May 16, 2025 • 22 mins
In this episode of The Socialize Strategy, Helen kicks off with her "Unsponsored By" segment, spotlighting two favorite products—a sleek, smartly designed water bottle and a game-changing wireless microphone. Then, she dives into making engagement on Instagram (and beyond) easier and more intentional. From clever comment strategies to the secret power of Instagram’s “favorites” feed, Helen shares practical, heart-forward tips to grow real community and connection on social.
📱 Main Content: Engagement Made Easy (Especially on Instagram):
- Why engagement matters:
- Builds trust, loyalty, and eventually leads
- Even big stars like Lady Gaga engage intentionally
- It's about consistent, intentional effort
- Instagram Favorites Hack:
- Add up to 50 accounts to a "Favorites" list
- View their posts in chronological order (no ads, no algorithm interference)
- Great way to support creators and curate your feed
- Power of Comments:
- Be clever—comments can lead people to your page
- Big creators do read comments
- Helen herself checks out smart or thoughtful commenters
- Comment Section = Content Gold:
- Treat comments as an idea bank
- Respond with videos to keep the momentum going
- Replies to viral video comments often perform well
💬 Engagement Do’s & Don’ts:
- ✅ Leave thoughtful comments (not just emojis!)
- ✅ Save and share videos you like—it's more powerful than just liking
- ✅ Watch full videos to help creators with completion rates
- ✅ Be kind—compliments cost nothing but mean everything
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Helen (00:00):
Welcome to The Socialized Strategy. It's Friday, so we
have our unsponsored by segmentfirst up. And I have two
products I'm gonna share. Thereason I wanna do two today is
one is a personal product andthe other is a tech product,
which I think is important sincethe context of the podcast is
about social media. I I feelit's important to share some
(00:20):
kind of related items, if youwill.
So I'm gonna first talk about myfavorite water bottle, and why I
wanna talk about this isrecently on a workshop, I picked
it up and was using it as anexample. And there were so many
things I was saying about itthat I was realized why I really
like it, and I thought it's agood one to use for this
segment. So maybe they willsponsor me one day soon. Why do
(00:41):
I like this water bottle? Numberone, slim size.
So it fits in most cup holders.It fits in the side of my
backpack perfectly. It has anice lock mechanism so that
you're not accidentally going topop the top and spill the water.
That's great. It locks reallynicely.
When you do unlock it, you canpop it, and now you have either
(01:01):
the option to drink it likeregular water bottle or to sip
it from a straw. I'm not gonnaface it too far because I don't
want it to spill on my computer.But the straw shape is flat. So
this is a huge plus for womenwho are worried about sucking
from a straw and getting smokerslines, which is when you purse
your lips often, the cigarettesmokers pursing their lips, they
(01:24):
would get the lines on theirlips. This forces you to more
flat suck your straw.
So your mouth is not in thatpurse shape. It's more like
this. So your mouth is flat, soyou're not adding to your your
potential lines. Okay. That is amajor one that I like.
The other thing is it unscrewsto fill it, but you don't have
(01:45):
to unscrew the top to fill it.And that's probably one of my
top favorite things about it. Sofor me, it's the straw thing,
and the fact that I don't haveto now unscrew it every time I
wanna fill it. I just can fillit right in this hole in the
sink, and then I can use thestraw. So everything about this
is a 10 out of 10.
Julie hooked me up with this. Ialso like that it's white
(02:06):
because mothership, white andblue. So I really like the
color. The other colors I'm notloving. They have different
funky color combinations.
They have lots of branded ones,like Star Wars brands and such,
but I really like the white andthe size and all the cool
features that I just shared. Sothat is my unsponsored by Owala
(02:27):
brand, o w a l a brand, and itis my go to water bottle. Bingo.
Now for my go to tech item, andI have always used a plug in
microphone to my phone because Isit close to my phone and I
don't need to be able to walkaround and do things. But I
finally jumped into the wirelessmicrophone arena and I after
(02:49):
trying several, especially thoseones on TikTok shop, the cheap
ones, do not bother.
You sound like you'reunderwater. The quality is so
poor. Like, don't even wasteyour time. Like, forget it.
Don't even use a microphone ifthat's what you're gonna use.
Boom. It's a no from me. But Idid find a brand I'm loving, and
it is called Hollyland. What Ilike about this brand is it
(03:10):
comes with two microphones soyou can interview someone, and
it's magnetized. So this littlepuppy goes right on your shirt,
and it magnets on so you cannotyou don't have to be worried
about where you're putting it.
Look at look at how nice thatis. It magnets on. It does have
a logo on the front, but I putblack tape on the front. So the
logo looks like this, and Iblack taped it. So this part
(03:32):
goes inside the shirt.
This is on the front. I love it,and I like that it comes with a
case. My only bummer bummerbummer of it, and they need to
fix this, is that it comes withthese two pieces and they don't
give you a case for the pieces.So this is for the iPhone 14,
this is for the Android oriPhone 16, this is for all the
other iPhones besides thebesides the 16. So you have
(03:53):
these two pieces, really nice.
They do sell one just for theAndroid and that has a slot for
this. But when you get the onewith two pieces, no slot. So I
have to have a separate case andyou know I'm gonna lose these,
but I'm trying really hard notto. But I do love it, and the
brand is Hollyland, and it's theLark m two. Boom.
I don't even have an affiliatelink, but I will put the link to
(04:15):
where you wanna purchase that ifyou have any interest in it.
It's about a hundred andsomething on the low lower
hundred side, like hundred 19.So it's not crazy expensive
compared to some of the higherend microphones, but it's not a
cheap microphone. And it'shonestly worth it. It has not
failed me.
