Amy: Hi guys, and welcome to the marketing. Hi, the podcast talking all things marketing. Myself, Amy and Kate are here with you today on episode two, and we are going to talk all things TikTok, how to move over to TikTok and the strategy that’s helped us grow on TikTok. So with thatÂ
Kate: tape, I am so excited for this episode.
I’ve literally been so excited for it. I’ve been thinking loads about all the different tips that I wanna share cuz I think. I dunno. It’s so current, isn’t it? Everybody’s talking about moving over to TikTok at the moment, so sorry to interrupt you by just, I needed to get that out there. I’m never excited to talk about this.
Yeah,
Amy: definitely same. And to be honest with you, I think it’s one that is gonna be exciting in the respect of both myself and you have quite different journeys into TikTok, so. It’d be quite interesting to see that kind of like change of, you know, how I’ve grown into TikTok and how yours has happened because obviously again, everyone’s probably at different stages.
Some people I know may have TikTok like you have, um, whereas myself is a complete newbie. So strategies that are definitely different in terms of that, and I guess the opportunities that you have. Trying to move over to TikTok.
Kate: Yeah, absolutely. I think for a lot of people now, so I, I, I think we might have touched on this on the Instagram episode, but I came to TikTok from a place of, oh my God, I’ve taken time off of Instagram when I had my baby.
And my engagement was just already shot a bit, a bit before everybody else started to experience that. Um, so for me, I think I had like kind of, I was fortunate. We weren’t quite, we were like a couple of months off that point where everybody migrated over. So I had time to make the mistakes and try things out and be silly before my audience on Instagram really knew I was there.
Yeah, yeah. Whereas then it was like an influx, wasn’t it, of everybody coming over from Instagram and trying to get on it and everyone’s doing the same trends and it, Yeah. It’s, they definitely, we’ve both come from different places with it, but like I was telling you what I was doing the whole time anyway, it’s so funny, like when we were talking about it and you kept saying to me, I really need to get on TikTok.
And I’m like, You really do .
Amy: I know, I know. And I think that’s the thing, isn’t it? And I guess it is that thing of why we wanna talk about it because it is that kind of fear of like, Like, I know for myself, and I know for a lot of people who I’ve spoken to, it is that thing of like, Oh God, it’s adding another marketing channel.
Like I don’t have time to post on Instagram as it is. It’s like, how am I gonna post on TikTok? Like, you know, or how do I even set up a TikTok? And it’s finding out and figuring out all those rules again, Like, I guess one thing I wanna start with in terms of like tips is on profile optimization because, For me, obviously that really pit me off starting the tip top.
Like when I first set it up, I’d was really excited. You know, I’d had loads of tips from you in terms of like things to do in terms of profile optimization and I literally couldn’t do much of it and I just felt so frustrated cuz I was a bit like. Well, how am I gonna market my business if I can’t hit my website URL in there, for example?
Or Yeah, that question of like, you know, you’ve got so many people saying, should it be a business account? Should it be a personal account? Like Yeah. Like I completely get the frustration with like setting up a new account. And I must admit for like me, it was, it did pit me off, like initially posting for a bit cuz I was just like, I don’t feel like this profile is perceiving what
Kate: I want it to.
Yeah, absolutely. It’s so, And I think it’s really difficult when you come from Instagram or actually any of the other platforms where you can link your website pretty much from the get go. Yeah. And so you can just say to people, Oh, check out my website for more information on my services, or click my link bio for this.
And when you come from that being your strategy on other platforms, it’s really hard. And actually, I was very, very fortunate that when I created my TikTok account, It was back when reels had not long started, and I think, I can’t even remember who it was now. Someone I followed was like, Take the time to repurpose your reels on TikTok.
And I repurposed a couple on there. And the performance was really good because there wasn’t a lot of people within our space yet on TikTok. But this was like, 2020. 2021. But I was able to put my profile link in at that point. Yeah. So that made a big difference because when I came back to it, my profile already had that link.
And so I, I guess it’s kind of like I was, it was, um, is it like legacy over or whatever, where you, you have that good fortune of doing that, which I know a lot of people who’ve come into it now haven’t. So I can’t relate to that side of it because I have always been able to link to my business.
Amy: Yeah, definitely.
But I guess so like, moving on to that, like I did, cuz I’ve been playing around obviously with, because there were so many mixed things on like, do you have a business profile, do you have a personal profile? Like there were so many mixed emotions on that. I kind of like thought, do you know what, this is a brand new platform.
I’ve got nothing to lose in the end. And I tested out between having, you know, a business and a personal account. Um, And I did eventually on the, when I had the business account, I did eventually like get the um, option to put my URL in. So I think it’s just TikTok figuring out what you’re there for and then.
Giving you that. Sometimes they say the rules of like, I think it’s like you’ve got to have, is it 10,000
Kate: followers to, I think it’s a thousand followers to get you LinkedIn. Oh, a thousand? Yeah.
Amy: Yeah. I can’t quite remember. But again, I didn’t have a thousand, I’d literally only signed it like two days and then I think it was about a week later.
And then I’d, I think I messaged you like, Oh, finally I’ve got the website You are around. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then again, it does, and. Like it was great because then I had that, but then I, being on a business account found that I definitely wasn’t getting the reach I felt I could. Um, it was definitely harder in terms of also for like trending sounds and things like that.
Um, I did find the business account a lot more restrictive, I guess. So I did actually do a test. Like I say, I tried to persevere with the business count for a month because I really wanted to give. You know, it’s all, I kind of wanted to test out why it was not as good, maybe why, you know, what was the difference between that?
Um, and then I switched over to a personal account, which I still have now. And annoyingly, I have lost my url. Um, yeah. Section. But again, like if you really want that website in your profile, you can just pit your, you know, website address in your, um, like bio as such. I, that’s what I’ve done. You know, I’ve pit.
For more information or whatever, visit my website and then I’ve just pick mango and wild.com, for example, so people know that’s the website to go to. Again, like once you think about it, like most of the time, again, another thing with um, TikTok is they don’t let people message you unless you are friends with each other.
