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Social media updates, trend alerts, original content ideas, music/audio suggestions, tutorials and more!
Welcome to the socialized forecast, September 10th. Happy Tuesday. Hope you had a nice weekend and that your week is off to a good start. I want to kick off by reminding you that on Friday, we had a really, really interesting podcast where we had a guest, Maayan Gordon, talking to us about community building and how to do paid communities. So if you have an audience, even if it's not huge, if it's certain niches, they will really benefit from offering a paid community option.
Helen:It's a good thing for you so that way you can grow and have some income from your content that can help you get help. So you can delegate some things if that's something you'd like to do, But it's also a way of creating something that's more special for your followers. So please listen to that if you have not. Even if it's something you're not thinking about doing right now, there's a lot of learning in there. And Maayan is also very, very well versed in LinkedIn.
Helen:And so she woke me up to my LinkedIn profile and some things that needed fixing. And I immediately went to my LinkedIn profile after I saw that she had offer she offers, like, a PDF, which gives you a walk through. I forget what it's called, but it gives you a walk through of how to fix your profile. And so I went right on it as soon as I knew that she had that. So I will put that in the newsletter and in the show notes that you can access it because I do think it's really, really helpful, and I already feel good about my LinkedIn profile update.
Helen:Alright. And then the next thing I wanna talk about before I get into the trends is a question. And I'm gonna answer a question at the beginning instead of the end today just because it is a significant question that requires a bit more fleshing out in terms of an answer. And I thought it would be good to start it off with that since I'm not gonna spend as much time talking about each trend. The question came from someone who likes to do somewhat scripted content.
Helen:They like to plan what they're going to say, but they're stressing out because they can't seem to get through it smoothly without feeling like they're reading. And so I'm gonna actually reframe the question to say, is scripted content stressing you out? And I'm gonna explain how I do things so that it's organized and it's concise, and it might seem like it's scripted. A lot of people think I script my content when I'm doing a tutorial, but I don't actually do it. But here is how I do my videos when I have things to say and I have bullet points I want to make sure I don't miss.
Helen:So rather than writing a script and putting up a teleprompter app and and really reading, which is certainly an option and you can do something like that if you want. But what I like to do is make a bullet point list of the points that I know I need to cover. And then I take it 1 by 1, and I don't worry about getting it perfect all the way through. I do bullet point number 1, and then I take a pause, and then I look at the notes, and then I wrap my head around it, and then I continue with bullet point number 2. Get that one done to my liking, take a pause, but I keep the video rolling.
Helen:You can either tap start stop and start each time and then string them together, or you can let it roll as one long video, which is how I do it. And then I just simply put it in an edit app, and then I cut out the part in between when I'm thinking and looking at my notes. So I think that a lot of people think you have to power through and get it perfectly every time, or they they don't think about editing in that way. They don't realize that you can cut, cut, cut right through your scene with your face talking every time. But I will caution you that if you do this, be very mindful not to chop your words.
Helen:And I know there are some creators that are teaching things on this app. They're like tips sharing tips and sharing knowledge, And their videos have chopped words at the beginnings and at the ends, and it's so hard to listen to. So even if you're good at what you're doing and you feel confident in your performance, make sure when you edit, you're not wrecking it by bad editing. So there's people who can do really good speaking and then there's people that can do really good editing. You wanna try and combine both skills.
Helen:So that way you can speak concisely, take your break, continue talking, take your break, and get your thoughts out, but then just cut out the dead space in between. So that's my advice for scripted content. Just make sure you're recording in chunks and then you're cleaning it up in your editing. I do have a workshop that was a vlog workshop where we talked about how to make a vlog and cut pieces together. So that I might be something that would be good to go back and look at.
Helen:I'll link that in the show notes and in the newsletter. I think that might be worth taking a look at if you're somebody who's not confident in editing editing those types of things. That will really help you. Alright. Let's get into the trends for this week.
Helen:The first one is a TikTok trend. Slow down, Savannah. This one's just heating up. It's a really fun lip sync audio. And this idea is that you pretend you're talking to someone who either asks you a question that you don't wanna answer or they suggest something that you don't wanna do.
Helen:So you could take this to say, I'm gonna save money, and the person asks, why did you go shopping? I'm gonna get in shape. And then the person asks, let's go to the gym. And then you're like, slow down. I don't wanna go to the gym because it's slow down, Savannah.
Helen:Another one might be, I'm gonna start posting regularly on social media for my business. And then the person asks you, oh, great. Let's make a content calendar. And you're like, slow down, Savannah. So those are some ways to use it.
Helen:The idea is that someone's you're pumped up about something, someone suggests something, and you're like, no. Thanks. Not yet. Slow down. That's the first one.
Helen:The second one is the ding dong trend. This one is very easy too. You can grab a friend or do it by yourself. The idea is that you're breaking down a door to get to something really quickly. So you can use this to mean your customers are running because you have an item on sale if you wanna use this for your business.
