun weekend of family time and getting holiday things underway.
Helen:I am so thrilled that we are in the holiday season. I brought the sparkle today. So this was something I picked up and decided. I was really not gonna wear it on Thanksgiving, but then when my son walked out of his room, we were staying at his house, and he came out in this green kind of flannel looking shirt, I was like, ugh, I gotta pull out my green sparkles because we gotta take a photo, and then I never took the sweater off. It is so cozy on the inside.
Helen:It looks like it would be itchy, but it's not. And I love it. It's gonna be my go to holiday thing, so you'll be seeing more of it. Apologies in advance. Alright.
Helen:I'm gonna kick off today with something that's gonna sound really mean, but it's, it's it's as Marie from everybody loves Raymond would say, I'm doing it out of love. Okay? We don't need intros on your videos. I'm gonna start with that because I thought it was so funny that I had a viral video show up on my page where I someone else's viral video, not mine. So this viral video showed up, and that was the first line of the video.
Helen:And then she went on a rant to say, I don't care who you are, what you do, what where you're from. Don't say hello. Just tell me the facts. And it was so funny because I've been saying that in a nice way for years, for years. I'm a believer in starting in the middle of a video even.
Helen:Like, start in the middle so people don't even know what you're talking about, and they'll catch up. Not a fan of the people who even in the middle of their video, like, they'll get you hooked in the beginning and then they stop and they say, by the way, I'm so and so. And just for some context, I'm so and so and blah, blah, blah, blah. Honestly, if I want to find out or if I'm in any way questioning this person's expertise, I will go to the profile. I will look into who they are.
Helen:Maybe look up their name. Maybe go check on LinkedIn, whatever, if it's somebody that I'm really looking at them for expertise. So I don't need an intro. Trust me. We are very, very smart social media viewers now, and we can do the digging.
Helen:And, especially, you'll see some of the videos that people are posting about how they've solved kind of mysteries of who people are when they have no profile picture and no name and everything, and they still find out who they are. So trust me. We are very, very savvy people on watching videos, and we will figure out who you are. And we will make the determination if you have the expertise. So you don't need to say it in every video.
Helen:You don't need to say it in any video. I I don't think I can say that enough, and I feel a little frustrated because and a lot of times when I see it, it's from somebody who might be who is a bigger creator, and I'm like, of all people that should know this, they should know this. So I get really confused about why I'm still seeing it happen. But this woman's video was so funny that literally I had to link it in the newsletter today because it cracked me up when I saw it. And I was like, it's the ultimate hook line.
Helen:Yell at your audience. Anyway, I'm much nicer about delivering the info than she is. But at the same time, I agree with the thinking and I agree with the strategy of starting your video. And I will tell you that in my socialized studio this week, last week, I suggested doing a loop video as a challenge. And one of the people who did the loop video, she took the ending of her video and she put it on the beginning, and she had her first big viral video from doing that.
Helen:So what I'm teaching in that studio is legit and it works and all these strategies you can do, and that's a great example. Not only did she not say who she was, her ending of her video became the beginning. So it was even out of context, and I thought it was just like chef's kiss well done. So if Amber you're listening, good job. You're getting a lot of kudos for that video because she did so good.
Helen:Alright. So if you don't know about the studio, we are running a cyber a cyber Monday. Well, we'll call it the cyber week sale. So 15% off if you join this week, and then we'll be turning it off. And you don't have to put in a code, you just go and it is set up for 15% off this entire week.
Helen:So if you want in, you wanna test it, you wanna try it for a month, when you do it at 15% off, it will stay at 15% off for as long as you stay in the studio. So you can either do the year commitment, you can do a month commitment and decide if you like it, but that discount will hold through for however long you stay. And you won't leave because it's too much fun. I can tell you that right now. Alright.