So with that, TikTok actually helps people to go over to, for example, your Instagram, where then you build that kind of more. Community connection or more like conversational stuff in terms of if you wanna work with each other or, you know, get more in depth conversation. So again, I wouldn’t overthink the URL now, um, because again, I know that people would, you know, be sent to Instagram where they can get the link in my bio and stuff like that if they really wanted to.
So,
Kate: again,
Amy: I think. Like, I think it’s that thing of like, don’t overthink it. I know, I definitely did. Cuz I
Kate: was just so like, you know, it’s just so frustrating. You’re like, it’s,
Amy: its, it’s that thing of, it’s just so frustrating and it’s like, you know, it should be there, but it’s not there. So it’s like, the why’s are not there, Why can’t I do this?
Like, it should just be so easy. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it’s definitely that thing of like, just don’t overthink it because if you think of it in the long run, You know, you’re talking about your business name or you’ve got your business name as your like, um, URL and stuff like that. So again, people are gonna know who you are.
So if they wanted to, then. Further, um, find you, I’m sure they’ll be able to
Kate: as such. Absolutely. And I actually think it’s, you have to focus a lot more on profile optimization in other ways before you hit that thousand followers and actually having your URL is such a small part of Yeah, that’s the part I think about the least.
So I actually updated my sort of profile even this morning because I’m constantly trying out. Variations of what I should say, but the overwhelming sort of, um, advice I would have, overwhelming, not like, sort of like the overall advice I would have for that is to treat it in the same way you would treat SEO for your website.
So when you, if you take the time to search on TikTok, and I know I used to do this on Instagram a lot, I would, if I was looking for, say someone in email marketing. An Instagram expert, I would go on Instagram search and I would search for those things and people are using TikTok in the same way. So for example, if, for me, I share website tips, so I make sure that my profile has website tips in it.
I make sure it’s got SEO tips in it. Um, web designer, SEO specialist, all of those sort of keywords that people are going to be searching for on the platform, they’re what you wanna optimize your profile with. So first of all, you want to make sure you’ve got those keywords in, but then you also want to make sure that when they land on your profile, they get a really clear idea of who you are and what it is that your content is about.
And that is going to convert the followers. And I think until you get to a thousand followers, that’s what you have to work on is convert. The visitors to your profile, the people that see your videos, get them to follow you. Once you hit a thousand, you can add that link and then that just is another layer of lead generation.
So then your goal kind of goes from being get a thousand followers to, okay, get the people that are watching my videos to click my link. A hundred percent. And
Amy: again, I think it’s that thing as well, like talking on making it specific. It’s a bit like I always like to use. And the same with like Instagram buyers.
It’s that analogy of like, this is your online shop front, so you know, if you are looking for. Clothing and the online shop says shoes, you’re not gonna go there, are you? So it is that thing of making sure that your profile does really speak about what you are offering. And then again, with that, you’re gonna get followers also, that could become those potential sales and leads because they’re people who are interested in what you’re doing.
They’re people. You know, want to learn these tips or want to buy these products and things. So again, in the long run, you are building up a good, strong following instead of just kind of like, like you say, just trying
Kate: to get to a thousand, for example. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is true. That makes a huge difference as well, and I think.
A lot of the people that I end up connecting with on TikTok, I would seek, if I got to the point where I wanted to work with them, I would seek them out. So if they didn’t have a link and I had to type their website address into my browser myself, that would not affect whether or not I worked with them.
Yeah, that the goal of your content is to just make it that you’re an obvious choice for them. They’re not gonna say, Oh, I’m not gonna choose you because you don’t have a link. Like, that’s ridiculous , isn’t it really? When you think about. You build it up so much in your mind, but just don’t, because you having a clickable link in your profile is probably not going to be what is the deciding factor in them working with you?
Exactly.
Amy: And it is that factor. Like anything in life, anything in strategy when it comes to marketing is it’s that thing of people by people. So again, people aren’t gonna just land on your TikTok page and then purchase from you straight away, whether you’ve got that link there or not. People are gonna want to follow you or want to keep checking in with you to make sure you feel like the right fit, to make sure you are, you know, able to answer their problems and give them a solution and so forth.
So, Again, it’s not about just having a platform that’s gonna suddenly get you inquiries and sales. It’s about, you know, building that, no liking trust, building that thing of getting people to, you know, know who you are, know the services you provide, trust that you can help them, connect with them and make.
You know, yourself relatable to them, that then they’re gonna want to purchase from you because they, you know, they like you, they like the way you speak with your content and so forth. It’s all the kind of factors that merge into it that make people buy, not just because you’ve got a url, for
Kate: example.
Yeah, absolutely. And actually I think that leads quite well onto the second point that we had about not overthinking. Your strategy in general and what you’re doing on there? So going back to when I first started on TikTok, I very much did not overthink any of it. I spent a little bit of time scrolling through videos, seeing what people were doing, and then I just thought, Okay, I can do that.
I’m gonna give that a try. I, I think when I look back now, I can’t even really remember, uh, an exact example, but I went through a phase. I would just scroll until I saw someone doing a video with a trending sound, um, that I could apply to my business. So I can’t even think of a good example now, but I would just scroll until I found one that seemed relevant and I’d just, Okay, fine.
I’m gonna film that today. And I would upload it and it, it was just fun. It was just being silly and it was just seeing what would happen. I don’t think. That needs to change now just because more people are on there. I still, I mean, there is, there is more to it and some of the other tips we have are about ways that you can turn that into other types of content and whatever.
But the main thing is to just. Try everything initially. Don’t overthink it. Try everything. Don’t worry about copying people because it’s not, So it kind of, that’s kind of what the platform’s built on. Like the trending sounds thing is literally, Oh, they did that for their email marketing business. I’m gonna try and do that for my web design business.
So I’m gonna change, I’m gonna copy the sound, I’m gonna copy like kind of what they’re saying, but change it so it’s applicable to my business. That is what a lot of people do with trending.