Helen:Your friends running because you have some tea to spill. Your parents mentioned they're going on a vacation, so you break down the door to get in to get on get in on their vacation. Your kids mentioned they're gonna go to they're gonna make a holiday meal. And so you as a parent are like, oh, yes. And you're breaking down the door to get into their house for the holidays.
Helen:Your boss mentions that they'll be happy hour Fridays. So you are breaking down the the play you're breaking through to get to happy hour on a Friday. So this is a nice easy one. It's the idea is that there's something you're trying to get to and you wanna get to it quickly. Alright.
Helen:Now let's get into the Instagram trends. The first one is, you'll remember it from TikTok, the you're not fun trend where you're screaming or something's going on and you're screaming you're not fun. So another I use this to say when I meet people who aren't on social media and then I scream you're not fun because I have nothing to talk about. There's lots of different ways that you can use this one. You can, click on the audio and take a look at the different ways you can use it.
Helen:It's a really easy one. And it's also fun because when you scream, when you do you're not fun, you can shake your camera and make it really frenetic. So it's a nice creative one. The other one is how am I supposed to live, laugh, and love in these conditions? And this is a lip sync audio for Instagram users who wanna make a funny video showing us off a scenario that you don't love and then lip syncing and adding the titles to why.
Helen:So you maybe you don't love Mondays. Maybe you don't love vacations over. Maybe you don't love summers over and you have to wear a coat. Or maybe it's fall, but it's still 90 degrees. So you wanna not you want to wear your warm clothes, but you can't.
Helen:Maybe the restaurant is out of your favorite dish. So you have some some suggestions on how to use it there. And now to move through, our next editing workshop is editing 111, editing 111. And in this one, I'm gonna actually show how to do conversation videos. And I just think this one's gonna be really fun because a lot of people want to comment on a video and they wanna show it on the screen and then pause it and then comment on it and then let it play again.
Helen:I get asked this so many times that I'm actually going to make a workshop dedicated to it and show you how to do that. So it's back and forth videos. That's what we're gonna cover. It's very specific. So if you're interested in that, sign up for this workshop.
Helen:It's gonna be a fun one. Now let's get into original content ideas. We've got back to school. Hard to believe. Sort of sad.
Helen:And I will say one thing about the back to school and when the seasons change and when things are happening in current events, it does affect your for you page. And so if you have content and you're like, oh, I'm gonna I wanna put this content out, but you know, okay. Right now, your for you feed is full of a current event that's happening or something dramatic in the news that's happening, traumatic, whatever. You wanna make sure that you hold off on your content because a lot of times that floods the for you page, and then your content will not get out there. So I I just want you to think about current events as it relates to your posting.
Helen:I know a lot of times we don't think about it. You're just in your own world, and I'm gonna post this. And that's I will say I'm guilty of that. I I I don't always worry about current events because I'm not concerned about views. But if you're a person who is concerned about views, you want to be mindful of current events.
Helen:You could take the other side of it the way I do and say, I don't care. I'm gonna be the one that's out there that's not talking about this one current event. That doesn't bother me in the least if my views are low. But if it bothers you, then just be thinking about that. So the idea was here is that if you're it's back to school season, so you can show off your favorite back to school items.
Helen:You can show off your school morning routine, whether you're in college, high school, whether it's your kids that are going to school or whether you're thankful that you don't have to go to school and you're getting ready for work. You can take this however you like. It's original content idea. I always say every trend started with starts with someone's original content idea. So just be creative and have your own good time with your content.
Helen:The next one is called scroll break, and I like this. This is Julie's idea that we don't have to tell you there's a lot going on in the world. So take a minute and create a piece of content that provides a scroll break for everyone. So that means if everyone's talking about one thing similar to what I just said before, I'm still gonna post a tutorial. If everyone's on the subject of whatever, it's football and something happens in a football thing and that becomes a trending piece of piece of theme on the for you page, you don't have to hop on it.
Helen:You could do something totally different. Be the scroll break. Like, you could be the non demure the non demure content, for example. And then the last idea is a really good one. Recreate an old post.
Helen:That doesn't mean repost an old post. That means make it over again. If you had a video that did really well, consider making it again. Taking that piece of that piece of content, that idea, change it up. New music, maybe a new way of doing it.
Helen:Maybe you look a little different now. I always laugh laugh because I go back to my old videos when I had long hair. And I think, oh, whenever I somebody comments on one of those videos, I realize it's so old, but it still shows up once in a while. So I should take that and remake it with my new shorter hair. So you can evolve your content and make it over again.
Helen:And usually content that did well the first time around will do well again. Alright. Let's talk about tutorials. The first one I'm putting in here, and I talked about it last week, is the hug trend. So I did finally get around to recording it, and it's still going.