Helen:Now, the next thing before I talk about the trends is another video I saw that I was like, more stuff that I've been saying all along, but so well well spoken in this video, which is whatever you do, if you make content about it, you will inevitably outperform your competition. And this guy went on with a something like a 2 or 3 minute video explaining this in such great terms of how even though you think, this isn't, okay. His example Sorry. I'm gonna, like, be a little bit herky jerky about this, but his example is this woman who was designing scarves, and it was very niche. She was designing silk scarves for college campuses and using their architecture and printing these designs on silk scarves.
Helen:So it's very, very niche. And from posting about this on social media, she ended up having McLaren's, the car company, contact her. She then made they hired her to do a design for one of their events, and then they wrapped a car in her design. And now, she has, like, jettisoned into a whole other career, just from posting about this little hobby or small business that she was creating and an idea that she and a talent that she had. And I'm sure if she would have gone on there and just said, hi, I'm so and so, blah, blah, blah, and I make designs, and I design architecture, and I put that on and I design prints, she wouldn't have gotten traction.
Helen:What she did was showed what she was doing. She shared her expertise in silk scarves and ended up in this other place. So it's not like connecting the dots have to be from a to b. You don't have to be, like, I need to make invent something and then sell it in order to make money. You need to share your expertise and then see where that takes you and that will take you somewhere, especially if your expertise is something you're passionate about.
Helen:So I I want you to ponder those 2 things as we enter into the holiday season. Okay? Give yourself the gift of allowing yourself to share and just be the expert you are in whatever it is. And I'm gonna shout out to Amber again because, for example, she's an autism mom. So her the reason why she even had her viral video is she was she created a very relatable piece of content describing what it's like on the holidays when her son gets upset by something.
Helen:It was very heartfelt, and so I see that taking her places. And maybe we don't know where that is just yet, but it will present itself. As long as you put out what you are trying to do and what you're trying to share with the world that that matters to you, it will somehow lead you to the path you're meant to be on. Okay. That's enough pontificating from me.
Helen:Come into the studio. Don't miss out on the 15% discount. Let's get on with the trends this week. The first one is called write. So with the success of Wicked, there's a lot of Wicked audios trending, which is a lot of fun, and there's a lot of easy ones to do.
Helen:And I forgot to silence my phone, so let me just do that quickly. Okay. There's a lot of easy ones to do. This one is a nice lip sync one. And why do I like a lip sync one for today in particular?
Helen:I'll tell you. Because in the studio, this week, we're working on how to do really good lip sync. I've seen so many people post terrible lip syncs or not know how to do a lip sync or kind of guessing at the words. I am providing a full on teaching strategy, all the things about how lip sync is accomplished and with some insider kind of pro tips. So I'm happy that we have some lip sync ones here.
Helen:I posted a lip sync one of myself, which was the Elmo trend, very funny, where it's like, Elmo doesn't even know what he's gonna. What's Elmo doing in the next 5 years? Elmo doesn't even know what he wants to do in the next 5 hours, and it's a super speed audio. So you have to really it's hard to keep up with that. So I even shared pro tips on how to do a lip sync like that, and that's the tutorial that's in the newsletter today.
Helen:So I'm happy that I'm gonna focus this week on teaching more skills about lip syncing and I'm gonna work on that in the studio this week. And we have a live Zoom that we're doing tomorrow. Sorry. The live Zoom, as you're hearing this, is today at noon. So if you're in, you well, I'll see you later.
Helen:I'll see you at noon. Camera's on. Yippee. Alright. Next trend.
Helen:Realization. This is an easy one because the audio you don't have to lip sync at all. You can, I guess, if you want? But the audio is just showing off a realization that you've had when you're caught in the act of doing something you shouldn't be doing. So, for example, you were supposed to be saving money and then you went out on Black Friday and you shop till you drop and you have shopping bags.
Helen:That's what the creator did on her video that we have highlighted here. But there's a lot of different ways you can do it. When you say you're gonna eat healthy and then the Christmas cookies come out, for example. Lots of funny potential coming up with the holiday season that you can make capitalize on a lot of these trends. The next one is an Instagram trend and it's a lip sync.