So I'm really, really happy withit. Those are my unsponsored buy
shares for today. Thank you forlistening. Now let's get on to
(04:38):
the content. Today's topic ishow to make engagement easy on
Instagram.
And we're gonna focus onInstagram today because
Instagram does have some nicefeatures for engagement. But if
you are not on Instagram, a lotof these tips, whatever you
wanna call them, a lot of thesestrategy points, they do apply
to TikTok as well, to YouTube aswell. So you can there's just a
(05:01):
couple that are specific toInstagram, but you should follow
along anyway because all thethings that that I'm saying here
really do matter on anyplatform, but it's just that
there's a couple of littlethings for Instagram that we
point out. Okay. So it seemslike sometimes it's impossible
to see posts from people thatyou want to see, And we find
(05:21):
this really frustrating as acreator because we're putting
this content out.
People have chosen to follow usand, like, damn it. They're not
seeing our content, and that'sannoying. But there is a
workaround that's really, reallyhandy on Instagram. So that's
why we wanna mention thatspecifically. There is an
Instagram hack.
So that's going to come up in aminute. Let me just get to the
(05:42):
first parts. So why doesengagement matter? Well, you
want to grow a real communityaround your brand and create
trust and loyalty and eventuallyleads that could become
customers. It took me five yearsbefore any of my followers were
actual customers.
So it's a long time buildingthat trust and that community
vibe and people who really aregoing to care about your
(06:03):
content. So you need to put inthe time. It's not immediate.
But if you really, really wannagrow, engagement does matter.
It's just part of the game.
And the biggest creators, theydo interact. And you'll see that
even you look at Lady Gaga. Shewas reposting everybody who
danced to her song. For the mostpart, you get a sense like she
that was a strategy and she wasreposting people's videos.
(06:26):
You've got to purposely set tenminutes a day in aside and say
I'm intentionally gonnaintentionally going to scroll
and engage and pay attention towhat I'm engaging with and just
do it more honestly, the word isjust intentionally.
You wanna like, you wannacomment, make some thoughtful
comments. If you're funny, makesome funny comments because
(06:47):
what's the what's funnier thanthe viral video is the comment
section. I always say thereshould be a an award or some
kind of a creator fund forpeople who have, like, comments
that have thousands andthousands of likes. I was on a
video recently, and they had theone comment had 60,000 likes.
That person is gettingnotifications, by the way,
unless they turn them off.
(07:08):
But holy hell, that's a lot ofcomments on it's a lot of likes
on a comment, a lot ofengagement on a comment. So you
could find yourself when you ifyou are the high commenter,
people are gonna come and visityour page, and they might see,
oh my gosh, she's got contentI'm interested in. So that's
definitely a way to getfollowers if you're clever
(07:28):
enough in your comment. I'mgonna tell you a hack on my
side, and this is just, youknow, me personally. When
somebody's clever in my commentsection on whether any video,
viral video or just not a viralvideo, I will always go look and
see what is their account about.
Do I want to follow this person?Like this was such a nice
comment or that was so funny,that was so clever. I always go
look. And I mean, you might say,oh, she has no time. How did she
(07:52):
even notice my comment?
I look at the comments, youknow. And I read them, and then
I'm like, this person's soclever. And then I go and I
look, and I'm like, oh, followthat person. Or or I'll realize
like that person is clever. It'sthat person's on my radar.
Maybe it's not content that Iwanna follow, but I take the
time to go and see what theperson is about that leaves a
(08:13):
comment. That's just what I do.So you could get yourself if
you're if there's a big creatorthat you're trying to get the
attention of, you drop a clevercomment, don't you worry.
They're gonna notice it becauseI'm I'm telling you that the big
creators read the comments.Like, a lot of big creators read
their comments.
And sometimes I'll comment on aviral video, and I even think,
(08:33):
oh, my comment's gonna get solost in this person's video. And
they'll they'll respond to mycomment. And I'm like, oh my
god. Even I don't think thisperson's gonna respond to my
comment that, you know, it's aclever comment. But so listen.
You could get attention frombeing a really good commenter.
So that's it. Now, let's talkabout the hack. If you're on
(08:54):
Instagram, there is at the top afavorites feature. So you can
put 50 accounts into yourfavorites.
When you go up and you tap onthat little icon to the top left
on your Instagram. Let me justdescribe the icon. Let me
actually do it in real time sothat I'm saying it right. So
when you're on the home screen,so you have to be on the little
the little house in the bottom,you're gonna tap on on the word
(09:19):
Instagram at the top here. Whenyou tap on that word, a drop
down menu comes and it shows youfollowing and favorites.
And you can tap favorites andthen you can just scroll the
videos of your favorites. So youjust add, you know, ten,
fifteen, 20 people in there. Youcan add up to 50, and the post
(09:39):
will show up in chronologicalchronological order just like
the old Instagram. You don'thave to fight through ads. You
don't have to look you know,people's they're sending you
suggested content.
This cleans up your feed for theminutes that you're on it. So
you choose to stay on your yourfavorites feed the whole time.
You're only gonna getchronological videos that were
(09:59):
just posted, from your favoritecreators. It's a hack, and
Julie's the one that told meabout it. She's the one that
added it to the newsletter, ofcourse.
But you can add your closefriends, your favorite creators,
collaborators, small businesses,the things you want to support
and see and spend tenintentional minutes looking at
those people's videos. Numberone, it's likely gonna trigger
(10:22):
the algorithm to send them toyou when you're not on the
favorites feed. So when you goback to you unclick it and you
just go back to the regularfeed, you'll probably get more
of those, of those videos. It'llit's gonna teach the algorithm
to send you the things that youlike. So it's really worth it, I
I have to say.
