The Socialize Strategy - Social Media Evolution

I’ve got some fun things to share with you today, and then we’re diving into a topic I think is going to be really pressing soon: What happens if TikTok goes away?

Now, I don’t want this to sound like doom and gloom—it’s actually the perfect wake-up call to think about your bigger social media strategy. Even when platforms shift, there are things you can (and should) be doing to protect your growth, your community, and your creativity.

But before we get into that, let’s start with today’s Unsponsored Buy—a favorite new find that I think you’ll love.

📝 Episode Outline

1. Unsponsored Buy of the Week

• Muji (minimalist Japanese design store)
  • Toothbrush holder + trays
  • Sleek soap dispensers
• Blueland foaming soap tablets
  • Eco-friendly, dissolves in water
  • Multiple scents, sustainable packaging
• Why these small, design-focused details bring joy

2. Main Topic: What If TikTok Goes Away?

• Why these “threats” are a wake-up call for creators
• Reminder: don’t panic, but do prepare

3. Current Strategy

• Keep posting on TikTok until change actually happens
• Use this time to:
  • Grow brand awareness
  • Strengthen audience connection
  • Give followers reasons to follow you elsewhere

4. Platform Backups

• YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels
• Scheduling content to make cross-posting easier (Sunday night batch uploads, schedulers)
• Why “being everywhere” gives you options and insurance

5. Community Building Beyond TikTok

• Move your audience to owned spaces (email list, communities, YouTube channel)
• Personal stories of shifting audience into newsletters + The Socialize Studio
• Why a strong community will follow you wherever you go

6. Mindset Shift

• Don’t obsess over views—low views may still mean new people discovering you
• Consistency matters more than quick wins
• Example: accidental YouTube monetization just from persistence

7. What’s Next in the Studio

• September focus:
  • How to move audiences between platforms
  • Building deeper community
  • Strategies for newsletters + monetization
• Invitation to join the Socialize Studio for real-time discussions and expert sessions

8. Wrap-Up

• Stay consistent. Keep creating.
• Don’t fear low numbers—show up for your community.
• Platforms may shift, but creativity and connection last.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Socialized Strategy. Happy
Friday. I brought some things toshare with you today, but we are
gonna get into a topic that Ithink is gonna be pressing soon.
And it we're gonna go back into,like, what happens if TikTok
goes away. But I think that'sgoing to lead into things that
you should be thinking about forsocial media anyway.
So I I feel like sometimes whenthese things happen with an app

(00:24):
that's threatening to change orto make change, It just gives us
a little bit of a wake up callinto things that we should start
thinking about. So before I getinto that, I want to share with
you today's unsponsored buy, andit is from a store called Muji,
m u j I. It is located in thecity. Funny enough, I've seen it
in Canada. So I know they havethem.

(00:44):
These are it's a chain, and it'sreally, really cool, clean,
very, simple lines. Like, Ican't explain it. It's not even
like something I could put intowords. But if you know Muji, you
know what I mean. It's simplestuff, but nicely designed.
So I'm going to bring a fewthings here. One, some of the

(01:06):
favorite things that I have fromMuji are the toothpaste
toothbrush holder, and I justlove how it looks. It's modern.
It's contemporary. It works withyou know, you can have the a
lots of these sizes of trays.
The thing goes on here likethis. The thing goes on here
like this. And if you're justlistening, you're not watching.
It's a tray and then it's atoothbrush holder that is nice

(01:29):
and low and ceramic, easy toclean, and the toothbrush just
sticks in it and stands up. AndI love it.
I have have these in all thebathrooms that I have ever been
in. I love this whole setup. Andwhat I also like is that the
trays come in different sizes.There's little tiny round ones,
so you can have little tinyround ones to put the little
toothbrush hold toothbrushholder on and then the

(01:50):
toothbrush in. But I like thetrays because I also love their
soap dispensers.
I'm one for I don't like to seethe brand like soft soap brand
or blah blah blah brand. I justI don't know. I like the way it
looks when it's more designed inmy bathrooms. So I love their
soap dispensers. And I'm a fanof foaming soap.
They do have the regular ones.They have foaming. They have

