How to Find Success on Social Media Without Being on Camera

Welcome back to Social Sessions Podcast! This episode is all about showing you how to craft content that speaks volumes without saying a word—or showing a face. We'll take cues from the likes of Deuxmoi, mastering the use of a compelling voice to foster trust and engagement. I'll also guide you through the world of voiceovers and storytelling techniques that can give your content a personal touch without revealing your identity. By the end of our chat, you'll be equipped with a suite of strategies to make your social media channels more human, more relatable, and more engaging, all while keeping your privacy intact. So, whether you're steering a startup or spearheading a creative project, prepare to amplify your brand's digital charisma, invisibly.

Chapters

• 0:00 Building Social Media Brand Without Camera
• 12:07 Building Brand Presence Without a Face
• 19:37 Building Relationships Without Showing Your Face

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Have you ever wondered what goes into your favorite brand's digital marketing strategy? I'm Tara, the founder of TJ Creative Agency, and I'm Audrey, the creative marketing director of TJ Creative Agency. Whether you're an influencer, a business owner, a content creator or just an overall creative person, will teach you how to create the perfect social media strategy and build your brand online. Welcome back to social sessions podcast. You guys, it is just me, audrey, here with you this week doing a little solo episode for you. We are going to be talking about what you can do if you do not want to be on camera or you don't have someone to be on camera, and we will dive into that a lot more obviously. But first I want to jump into the update of the week, because this is one that I found very interesting and, honestly, shocking. So I had found a report talking about TikTok engagement rates. Now, if you remember, a long time ago we did an episode where we had talked about the average engagement rates on every platform, and it was well known that TikTok had the highest engagement rate. The highest average engagement rate, I should say, and we're talking in this scenario, we're talking specifically for brands, but at one point, the average engagement rate on TikTok for a brand was 5.69%, which was a big deal when we had reported about it, because most of the other platforms were one, if not under 1%. So having a 5.69 engagement rate was really good. However, it has dropped by over half and the average engagement rate is now 2.63%, which sure it's still better than Instagram. It's still better than a lot of these other platforms, but that is a significant decrease. So they also say that TikTok post interactions are down 26% from its highest numbers in 2022. And then another company found that the average engagement rate for TikTok clips have declined by over 35%. So overall, big, big decrease in engagement on TikTok. So if you're seeing a decrease, if you're seeing less engagement on TikTok, know that that is across the board, it's not just you, it's not just your content. When I did go into this article, though, they were talking about it. Really, they kind of broke it down into two reasons Either that there are more brands on the app, so there's more competition, which typically means that your engagement is going to decline, or they suggested that brands are just producing less engaging content. So we can't necessarily say exactly why, but it was just shocking and good to know that it has dropped so much. So, again, if you're seeing a decrease in your engagement on that platform specifically, know that that is across the board. Know that that's not just you. Everybody is seeing a decrease.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Okay, now jumping into the actual topic. You know that we've talked about front-facing founders. How much we love front-facing founders. We've talked about it since the beginning of this podcast. Right, because it makes it easy for you to connect with your audience. And, as we've said a million times over the last few episodes, people want to follow people, not necessarily brands. So when they have a face to connect to the brand, it's much easier for them to feel like they have that relationship.

Speaker 1: 3:37

Right, and this isn't anything new. These front-facing founders aren't anything new. I think a lot of really big companies have done this really well. I think Sophia Amaruso is probably the biggest, one of the most well-known variations of this, because she built up her personal brand so much that I actually think her personal brand kind of overshadowed her companies, but she was, I think, one of the first ones to really do this. I think Lindsey Carter at Set Active does this very well. I also think it's important to note that once these companies get bigger, the CEO is probably not on TikTok or on their Instagram as much, but they're still front-facing, right.

Speaker 1: 4:22

So, anyways, we've talked about how much we love front-facing founders, but we also understand that not everybody is comfortable in front of a camera. Not every business owner is going to be comfortable getting on camera and talking. Or, honestly, some people just don't translate well on camera. Maybe the way that they speak doesn't translate well, maybe the cadence in which they speak, maybe their sense of humor, their delivery, whatever it is, maybe it doesn't translate very well. Or maybe they aren't exceptionally articulate or they ramble a lot, whatever it is. There's some people who just don't want to be on camera, and that's okay, and I don't think that should mean that you can't find success or your business cannot find success on social media. I think it just means we have to be a little bit more creative with how you're going to be showing up on social media, because I don't think you can just have product photos, be your entire social presence, because that's when it starts to feel a little bit cold. It starts to feel a little bit yeah, cold is really the only word I can think of. There's no warmth to it, there's no personality to it. It's hard for people to relate to, especially, like I know, when I'm scrolling on, let's say, instagram, for example, and I just see photos that are clearly like website shots. I'm like, what is this doing here? If I want to see your product, I can go to your website to see the product. Social media is a lot more entertaining and serves kind of a different purpose. So, again, not everybody is meant to be on camera. Not everybody is comfortable with being on camera. So here are some alternatives that you can do if you do not want to be on camera. You don't have someone to be on camera, anything like that.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Number one leverage user generated content. I love user generated content. I think it has become even more popular and will continue to get even more popular. You see so many brands use it. I think one of the main benefits is that it still allows there to be a person that your audience can connect with and it brings a sort of humanity to the brand right. It also can really help your customers and your clients picture your product or service in their lives, because usually with UGC content, it is showing your product or service out in the wild or in someone's life, so it's a lot easier to paint that picture.