Just take a minute and look forit. Go to Instagram. Tap the
(10:43):
little home in the bottom left.Left, the little house. Go to
the top.
Tap on the word Instagram. I'mdescribe it for people who are
listening and not watching. Tapon the word Instagram in the top
left. It's the logo, top left,and you'll see following or
favorites. And you pickfavorites, and then you enjoy
your favorite creators.
Oh, hallelujah. Actually, I'mgonna write that down. I'm gonna
(11:05):
make a tutorial. That is clutch.K.
Tutorial for IG favorites. I'mdoing it. I'm doing it.
Alrighty. Next, comments equalcontent gold.
K. Think of your comments, yourcomment section on your videos
as your idea bank. That's yourtank of ideas. Your audience is
(11:28):
maybe asking a question. They'remaybe making a comment that's
gonna prompt you to have aresponse.
They're maybe curious aboutsomething so it's you can make
your next video. Some of thestrategies that I teach on my
one on ones is when people aretrying to become an expert in a
field and they have, like, oneviral video that get hits. As
soon as that viral video hits,like, start posting responses to
(11:50):
the comments and keep thatengagement on that video going.
Keep the topic going. You'llprobably that's the next videos
when their replies to commentsusually do pretty well, and then
they feed people back to thatviral video.
And then also in that viralvideo comment section, you you
know how you see videos in thecomments at the top. So people
will when they're when they'reon that viral video, they're
(12:10):
gonna go and tap and watch yoursecond and your third reply. So
it's it's literally like feedingmore views to you. If you can
see what I'm doing on the screenhere if you're listening. It's
my hands are going everywhere.
But do it. If someone left afunny remark, use it as a
creative prompt. If you'reseeing a common theme, turn that
theme into a post. If people areasking you a question, answer it
(12:32):
in a new video. Keep theconversation going.
That's gonna really help you andjust keep you alive in in terms
of engagement. Okay. Now we'rejust gonna do quick do's and
don'ts for engaging with othercreators. Okay? Let's just be
kind.
Number one, leave thoughtful andgenuine comments, not just
(12:52):
emojis. It's nice if you put afew emojis, but then put words.
By the way, this is a hack. Theapps will often, flag, filter
the comments that are justemojis. So I will find sometimes
when I go into my filteredcomments, so many of my sweet
followers who just did likeflowers and hearts and like 20
(13:13):
flowers, 20 hearts, 20 smileyfaces, and they get flagged into
the filtered comments.
So if you don't put words withyour comments and you use a lot
of emojis, very often you yourcomment will be filtered. You
won't know it, by the way. Youwon't know that it's filtered.
It because there's no way forthe viewer to realize if their
comment is filtered whenfiltered once you leave it.
Okay?
(13:33):
The other thing is to save andshare the content you love
because the algorithm valuesthat more than likes. So if you
like someone's video and youwant to support that creator,
don't just like it and leave acomment. Make sure you save it
or hit the little share arrowand share it because that's the
higher algorithm. It's the moreit's the more beefy thing that
(13:54):
you could do to help a creator.So if you have a friend that you
guys are trying to support eachother, always do that.
You're gonna copy you're gonnatap the arrow, copy the link.
You're gonna tap send it tosomeone. Okay? Also, watch the
videos all the way throughbecause the completion rate is
huge. That's another high ratingfor engagement is to watch the
whole video through.
And if you just even if you'relike, ugh, I really don't feel
like watching this, but I reallylike this creator, put the phone
(14:16):
down, go do something. Let thevideo play. You know what I
mean? You can do that. It'sfine.
Sometimes I'm I don't evenrealize I do it. I put the phone
down and I have a video plan.Boy, I really helped that
creator out. It went like 10times while I was doing
something else. It's a nicething to do, you know.
Why not? It's an easy way tospread good vibes, paying it
(14:36):
forward. And it doesn't cost youa dime. You don't have to donate
anything. It's literally justyour kindness and your time.
That's it. So that brings me tomy last do, which is be kind
because the Internet needs moreof that. Okay? Just try to if
you see something and you go,oh, I was just gonna scroll on
by, take a minute, take a pause,leave a nice comment. You know,
say something nice to someone.
(14:56):
Someone's going throughsomething, say something nice.
Someone looks particularly niceon this in their video, make a
throw a compliment. To tell youthe truth, I love to do this in
real life. I will be out andabout in my world, and I will
always take a minute. I'm at astore.
I see the the checkout person,and she's, like, ringing me up,
(15:18):
and I'll be like, oh, that'ssuch a pretty ring, or, oh, I
love your haircut, whatever. Acompliment is free. It's give it
away. It doesn't cost youanything. Just think about it as
the receiver of the compcompliment.
When someone will say to me, oh,I really like your haircut. I'm
like, oh, I just feel like alittle more pep in my step that
day, or somebody complimentssome something I'm wearing. It's
(15:40):
just it's not that hard. I wannaI don't know. We should do it
more.
We should do it more. Okay?Let's do it more. I'm gonna do
it more today. When I go out todo my errands now, I'm gonna
consciously leave a complimentto everybody I encounter.
I think doing it intentionallyis like a little exercise that
we can use. Look. I'm gonna godeep right now. Sorry to say.
(16:07):
But I met with someone recentlywho wrote a book called Your To
Die List.
Make your to die list, not yourto do list. Your to do list is
your stuff. Do your laundry, youknow, wash the dishes, etcetera.
Your to die list is, did I makesomeone feel good in my life?
Have I shared something valuablewith someone?
Those are the things you wannabe remembered by. I mean, in her
(16:28):
book, she talks about writingyour own obituary or writing
your eulogy or something. AndI'm like, oh, that's deep and
that's intense. But there'ssomething to it. This idea of
how you wanna be remembered as,like, something that you don't
think about you don't wanna waitand think about this in the last
month of your life.
