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Happy Friday, and welcome to the socialized strategy. Today's topic is probably another one of my favorites because we're gonna talk about TikTok, a full debrief. And the reason we're diving into TikTok is if you remember recently, we did a full on Instagram debrief where I went through all the features, the ways that you can think about Instagram and a kind of a deep dive on Instagram. And I don't wanna leave TikTok out of that discussion because I do think there are a lot of new listeners that we have that maybe are new to TikTok. I know that when I released the course, it was really, really helpful for a lot of people.
Helen:And then when I have an influx of new people in the Tik Tok course, that means I have an influx of new people into the newsletter. And so welcome if you're new to the course and just finished it, and you're now hearing these podcasts and you're viewing the newsletter. So I'm gonna do a nice little TikTok overview debrief. I'm not gonna do a sales pitch and say, get on TikTok. If you are are into Instagram and that's what you love, go with what you love.
Helen:Just think about some of the things that I'm sharing today because a lot of the same mindsets apply across these platforms. So I'm gonna start with frustration being real before I even get into it, because I think that the difficulty for everyone in social media right now is this way of this problem of trying to cut through the clutter. There is so much out there and there's so there are so many new creators that are trying to find their way. And then some of them are, blowing up and then taking over the for you page. And that's fine.
Helen:We love when new creators rise and shine. It's really exciting, but it's also then it becomes a reality that you have more that you're battling to be seen. So it can be so frustrating. And my take on it has always been the fun first mindset, which is making sure you're happy and you like watching your own videos. And if you enjoy that, it's gonna keep you going when the views do the wave.
Helen:You know, you've got your good days and your bad days, and when the waves happening, it's really, really nice to just enjoy your own videos. And sometimes I forget to, I don't know, I wanna say I forget to make content just for myself and I have to make myself do it. So when I'm out and about in New York City and I sometimes I film things and then I even forget to edit them because I'm like, oh, I gotta post a tutorial because I know that's what everyone wants from me on TikTok. So it is kind of fun to remember that the fun things are what are what are gonna keep you going better than what you have to do, whether whether that's for work or what your audience is watching you for. So keep yourself happy for sure in the midst of this.
Helen:Otherwise, you've eventually, you are gonna burn out. It's just a given. It's like the nature of us. I can't believe I'm doing this 4 plus years, and I've not really ever hit a point of burnout. And I think that is so attributed to the fact that I'm enjoying it.
Helen:I'm always enjoying it. And if it does become work, I just let it go for a couple of days and I just say I'm gonna post some fun stuff. And it's really kind of gotten me through. Alright. Let's just dive in and we'll start with what's the deal with TikTok.
Helen:TikTok can be a fickle social media platform as we know. A lot of creators struggle to achieve consistent views and quality engagement, and a lot of us yearn for that era during the pandemic. I know I do. When going viral felt easy, when the trends seemed to be more fun and irreverent, I was seeing way more outfit transitions than I am now. I mean, now I feel like it I'm flooded with cap cut, TikTok shop, taps up cap cut templates, I should say, TikTok shop videos, you know, current events that take over, and then they just don't leave the for you page.
Helen:It's just so it's so much more of a struggle than it was to just the joyful 2020 TikTok as I'll call it. But maybe if you weren't here, then you won't you wouldn't miss it. So you could be at an advantage if you're new. Alright. So let's start with how often should you post on TikTok?
Helen:And the gurus will tell you 3 to 5 times a day. And okay, there could be some truth to that because it gives you more opportunity to have content out there. But are you kidding me? 3 to 5 times a day, I would be burnt out by a in a month's time. It's just not fun for me if I'm thinking that I have to be on that type of a hamster wheel.
Helen:I have enough of a hamster wheel in my own mind where I want to keep my flow going, and I want to make sure I'm putting out a tutorial and then doing my fun videos and then making sure I rotate in the tutorial again. Because as I always say, if you have a page focus that you want your audience to know what your focus is, every few videos should have a post that is in that niche. This way, a new person that finds you doesn't have to scroll through a ton of videos to find your other one that's like that first one they saw. So if you get a lot of views on a certain type of video, for me, it's tutorials. I make sure that every 3rd or 4th video is a tutorial.