(02:12):
different sizes. I'm a big fanof the foaming hand soaps and in
this container. I'm gonna tellyou that I also discovered
instead of doing soft, what isthe brand that I was used used
to get?
Method. I always got Method's,foaming, you know, with the and
it comes in the plastic. Well,now I have switched, and that's

(02:33):
my next unsponsored buy. Holdon. I don't wanna not make too
much noise.
I found a brand called Blueland,foaming hand soap discs. You
take one of these little discs.They all smell amazing. This one
is Pacific Mist, so picturethat. Lots of different scents.
Let me see what some of my otherscents are. I get a multipack,
so I have a bunch of differentscents. Lavender eucalyptus.

(02:55):
Let's dump out the little baggiehere. We've got, iris agave and
perine lemon.
So those are the ones I havehandy right now. They all smell
great. You pop a disc in here,put some water in with it, and
it just dissolves right in thereand gives you the really nice
foaming hand soap and you're nothaving those plastic things that

(03:15):
you have to throw away and youhave little tiny paper that gets
recycled. I'm a fan and I justuse this again every single day.
I have them in every bathroom.
I have them in the powder room.Have them in my main bathroom.
So if you are someone who likesto have your bathroom with a bit
of a modern vibe, and this couldalso work with any type. They

(03:37):
have see through ones too if youlike to see the level you're at.
I like not to see the level I'mat because I feel like it looks
bad when you have it down low.
This way you really never knowwhere it is. Your guests will
never know how low it is exceptby picking it up. And I've
always got my backups, so I'mready to go. That's it for today
for Unsponsored Vi. I have somany things I want to talk about

(03:58):
that I was ready to bring likefive things today.
But I'm like, Helen, paceyourself, you know? Then I'll
run out. Not likely. Alright. Sotoday's topic, what should you
do about TikTok?
Oh, among other things. There'sso many things that we have to
talk about, but with with regardto this, but we don't really
know what's happening, and a lotof people have been reaching out
to me. Do you know what to do?What should we do? M two?
Do we do it? Do we not do it?And I've said this before either

(04:20):
on TikTok Lives or in mysocialized studio meetings, I've
said, I don't know that I willhop on that app because I don't
like the idea that we'resegregated from the rest of the
world. Having visited Cuba, I'mgonna tell you, that felt very
like back in time where theywere not able to communicate
with people in The US. And thenthe only way my Cuban guide was

(04:42):
to be able to get to me wasreally through Facebook.
And I don't know. I just feltthat that was a strange way to
live, that we were cut off thatthey were cut off from being
able to know what's happening inour day even music, in our day
to day. It was weird to me. Andthat's what this is giving to
me, a feeling of like, wait aminute, now we're gonna be cut
off from the rest of the worldon a social media app? That

(05:05):
doesn't seem right on any level,honestly.
So I'm not really gonna jumpover there unless I see I may I
always like to grab my username.That's one thing I do because I
like to have the mothership, theway it's spelled, the way it's
with no dots, numbers, andthings after it. So I may
download the app and get myusername, but I'm not committing

(05:26):
to posting over there andstarting to grow an audience
over there. I'm not unless Ihear some new news about what it
is, I'm not really committing.But I will tell you that my
studio community are going to bethe first to know and we're
going to be discussing ittogether and we have a lot of
experts in the community thathave expertise in different
areas.
So I'm gonna be setting upmeetings as this gets closer,

(05:49):
and we're gonna have meetings tospecifically talk about what
what it all means and how it'sgoing to really impact you as a
creator. So stay tuned for that.It's gonna be, again, in my
studio. So if you wanna try thestudio out for a month or two,
that's where we're really gonnabe talking about it in meetings,
live meetings. But what's theplan?
Until we have concrete,information, you should still

(06:12):
keep posting on TikTok. I have alot of people that are just
starting on TikTok. And I say,yeah, hell yeah, because you can
potentially grow an audiencepretty quickly. And then all of
a sudden, now you have people totake you with you elsewhere And
you have brand awareness. Andwhen I say brand awareness, I
mean also self awareness ofyourself, not just if you're a
brand.
As you start to build anaudience, you are your brand,

