Learnings From My Tiktoks Going Viralš”
Two of my TikTok videos went viral last week.
One is semi-viral and the other is pretty viral.
Here are a few learnings from that experience:
1ā Write out your content.
These two videos came from a batch of videos I recorded that I had first written out.
On my Tiktok I mainly talk about life learnings. For a long time, my videos were performing ok when I was riffing on topics I cared about. I kept thinking if I had a script with bullet points that organized my thoughts to a better flow Iād be able to communicate my ideas clearer and achieve better outcomes.
I began doing this two weeks ago and my highest performing video was one where I had recorded as if I was speaking ānaturallyā but had bullet points of ideas I had to share under the same topic.
Viewers loved it. Many of the comments were quoting direct lines from my script.
2ā Beauty matters.
Iām not one to be obsessed with looks but I noticed on my highest-performing video that about 10% of the comments were discussing my appearance. Primarily women wanted to know where I got my hat from, what my makeup routine was, which blush I was using, and generally commenting on my skin, hair, and appearance at large. People are looking.
3ā Commenting matters A LOT.
Having worked in marketing for years before being a creator, I knew that once my video started performing well I had to engage with all the comments.
I liked EVERY SINGLE COMMENT and engaged with at least 50% of the comments. This by far was the most notable factor in keeping the video pushing algorithmically.
A lot of viewers who commented but didnāt follow me at first, followed me after I responded to their comment.
4ā Using trends helps
My video was purposely trend-oriented.
I included key cultural topics about being a ālovergirlā and āstanding on businessā and the āluxury movementā because I noticed those keywords were performing on Tiktok and since Tiktok is an SEO platform I knew that the hashtags would perform well and they did!
5ā Tails wins but isnāt promised
Just because you go viral on TikTok doesnāt mean your videos will now all have high views.
The videos I posted after my viral video had similar performances as my videos prior ā a few hundred views.
Having gone viral on TikTok before I knew that one high-performing video doesnāt build an audience and isnāt supposed to.
Virality is tails. It happens ever so often and great results come from itā but you canāt expect this with every video.
What you should expect is to show up every day and make quality content.
Performance isnāt up to you.
6ā The content creates the community.
I noticed something interesting in my viral video.
Without any of my doing, a community had formed.
Due to the relatable nature of my video people began sharing their stories and experiences, helping one another in the comments, giving advice, and even sharing books.
A support system had formed out of thin air.
This warmed my heart and made me feel like I had a gang of sisters not only rooting me on but rooting for each other and generally created a sense of community in real-time that was pretty remarkable.
7ā Content isnāt all bad.
I didnāt have personal social media for 4 years and even today I only use a couple of social channels that I feel are beneficial to my life.
For that reason, I donāt have Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Iām very conscious about social media usage, media intake, and outweighing the benefits versus costs.
For that reason, I was scared of TikTok.
I was afraid of it taking over my life and becoming toxic.
But that hasnāt been my experience.
TikTok is fun, lighthearted, and in my experience mainly positive.
I feel extremely connected to my audience and like Iām positively contributing to the world but not addicted to the app.
Over the years Iāve built up boundaries with social media usage so the day I went viral I deleted the app off my phone and spent time with my niece.
So long as youāre using it and itās not using you, social media can be a positive experience.
8ā Connecting with Creators
After my video went viral with 700k+ views my followers grew by 50%.
The growth led to 10 new people subscribing to my newsletter, one brand outreach, and a few old friends reaching out to me.
But it gave me something much greater: CONFIDENCE.
Performing well as a creator gives you the confidence that āthis might workā I started dreaming up the possibilities of life as a full-time creator.
Having this newfound creator confidence gave me the ability to reach out to creators in NYC that I like and ask them to meet for coffee or be a guest interviewee in my newsletter.
I felt like I entered a new space of āoh Iām a xreator nowā which made me feel comfortable reaching out to other creators in my league.
And they said yes! š¤Æā¦ so new friendships are on the horizon š.
Have any questions about being a creator or virality that I didnāt mention in the post? Feel free to email or DM me. š„