Helen:So if you're hearing this, you might be at the end of it by the time this gets released or maybe it's gonna keep going. I it's you never know with these trends. It's pretty hot right now as of this recording, But maybe by the time this recording gets posted, it's gonna be a little bit on its way out. But take a look at it and decide if you think it's fun for you. It's a bit involved, and it does involve going to an AI website.
Helen:And a lot of people are complaining that they have to pay for it. I didn't have to pay for the website. I just did a little join thing and it didn't charge me anything, and I was able to do it. But it's not worth the headache if it's too much of a struggle. But if you are interested, the tutorial is there for you.
Helen:The other one is an Instagram tutorial, which is about notes. So there's new features, to add notes to posts and reels and to add notes to stories, and I really like it. So I thought I don't know. I just think it's different, and it's something where, number 1, on reels, it shows you what people are saying without you having to go to the comments. So that's kind of fun.
Helen:And on a story, sometimes you don't wanna put a caption on something, but you want you want you wish there was a lower caption of something that you can say. And this is like being able to add a lower caption on your story. I kinda like it. I thought it was interesting. So those are your tutorials for today.
Helen:And music suggestions, as always, you can find those in the newsletter. Okay. Before I leave you, I will answer a couple of questions that are shorter, and one of them is how to repost on TikTok without doing a duet or a stitch. And there is a very simple solution here where you can press the arrow on a video and there's a little yellow thing that says repost, and you can just tap that and it reposts it to your followers. So it shares it to your followers.
Helen:It doesn't put it on your feed, so it won't show up as one of your videos. But if you tap if you look across the top of your feed, there is a little, double arrow thingy that like circular arrow thing, and that will show videos that you reposted. And if it's visible to others, other people will be able to see the videos that you've reposted as well, but you can make that private. So that's question number 1. Question number 2 was interesting because it's tips on how to grow a following and start a podcast.
Helen:So I thought that was a funny one since we just did the podcast episode. So I'm gonna just put that here and say, there is an episode about how to start a podcast, which you can go and listen to, and I gave a lot of great detail in how to do that. So that's number 1. And how to grow a following is really to just post consistently with some value. So I I beg you to think of why you wanna follow people.
Helen:What makes you hit the follow button? Because it's so hard to get followers now. It's not as easy as it was when these apps were first released and everybody was so excited to be on them. The minute you'd see somebody you like, you would hit follow because you thought you weren't gonna see them again. But now the algorithms are so smart that they're feeding you the content you need, so you don't have to hit the follow button.
Helen:And so it becomes harder to, as a creator, to gain followers. So that being said, once in a while, you wanna make sure you're putting out content that gives some kind of value to your audience, your viewers, that they might be more likely to hit the follow button. So what you have to do is think about what makes you hit the follow button and then decide if that's if there's content that you can make that would give someone else that same feeling. I did notice something. And I'm gonna ask the question now.
Helen:This is gonna be a question for you, so feel free to answer it. But I've noticed on TikTok in particular that a lot of people are saying now specifically, watch this all the way through and save it for later. And they're saying this at the beginning of their videos now. And I know this is a quote strategy, but I'm gonna say that when I hear it as a viewer, it's I'm inclined to not watch it and to not save it because I don't like to be told what how to treat the content. Like, watch this all the way through and save it for later.
Helen:Okay. Don't tell me what to do. I don't know. I don't care for it. I know some people might say, oh, yeah.
Helen:Good idea. I'll save it for later, and they might hit the save button. I mean, maybe it's a strategy. I've never done that on content. I've never specifically told given my audience direction to do something.
Helen:It doesn't feel mothership esque. It doesn't feel like core to my, I guess, my North Star somehow. I feel like I'd rather offer you something where you'd want to save it. So what I do instead, and here's a way of doing it in a not direct way that could actually turn someone off. So I will say in the video the things that I'm going to cover.
Helen:I try and say it upfront. So I'll say, for example, I'm gonna I'm gonna show you how to put something on the screen when you want to talk about it. I'm also in this video gonna tell you how to put it behind you and how to put it fully in front of you. So I tell my audience upfront that this video is gonna cover x y and z before I go through it. And this, I find, is the most successful way to get people to save your video for later.
Helen:Because if they don't have time to watch it all the way through, you might present something in the beginning of your video that makes them think, oh, I don't have time to watch this right now, but I'm gonna save it, and I'm gonna watch it later. So you're better off instead of asking people to watch it all the way through and save it, You're better off giving them the reason to watch it all the way through later or save it. You know what I mean? So it's a softer way of getting people to save it and encourage them to watch it all the way through at a time when it's right for them. So I'm gonna leave you with that thought because I do think that it's a little bit more pleasant when someone provides that type of, kickoff to their video versus telling you to watch and save something.
Helen:I'd love to know what you think. Comment right back. Whatever. Leave it drop a comment in the, in the the notes here. You can reply to the newsletter, whatever you want to, or hit the submit question button and tell me what you think.
Helen:That's it for today. Have a nice week, and I'll see you on Friday. Bye.