Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Free newsletter for social media content creators!
Social media updates, trend alerts, original content ideas, music/audio suggestions, tutorials and more!
Welcome to the socialized forecast, Tuesday, July 16th. And I'm still recording from Croatia. I've moved from Zagreb to Dubrovnik and now I'm on the island of Hvar and I will be meeting up with a TikTok follower friend who has been we've been connected for a while on the app and she lives here on the island. So tonight, I'm going to be seeing her and she's gonna give me a whirlwind tour of the island and, of course, we will be making collaborative TikToks together. So I'm really looking forward to that.
Helen:So a little bit about why I'm here before I get started on the trends for the week. I have actually been hired to film TikToks for a brand, a hair color brand, and the whole shoot has been here in Croatia. It was in Zagreb. I think we say it Zagreb. Anyway, really, really hot intense week of shooting.
Helen:And when I say hot, the temperature here has been off the charts heat wave just like we're having the heat wave in many other areas of the country in for sure in New York. I know there's a heat wave too that I'm missing. But it is so intensely hot. And then, of course, we're in these shoot locations and production studios where the air conditioning is not crisp like the New York air conditioning that I'm used to. So it's been an intense week of work with the heat and with very little relief.
Helen:We shot at a beautiful villa. It was stunning. Again, no air conditioning and barely a breeze coming through that villa. So it was a really intense week of heat, but also really fun working with some incredible people. I got to meet some very unique models, influencers, just really cool.
Helen:And the reason why I wanna mention this and give you a little more detail about it is that I have always shot commercials. And so you might say, oh, you've had a great fun job and all of that. Yes. I worked very hard for my career to be where I am today. But I would never have had this opportunity to film hair care products or, look, sometimes I'm on skin care now.
Helen:Never would have had this opportunity if it wasn't for TikTok because I'm hired for my commercial work, for testimonials, for interviews and that type of content. But because of my TikTok expertise, because I'm I've made myself a platform here where I am an expert, I mean, I'm teaching it, I'm explaining it, I'm strategizing my own content. I have 1,100,000 followers on TikTok. So because of my credibility here, I am now being hired for work that I would never have had the opportunity to be hired for. And I really wanna I need to emphasize that because a lot of people think, oh, I'm not gonna I can't make money on TikTok or I can't monetize my account because they're trying to maybe sell things.
Helen:Not there's not only one way to monetize your expertise on social media. It really can come from other avenues. And I can't emphasize that enough. So even though you might think I mean, from my account, I'm not seeing dollar signs in the TikTok rewards program or whatever the heck that is. I barely make any money from views.
Helen:So I but I've made money from opportunities that have come from TikTok. So I think it's really important to emphasize that you don't have to be specifically monetizing your views. You can actually find another way to monetize by sharing your expertise and becoming known for your craft. I really love it. I had a great week there, then moved on to Dubrovnik where my husband met up with me and we did a little tour there again.
Helen:Intense heat, very hot, so we really had to get out of the city and now we're on the coast in Havar and it's much more breezy, although still a heatwave. But it's been really fun and I just wanna make sure that I talk about it because I think that, I don't know, we just so many people are like, how do I make money? And and they think that I'm, you know, getting 1,000,000 of dollars from views on TikToks. And so that's just not the case. My TikTok rewards program has just peaked at $28100 and that's from months of viral videos on this platform.
Helen:So no. I'm not making a lot of money on TikTok from the rewards program. Am making money from projects that I'm getting that I get to go do that I would not have done before. So that's exciting. The other thing I wanna touch on, which is important and relevant to content creators, is that I have had to find a way to continue my content going while I'm working on my shoot, continue this podcast, record with a mobile microphone right now, in a hotel room, wherever I can find a spot and I just keep it going.
Helen:And the mindset there is really just to not overthink it. I literally was first going, I guess I have to make the bed because I didn't I didn't want to have it look messy behind me. For example, I was in a spot in an airport lounge, which I'm never in an airport lounge because I don't have a membership to one of those, but the ticket lady, for some reason, gave me a free pass to go in. So I was in an airport lounge making a video one of the days. I'm just not overthinking it.
Helen:I've always been like this, where I know I have to get something done. Let me think. How can I do it right now? And I'll look around at my scenario. Okay.
Helen:I'm gonna take out my microphone. Okay. I've got my stylus. I've got my phone. Let's go.
Helen:I have a little tripod in my bag, usually always in my backpack. Somebody did ask me if I record with a selfie stick when I do my on the go dance videos around the city or whatever. I do not use a selfie stick. When I'm doing my own personal videos, I only just hold the phone with my hands. When I'm doing content like this, I have a tripod sitting in front of me.
Helen:When I'm doing tutorials, I have a tripod because I need 2 hands. But when I'm on the go, I don't carry a tripod. I ask someone to hold the phone and film me for a second when I wanna do a dance video or I prop the phone up somewhere if I don't see anybody in the area. So you don't have to have gear. You don't have to overthink that.
Helen:There's I just think we need to all get out of the mindset of perfection. And so many people wanted to be perfect. And I'm guilty of this. I wanted the background to look nice. So I straightened up and took my clothes off the bed.