Helen:So I'm really happy the Instagrammers will also have an opportunity to do a trending lip sync this week. And what you're gonna do here is show off something in your life that is a 10 out of 10. It could be a product, makeup tool, kitchen gadget, anything. It could be your workout equipment. It could be your workout outfit, whatever it is that you think is 10 out of 10.
Helen:So it's a really fun one. You could use this for your business when you have if you have a favorite product that is a customer favorite. You can use this in so many different ways. So nice easy one. Jump on it.
Helen:And then the last one for, Instagram is holiday vibes. So this is a trending audio where you can share what how you're decorating your house for the holidays. You can use it with one of the original content ideas that we have below. So even though it's a trending audio, the trending audios can be added to original content ideas to help give them a boost. So let me move down to that.
Helen:Before I do, I was gonna say this week in the studio what we're doing, which is a live Zoom session, the lip sync challenge. I shared a bunch of content tips already, yesterday. So everybody that's in there is getting a lot of daily help, daily suggestions, daily guidance, daily instruction. And I'm also addressing when they when someone asks me how to use a certain idea for their niche, I'm actually giving the ideas. So it's like personalized help without paying for personalized 1 on 1 instruction.
Helen:So if you want in 15% off this week, please click the link and I'll put the link in the show notes. Okay. Next, original content ideas. The first one is to think about something that you had either had as an experiential gift or an experience that you have enjoyed that you might want a gift to someone. So that can be a lot of things.
Helen:Like, you can think about, oh, I one time, I did a cooking class. I'm like, that would be a great gift for so so and so relative who likes to cook. Or I did, I know there's an upcoming concert or concerts can be can be pricey, but, like a book signing event that you know about, and then you invite you invite someone to do that experience with you. Or maybe you like doing house tours. Not I was a fan of house tours, but, you know, everybody loves different things.
Helen:So if you wanna go take you know, plan a house tour and then invite your friend, like, that could be the gift, a day together with lunch and a house tour. So doing things doing gifts that are experiential are are really nice because it's something more creating a bigger memory than just a thing, an object, you know, a gift like so or like a mug. I do like my mug gifts. Anyway, so think about that. And, by the way, if you're thinking about that, you could gift the studio to someone.
Helen:So if you are a member of the studio and you want to gift it, we have gift options. And I'll put the link to the gift options. So you can gift somebody 1 month, 3 months, or 6 months. And this is great for the content creator friend that is trying to doesn't understand how to make videos or can't think strategy wise or can't figure out how to work within their niche or find their niche. Great, great gift for a content creator instead of getting them a tripod that they might have 5 tripods already.
Helen:So think about that as a an experiential gift that you might wanna gift someone. But you can make content about whatever experiential gift you might enjoy. And then somebody that relates might enjoy it as well, and you could find yourself with a little viral video. The next one is holiday decorations. So 'tis the season for festive decor.
Helen:Show off how you are deck decking the halls for the holiday season. You could create a time lapse video. You can shoot put your camera on a tripod and run time lapse, or you can do it as a series of photos. Like snap the first photo as the tree is being put up. Snap the second photo as it's up.
Helen:Snap the 3rd photo as the lights are on. Snap the 4th foot. You can do it in photos and then show that photo as a slideshow. You can do it in time lapse so you can watch it happening. You're around decorating.
Helen:Or you can just do it, film it, and then you can cut it together in pieces. So that's doesn't have to be running in fast motion. It can just be cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts of the process. It's a nice easy one, and you can use that music we just mentioned that's trending on Instagram. There's lots of music choices below in the newsletter you can grab, so enjoy some holiday decoration, process in your make content about it.
Helen:And then the last one we have for you is post thanksgiving blues, because our US based creators after that holiday of eating and friends and family and then you have to get into, like, the chaos of Christmas shopping. Sometimes you could have, you could be a bummer. So maybe create a showcase that shows your feelings about purse post Turkey Day as this creator that we shared in the newsletter did about returning to the office after a holiday. So you can have fun with any of the trends that we mentioned above, and you can use it in a holiday manner. Any trend can be skewed in any direction that you choose.
