I thought I was too old for TikTok.

I honestly thought TikTok wasn’t for me. I love capturing photos of food and architecture others would refer to as ‘aesthetic’. I had to try TikTok three years apart, in 2020 and 2023, before I succeeded on my own terms (as in, I still didn’t want to dance).

Our marketing agency account went from 0 followers on February 26, 2023, to 100K followers on March 29th, 2023. In one month, we achieved explosive growth. Scroll down for the 9 things I did differently this time.

I thought I was much better suited to a social media platform like Instagram. And I was. I had a healthy follower base of 14K. At one point, I had a decent engagement. Until the platform started taking that away by prioritizing ads in the feed. Then came the posts about Instagram vs reality. It’s true. For content to perform well on Instagram, we had to distort reality.

Do you think the restaurants that foodie influencers visit are ALL really that good? Is the interior design and atmosphere really that nice? More often than not, they needed content, so they included restaurants that were just okay. As for the beautiful backdrops? That was likely the staged corner that looked the best in the space. Reels to travel hotspots like Mykonos don’t show you the unbelievably crowded shipping ports where you board the ferries to other islands. They don’t show you the hundreds of heads they photoshopped out to get that perfect sunset photo. I’m sure you get the point by now.

A few years ago, when I first came upon TikTok, the platform was where everyone was dancing or posting random funny things, and the creators soared to popularity. That stuck with me; I was part of the camp that thought TikTok was just for teenagers.

However, I remembered that the market held similar perceptions of Facebook when it first started (only for university students) and Instagram (an online collection of filtered photos). Yet, years later, these social media platforms are amongst the most widely used apps worldwide. So I decided to try once, I hired someone who said they knew TikTok and could grow the account, so I let them try. It worked! But sadly, I didn’t know how the platform worked after the person was no longer at the company.

I was the issue back then because I didn’t make an effort to understand how TikTok worked. I assumed it was just like any other platform. I still believed it was all about delivering your content while moving to the beat and pointing to different text as they appeared on the screen (I truly took on the perspective of a dinosaur).

Now, earlier last year, as Instagram started ‘adopting’ more and more features from TikTok, I knew their game was over. When a company can no longer be original and becomes an imitator, its grasp on consumer behaviour is likely no longer what it used to be. That meant my agency had to change its service offerings soon, or we would be stuck offering the same thing our competitors offered—services on platforms of the past.

9 lessons i learned TO GROW ON TIKTOK

1. Educational content. Users refer to TikTok as “TikTok university” because you can learn a lot here. What I thought was basic about marketing was what the audience thought was helpful on TikTok. I discovered content that added value to the people of TikTok.

2. Test what adds value for your audience. The keywords here are TEST and YOUR AUDIENCE. We found many reference videos to educate ourselves on what types of marketing content TikTok users like and share. We came up with our content categories based on that, and started to create and publish content.

3. Be original. Be YOU. TikTok is the platform where I would go to create content and feel invigorated. I was sharing what I’m deeply passionate about (marketing and how to sell) in a way that I would act if I were at home or in discussion with my friends about the same topic. Our marketing agency creates knowledge-sharing content across platforms. I had a more business, serious look and feel to my delivery on long-form YouTube channels and in our online courses.

4. I spent time on TikTok. If you aren’t a consumer of the content, you will never understand the nuances of what makes for great and engaging content on TikTok. Sure, there may be that random meme clip with millions of likes, and you can’t figure it out, but that’s just what it is, it’s a meme. If you’re building a brand for your business, like I am for my marketing agency, then simply surviving and doing meme videos aren’t going to get you the engaged followers you need.

5. Find your vibe. After watching enough videos, you’ll find that the creators on TikTok who have an engaged following are authentic and show their real selves and opinions—something that is all too rare on other platforms. We’re not talking about crying videos and being vulnerable like that phase we had on Instagram…we’re talking about saying what you really think. Let me warn you, there are plenty of haters on TikTok, same as other social platforms, but at least you won’t be hated for a fake version of yourself, and for some odd reason, it made me feel better when I saw nasty comments.
   
   After filming a decent number of videos (28 videos per week in the beginning), I started to find my vibe and signature. It became a way for my followers and other people watching my content to recognize me.

6. Make your content digestible. Bite-sized, easy tutorials and tips became our most popular pieces of content. It’s no secret that the attention span of today’s netizens is extremely short. Our analytics showed that most users would stay for up to 10 seconds, then 30% dropped off. After another 10 seconds, another 30-50% dropped off. Our most viral videos have a video completion rate of 22-25%. The key is to make your information succinct and digestible.

7. Be patient. Sometimes we post a TikTok and it sits there for a week with low engagement, and then it suddenly blows up. It takes time for the algorithm to recognize what you posted, so be patient. Some content creators advocate reposting the same content again to see if the algorithm picks it up. Still, our opinion would be to check the stats of the original video, see where engagement and viewers dropped off while watching, and fix those issues before reposting. In other words. Refine your content.

8. From quantity to quality. The last point brings me to… refining your content. We posted four times a day in the initial two weeks to see which content categories and formats worked. Once we saw the numbers, we refined our content by producing more videos like the ones that worked. Once we honed our content strategy over four weeks, we started posting two videos per day, then one video per day.

9. Engage with your audience. Get back to follower comments. Respond with videos. Build your community. What I found with TikTok that was more encouraging than Instagram is that people want to learn about marketing. In contrast, Instagram users leave comments to gain exposure and #likeforlike or #followforfollow. This made me feel valued because I was helping people. I wasn’t doing it as a humblebrag or a low-key flex like on Instagram or LinkedIn.

Maybe this is what TikTok gets right that other social media platforms so sorely and glaringly miss the point. We’re tired of faking it and putting on a facade on social. We’re tired of curating our lives to show only the best part of our lives. TikTok gives its users a place where they can share their lives as it is. From their rants and ravings to daily life hacks and hilarious comments.

I’ll admit it. I’m a converted TikTok user now. How about you?