Helen:I mean, I really I make an effort to make it look nice, but I don't overthink that I can't be in this hotel room filming this podcast right now. So those are my tips for the beginning of the pod. Let's just jump into the trends right now. The first one is a very simple dance trend, It's a Bratz Summer. The, Charli XCS's new album.
Helen:And why this is picked is because the dance moves are so easy. You barely have to dance. So anybody could do this trend if you're not not a dancer. What's funny is in the in the on the island here tonight or last night, I did a dance trend, which was this windmill trend. Well, that's a little more aggressive.
Helen:So we're not putting that one in the newsletter because we want the newsletter to be welcoming of everybody who would be able to try something. But if you're a little more of an aggressive dancer, we will link that little windmill one into the show notes here, so you can see what I did there. And it's a fun little trend where you do this windmill thing with your arms. And a lot of people say they're going to throw their shoulder out doing it, but I'm pretty limber. So I gave it a shot and I ended up having some people behind joining in, which was completely random and I loved it.
Helen:It doesn't usually happen in New York. People in New York tend to ignore you when you're doing a dance on the street, but people here joined in which is so much fun. The next trend I've seen all over my for you page. So this was a really good pick. It's called the nostalgic filter and it's where you just grab one video, you tap on the CapCut template and it takes the look of your video on the beat and it transforms into more of a nostalgic vibe.
Helen:I've seen it again and again. It keeps coming up on my my feed. So I think it's worth a shot. Pick a video out of your phone. I'll probably do it today myself.
Helen:It's a good one for content on the go, so you don't have to film something new. You can take something already out of your phone and those are always helpful when you're having a busy week. So that's a great one. And the last one is this is funny. This is an Instagram trend right now.
Helen:So it's trending on Instagram. I could not find a matching I saw the audio on TikTok but it doesn't seem to be trending. At least I couldn't find where it's trending on the audio side. But on Instagram it is trending, so I'd say go for it and grab this audio and you do a little lip sync and this is a perfect way to highlight your business. You can I was thinking about doing it?
Helen:The line is, I can make your life so much easier and so much cooler if I gave you a makeover. So that's the line, but it's a meme. So you're gonna do, if I gave you a makeover could mean if I taught you how to do TikTok, if I helped you organize your house. So whatever your expertise is, that's the thing that you're going to be teaching your audience that you can make their life so much cooler and easier if they either subscribe to your service or purchase your course or whatever it is that you're offering. And for me, it's my free lessons.
Helen:So that's what I'll probably do with this one. Okay. So that's the 3 trends for this week, nice and easy. The next thing to mention is that we do have the expert workshop coming up. I am getting good traction on this workshop.
Helen:So I do think people need to know about the influencer agent side of life. More people need influencer agents. There's more agents popping up. So this will be an exploratory about what to look for in an agent and what agents look for in creators. Now I gotta tell you this is the inside scoop too.
Helen:So I booked this person, Joanna, for the podcast and she is the agent of Lorraine. And if you remember, Lorraine Laddish was on one of our former workshops as an expert. She's been an influencer monetizing for 10 plus years now, I believe, on Instagram. She's got a big following. She does sponsorships and she makes a full time living from that.
Helen:So her agent actually Her agent and I connected and Lorraine even suggested that I have her on the podcast. And I was like, great idea Lorraine because she's always thinking. And I contacted Joanna and we are going to have her on the podcast. This is July 30. We're going to record it as a live workshop and then it will be a podcast, just the way, same way I do all the expert workshops.
Helen:But here's where it gets funny. I was connected with her and then on Instagram, Lorraine saw that I was gonna be in Croatia and she thought, oh, my agent's gonna be in Croatia. That's funny. Forwards my Instagram story to Joanna and Joanna says, why are you going to Croatia? I'm going there too.
Helen:She's going there for a vacation. I'm going there for work. It turns out, her colleague was on the chute with me. She was supposed to be on the chute, but because she had a vacation plan, she couldn't be on the chute. So what a small world that the person who is coming on my podcast at the end of July was actually gonna be on my shoot here in Croatia of all places.
Helen:It's crazy. So that was my first random crazy contact on this shoot. Now, for random crazy contact number 2, it gets even funnier. I've been working with a client and I love him. His name is John Carlucci.
Helen:I work with him on NFL projects. I've worked with him on bank commercials. He's he's so lovely. I've been working with him 10 plus years also. And it turns out that his niece was on the shoot as one of the influencer agency colleagues from the representing the agency.
Helen:It was the craziest thing that 2 people completely unconnected to me even knowing that they would be on the shoot, but somehow, I'm connected to them in real life, ended up on my production. I can't get over it. So that's where I am. I had to tell you that little small world moment that just blew my mind. But that was a lot of fun.
Helen:Alright. Now, sign up for the workshop because it's gonna be a good one. Okay. Next, original content ideas. So first is consider making some employee focused content.