Amy: Yeah, a hundred percent. And that is it, isn’t it? It is that thing of don’t overthink it. Cause talking of like trending sounds, it’s even like where you’ve got like trending dances and stuff like that, like the, there are people all doing the same thing cuz it’s, it’s a trend, it’s something to follow.
It’s just making sure it’s related to your business. And I think like, going back to point of like, don’t overthink it. Definitely like, like I say with me, obviously when I started it, cause I started from zero. I’ve obviously like tested out business and personal. I have seen the growth kind of like Quicken and double being on a personal account, but that’s just me.
I know people who have business accounts that do do well. So again, just test both out. If you feel like you need to like, you know, give one two weeks, see what your stats look like and. Another two weeks do it on the, a personal profile, for example, and then compare the difference. And that’s it. Like don’t overthink it in terms of like, I guess which one you should have.
It’s kind of like, which one feels right and which one works best for you. Um, which one? Helping your business grow
Kate: as such. And like, don’t pay someone 50 pound for a consultation to ask them like, what, what type of profile you should have. And that. That’s something actually I shared on stories last week.
I think so, so I’m, I’m not gonna go into like a slagging match over it or go into the specifics, but there are quite a few people in the online space who are, whatever the current popular social media platform is, is what they are an expert on. Yeah. And they will try and sell you workshops and, and, and don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking workshops.
Amy and I have done workshops or you know, like we’ve done Google Analytics workshops and what have you, but they’re very actionable and they come from a place of Amy and I having. A lot of knowledge within SEO that people find challenging, and the idea behind the workshops is to actually teach people how to do that themselves.
But SEO is a very technical topic, and you often do need that layer of education for it. You can’t wing it with seo. It takes six months to rank on Google. Sometimes you can’t afford. To just don’t overthink it and we’ll get and see if it works. Um, with social media, you absolutely can. People with viral successes overnight out of absolutely nowhere, and you definitely do not need to pay someone who says they’re an expert to tell you how to optimize your profile.
We’re sitting here now telling you for free, have talked to my job profile because it is. It’s not that deep that you need to pay someone money for it, and I think that is the problem. When you get into a cycle of overthinking things, you think, Oh my gosh, I just don’t know. I need to pay someone to tell me exactly what to do.
I need to take a course to tell me exactly what to do. It’s all shit you don’t need, and the algorithm could change tomorrow, particularly with something like TikTok, because it’s in its infancy. Look at the way the Instagram algorithm changed. That could easily happen with TikTok and you’ve paid someone for a course or a workshop to teach you what to do, and tomorrow that could change and you are out of money.
Amy: It is that thing, isn’t it, of like social media is always evolving. Um, I mean, anything in marketing is always evolving and changing, but
Kate: you know, it doesn’t change
Amy: as quickly in terms of like seo, you know, that it’s still the same thing in terms of do this, do that, do this.
Kate: It’s a much more tried and tested method, isn’t it?
Seo It’s like, it’s logical. I think social media platforms aren’t as logical. Yes,
Amy: exactly. And I think that’s the thing, and it’s a bit like if you kind of go on to like our other thing about like trending sounds like. You. You know, someone could give you a list of trending sounds that you are like, I dunno, you could be paying for a course and they’re giving you a month’s worth of trending sounds, but those trending sounds couldn’t be trending anymore.
Like trending sounds are trending because of that particular time. Now, some trending sounds last a month, some trending sounds last a day, sometimes less a week. Like there’s no rhyme or reason why they don’t. Like, you know, all have a specific timeframe on them. It just depends on how many people are using that sound and then how, you know, quickly it becomes a popular song and sound to keep using, um, until it then dies out as such.
So, It is that thing of like you could be wasting money on things that aren’t necessarily like it’s gonna help you on the now, but not for like the future in terms of things do change. It is about lot, a lot of the time, trial and error testing, learning, see what’s working, see what’s not working and so forth.
A bit like. I think probably going on to our other tip about the content in the terms of three and one. Cause I think yes.
Kate: That, I think that works really well. Yeah. So the, the three and one strategy, just before we get into it, I don’t a hundred percent know where it originated from, but there is an account, um, who I absolutely love.
He shares amazing tips and trending sounds and all kinds of stuff called Jackson’s tips on TikTok. Mm-hmm. . And he is where I first became aware. The three in one rule. Um, and the idea behind the three in one rule. So actually I, I think I must have told you about it, Amy, when we went to the podcast conference before this podcast is even born.
Yeah. And the idea behind it is that for every idea you have for a video to. Create that idea into three different types of videos. So the first one being, uh, an original sound, You speaking to the camera, you just pure education, entertainment, whatever it is you’re going for with the topic. The second one is text on screen.
So rather than, um, with a, with or without a trending sound. And then the third one is, um, More of like a, Oh, yes. So sorry, going back to that, so text on screen, and you can either do that with the, Oh, we’re getting into all sorts of techniques now, but there’s the one where you do like a seven second recording of just yourself, and then you have like a trending sound in the background, but it’s not a trending sound that you would lipsync to.
It’s more just like a popular song that’s trending. And you put the text over the top or you can do a trending sound where you know it’s a bit more of like a skit style and you are like lip syncing and what have you, and the text on screen like that. And then the third option is a, a sort of condensed version of your first one.
So your first one, that might be an educational video that’s like a minute long. The third one would be like under 20 seconds, bang, bang, bang. Like just getting the points out there. Yeah. And the idea is to see. What sticks, which one does the best, And that also will help you a lot when you initially start with TikTok to know what style of video your followers like best, how you best teach, and what performs the best in terms of bringing in customers or followers or whatever it is you wanna gain out of it.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I think it
Amy: is that thing like, you know, and I find sometimes I do all three and there’s no rhyme and readers reason on which ones performed personally better. Um, but it gives you variation, I guess. It gives you variation to bring new potential followers in. Um, and also it helps you like.
Obviously in terms of like, don’t overthink it, the overwhelm of like adding another channel, it helps you again create that content because you are creating one idea into free pieces of content. So you know, you are repurposing one thing into free, which is obviously gonna save you so much time in terms of content creation and thinking You’ve got to, you know, do so much when it comes to.