So listen. I I was, you know,helping her with social media,
(16:51):
but, boy, I learned a lot thatday. I learned a lot. I absorbed
the things that she was saying,and I because I ask all the
questions because I wanna helpher make content about it, and
so I needed to get to know her.And it was just so interesting
to start thinking about thethings that she was sharing in
her that she shared in her bookand the things she wants to talk
(17:12):
about on her social media.
And I think sometimes I feelthat the encounters I have and
the different personal one onone trainings I have are all for
a reason. I just love it. I'veevery time I learn something.
Okay? So that's what I'm gonnashare with you today.
The last, well, I I hate toleave with the don'ts, but we're
gonna leave with the don'ts. Idon't know. That's the last
(17:33):
thing on the list here. Thethings not to do. Don't drop one
word replies or just an emojibecause those do look like bot
activity.
So give yourself like a threeword minimum or something. Like,
make sure that you are droppingenough words so that you don't
get it's not even about gettingfiltered. It's just that it will
start to look like if you'recopy if you're copy pasting the
same comment on a bunch ofvideos, sometimes when I'm
(17:55):
replying to comments, I'll do Iwanna say, oh, tutorial coming
next. So I copy and paste it,and I'll go copy paste copy
paste when people are like, canwe have a tutorial? And I'm
like, coming up next, coming upnext, coming up next.
After about 10 times, I changeit and I write something else
and I copy and paste it so thatbecause the app will recognize
it. It will stop you from doingthat. You can't copy paste, copy
paste, copy paste. So if you'reoh, that's really important to
(18:17):
say if you're replying tocomments. Do not copy paste,
copy paste, copy paste.
It's gonna catch up with you. Ifyou once you get to to I think
my limit is 10. I go 10 timesand I'm like, okay. Because
sometimes I have a viral video,people are asking for a tutorial
on something and I just my god.I'm trying to move fast, so I'm
copy and pasting the sameresponse to a bunch of comments.
And then what I do after ten isI change it, and I'll add I
(18:40):
change a word around, and then Iadd a heart, and then I copy
paste that 10 times, and then Ichange it again. So there is a
strategy there. I havestrategies for everything. I
think I have hacks andworkarounds for so many things
from doing this for so manyyears. And I always find new
ones, so stay tuned.
Okay. The next one is don'tdon't only like and scroll. When
(19:00):
you get to a video and you go,oh, I like this creator, so you
immediately like it. If you justscroll because you go, I gave
them a like and I'm gonna moveon. I don't wanna watch that
right now.
You've done them a disservice.It's like the opposite problem.
You need to watch it. You canlike it right away, but stick
around for the video. So if yousee my video when I have a
tutorial and people like, oh,like your video the minute I see
(19:21):
your face show up.
I'm like, how nice is that? Butstick around and watch some of
the video. Otherwise, you'reyou're messing with my algorithm
because you're just throwing mea like and you're moving on. And
I'd rather not. I'd rather youdon't do that.
Just scroll on and don't bother.But the likes aren't as powerful
as they once were. So if you'rejust liking and then you think
you did them a favor and you'removing on, like, you probably
(19:42):
did them a disservice more thananything. So watch some of the
video, even if you don't wannastay till the end. Or hit the
save button and think about ifyou wanna come back to it later.
Okay. Last thing is, you don'twanna comment just to be seen.
Make sure that you comment in ameaningful way. So just take
that extra minute to think aboutwhat the comment is that you're
leaving before you just slap itout there to the universe and
(20:05):
think that's the end of that. Ifthis was helpful and you'd like
more help with social media ormore guidance, a good idea would
be to try out the studio.
It's a seven day free trial. Youcan check it out. I'm gonna tell
you some of the things I doevery single week in there for
my members. Number one, we havea challenge and a lesson. It is
a dedicated fifteen minute slowpaced video tutorial lesson.
(20:29):
It is well beyond the tutorialsI post on TikTok. None of these
lessons are shown on my socialmedia. These are strictly for my
members. And with that, we havea challenge. So everyone gets to
learn the lesson and participatein the challenge.
We all support each other, lookat each other's videos, and I'll
help and say how this could havebeen improved so you get a lot
(20:49):
of good feedback. That comes outonce a week. We also have a
small business center where weshare four ideas per week for
businesses. So if you arerunning a social media account
for a business, we're your bestfriend because we're gonna give
you the ideas. We're like yoursocial media manager built right
in.
If you have a small business andyou're at a loss for what to
post, you're gonna get yourideas every single week. We also
(21:12):
share tutorials every week.Those get put in. The minute I
post a tutorial, it gets filedin there for you, very
organized. And we also have alive meeting, and that is
probably my favorite thing.
And I look forward to it so muchbecause I get to see a lot of
new faces, a lot of familiarfaces. We have a really good
vibe in there, and we take turnsout. Everybody asks questions.
(21:32):
Nobody monopolizes the meeting.It's very kind, and it's I think
it's we've all we've all learnedthings from each other, and it's
also a space to talk about thefrustrations that you're having
on social media, and that isevery single week.
And, damn, I really love it. Socome to a meeting. It's also a
community chat where you canchat with other members and see
(21:52):
what other people's strugglesare. There's a q and a. You can
drop a question and a tutorialrequest.
So if you have a specifictutorial request, you can put it
right in the chat, and I will Ialways post the tutorials, then
I put it I file them right inthere for members. Alright.
That's my wrap up for today.Thanks for listening. Thanks for
being here as always.
Have a wonderful weekend. Julieand I are off to Vegas next week
(22:15):
to work with a client and createcontent, so you're gonna see a
lot of my Instagram story willbe lit up with Vegas activity.