Helen:So just keep an open mind. It doesn't have to be done exactly the way every other creator has done it. That's the key. It doesn't have to be like everyone else. It could be a totally different take on the trend.
Helen:Now, for today's feature tutorial, it is how to do a really good lip sync. Let's see. Did I post another tutorial this week? I think I did. Hold on.
Helen:Let me take a quick peek at my phone and see what I did post. Whoopsie. Let's see. Oh, I did post a really good tutorial this week, actually. How to set your phone up to take vertical photos so that you're not cropping your photos every time you try to put them in a social media app or you put a photo in the Instagram story and it cut out to your friends because you filmed it in this you snap the picture in more of the square format.
Helen:You can set your phone to always default to the phone screen size, then you never lose anybody in your photos unless you want to, in which case, crop them out. I'm telling you, this one is an iPhone tool, handy tool that everybody should know is in there. Because how many times do I get asked on the street, oh, would you take this picture for us of some tourists? And I hold their phone up. I'm like, oh my god.
Helen:I can't even bear it because it's they're they're taking the picture and it's like the square. And they let's say they wanna post it on social media. They're gonna lose people in the photo. My goodness. So I'm very obsessed on that.
Helen:So how to format your how to set up your phone so it always takes your phone in vertical format. It's a clutch tutorial. Please watch it. Please, I beg of you to watch that one. And then the other one which is how to do a lip sync.
Helen:If you're trying to do a quick lip sync, there's a swift and easy tactic you can use to do it and make sure you nail it. So watch the watch the tutorials today, they're both really, really good. Okey dokey. Let me see. Were there any questions I was gonna answer today?
Helen:Yes. I was asked a question in the studio that I think is important for everyone to know. And her question was this is true Greta. Love her. Her question was, how come I'm filming my videos in TikTok and and I'm editing them in TikTok, and then when I post them, I'm getting black on the top and the bottom of my video?
Helen:So I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you exactly what I told Greta. If you are putting text on the screen because some smarty pants guru on social media told you to do this, type the text and then slide it off, so you can't see it. SEO will recognize the text blah blah blah blah blah. They love to give the advice, but they don't know the ramifications of the advice.
Helen:When you do that, the platform is going to shrink your video down. And my why I think it's happening, technically, is that the platform's post sees a video and the text isn't on the screen, so it's trying to help you by making your video smaller to get that text in. But it obviously can't do it because you've slide slid it so far off. So I think there's something in doing the sliding of the text that's telling the platform, make the video a little smaller. And that's why the video is getting black on the top of the bottom.
Helen:So please don't slide your text off. You are better off taking your text, whatever it is that you wanna put on the screen, SEO, etcetera, and put it in your lower caption. And I noticed that on my videos, I get categorized by usually a phrase or a word that is in the first sentence of my caption. That seems to be consistent with my videos, so I'm sharing that learning with you. Maybe put the most important thing in the first sentence of your lower caption.
Helen:This way it'll get picked up by the algorithm. You could also put that text on screen and it will pick that up. Seems like the order of pickup is first it takes it from the text on screen. But if you don't want any text on the screen, then put the text in the lower caption in the first sentence. It seems to be that's what how it works.
Helen:So that is my update for today, and I wish you a happy 1st week of December. May it be filled with holiday cheer and joy and shopping. Not too much shopping, not too much spending. Try and enjoy the moments and think about experiences to give people versus just another thing that's gonna go sitting on their table or in their closet. I really, really am a fan of gifts that keep on giving.
Helen:So try and do that for others, and I think you would enjoy it if you received it. So think about yourself as the recipient as you're looking for your gift to give someone. And that's my advice for the holiday shopping, and I hope I listen to my own advice. It's not likely. Have a good week.
Helen:And if you're in the studio, I'll see you shortly.