Adding this additional channel in terms of like having to create more for another platform
Kate: as such. Yeah, and I also think it’s really useful for, So what I tend to do is have like a bank of videos that are like seven seconds long of just my face, and then when I come to want to create content and I don’t have time to sit down and talk to the camera or.
Whatever else it might be. Then I can just go back on a video where I’ve just been educating through talking and I can do a written version of that. And so the idea behind the seven second video trend for people that don’t know it, is that the text on screen should take longer than seven seconds to read.
And that way it. The person watches the video all the way through to the end and likely then watches it again, reading all the text, and it ups your watch time. And one of the metrics that TikTok uses for whether or not a post is gonna go viral is watch time. If people watch the video all the way through to the end, you’re far more likely to get pushed out to a bigger audience.
So that’s the logic behind that style of post. Anyway, the three in one rule just allows you. Cover all those bases because you might find you have an audience. I know I follow some people and I love when they do a video that’s like over a minute because everything they provide is so valuable, um, that I want, I want more, whereas I find my content is better when it sits under the 30, 42nd.
And that’s what I found works better with my audience, but it varies massively. So it’s worth trying all of them.
Amy: I definitely gonna say, and that’s interesting cuz I find that, I mean, I, I’m probably much further behind in terms of learning and testing compared to, um, yourself and with that. But I do find that for me, if I sit and think about it, my longer form content probably does better.
My shorter versions as such. Um, I do find my more like conversational topics, I guess are ones that perform best, or if not, if I had to peel it down into categories, it would be kind of like, you know, Long form content above, you know, that’s like above a minute does really well. All my really short ones where it is just the text on the screen giving like a couple of tips, for example.
Yeah. Um, that do, do the best for me as such, but I, yeah, I’m still in that testing phase of like learning and seeing what, what does better as such and kind of looking at all. Data of, you know, what’s got the most views and things. But yeah, it’s interesting to know, you know, the difference between two accounts
Kate: as such.
Yeah, absolutely. And we probably overlap audiences quite a bit as well. So it just goes to show that you can’t, it, it might just be your recording style or whatever, but the idea behind that rule, the three in one rule, is it gives you. Freedom to explore it, and it’s creating three videos out of one idea, which when you are struggling, because I think with, with Instagram people were much more like, Oh, I only post once a week or three times a week, or what have you.
And people used to always say, As long as you are consistent with your posting schedule, the algorithm will sort of reward the hat and what have you. Yeah. But with TikTok, it’s the more you post, the better. Like I, at one point when I was going through a period of noticing that the, for me, my profile was doing quite well and that I could make this my main sort of marketing stream to replace what Instagram had been.
I was posting like seven videos a day. That is a hardcore amount of videos. Like it was not, I burn out very quickly doing that, but it got me that initial growth that I wanted. Yeah. Um, And finding out about things like the three in one rule made that so much easier. Yeah, I
Amy: was gonna say, if you’re posting seven times a day, there must be about, like, must be hard to come up with content ideas.
Kate: It was so hard. I
Amy: think that three one rule definitely
Kate: helps when it comes to that. Yeah. Abso and also like the, not to go massively off topic, but um, the website reviews really helped with that as well. When I had started to get a really influx, like I constantly have over a hundred drafts. Of people wanting website reviews.
It’s so funny. At the moment, I’m sharing reviews for people that requested a review over a month ago, and I swear some of the time they don’t even remember having asked me. Yeah. And I had one guy replied to me yesterday and he was like, Wow, you must have a, And it was the guy who was website I’d reviewed and he was like, Wow, you must have a big backlog of these.
And I’m like, Yeah, I really do. But I want to give everybody the review. Yeah, I’m very conscious. At some point I’m gonna get to a point where I have to probably do it differently and more just randomly choose a comment and do the review on that, because, It’s getting silly. Like I’m constantly a month behind, how am I gonna ever catch up?
Yeah. Um, but they really helped doing content that wasn’t my face on camera allowed me to bulk record a lot more as well.
Amy: Yes. I was gonna say, and I know that obviously cuz I, you got, you do the website reviews and I was saying I need to find something that makes. You know, people want to come to me or if they land on the page, want to, you know, stick around, get something, come back and so forth.
And build that kind of like conversational stuff. Um, so I did the same in respect of doing SEO audits. Um, I haven’t plugged it as much again, but it definitely
Kate: helps and I do
Amy: definitely find they are the best performing, um, and do help with growth quicker, because again, I think it is that thing of like, you know, Someone’s commenting cuz they want something, you are then replying with a video and then they’re replying back with additional comments or so forth that TikTok can see the value in terms of what you are providing to those people.
That it definitely boost things much quicker. So, you know, when it comes to content, like definitely use, like we say, the free and one rule to help you with cutting back that overwhelm, I guess, of like, how am I gonna show up so many times I don’t know what to post and things. Um, But also try and see if you have something that you can do, You know, that’s kind of like specific to your niche as such.
Um, that then, Can make your TikTok a little bit different to others and make people want to come and stick around
Kate: as such. Absolutely. And I know that we haven’t included this in our tips, but I’m really annoyed at myself cuz this morning I was literally thinking about how I wanted to talk about this.
And Amy and I quickly just sort of shared what our tips were gonna be before we, um, started recording. Um, I’m not gonna call this tip number seven, I’m just gonna do it an extension of this tip. The best performing content on TikTok is Educat. So, I mean, well actually that’s a lie. Educational or entertaining.
But if we are talking about from a marketing point of view, marketing your business, ideally you should be educating. Yeah. And with the reviews, for example, what I have found with that, and it wasn’t a tool what I expected it to be, so I was showing website reviews to help that individual. And also to help me come up with more content to try and hit my seven posts a day.
Ridiculous target that I gave myself. But what I actually have found now that I have sort of a catalog of them is that people will come to me and say, I’ve been watching all of your review videos and taking your tips and applying them to my website, and it’s become something that is a resource within itself, even for people who haven’t had the review.