Helen:If you are a business and you have been always worried about promoting and selling and doing, you know, business, that kind of thing, consider doing one where you highlight your employees or your your co owners or whoever are in your business. The key people who are making maybe running it, the key players day to day, your coworkers, whatever it is. That would be a fun piece of content and it would change up what you're normally doing because likely you're not maybe putting your, let's say, accountant on screen. But that might be a really fun thing to do. And there's a lot of fun trends that do those things where you put little titles under.
Helen:So you can maybe make your own trend where you put titles under and tell what each person's expertise is or maybe what their personality is or their special quirk. You could do a piece of content where you're doing favorite foods in the office and you share everybody's favorite food. All things like that are very relatable and people will connect with, oh, I know. My accountant loves the same thing. My bookkeeper does she eats the same chips or whatever it is.
Helen:So you could do something really by accident that's very relatable by doing something like that. The next one is a list of tips. Try making a carousel post sharing a list of tips about your niche that would help someone that's just getting started. So we did include a creator's post who's saying sharing tips on how to grow on TikTok and it's not me. So maybe take someone else's advice and see what that is.
Helen:I always say, absorb the advice, but don't necessarily take it literally. Sometimes, certain people's advice won't apply to you. If I'm giving advice on how to film in public, that might not be your thing. You might just not wanna do it. So you don't have to take my advice.
Helen:You can do your regular videos. You don't have to follow the advice of every single person. That's the biggest mistake people make on TikTok especially is they think the gurus have all the answers on how to grow and they're gonna do every single thing that these people say and they don't necessarily those aren't necessarily things that are gonna make you grow. So just take it lightly and take suggestions as suggestions, not mandates. Alright?
Helen:The last one is sharing a summertime fun story about something that happened to you in the summer, like I just shared about my coincidences on the shoot. That's crazy. I'm not going to share that in a story time, but I'm almost knocking over my tripod while I'm talking. So this is fun. I'm kicking it by mistake.
Helen:Alright. So that's a fun thing that you can do, is think about something that happened this summer, some crazy thing. I got on my account the other day and I was I fell asleep on the ferry getting to this island. And I had such an intense dream that when I woke up, I was so disoriented because I was in such a deep sleep. So that would I would love to tell that as a story time because I literally got off the the ferry thinking I just got off a train when it was actually a boat because I was in such a deep sleep.
Helen:Only me. You can ask my husband. I sleep very deeply on trips, sometimes on planes and trains. Alright. Now, the next thing is the tutorial.
Helen:So my tutorial for this week was about recording in public and tips for recording in public. So if this applies applies to you, I gave really nice tips for how to record in a public place, how to make a video and all of that. So let me share a little tip with you. This isn't even a tip. This goes beyond the video tutorial.
Helen:I gave you the tips in the tutorial 123. I'm gonna give you the bonus insight right now which is you are the main character in your life. Think about it. You go around your life, this person, that person, you see this, you see maybe somebody, oh, cool outfit. You're like I think of this as those are your extras.
Helen:The people that you see as you're passing on the street, the person who serves you a coffee, the person you encounter when you're checking out at a at a grocery store. They are, in a sense, your extras and you are the star of your life. So in the same way, these people are around you when you're, let's say, filming in public. They are in their life, and you are simply an extra in their life. So I look at it like this.
Helen:Last night, I was on the coast and I decided I wanted to do this dance, this windmill dance and I'm like, I'm just gonna do it. I gave my husband the phone. I'm like, here, record me. I'm gonna try this thing. And I was practicing it prior just so I could get the windmill right, at least I wanted to.
Helen:And I said, let me just record this. I could see people sitting there right literally right next to my husband. Did I care that they were gonna watch me do this thing? No. Because I'm just an extra in their life.
Helen:They are in their moment. They're eating ice cream, whatever the heck they were doing. They were sitting on this little ledge. And I said I'm gonna do this right now and I just jumped up, gave him the phone. The point is every single person that you think is gonna be obsessed with watching you or judging you or whatever, they are their own main character.
Helen:You are your main character. They are just extras in your life that you may never encounter again or maybe you will. The you don't have to worry about them. The point is you just have to get inside your own head that they are living their life. They are in their main character energy.
Helen:And so you doing something and you're dancing and you're being silly, it's gonna be a 3 second thought, even if they are going to judge you. Think about it like the go worst case scenario, the person is judging you. Okay. For 30 seconds, they judged you. On they go.
Helen:Do you think they're talking about when you when they get home to their family? Maybe they were talking about the crazy lady who danced. Okay. That's fine too. Who cares?
Helen:It's just you are just an extra in their scene. So if you can get into that headspace, people people's judgments won't matter to you. Okay? Bonus tip for this week. And that's gonna take the place of me answering questions because I am pressed for time.
Helen:I'm gonna wrap it up here now and I do have to record Friday's episode before I leave this hotel because I'm gonna be traveling and won't be able to record Fridays and I have it all ready. So I'm gonna record that next. So I'm gonna say, cheerio for today. Have a great week. And I'll and on Friday, you can tune back in when I'm going to share the entire layout of thinking on Instagram.
Helen:And so for my Instagram folks, I'll see you on Friday and anybody else who's interested. Thanks for listening. Have a great day. Bye. Adios from Ciate, Croatia.