Helen:So when a new person comes, they can scroll and they can see quickly. The ones with the labels are tutorials and they can find them very easily. And they don't have to spend a whole lot of time scrolling through, like, 10 family videos to get to a tutorial. So think of that mindset as well because consistency is gonna do you well. And that's why I say you can you can make yourself crazy and try and post 3 to 5 times a day, but I think you will burn out.
Helen:I I've always posted once a day and then when there's days something else happens that I get excited about and I, like, randomly wanna post something else, I do. I don't stop myself and say I'm gonna save this for tomorrow. Sometimes maybe I should, but I don't. Anyway, the the point is that do it how you feel, but do it consistently. So if it's like, I'm gonna post 3 times a week, you're not gonna grow as quickly.
Helen:That's just a fact. But if you are already have growth and that's what you just wanna do to maintain your audience, that is fine. If you really want to get traction, I do recommend you post once a day. Just throw a video up there once a day and see what happens. So that's my advice for that.
Helen:But it's really about what's sustainable because otherwise, you're not gonna keep doing it. And that's a problem. So now let's talk about the types of content you can do on TikTok. Okay. Obviously, video is the format because that's where the platform was born with dancing videos, but it was always 15 second videos in the beginning.
Helen:You always had to fit it into 15 seconds. And then we, I think we had the option to do once it was a minute, I think you could do 15 and then quick quickly thereafter, they did the 60 second format. But I can remember starting out and trying to make a tutorial in 60 seconds. Oh, my God. So when they gave us the 3 minute option, I felt like I was given the gift of life that I could go over that minute, that 60 second mark to teach a lesson.
Helen:Because I don't even know how I was doing it in 60 seconds back then. But it is helpful to have that you can have short content. You can have medium. You can have long. There's 10 minute videos now.
Helen:Some people have an hour. I have an hour videos I could post if I wanted to. So depending on your your what your platform allows you, I guess what the platform allows you, you're gonna have to see what works for you. But I do suggest trying them all. So I did once where I posted a whole podcast on TikTok to see if that would get some traction.
Helen:One other time I posted a whole hour workshop on there. I just test it with my own content. I don't feel scared to test, and you should not feel scared to test either. You can always make a video private. I don't suggest deleting.
Helen:I do suggest tapping the arrow, go to privacy settings and making it private if you want to take something down instead of deleting, because then you can never get it back again if you delete it. If it's private, you could still save it, so you could still have it. Alright. So try it out. See what works for you.
Helen:It's always good to experiment. The other thing we're gonna cover is best strategy for posting videos. So you can focus on consistent and quality consistency and quality. But the other thing is that that what will help you get more engagement is people saving and sharing your videos. So think about the kind of video content you can post that would help you to get those saves and shares.
Helen:So whether it's some kind of a relatable thing or question, something I mean, Julie posted something once. I'll never forget this because it was very I thought it was very niche because it was about living in Chicago. And instead of your glow up being like fashion, it was your glow up in parkas, the different types of warm coats. That video went crazy viral because it was so relatable for people in cold weather climates. So that's a really kind of a good learning exercise to realize that you might be in a niche that is so relatable that a few people are gonna catch on and then start to share it like crazy.
Helen:So I I don't know. Just take that one as a as an idea. But creating the good content, the relatable content, that's what's gonna help you get your views, get your engagement, and grow your following. It's just tough now to get that follow because in 2020 TikTok and 21, 2021 TikTok, it was very easy to get the follow because the feed was not feeding you everything you wanted. So that if you saw somebody and you wanted to see their content again, you couldn't depend on the algorithm sending it to you.
Helen:You had to hit follow. And now even if you don't follow someone, sometimes you see their content over and over again. Think about that. So you don't even need to follow them. You know what's really crazy?