Yeah. That for me is, is like someone left me a comment yesterday. It was so lovely. I’ve saved it cuz I wanna do them video reply saying that I’m one of their favorite accounts on TikTok because they learn so much from me. And I thought, oh my God, I love that because that completely by accident has become what I’ve framed my content around in terms of the reviews.
And the more I lean into education and lean out of lead generation, the more people I’ve booked. The more the account has grown. Um, I think like the more I feel that it’s worthwhile to post, so I don’t show up on TikTok every day to make money for my business. It’s a nice bonus, but I show up because I’m creating a community of people who I’m helping.
Yeah, and I think if you get into that mindset, , it makes it much easier to come up with content because I know back when I was on Instagram, all of my content was geared around lead generation. How do I book someone, How do I get someone to book this service, blah, blah, blah. But now I just have the services there in the background and my content is purely educational.
And I had a call with someone this morning who was like, I’ve been watching your videos for ages, following all of your tips. Move from Wix to Shopify. And I’m like, Yes. Like representing, moving over from Wicks. Love that. Um, And then he said, I just need someone to do the polishing, like final touches on my website.
And he said, I got to the point where I just thought, let’s just see what services she offers. And I saw that you offered this v I P design day, and I thought, that’s perfect. That’s exactly what I need. And that is a completely organic journey from someone who was just watching my videos to learn to booking with me.
Without there being any intention on my part of that. Does that make sense? You know, like obviously the whole thing is marketing, The whole thing is intentional to promote my business, but it’s, it’s not the day to day the meaning behind my content anymore.
Amy: Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think that’s where it comes down to that like people by people and building that community connection and like, you know, you are giving value and.
The more value you can give someone, the more someone’s going to want that. Um, and it just goes to show, like you say, you, you know, you’ve given value in terms of doing these website reviews. You’ve given value in sharing all this educational content to help people, and that value has turned into people then wanting to work with you because, They see the value in what you can do for free.
So they know the value they’re gonna get is gonna be more, you know, if they’re paying for that service as
Kate: such. Yeah. That is exactly it. And so that would be, In terms of content, I know we’ve, we’ve covered a lot with content. There’s so much. I almost feel like we should have specifically done something on just content, but I think that just makes a huge difference.
It, it changes your mindset. It changes the way you build a community. I was listening to a podcast yesterday about someone talking about the importance of community, and it’s so true. It’s not all about. Yeah, like we’re saying the lead generation, it’s just about you get to that point where you become an authority.
I think I, I never really understood that bit of advice before being on TikTok. The how being an authority is actually the best marketing you can do.
Amy: Yeah, and it is true really because of thinking about my content. Like I say, I’ve actually just been messing around with TikTok. I haven’t used it in a way of like strategic, you know, I’m still in the testing phases, not really sure what I wanna do of it.
I’m just, you know, posting daily on there. Seeing what I can, you know, what comes from it. But the last couple of weeks I have had a number of inquiries come from TikTok and I haven’t, again, the same, don’t use TikTok in that way of generating Yeah. Sales. I haven’t put posts out there really saying about like, here’s my services or, you know, I’ve got this availability.
Like most of my content is the same. It’s educational, which, you know, SEO tips, um, what’s best things to use for social media? What platforms should you use and so forth like, Yeah, I, I haven’t used, or I’m not using TikTok in a way of trying to generate sales, but it, it is doing the, the selling for me without me even
Kate: realizing.
Yeah, 100%. And I think the, the posts that perform best are the ones like that, like the few that I’ve done where I have listed my services, they don’t perform well. Yeah, because I think. TikTok more than any other platform, people really don’t wanna be sold to. Mm-hmm. . They want to be entertained or educated or what have you.
And I’m the same on there. I wouldn’t engage with a video where someone was just sharing their services. I, if I’m interested in their services, I’ll seek them out. What I wanna know is why they’re an authority. What can I learn from them and you know, what do I get out of following them? So, yeah, actually that kind of leads onto.
Um, I’ve completely lost track of our list of what we’re meant to be sharing. Is it pined posts? That is exactly what I was thinking. Pinned posts is our next tip.
Amy: Yeah, definitely. Um, cuz yeah, so we are obviously been talking a lot about like content and how, you know, our style of content has been, and kind of the thing of like people by people, and this is one of the things where pinned posts happens.
So most of the time or often you’ll see that you go into someone’s TikTok and pin posts are like that bass performing quote, you know, where they’ve got millions of views or thousands of views or whatever. But I know we both have, um, You know, heard, been taught, told, whatever you wanna say, um, that you should post.
Have your pinned posts more as the ones that are, you know, relatable to you. Again, it’s that shop front thing I think of like your bio is there to quickly tell people what they’re gonna get from your profile. Your pinned posts are almost the same thing in terms of they’re gonna quickly tell people. You know who you are or what they’re gonna find from you.
So don’t always look at your pined post as the ones of like being like, Oh, look at this. Great, you know, post that got millions of views if that post that you know, was trending and got millions of users. Valuable, I guess, or relatable to what you do, then great. Maybe pin it. But if that is just a video that you know, got millions of views because you was doing a trending dance and you work in marketing, That’s not relatable.
Like Yeah,
Kate: absolutely. It’s not, I don’t care. Like
Amy: I don’t care that you’ve got, you know, millions of views on a post that you danced on because guess what,
Kate: we can all do that, I guess is my point, , Um, yeah.
Amy: You know, we can all jump on a trend and do a trending dance or whatever to get millions of view. So I think it is that thing of like thinking about your pins as your shop front.
Like, you know, making sure it relates to like the things that people are gonna get from you or, you know, allowing people to get to know you, whether it’s, you know, like a welcome video to. Who you are and your business and so
Kate: forth. Yeah, I completely agree. I love a welcome video whenever I come on a new profile that is ideally what I wanna see.
And actually, I used to have one and I don’t currently have one pinned. And when we were talking about this, I know
Amy: I don’t remember what I’ve got pinned, but I feel like I might have
Kate: unpinned my welcome video. Yeah, exactly. I definitely, I, I would say that is probably one of the most recommended things I could say is to film an intro video.