So come along for the ride. Ifyou're not following me on
Instagram, that's kind of whereyou wanna be next week. I I post
I tend to post more to theInstagram story than I do to the
TikTok story for whateverreason.
I think it's mainly because Ilike my family to be up to speed
(22:35):
with what I'm doing, so I postover there much more
strategically and consistentlyfor them. And, yeah, that's it.
But I'll be back next Fridayeven though I'll be in Vegas.
I'll be I'll be recording on thefly as usual. My portable
recording studio will come withme.
I might even bring in the nicemicrophone. We'll see if my
packing fits it. K. Have a greatweekend, and I'll see you next
(22:56):
week.
Welcome to The Socialized Strategy. It's Friday, so we
have our unsponsored by segmentfirst up. And I have two
products I'm gonna share. Thereason I wanna do two today is
one is a personal product andthe other is a tech product,
which I think is important sincethe context of the podcast is
about social media. I I feelit's important to share some
(00:20):
kind of related items, if youwill.
So I'm gonna first talk about myfavorite water bottle, and why I
wanna talk about this isrecently on a workshop, I picked
it up and was using it as anexample. And there were so many
things I was saying about itthat I was realized why I really
like it, and I thought it's agood one to use for this
segment. So maybe they willsponsor me one day soon. Why do
(00:41):
I like this water bottle? Numberone, slim size.
So it fits in most cup holders.It fits in the side of my
backpack perfectly. It has anice lock mechanism so that
you're not accidentally going topop the top and spill the water.
That's great. It locks reallynicely.
When you do unlock it, you canpop it, and now you have either
(01:01):
the option to drink it likeregular water bottle or to sip
it from a straw. I'm not gonnaface it too far because I don't
want it to spill on my computer.But the straw shape is flat. So
this is a huge plus for womenwho are worried about sucking
from a straw and getting smokerslines, which is when you purse
your lips often, the cigarettesmokers pursing their lips, they
(01:24):
would get the lines on theirlips. This forces you to more
flat suck your straw.
So your mouth is not in thatpurse shape. It's more like
this. So your mouth is flat, soyou're not adding to your your
potential lines. Okay. That is amajor one that I like.
The other thing is it unscrewsto fill it, but you don't have
(01:45):
to unscrew the top to fill it.And that's probably one of my
top favorite things about it. Sofor me, it's the straw thing,
and the fact that I don't haveto now unscrew it every time I
wanna fill it. I just can fillit right in this hole in the
sink, and then I can use thestraw. So everything about this
is a 10 out of 10.
Julie hooked me up with this. Ialso like that it's white
(02:06):
because mothership, white andblue. So I really like the
color. The other colors I'm notloving. They have different
funky color combinations.
They have lots of branded ones,like Star Wars brands and such,
but I really like the white andthe size and all the cool
features that I just shared. Sothat is my unsponsored by Owala
(02:27):
brand, o w a l a brand, and itis my go to water bottle. Bingo.
Now for my go to tech item, andI have always used a plug in
microphone to my phone because Isit close to my phone and I
don't need to be able to walkaround and do things. But I
finally jumped into the wirelessmicrophone arena and I after
(02:49):
trying several, especially thoseones on TikTok shop, the cheap
ones, do not bother.
You sound like you'reunderwater. The quality is so
poor. Like, don't even wasteyour time. Like, forget it.
Don't even use a microphone ifthat's what you're gonna use.
Boom. It's a no from me. But Idid find a brand I'm loving, and
it is called Hollyland. What Ilike about this brand is it
(03:10):
comes with two microphones soyou can interview someone, and
it's magnetized. So this littlepuppy goes right on your shirt,
and it magnets on so you cannotyou don't have to be worried
about where you're putting it.
Look at look at how nice thatis. It magnets on. It does have
a logo on the front, but I putblack tape on the front. So the
logo looks like this, and Iblack taped it. So this part
(03:32):
goes inside the shirt.
This is on the front. I love it,and I like that it comes with a
case. My only bummer bummerbummer of it, and they need to
fix this, is that it comes withthese two pieces and they don't
give you a case for the pieces.So this is for the iPhone 14,
this is for the Android oriPhone 16, this is for all the
other iPhones besides thebesides the 16. So you have
(03:53):
these two pieces, really nice.
They do sell one just for theAndroid and that has a slot for
this. But when you get the onewith two pieces, no slot. So I
have to have a separate case andyou know I'm gonna lose these,
but I'm trying really hard notto. But I do love it, and the
brand is Hollyland, and it's theLark m two. Boom.
I don't even have an affiliatelink, but I will put the link to
(04:15):
where you wanna purchase that ifyou have any interest in it.
It's about a hundred andsomething on the low lower
hundred side, like hundred 19.So it's not crazy expensive
compared to some of the higherend microphones, but it's not a
cheap microphone. And it'shonestly worth it. It has not
failed me.
So I'm really, really happy withit. Those are my unsponsored buy
shares for today. Thank you forlistening. Now let's get on to
(04:38):
the content. Today's topic ishow to make engagement easy on
Instagram.
And we're gonna focus onInstagram today because
Instagram does have some nicefeatures for engagement. But if
you are not on Instagram, a lotof these tips, whatever you
wanna call them, a lot of thesestrategy points, they do apply
to TikTok as well, to YouTube aswell. So you can there's just a
(05:01):
couple that are specific toInstagram, but you should follow
along anyway because all thethings that that I'm saying here
really do matter on anyplatform, but it's just that
there's a couple of littlethings for Instagram that we
point out. Okay. So it seemslike sometimes it's impossible
to see posts from people thatyou want to see, And we find
(05:21):
this really frustrating as acreator because we're putting
this content out.