(06:34):
and so you're creating awarenessby putting yourself out there.
And I just think it isimportant. And I think that if
you're doing it, there's no it'snot like, oh, it's too late now.
TikTok's going away. I'm notgonna bother.
I would never say that. I wouldalways say bother. As a matter
of fact, think about that lineof thinking. If you're thinking
I'm not going to bother, so maya lot of other people be

(06:56):
thinking about. And then youmight have a chance to get more
views because people are saying,oh, I'm not going to bother.
Okay? So I could work into yourfavor if think about if you you
don't let it bother you. So justlet that just be something that
you toss aside and continueposting. You'll see brands that
are still posting. You're gonnasee creators that are still on
there.

(07:16):
And until the ban takes place,you should maximize your
audience as much as you can. Butdoing other things to plan for
it is always helpful because welove TikTok. We love the
creativity. And the people thatare leaning into TikTok first
understand what I'm talkingabout in terms of the way
community is built. But I willtell you that we have a lot of

(07:39):
creators in the studio that aremuch more well versed on
Instagram, and they do feel thesame sense of community on
Instagram.
And they have created that andestablished that. So it's not to
say it can't be done on anotherapp. It's just that the way
TikTok presents it and those ofus who have been on it for so
long, we feel it's personality.And when you are connected to

(08:02):
someone's personality, and it'san app's personality at this
point, it's hard to think you'regoing to replace it with
anything. So I think you need tolet go of the idea that you're
going to replace it and decidethat you're going to keep your
options open and pick a secondbackup that you're going to
start putting some creativityinto.
And you don't have to say, allright, now I'm just going to not
pay attention to TikTok and runover there and do one YouTube

(08:23):
Shorts. No, no, you don't haveto do that. But take a minute to
post your stuff on YouTubeShorts as well or Instagram as
well or Facebook Reels as well.Just do it as a backup. Just
start doing it as a backup.
Get into the habit of it if youhave to schedule them because
Instagram is easy because youhave a scheduler. So you can
literally just spend an evening.I always like to think Sunday

(08:45):
evenings for me. That's when Ischedule my YouTube content.
Schedule your Instagram postsand get them ready to go.
That way it's something youdon't have to think about.
You're getting you're putting inthe effort and you'll have more
you might have one that hits.You know? A lot of times I'll
just throw in something onInstagram and it gets more views
than it got on TikTok. So youjust don't know.

(09:05):
I mean, I think the thing isyou've got to keep your options
open, so therefore post in otherareas. You know, get yourself
into that. Alright? Alright. SoYouTube and Instagram are the
top contenders obviously forreplacement.
But and even though none of themare the same, it still means it
still doesn't mean you should doit. You shouldn't do it. Okay?

(09:26):
Do it anyway. Just do it.
You might have to find that kindof community elsewhere. And if
you're forced to do it, at leastyou're getting ahead of it. So
now let's break downrealistically what you should be
doing. So number one, we talkedabout post on different
platforms. Pick another one andpost your content somewhere
else.
But the second thing is moreimportantly, if you're still on

(09:46):
TikTok, make your audience feelmore connected to you. Build a
better connection. Give themreason to follow you elsewhere.
Give them reason to take it toanother place with you and to
want to find you somewhere else.And that can still be done in
the timeframe that is whateveris left on TikTok.
You still can do that. And thepeople that know you there will

(10:09):
always remember you from there.And I will tell you firsthand
because I have one on ones thatpeople that tell me last time
last week, I was crying aboutit. Though there's people that
already know you and willremember you. And if you happen
to pop up on another app,they're gonna remember that.
But if you are committing tothem and starting to move them
and shift them, if they arecommitted to you because of your

(10:31):
silliness, because of yourauthenticity, because of your
joyfulness, because of yourcreativity, you're more likely
to get them to want to go toanother place with you. Okay? So
just know that, use theadvantage of this app that I
personally love and I know thatgives me, fills something in me
that the other apps don't. Andso I still post there as my