It’s actually very unlikely that it will do, Oh, sorry, my window cleaners here, . Literally not someone like cleaning the window. Right. Basically I’m like, I dunno if that’s picking up. Apologies if it does and it distorts. The sound of this bit.
Amy: I can like hear a, um, like the little
Kate: queing toughing on the, Can you, can you hear it?
That’s so funny. Okay. So had to do a little pause there and stop because the window cleaner started like bang, bang, bang on the window. And Amy very kindly told me that the sound was very distorted. So, um, but where I was with pin posts is that, I think it’s really important that you are just able to have that place.
Although we have just talked about the fact that you should be educational, you definitely should put a post together that is like, This is who I am, this is what I do, this is the services I offer, except that it’s not gonna perform well. That’s not its purpose. Its purpose is to be pinned to the top of your profile and give people that option to dive a bit deeper into what you do.
Kind of try and see your pin posts as ideally they won’t be your most successful posts. I have, and actually what I have found is that when I pin a post, if it’s been semi successful, it tends to then do very well because people then go on my profile and see it and it gets like a second injection in terms of getting pushed out by the algorithm.
So if you do decide to pin, I tend to choose those kind of posts based on this is a really helpful bit of content and this is the sort of thing that I want people to see that I teach. Um, yeah. So just keep that in mind with your pinned post. Make it the good all rounders. Yeah, like. Okay. Um,
Amy: cool. So I think, wow, we’ve got two our guests of our like last tips that we are gonna leave you guys of today.
Yeah. Um, and I guess the first one I would probably like to just cover is trending sounds. Now must admit one thing I hate, which I guess is good in one way because it makes it easy, I guess to, in somewhat way find trending sounds. But, Please. If you are going to create a TikTok account, don’t be another one of those who posts trending sounds.
Kate: Oh, you mean like the, This sound is trending. Make sure you do. Yeah, . I was like, what are you talking about? We’ve been telling people to do trending sounds and I You’re like, Please don’t . Ok. Yeah, I’m following.
Amy: Sorry. I made it in a way of like, you know, there are millions of people out there jumping on the, you know, to give them ideas, create content by going, This is a trending sound.
Here’s what you should do to use it. Like they are helpful, those people, but there’s just so many out there. It’s,
Kate: there’s too many and I think it, there are, there are a few people who I follow on there who are very good. So, um, one of them is Styler socials. What I like about her is she’ll share a trending sound, but she also shows you how to do.
The trending style of recording to it. So I don’t, I can’t even think of how the tune went now, but there was one where people were like, have the camera in front of them and then they turned it to the side and then they turned it back in front of them again, and the idea was to create like a loop again to increase watch time, what have you.
She shares the trending sound, and then she shares how you record it and how you edit it. That is that for me now is like that next level, that higher tier of person who shares that kind of content. And they’re the ones that I wanna follow. I don’t anyone who’s like, I actually recently went through a thing of, um, I think there’s an option on there.
Now I’m saying this, I’m like, Is there isn’t that? I’m sure that I put a thing on there telling TikTok I wasn’t interested in those style of videos or that person videos. Yes, you can. So to
Amy: stop yourself from seeing relatable con like content you don’t wanna see, I’m pretty sure you like. Hold your finger on like that video.
Yeah. And then it comes
Kate: up or something like that. Yeah. And I never do that with those cause I’m like, these are just so basic and I have my few accounts. There’s another one, um, strategized with Care. She’s brilliant. She’s, um, very, very successful. And actually the other day I, I’m not gonna go massively off topic about this, but just quickly the other day I did share something on stories similar to what I mentioned earlier about don’t just pay these so-called experts to teach you how to do stuff.
But I did put a disclaimer on there to. There are some people that you absolutely could pay for an account audit or for a mentoring session or whatever. She was one of those people I was thinking of in my mind, everyone who has worked with her, she then shares their results and they seem to be really successful.
But she’s not telling people, Am I having a business account or a personal account? She’s telling people, Okay, here’s a content strategy for you. Here’s how you do this. And so, yeah, this is definitely not a plug for her. I haven’t personally used her, but I do think she’s someone I’d probably recommend to people.
Yeah. But yes, so she shares that kind of thing occasionally, but she leans much more into educational style content now. And I, I just think the whole, this sound is trending. Use it thing is a very, It’s too easy, it’s too easy a way to go viral, and people are getting sick of it.
Amy: A hundred percent. Um, so there is another account, I’m trying to just find them now, but I can’t remember on the top of my head who they are is another one you recommended and Oh, um,
Kate: virality now?
Amy: Yes. They’re very good. Um, and again, I’m only saying because I’ve used it. Um, but they do have, it’s like, I think four pounds a week where you can get like daily trending sounds sent straight to your inbox. Yeah. And I must admit, like again, it is a massive factor, like, and really helpful if you are like, You know, struggling to create content or you can’t think of like content ideas because they basically like give you the trending sound and say like, relate this to your niche by doing X, Y, and Z or whatever.
So they give you like ideas on how to use the sound to make it relatable to you. Yeah. Um, I mean, I had to stop paying for it because I was like, I’m getting too much content ideas to create. So like if struggling, like if you’re struggling with content a hundred percent, that four pounds is worth it.
Honestly, like you literally click that sound, you can do your recording and you’re done and you’re getting like seven sounds a day or something. It’s
Kate: like absolutely ridiculous. Oh, it’s, it’s so valuable. That is such a valuable service. So I particularly when I was in my growth phase, trying to figure out what sort of content I wanted to put out, I don’t really do trending sounds that much anymore.
So I did eventually stop the subscription as well because I was like, I’m just not doing them anymore. I tend to just do educational stuff Very occasionally. I might do a training sound. . But that was so helpful for me and it really helped me gain that reach initially and figure out the style I wanted to record in and everything.
I also, I dunno if they still offer it, but I had a personal growth formula session with them, which was also insanely helpful. But again, something I touched on in stories the other day, I did that after I had some initial success on TikTok and I wanted someone who was at that next level of success to look at my content and be like, Yeah, you’re, you are doing this right and this, right.