People have chosen to follow usand, like, damn it. They're not
seeing our content, and that'sannoying. But there is a
workaround that's really, reallyhandy on Instagram. So that's
why we wanna mention thatspecifically. There is an
Instagram hack.
So that's going to come up in aminute. Let me just get to the
(05:42):
first parts. So why doesengagement matter? Well, you
want to grow a real communityaround your brand and create
trust and loyalty and eventuallyleads that could become
customers. It took me five yearsbefore any of my followers were
actual customers.
So it's a long time buildingthat trust and that community
vibe and people who really aregoing to care about your
(06:03):
content. So you need to put inthe time. It's not immediate.
But if you really, really wannagrow, engagement does matter.
It's just part of the game.
And the biggest creators, theydo interact. And you'll see that
even you look at Lady Gaga. Shewas reposting everybody who
danced to her song. For the mostpart, you get a sense like she
that was a strategy and she wasreposting people's videos.
(06:26):
You've got to purposely set tenminutes a day in aside and say
I'm intentionally gonnaintentionally going to scroll
and engage and pay attention towhat I'm engaging with and just
do it more honestly, the word isjust intentionally.
You wanna like, you wannacomment, make some thoughtful
comments. If you're funny, makesome funny comments because
(06:47):
what's the what's funnier thanthe viral video is the comment
section. I always say thereshould be a an award or some
kind of a creator fund forpeople who have, like, comments
that have thousands andthousands of likes. I was on a
video recently, and they had theone comment had 60,000 likes.
That person is gettingnotifications, by the way,
unless they turn them off.
(07:08):
But holy hell, that's a lot ofcomments on it's a lot of likes
on a comment, a lot ofengagement on a comment. So you
could find yourself when you ifyou are the high commenter,
people are gonna come and visityour page, and they might see,
oh my gosh, she's got contentI'm interested in. So that's
definitely a way to getfollowers if you're clever
(07:28):
enough in your comment. I'mgonna tell you a hack on my
side, and this is just, youknow, me personally. When
somebody's clever in my commentsection on whether any video,
viral video or just not a viralvideo, I will always go look and
see what is their account about.
Do I want to follow this person?Like this was such a nice
comment or that was so funny,that was so clever. I always go
look. And I mean, you might say,oh, she has no time. How did she
(07:52):
even notice my comment?
I look at the comments, youknow. And I read them, and then
I'm like, this person's soclever. And then I go and I
look, and I'm like, oh, followthat person. Or or I'll realize
like that person is clever. It'sthat person's on my radar.
Maybe it's not content that Iwanna follow, but I take the
time to go and see what theperson is about that leaves a
(08:13):
comment. That's just what I do.So you could get yourself if
you're if there's a big creatorthat you're trying to get the
attention of, you drop a clevercomment, don't you worry.
They're gonna notice it becauseI'm I'm telling you that the big
creators read the comments.Like, a lot of big creators read
their comments.
And sometimes I'll comment on aviral video, and I even think,
(08:33):
oh, my comment's gonna get solost in this person's video. And
they'll they'll respond to mycomment. And I'm like, oh my
god. Even I don't think thisperson's gonna respond to my
comment that, you know, it's aclever comment. But so listen.
You could get attention frombeing a really good commenter.
So that's it. Now, let's talkabout the hack. If you're on
(08:54):
Instagram, there is at the top afavorites feature. So you can
put 50 accounts into yourfavorites.
When you go up and you tap onthat little icon to the top left
on your Instagram. Let me justdescribe the icon. Let me
actually do it in real time sothat I'm saying it right. So
when you're on the home screen,so you have to be on the little
the little house in the bottom,you're gonna tap on on the word
(09:19):
Instagram at the top here. Whenyou tap on that word, a drop
down menu comes and it shows youfollowing and favorites.
And you can tap favorites andthen you can just scroll the
videos of your favorites. So youjust add, you know, ten,
fifteen, 20 people in there. Youcan add up to 50, and the post
(09:39):
will show up in chronologicalchronological order just like
the old Instagram. You don'thave to fight through ads. You
don't have to look you know,people's they're sending you
suggested content.
This cleans up your feed for theminutes that you're on it. So
you choose to stay on your yourfavorites feed the whole time.
You're only gonna getchronological videos that were
(09:59):
just posted, from your favoritecreators. It's a hack, and
Julie's the one that told meabout it. She's the one that
added it to the newsletter, ofcourse.
But you can add your closefriends, your favorite creators,
collaborators, small businesses,the things you want to support
and see and spend tenintentional minutes looking at
those people's videos. Numberone, it's likely gonna trigger
(10:22):
the algorithm to send them toyou when you're not on the
favorites feed. So when you goback to you unclick it and you
just go back to the regularfeed, you'll probably get more
of those, of those videos. It'llit's gonna teach the algorithm
to send you the things that youlike. So it's really worth it, I
I have to say.
Just take a minute and look forit. Go to Instagram. Tap the
(10:43):
little home in the bottom left.Left, the little house. Go to
the top.
Tap on the word Instagram. I'mdescribe it for people who are
listening and not watching. Tapon the word Instagram in the top
left. It's the logo, top left,and you'll see following or
favorites. And you pickfavorites, and then you enjoy
your favorite creators.
Oh, hallelujah. Actually, I'mgonna write that down. I'm gonna
(11:05):
make a tutorial. That is clutch.K.
Tutorial for IG favorites. I'mdoing it. I'm doing it.
Alrighty. Next, comments equalcontent gold.
K. Think of your comments, yourcomment section on your videos
as your idea bank. That's yourtank of ideas. Your audience is
(11:28):
maybe asking a question. They'remaybe making a comment that's
gonna prompt you to have aresponse.