(10:53):
first priority because it's whatI love the most. And I'm still
building community there and I'mstill gaining followers over
there and I'm still creating asense of maybe these people will
follow me.
Okay? So if you keep thatcreativity and not worry about
how many views you're gettingand, oh my god, this is really
this is awful. Well, 200 viewscould be 200 new people or half

(11:13):
of them could be new. So just Iguess I I don't think I am I
think people think that I'mpreaching this whole, like, 200
people is a lot of people, blahblah blah. They think I'm
preaching it or something.
But I want you to know that Imean it, and I don't know how to
convey that. I will maybe justkeep saying it and trying to

(11:34):
keep saying it in a differentway. But when you get low views
on your videos, they could benew views. So you could have
found new people and you didn'teven realize it. So it I just
think that get over the hump ofthe views and try and just talk
yourself in off the ledge andthink I'm finding new people.
I'm creating new community, andshow up for them. Show them your
funniest self, your best self,your happiest self, your most

(11:55):
joyful. Show them you, the youthat you are so that you can
find your people. It's gonna begood. Okay?
It's gonna be okay. Now, let mejust tell you that some of the
things that we are gonna bedoing in the studio coming up in
September, so you might wannaprepare for it, is talking about
the different ways to take yourcommunity elsewhere, to how to

(12:17):
create community and how to movethem and how to shift them and
bring them. Okay? Now I've beendoing this for years. I have an
email list.
Now I have a creator community.I have curated people over to my
YouTube channel. And my YouTubechannel actually monetizes now.
And I never even I didn't put alot of effort into that. I'm
gonna be honest with you.
I just was consistently puttingthe things up there. I didn't

(12:38):
spend time you know, people willtell you, if you wanna go hard
on YouTube, spend time on yourthumbnails, spend time on SEO. I
didn't think about a lot ofthose things. I just post, post,
post, post. My thumbnails areterrible.
They're all vertical thumbnailswhen they should be horizontal.
I don't care. Don't have time tomake horizontal. That was a low
priority for me. Post, post,post, post.
I still managed to get up toenough followers and enough

(13:01):
watch hours to monetize on myYouTube channel. I don't know
how to articulate this enough.It was like an afterthought.
Truly, I can't emphasize thatenough. So my afterthought
afterthought has evolved to apoint where I mean, is it paying
my rent?
No. But I get about $200 a monthfrom YouTube. And it's I just

(13:24):
put my videos over there. Ischedule them on a Sunday night,
and I just put my videos overthere. So you see, if you are
relentless and if you have thatpoke, poke, poke, never give up
attitude, that's what I like tocall it, like, I will keep
going, if I have low views, ifno one's watching.

(13:44):
I just keep going. And if you dothat, you have more of a chance
to have something accidentallyhappen that you didn't expect.
You also will have people thatrespect you for it because
they're like, she's showing upand she's got only a 100 views
on her videos. Somebodycommented on one of my videos
and said literally left acomment and said, you have so
many followers. Why are yourviews so low?

(14:06):
Like a random person noticedthat my views are low compared
to my follower count. And I justhad to write back, it doesn't
really bother me. I feel thatI'm reaching the people that I'm
supposed to reach. So for aperson to notice that, you know,
about my account, it's actuallymade me feel good because it
made me feel like, wow. I'm notwe're all not crazy.

(14:29):
Views are low. Like, randomperson came to my page and
noticed that to my followercount, to my view count, it's
low. And it made me feel okay.You know? I just was like, oh,
yeah.
It's okay. I don't mind. I'mokay. I'm getting the right
people. The people who careabout my content are watching.
And I have a lot of people whoare in a newsletter. I'm

(14:52):
positive that those people wouldnot have are are not getting my
videos on their For You page.I'm I'm positive. I'm positive
that there's a bunch of peoplereading my newsletter that just
see my content in thenewsletter. And I did that.
So it's like you can do thattoo. You just slowly give them
reason for going to thenewsletter. You drop a little

(15:13):
nugget in an you know, we drop anugget in one of your videos,
and next thing you know, they'resigning up for your newsletter.
And we're gonna talk about allthe strategies to how to do that
in this month in the studio. Soif you're interested, get in it.
And, otherwise, have a greatweekend, and I'll see you next
week.