We think you could do more of this. I don’t recommend that kind of thing for people that are just starting out because I just think you have to get some sort of, you kind of need the metrics as well for them to be able to look back at your content and tell you what will work and what doesn’t. If you’re a brand new account, no one can tell you what to post, in my opinion, at that point.
Um, you have to figure that bit out for yourself. But yeah. Like we’re saying, I know earlier on we said don’t pay for anything, but there, there are some things you can pay for, but it is finding the right time.
Amy: Yeah. I think, and again, I think it’s making sure that if you are gonna pay someone, they are like, that is their job.
For example, like, you know, we are sharing this for free today because it’s not our job. We, we’re not tick TechX folks. We’re just teaching you what we know. Yeah. Um. Whereas, and I guess, I think that’s the thing of like, if you are gonna pay someone, make sure like TikTok is their like main specialty, I guess, to then really know that you’re gonna get that value because you know you could pay for this, but we are not experts and if you
Kate: No, we’ve got no proof outside of our own accounts.
I think that’s one of the biggest things, isn’t it? Like if there’s no case studies of how they’ve helped, like strategize with care Again, I’ve seen her case study. She shares them on her. You know, she very obviously knows what she’s talking about, virality now. So just, um, as a little side note, we will link these in the description so that you guys can check out their profiles because they are very, very good profiles to follow.
Yeah. But again, they have lots of testimonials of proof that their methods work. Um, but you don’t actually have to go down that route at all because you can just scroll through the feed and find trending sounds. One of the best ways to determine if something is still trending is to click on the sound, which will be on the bottom left of a video using it and look at the date of the other videos that are being shared.
And so if you are finding that they are within the last, this really varies. So a trending sound can be something where everything’s been posted in the last day, or it could be everything’s posted in the last week, or everything could be posted in the last month. It kind of depends on. The style of sound.
So what I have found is that music sounds like, sounds that are just, songs tend to have like that longer shelf life in terms of being trending. Yeah. Whereas I think lip syncing sounds tend to have a shorter shelf life. Yeah. Because I think people get sick of them really quickly. Like, do you remember the, what is the one of um, There’s that one of, like that hacker guy.
I can’t even think what it is. I’m not gonna say it cuz this be so annoying for anyone listening, But there was like one of, of like a hacker like saying something and like everyone was using it and it went from being hilarious to being really annoying within the space for days. Yeah.
Amy: Agreed. And I, and I’m the same like if, if it’s just like a music one, you don’t.
I dunno, you don’t really like listen to it so then you don’t really mind hearing it more. Yeah. Whereas, yeah, when I’m like scrolling through my feed and all I’m hearing is the same sound of like someone lip syncing, I’m like, I scroll quicker. Cuz I’m like, Ugh, this is boring me now. Like I don’t really care about what they’re saying over the sound
Kate: anymore.
Absolutely. And you know what’s coming. I think that’s the problem with the lip syncing one. Is you’re like, Oh, okay, so they’re gonna lip sync this next line of this sound and they’re gonna relate it to their business. I think that’s the, it quickly tires. Yeah. Um, but that is the main way to tell if a, if someone’s using a sound and it’s got 2021, don’t even bother.
If it’s got January, 2022, don’t even bother. You wanna be looking for, So right now it’s July, so you wanna be looking, ideally for other videos that have been posted in July. I tend to make it a general rule that if the top performing video. Or from the previous month? I won’t, I won’t bother with it. Yeah.
But if they’re from that month, then you can assume it’s probably trending in some way. And actually the really good ones to get on are the ones where it’s got like under 10,000 videos and you see that it’s trending in the last couple of days because then it’s, if it really takes off, you are much more likely to sit higher up that list when people click the sound and then they’ll see your video.
Cuz some people like to watch videos based on the trending sound. Yeah, so that’s something to keep in mind as well. But yeah, so there are services, Uh, Jackson Tips is another one I think, who has a trending sound service, but I’ve not used it, so I’m not sure what the um, what the payment structure or anything is.
But yeah, so there are options if you wanna take that out. But if you’re just playing around and you have the time, you can do it yourself. Cool.
Amy: So our last tags, final tip is hashtags. Um, so I guess with hashtags it’s, to be honest with. You could take the same rules from Instagram in terms of you’ve got your broad hashtags, you know, your more specific hashtags and so forth.
So again, it’s the same respect of you don’t want to use too many abroad because again, you are trying to show up, you know, you are the one in the million to get found for that hashtag, for example. So it is about using variation when it comes to hashtags in terms of, you know, Hitting maybe like one in there or two that are broad, but making some more that are specific
Kate: for as an example of like a broad one.
Yeah. Um. So like web design or SEO tips? Yeah. Would be, or no, not even SEO tips. SEO would be broad. And then as an example, within my industry website, Tips and Tricks is more niche and doesn’t have as many videos under it.
Amy: Yeah, definitely. So yeah, good examples. Um, or like say, or again, like marketing would be a really broad hashtag.
Um, and then like digital marketing tips would make it a bit more specific. Yeah. And. You could say like SEO marketing tips again, to make it even more specific further. Um, so yeah, like again, the same as Instagram. You want to use variation. Don’t keep ’em all to being broad. Make them, you know, so then you’ve got opportunities to come up for some and not none.
Um, and also, is it five? I feel like it’s up to five that you want to keep your as like, The bare maximum in terms of like how many hashtags you should use in your
Kate: caption results? Yeah, so I have played around with this a bit. I went through a phase where I posted loads, um, and I made them all super niche, like under, I don’t know, like 5,000 total posts or whatever.
And I didn’t really find that they performed very well. And then I went to using very broad ones and using between five and six. And I’ve kind of found a happy medium now where. The ones that I use are mostly fairly broad, but within my industry. So I’ll use things like website tips or, um, marketing tips.