They're maybe curious aboutsomething so it's you can make
your next video. Some of thestrategies that I teach on my
one on ones is when people aretrying to become an expert in a
field and they have, like, oneviral video that get hits. As
soon as that viral video hits,like, start posting responses to
(11:50):
the comments and keep thatengagement on that video going.
Keep the topic going. You'llprobably that's the next videos
when their replies to commentsusually do pretty well, and then
they feed people back to thatviral video.
And then also in that viralvideo comment section, you you
know how you see videos in thecomments at the top. So people
will when they're when they'reon that viral video, they're
(12:10):
gonna go and tap and watch yoursecond and your third reply. So
it's it's literally like feedingmore views to you. If you can
see what I'm doing on the screenhere if you're listening. It's
my hands are going everywhere.
But do it. If someone left afunny remark, use it as a
creative prompt. If you'reseeing a common theme, turn that
theme into a post. If people areasking you a question, answer it
(12:32):
in a new video. Keep theconversation going.
That's gonna really help you andjust keep you alive in in terms
of engagement. Okay. Now we'rejust gonna do quick do's and
don'ts for engaging with othercreators. Okay? Let's just be
kind.
Number one, leave thoughtful andgenuine comments, not just
(12:52):
emojis. It's nice if you put afew emojis, but then put words.
By the way, this is a hack. Theapps will often, flag, filter
the comments that are justemojis. So I will find sometimes
when I go into my filteredcomments, so many of my sweet
followers who just did likeflowers and hearts and like 20
(13:13):
flowers, 20 hearts, 20 smileyfaces, and they get flagged into
the filtered comments.
So if you don't put words withyour comments and you use a lot
of emojis, very often you yourcomment will be filtered. You
won't know it, by the way. Youwon't know that it's filtered.
It because there's no way forthe viewer to realize if their
comment is filtered whenfiltered once you leave it.
Okay?
(13:33):
The other thing is to save andshare the content you love
because the algorithm valuesthat more than likes. So if you
like someone's video and youwant to support that creator,
don't just like it and leave acomment. Make sure you save it
or hit the little share arrowand share it because that's the
higher algorithm. It's the moreit's the more beefy thing that
(13:54):
you could do to help a creator.So if you have a friend that you
guys are trying to support eachother, always do that.
You're gonna copy you're gonnatap the arrow, copy the link.
You're gonna tap send it tosomeone. Okay? Also, watch the
videos all the way throughbecause the completion rate is
huge. That's another high ratingfor engagement is to watch the
whole video through.
And if you just even if you'relike, ugh, I really don't feel
like watching this, but I reallylike this creator, put the phone
(14:16):
down, go do something. Let thevideo play. You know what I
mean? You can do that. It'sfine.
Sometimes I'm I don't evenrealize I do it. I put the phone
down and I have a video plan.Boy, I really helped that
creator out. It went like 10times while I was doing
something else. It's a nicething to do, you know.
Why not? It's an easy way tospread good vibes, paying it
(14:36):
forward. And it doesn't cost youa dime. You don't have to donate
anything. It's literally justyour kindness and your time.
That's it. So that brings me tomy last do, which is be kind
because the Internet needs moreof that. Okay? Just try to if
you see something and you go,oh, I was just gonna scroll on
by, take a minute, take a pause,leave a nice comment. You know,
say something nice to someone.
(14:56):
Someone's going throughsomething, say something nice.
Someone looks particularly niceon this in their video, make a
throw a compliment. To tell youthe truth, I love to do this in
real life. I will be out andabout in my world, and I will
always take a minute. I'm at astore.
I see the the checkout person,and she's, like, ringing me up,
(15:18):
and I'll be like, oh, that'ssuch a pretty ring, or, oh, I
love your haircut, whatever. Acompliment is free. It's give it
away. It doesn't cost youanything. Just think about it as
the receiver of the compcompliment.
When someone will say to me, oh,I really like your haircut. I'm
like, oh, I just feel like alittle more pep in my step that
day, or somebody complimentssome something I'm wearing. It's
(15:40):
just it's not that hard. I wannaI don't know. We should do it
more.
We should do it more. Okay?Let's do it more. I'm gonna do
it more today. When I go out todo my errands now, I'm gonna
consciously leave a complimentto everybody I encounter.
I think doing it intentionallyis like a little exercise that
we can use. Look. I'm gonna godeep right now. Sorry to say.
(16:07):
But I met with someone recentlywho wrote a book called Your To
Die List.
Make your to die list, not yourto do list. Your to do list is
your stuff. Do your laundry, youknow, wash the dishes, etcetera.
Your to die list is, did I makesomeone feel good in my life?
Have I shared something valuablewith someone?
Those are the things you wannabe remembered by. I mean, in her
(16:28):
book, she talks about writingyour own obituary or writing
your eulogy or something. AndI'm like, oh, that's deep and
that's intense. But there'ssomething to it. This idea of
how you wanna be remembered as,like, something that you don't
think about you don't wanna waitand think about this in the last
month of your life.
So listen. I I was, you know,helping her with social media,
(16:51):
but, boy, I learned a lot thatday. I learned a lot. I absorbed
the things that she was saying,and I because I ask all the
questions because I wanna helpher make content about it, and
so I needed to get to know her.And it was just so interesting
to start thinking about thethings that she was sharing in
her that she shared in her bookand the things she wants to talk
(17:12):
about on her social media.
And I think sometimes I feelthat the encounters I have and
the different personal one onone trainings I have are all for
a reason. I just love it. I'veevery time I learn something.
Okay? So that's what I'm gonnashare with you today.