Speaker 1: 7:01

Think about like a pajama company or something. Right, if you are seeing UGC of a girl that's doing her nighttime skincare routine in the pajamas that you're trying to sell, it allows you to see yourself in that situation, right, let's say, I'm the ideal customer. I'm scrolling through my TikTok or I'm scrolling through my Instagram and I see this video and I'm like, oh, that's so cute, like I can whatever. It kind of paints a picture. Maybe it's like a cute matching pajama set and I can kind of picture, oh, that would be great for like a self-care night, blah, blah, blah, versus just a flat lay of the exact same pajamas. Do you see what I'm saying? It just allows you to see yourself in the scenario in which you would be using the product or service and it also in some ways acts like a larger scale word of mouth and it kind of feels like trusting because it's a quote, unquote normal person.

Speaker 1: 7:58

I also think there is an argument that UGC could be influencer content. It's kind of. I don't think there's an extremely like, extremely rigid definition of UGC, but typically the way that I think of it is just the product or service being used by someone else like a content creator. I think content creator is probably a better way to think of it. But which actually kind of gets me into the next segment of this is like how are you going to get UGC? If you are a brand, how are you going to get this content?

Speaker 1: 8:32

Well, one, you can hire someone, and this is where the influencer thing kind of comes into play, or the content creator thing kind of comes into play. Or you can hire an in-house content creator, which I think is a very popular thing that businesses are doing right now. But you can also freelance and contract a content creator. There's so many people online that aren't even necessarily influencers, and I think the benefit of using a content creator versus an influencer is you may not have to A pay as much, but B work with usage rights situation. You don't necessarily have to negotiate how long you can use their name and likeness in your content. But if you contract someone or you have someone in-house that is able to make all of this content for you, it's also nice because there's that consistency. They are the consistent face, the consistent person that shows up on your brand socials, which again helps to build that relationship.

Speaker 1: 9:37

I also think there's more organic ways to gather UGC. You can host a contest where, let's say, your audience or your customers already use your product or maybe already have the product, so you don't have to send it out at all, you don't necessarily have to pay for anything, and maybe you say the best videos get a year supply or the new limited edition drop, whatever it is that you offer. Maybe the contest is that you get a new set, or you get the new product that's dropping, or you get a three month supply, or whatever it is. You do this contest but in order to win, you have to make a video and send it in, and I think it's also clear. This is obvious but you have to write out in your contest rules that when you're sending this in, you are approving that we can use this on our platforms. But that is one kind of more organic way where you are using actual customers because in order to submit themselves to this contest, they have to own your product or service, which means they've already purchased it, which means they are already a customer, ideally a customer that enjoys your product.

Speaker 1: 10:56

And the last way is to look through your hashtags. We've talked about this. If you have a branded hashtag, look through your branded hashtags, look through your location geotag if you are a brick and mortar, or look through your tagged photos. What's really really important with this, though, is you have to make sure you get permission from those creators. So, let's say, they tag, you make sure to DM them and say, hey, can we use this on our page? You know, otherwise it can turn into a whole ordeal and, trust me, we've had this happen where we post something and they're like we actually we didn't say you could use that, so then you have to take it down and it turns into a thing. So make sure you get the permission from the creators. But, again, it's a great way to use kind of organic UGC, where it's people who do already use the products, and sometimes that translates when you're using the content in the video made by people who actually do use your products and actually do enjoy your service. Sometimes that can translate a little bit better than an influencer who's maybe used your, your products or service once, so that I'm going to be honest, that is one of my favorite ways.

Speaker 1: 12:07

If you don't want to be the face of the company, if you don't want to be on camera, find someone who can be. I think one of the best options, if it's in your budget, is to hire that in-house content creator. Now they can be a social media manager. They don't necessarily have to be. It could be someone like I said, you, you contract it out, but I think that's probably the best way in order to stay consistent, really consistent in the in the way of which you are posting, but also consistent in the way of having it be the same face on your page regularly.

Speaker 1: 12:42

The next thing that you can do if you do not want to be on camera is explore faceless content. Now, this feels a little bit newer, but if you've been scrolling, I think it's more on Instagram than it is on TikTok, but there's been a ton of people who are making quote, unquote, faceless content. So it's really promoting a product or service without revealing who is behind the marketing efforts. Think of it as almost like putting your phone face down and like your hands are in the shot. It just. I've seen, I've seen some people who they're not in it at all, like maybe it's just their hands. I've seen other variations where the phone covers their face or it's cropped in a certain way where you you don't ever see anybody's face. But this is another great way that you can be consistent but but also doesn't require just one person to be on camera at all times.