Helen:Oh, my God. I have to stop and say this. Sometimes I get people who comment on my video. Oh, will you show me how to do such and such? Or they'll message me and they'll ask me, can you make a tutorial about such and such?
Helen:Do you know I will tap on their profile and they're not even following me? I mean, the audacity. I can't believe it. Sometimes, I'm like, this person thinks, like, they're gonna come into my my zone, and I'm gonna make them a special video. Meanwhile, they're not even giving you the courtesy of a follow.
Helen:You have to be joking. Sorry. I have to digress for that one, but I just think it's funny Anyway, and I think maybe some of them don't even realize they're not following me. So I'm gonna give them the benefit of the of the doubt, but that's the problem. They're seeing me on there for you page over and over again because they're watching my videos.
Helen:So maybe they think they're following me already. So, it's a problem with an algorithm that we don't need the follow. We don't need to follow to see the content we want. So you have to find a way to get people to follow you. And I don't necessarily think that means saying follow for more because I think people, when you give them direction, they don't actually like to take the direction.
Helen:It's more about giving them a reason somehow subtly of to want them to to get them to wanna come back. So I'll ponder more that more on that and maybe have some strategy thoughts on that in a future episode. Now let's talk about photo posts. So the newer feature on TikTok is this ability to post the photo carousels, And then we think they were they a little bit stole that from the success that photos carousels have on Instagram, and they're trying to everybody's trying to be everyone else on these apps, I guess, a little bit. So whatever.
Helen:If you're a photo person and you love photos, it is a great way to publish quick content if you don't have time to create videos. So consider photo posts. And the best strategy for using photo posts is to share with some text on screen. Create, like, a series of, like, your favorite beauty products, and then maybe have text on screen so people wanna scroll through. And people know with the little dots underneath, they know that that's scroll.
Helen:So it's not like you have to be worried. And there's, I think, there was a point at which the scrolling was almost automatic. You didn't even have to swipe to scroll. I don't I don't even know if that's still a thing because I I swipe so quickly the minute I see it if I wanna get to the next one. But it's a it's a really good way to share content with text and get people to follow a story, if you will, like, through those posts.
Helen:Okay. Speaking of story, TikTok stories. They all TikTok also recently rose rolled out the story feature, which is a clear shot at copying other platforms like Snapchat and Instagram story. But I will say, and there's I it's like 2 things I will say about it. One thing I like and one thing I don't.
Helen:I'll start with the thing I don't like. I don't like that when you reply to a story, just like an Instagram, you get a direct message back. So if someone sorry. If you are a viewer and you're replying to a story, that creator is gonna get a direct message. So it's not showing up in comments like it used to.
Helen:When story was first released, it was a comment section just like posts. And now they changed it so that every time someone comments on a story, it comes up in your direct messages. Now it might be I don't like it because I have a 1000000 followers on TikTok, so therefore the messages are overwhelming. And I don't want the story comments to show up in direct messages. It's not good for me, but I don't mind it in Instagram.
Helen:And I think that's because I have less followers in Instagram, and the people who comment on my stories, they're, you know, I'm kind of they're consistent commenters on my stories, so I feel like they're friends on some level. So maybe it's partly because of the different size followings that I have on the platforms. Maybe that's why I don't like that feature on the TikTok story as much, and you might enjoy it. You might like to get the comments and the direct messages into your direct messages. So I will just say that that's my little pet peeve.
Helen:I don't mind I like to use stories to share my posts now. So I put a little comment, I tap add to story, and then it shows up on my story. So it gives my post, if it wasn't doing so well, it gives it an extra chance to get some more views. So I do think the stories are helpful for that reason. As you know, maybe you don't know, stories only stay up for 24 hours.
Helen:They're only available in the little circle when you tap the circles across the top. And I recently made a story tutorial for TikTok because there was a lot of people asking me questions about how it works. So I'm going to link that in the show notes today for you. Writing it down so I don't forget to have a link story link story tutorial. Before I leave you on stories, I want to just add that I did get a few community violations for sharing my own video to the story.