The last, well, I I hate toleave with the don'ts, but we're
gonna leave with the don'ts. Idon't know. That's the last
(17:33):
thing on the list here. Thethings not to do. Don't drop one
word replies or just an emojibecause those do look like bot
activity.
So give yourself like a threeword minimum or something. Like,
make sure that you are droppingenough words so that you don't
get it's not even about gettingfiltered. It's just that it will
start to look like if you'recopy if you're copy pasting the
same comment on a bunch ofvideos, sometimes when I'm
(17:55):
replying to comments, I'll do Iwanna say, oh, tutorial coming
next. So I copy and paste it,and I'll go copy paste copy
paste when people are like, canwe have a tutorial? And I'm
like, coming up next, coming upnext, coming up next.
After about 10 times, I changeit and I write something else
and I copy and paste it so thatbecause the app will recognize
it. It will stop you from doingthat. You can't copy paste, copy
paste, copy paste. So if you'reoh, that's really important to
(18:17):
say if you're replying tocomments. Do not copy paste,
copy paste, copy paste.
It's gonna catch up with you. Ifyou once you get to to I think
my limit is 10. I go 10 timesand I'm like, okay. Because
sometimes I have a viral video,people are asking for a tutorial
on something and I just my god.I'm trying to move fast, so I'm
copy and pasting the sameresponse to a bunch of comments.
And then what I do after ten isI change it, and I'll add I
(18:40):
change a word around, and then Iadd a heart, and then I copy
paste that 10 times, and then Ichange it again. So there is a
strategy there. I havestrategies for everything. I
think I have hacks andworkarounds for so many things
from doing this for so manyyears. And I always find new
ones, so stay tuned.
Okay. The next one is don'tdon't only like and scroll. When
(19:00):
you get to a video and you go,oh, I like this creator, so you
immediately like it. If you justscroll because you go, I gave
them a like and I'm gonna moveon. I don't wanna watch that
right now.
You've done them a disservice.It's like the opposite problem.
You need to watch it. You canlike it right away, but stick
around for the video. So if yousee my video when I have a
tutorial and people like, oh,like your video the minute I see
(19:21):
your face show up.
I'm like, how nice is that? Butstick around and watch some of
the video. Otherwise, you'reyou're messing with my algorithm
because you're just throwing mea like and you're moving on. And
I'd rather not. I'd rather youdon't do that.
Just scroll on and don't bother.But the likes aren't as powerful
as they once were. So if you'rejust liking and then you think
you did them a favor and you'removing on, like, you probably
(19:42):
did them a disservice more thananything. So watch some of the
video, even if you don't wannastay till the end. Or hit the
save button and think about ifyou wanna come back to it later.
Okay. Last thing is, you don'twanna comment just to be seen.
Make sure that you comment in ameaningful way. So just take
that extra minute to think aboutwhat the comment is that you're
leaving before you just slap itout there to the universe and
(20:05):
think that's the end of that. Ifthis was helpful and you'd like
more help with social media ormore guidance, a good idea would
be to try out the studio.
It's a seven day free trial. Youcan check it out. I'm gonna tell
you some of the things I doevery single week in there for
my members. Number one, we havea challenge and a lesson. It is
a dedicated fifteen minute slowpaced video tutorial lesson.
(20:29):
It is well beyond the tutorialsI post on TikTok. None of these
lessons are shown on my socialmedia. These are strictly for my
members. And with that, we havea challenge. So everyone gets to
learn the lesson and participatein the challenge.
We all support each other, lookat each other's videos, and I'll
help and say how this could havebeen improved so you get a lot
(20:49):
of good feedback. That comes outonce a week. We also have a
small business center where weshare four ideas per week for
businesses. So if you arerunning a social media account
for a business, we're your bestfriend because we're gonna give
you the ideas. We're like yoursocial media manager built right
in.
If you have a small business andyou're at a loss for what to
post, you're gonna get yourideas every single week. We also
(21:12):
share tutorials every week.Those get put in. The minute I
post a tutorial, it gets filedin there for you, very
organized. And we also have alive meeting, and that is
probably my favorite thing.
And I look forward to it so muchbecause I get to see a lot of
new faces, a lot of familiarfaces. We have a really good
vibe in there, and we take turnsout. Everybody asks questions.
(21:32):
Nobody monopolizes the meeting.It's very kind, and it's I think
it's we've all we've all learnedthings from each other, and it's
also a space to talk about thefrustrations that you're having
on social media, and that isevery single week.
And, damn, I really love it. Socome to a meeting. It's also a
community chat where you canchat with other members and see
(21:52):
what other people's strugglesare. There's a q and a. You can
drop a question and a tutorialrequest.
So if you have a specifictutorial request, you can put it
right in the chat, and I will Ialways post the tutorials, then
I put it I file them right inthere for members. Alright.
That's my wrap up for today.Thanks for listening. Thanks for
being here as always.
Have a wonderful weekend. Julieand I are off to Vegas next week
(22:15):
to work with a client and createcontent, so you're gonna see a
lot of my Instagram story willbe lit up with Vegas activity.
So come along for the ride. Ifyou're not following me on
Instagram, that's kind of whereyou wanna be next week. I I post
I tend to post more to theInstagram story than I do to the
TikTok story for whateverreason.
I think it's mainly because Ilike my family to be up to speed
(22:35):
with what I'm doing, so I postover there much more
strategically and consistentlyfor them. And, yeah, that's it.
But I'll be back next Fridayeven though I'll be in Vegas.
I'll be I'll be recording on thefly as usual. My portable
recording studio will come withme.
I might even bring in the nicemicrophone. We'll see if my
packing fits it. K. Have a greatweekend, and I'll see you next
(22:56):
week.
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