So they’re not, they’re not really, really niche, but they’re also not like hashtag marketing, hashtag websites or whatever. Yeah. Or I was gonna
Amy: say, or they’re not like, Cause obviously like when you. Or you’ll see on a lot of like trending videos that have the um, fy like hashtag fyp like for you page.
Yeah. So it’s not like relatable to your industry. It’s just like a very generic hashtag.
Kate: Yeah. And actually across the board, I think the recommendation now is to not use that hashtag because it’s completely irrelevant. You don’t wanna just show up on people’s four you page. You wanna show up on the four you page for people who are actually interested in your content.
Because then they’re the ones that are gonna watch your video and that’s gonna tell TikTok that they’ve got it right in terms of who they’re putting you out to and they’ll put you out to more people. Um, but yeah, I have found five to be my happy number. Yeah. And I dunno if that varies from account to account, but that is definitely what I have found has worked best for me is five.
Amy: Yeah, no, agreed. Um, I’m
Kate: the same, to be honest. Oh, and another really good tip that I found on that recently was to kind of try and create, like, I don’t know, for anyone who was on Instagram before, they probably have done this at some point, is to create sort of like hashtag banks. So say in your notes or what have you.
So I now have. If, for example, a website review, I will make sure it’s tagged website review and then website tips, and then if it includes seo, I’ll be like, Okay, I need to include a couple of SEO ones as well. But then I also try and include a hashtag that is related to the customer or like the, Or let’s say I’m sharing SEO tips.
I would also maybe hashtag that small business or quit your nine to five, or something that is relevant to. The audience, not just the topic. Yeah. So I remember you and I forever ago, we did Instagram. You did Instagram hashtags for me, and I remember that’s how you split them up, I think was Yes. Yeah.
Amy: Yeah, definitely.
And I think it means then like you’re not gonna, you can kind of like just keep using them in terms of like, you haven’t got a, again, for that quickness of like, you know, trying to add a new platform into your marketing. Like if you’ve got this banker hashtags, then you’ve got them all, you know, ready and set up to go as such.
And maybe that you just tweak one or two. To make it a bit more specific to the post that you are posting, but definitely kind of like think about the services you are offering and then try to, you know, make a bank of hashtags per those services. Then you’ve got them. Yeah, and then like you say, tweaking one or two to make it a little bit more specific to that.
Like if it’s on a particular type of audit or whatever, then you maybe wanna make it specific to that industry. More people in that industry can find it as
Kate: such. Yeah. I feel like that tip’s, one of those tips where we’ve, we’ve kind of got lot all around the houses to get to the point of like, ideally Max, and again, this is just Amy and I’s experience, so we can’t, we are not experts in this.
We are just two people using TikTok for our business and telling you what’s working for us. So five. Try to vary them. Don’t go too broad, but also don’t necessarily go so, so niche that like no one’s looking under that.
Amy: Yeah, definitely. Cool. So I think that’s pretty much it. Do, do you think we should just quickly recap on the tips just to then like we can just do like a bit of a round
Kate: off?
Um, yes. 100%. Shall I kick kickoff with the first? Go for it. Yeah. So, okay. Number one, if you guys can remember from all the way of giving you this episode, if you’ve managed to sit through, is profile optimization. Not worrying too much about not having that link in your profile and focusing more on giving people a reason to follow you or to watch your content and to consider SEO so that someone might be searching website tips, for example, and then therefore making sure your profile has those keyword.
Cool.
Amy: And then I think our second tip, again, we’ve rambled on a lot, but hopefully you guys have found a lot of value, is don’t overthink it. So again, in terms of like, don’t overthink it, you know, test and learn with the platform, like see what works for you, see what doesn’t work. Um, it could be that you test out different styles of content.
Again, it could be testing out what type of profile you have, whether it is a business page or a personal account. But literally just like play around with TikTok and get it to work for you and don’t worry about what everyone else is doing
Kate: really. Yeah, absolutely. Um, number three, I can’t even remember. I think it was the three in one rule and that ended up being a whole big thing.
So number three would be the three in one rule, which is for every one content idea you have, repurposing that into three different styles of posts. Um, and then we had a lot of other stuff leading on from that in terms of making sure your content is educational, entertaining, and trying to lead with sharing information rather than lead generation and letting the lead generation
Amy: happen organic.
Cool. And then the other tip, which I think was next , is um, in regards to pinned posts. So obviously you can put your most trending ones at the top, but our recommendation would be to make them more relatable to you and the, uh, services and things you do because, you know, your tick, for example, is your shop front.
So again, You’re better off having one that’s gonna allow people to get to know you more, get to know what they can find from your profile rather than a silly dance you did just to get
Kate: popular, I guess. . Absolutely. Okay. And so number five was trending sounds. So we covered how to find them, which is by trying to find sounds that have recently had posts.
So we are talking within the last few. Have had an influx of posts and ideally under 10,000 posts. That will put you in the category of potentially emerging with that trending sound. Um, but also you can just search your four you page for trending sounds or you can use subscription services. We have linked a couple in the box below that you could use if you wanna take that hard work out for you and have recommendations on what sounds to use each day, week, month,
Amy: whatever.
Cool. And then the last and final tip was hashtags. Um, again, with hashtags, it is a thing of testing and learning, which, which and what worked for you best. But try to aim for a bit of a mixture in terms of having some that are broad, such as marketing. And then some are a bit more niche in terms of like digital marketing tips, for example.
Um, we always say that the magic number is five. We found that five is or works best in terms of what we use in our captions. And then also to help you guys again, in terms of saving time would be to create like sets of hashtags in your phone notes or on a document or something like that, and try to have.
You know, different sets of hashtags for the services you provide and things. So then each time you create a post, it’s quick and easy to add those to it.
Kate: Yep. And not to use the fyp hashtag or trending hashtags. Don’t recommend using either of those. You need to make it relevant. You need to let the TikTok algorithm know what your content is
Amy: about.
Cool. Perfect. Well, that was a very long episode too, but we, Oh, that
Kate: was a monster episode. I’m If you made it through, congrats and I hope you found this really, really helpful. Okay guys, that’s it from us. Thank you so much for listening and we will speak to you again soon.