Speaker 1: 13:36

So this would actually work really well with having a contracted UGC creator, kind of tying them back together because you can contract. Let's say you work with one content creator, or even two content creators, and that first one maybe does 10 videos a month for you, the second one maybe does five videos a month for you, and then you have someone your social media manager in house who is able to make this faceless content. That kind of goes up in between the contracted stuff that you have, right? So this, the beauty of the faceless content, is anyone can make it. You don't need the same person making it constantly, right? Let's say, you're busy and you need, like, your assistant to do it, or something like that. Anyone is able to make this content. It still allows for there to be a connection to be built, because there is still that human element. You're just not seeing the face.

Speaker 1: 14:31

And I think this this is also a little bit more artistic in the way that it's filmed. It's a little bit more creative, because I think the key to creating good faceless content is to have several different angles of like the exact same process. So let's say, you're like cutting a vegetable or something. You might have an overhead shot. You might have a super zoomed in like from the front shot. You might have a different all of the exact same thing, but you're cutting. That's what's going to make it interesting and keep people locked in essentially, keep people watching your content when there isn't a face there.

Speaker 1: 15:14

One example this is really random, but a really good example of this is Nike did a video. They just released a shoe with Devin Booker. Now this is like a funny example because obviously there is a face to this campaign, there is a face to this shoe. It's Devin Booker. But in this one specific video, which, if you're watching on YouTube, I will put it on the YouTube video so you have a visual reference. If you're not watching on YouTube, if you're listening, I will also clip this and put this on our Instagram. But in this specific video it doesn't really show Booker. It shows what can be assumed to be Booker, because it's like waist down or like knee down really, of him walking through the tunnel with these shoes on, like off the court right Kind of. It's supposed to showcase that it's stylish, that it's. This whole video is showcasing the versatility of the shoe, but it's supposed to show that it's stylish. It goes with every day and then it cuts to like mid-walk, the camera angle is the exact same, but now it's him on a basketball court like in uniform. Again, his face isn't in it, it's just the shoe, but it's changing the location.

Speaker 1: 16:26

So I thought that was a really great example of how a brand can use faceless content. I've seen a lot of faceless content in terms of, like faceless influencers, but for branding specifically, I thought that was a great example. I think this type of content is also great because it can allow the product or service to really be the center of attention without it feeling cold, kind of like how I was talking about, how these brands will sometimes use their website shots on their socials, and that's when it does start to feel a little bit cold, when it's just like a photo of a product on a white background not really it, but this is a version where we're obviously the product is the main focal point, but it feels like there's still some warmth, there's still some personality there. Last thing that I would suggest you do is to start using voiceovers. I think this is a great way for people who are maybe camera shy to start to get comfortable with being on camera or start to get comfortable with at least showcasing some personality. This is a great way.

Speaker 1: 17:30

This is a great thing to pair with that faceless content where maybe you can share a story without having to actually show your face. An old, old example of this would be those Draw my Life videos that used to do so well on YouTube Kind of think of it like that where they're able to tell a story. Obviously, I mean, you could do that with a person that's not a person. That's not a person that could tell a story. Obviously, I mean you could do a variation of that if you want and actually draw it, but you could also tell a story and have video clips that correspond to the part of the story that you're talking about, which could also be the faceless content. I think this is also a really great way to build a relationship with your audience, because including your voice is obviously personal in and of itself, but it also allows you to include your personal viewpoint, which is one thing that I do think separates the voiceovers from the other two suggestions I gave earlier, because you are able to tell a story a little bit more. You are able to give a personal viewpoint, a personal vantage point that the other two can't necessarily give.

Speaker 1: 18:47

Don't underestimate the power of your voice and how recognizable it can be, because even the tone and the cadence of your voice can really help to build a relationship. This is a really crazy example. I feel like all of these examples have been crazy today. But if you think about when a mom is pregnant and the dad will talk to the stomach, that's building the relationship between the baby and the dad. The baby obviously cannot see what the dad looks like, but can hear the dad's voice, and it's supposed to help the baby recognize the dad's voice when it is born. Right, it helps to build that relationship and you can also think of like audio books and podcasts, where we aren't necessarily seeing their face but we do feel like maybe we know these people because of the voice.

Speaker 1: 19:37

Dumois is another great example. We do not know what Dumois looks like, but we know what her voice sounds like and that is strong enough for us to feel like we know her or build some sort of relationship. Or in her case, it's more so trust right. So a lot of these things aren't necessarily exclusive either. I think all of these things can work very well together, especially if you don't wanna show your face. I think, honestly, having a concoction of all three of these having the faceless content, the voiceovers and having some UGC content is a super great way to still showcase personality and showcase human-like qualities on your business page. That is gonna help build that relationship and build that trust with your audience. So I hope this was helpful for you guys. A quick, short episode with just some quick short tips, but I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you did, I would love it if you rate and reviewed the podcast and I'll talk to you next week.