Helen:So that's why I started using the comment feature to share. Because when I was just sharing it to the story, which the app allows, it was showing me community violations. So I was like, what the heck is up with that? So just try it and see if you get a community violation. Then on the next one, do it as a comment instead of just a regular pressing the arrow and sharing to the story.
Helen:Just a little note in case I don't want anyone to get penalized by doing the story share and then getting a community violation. That would really stink. Okeydoke. So that's why the the thinking on using the story is for me to get more engagement on my already posted videos. But you can also use it in a as an opportunity to share things where you're mentioned in videos.
Helen:And I've done this a lot. When I get mentioned, if someone talks about me in a video and says, oh, the mother shot the mother ship taught me how to do this, and they're thanking me or something, I share that to my story. That's another way to have good socializing in your social media. I love when I accidentally use the word socialize. It's the little things, but it's true.
Helen:It helps you to socialize. It helps you have a way to share other creators who are either doing something that I maybe taught them in a tutorial or maybe they're promote saying, oh, well, this woman's one of my favorite creators. I love when they do that. Then I share that to my story. Maybe there's something I see of Julie's, and I can't I wanna throw a comment on it and share it to the story because she often does videos about the 2 of us.
Helen:And I know that a lot of my fault followers don't see her videos. So I will make a comment, and I will share her video about the 2 of us to my story. So there's lots of different ways. Okay. One more thing I wanna say about TikTok that when we first put this newsletter together for today, I don't even think this was out as a feature yet, and I'm going to do a tutorial about it, but I have the collaborator feature now.
Helen:So on TikTok, just like on Instagram, where you can invite a collaborator so that you can post a video and it's posted, for example, I just did, you know, my niece's wedding, and I made a video for her. And I posted it, and I invited her and her new husband as collaborators. So when they accept it, it shows up on their page as well as my page. And on that video, it says, you know, my name and theirs. So it looks like it was posted on all 3 accounts.
Helen:So guess what? TikTok is now offering this to some creators, and I just got it. So I'm so excited because it's a good one. And when Julie and I are together in the next couple of weeks, we're gonna be on a sailing trip together. We're gonna be able to post content that we can collaborate on, and it'll show up on both of our feeds.
Helen:So I think this is such a win. I've been wanting this for so long. I think I willed it to happen. I remember saying on an early podcast that I love the collaboration feature and that TikTok needs to embrace it. And here it is.
Helen:It's like they heard me. Before I wrap it up, I do wanna say that TikTok is constantly evolving, and it's so frustrating for someone like me who puts out a TikTok course, and then the features change. And all of a sudden now the way you tap activities, you have it doesn't look the same or where to find your privacy settings moves or where to find how to link videos in a caption moves. It is so incredibly frustrating, and it's why I've never printed a TikTok manual because what's the point? It's gonna change every month.
Helen:But this is why tutorials and constantly being able to post new information for you and keeping it going is so important to me because things do change so quickly on all the apps, but it seems like they change faster on TikTok than all the rest. I know that Instagram offers new features, but they don't change and move features as often as TikTok does. So if you are a TikToker and this is one of the things that's frustrating the hell out of you, just know it's a no win situation. It's the way the app is, and we all have different features. I will show a tutorial and someone will say, it doesn't look like that on my phone.
Helen:I have 2 phones and they both look different, and they have I have the same exact phone and the same exact account. So there's no rhyme or reason to it, and there's no winning, and there's no way to figure it out. So don't get yourself all in a spin about it. Just know that you've got to roll with it, which is really hard because some people really like a plan. Lucky for me, I'm a one day at a time person.
Helen:So I just look around and I find where it moved to and move on with my life. Send them here for you, and I will show you each time things move. That's the good news. Alright. I'll leave you with that.
Helen:Have a great weekend, and I'll see you next week. Thanks for being here. I always appreciate it. And hit that little review button and leave me a 5 stars. Thank you so much.