1 Mistake Not To Make On TikTok - Marketing Monday - September 30, 2019
This week, in addition to my normal marketing activity, I’m going to start playing with what time I post my TikTok videos. I usually post in the morning during the week, and this week I’m going to test a 3 pm-ish posting to see if the analytics change. But that’s not what I want to talk about this week.
In jiu jitsu, we have a saying: your either win, or you learn.
I have a different take on that: you learn no matter what, win or lose.
For the last couple of Saturdays, I have had some relative success with my #ScrewingWithScammers videos that I’ve been posting on TikTok on Saturday mornings. These are videos where I mess with the scam callers using different character voices. It’s a lot of fun, and it gets a great reaction from people. Prior to this weekend, I’ve seen some pretty big growth after posting them.
As you’ve probably picked up on, there is a “but…”.
Analytics from this weekend’s #ScrewingWithScammers video
This weekend I posted a #ScrewingWithScammers video, and it didn’t perform as well. As of this writing, it has 1,019 views, 193 likes, 11 comments, 3 shares, and my followers grew by 267 people. For comparison, the other two averaged 400k views, 81k likes, 275 comments, 1,377 shares, and my audience grew over 5k people each weekend.
So something was different this time.
When I look at the analytics, I can see that none of the traffic came from the “For You” page, that this post was only shown to people who were following me.
This is great, because I have learned a couple of things:
Based on this information, people’s behavior on TikTok is to not go to the “Following” page, but to simply use the “For You” page, a place where you will see the people you are following, along with videos that TikTok thinks you will want to see based on your chosen preferences and behaviors on the platform.
My “cover” for that video probably contributed to it not appearing on the “For You” page, which limited my reach.
So why do I think that the cover is the reason for this? It’s the only thing that was different; or, at least, the only thing that I was in control of that was different. There may be some other algorithm things happening in the background that I have zero knowledge or control over, so I’m only going to focus on what’s in my sphere of influence.
I was able to capture the audio from the scam caller, and I used the pre-recorded preamble of the call in the beginning of the video to set it up. I showed this in the video as text with captioning over it. See the video on the left.
Now, from a “storytelling” point of view, this is a perfectly legitimate production aesthetic. However, it would seem that within this storytelling medium of very short videos that my “preface” probably wasn’t identified as interesting or suitable by the TikTok algorithm (or by whatever method which these things are decided) to appear on the “For You” page. The other #ScrewingWithScammer videos had the majority of their initial traffic from the “For You” page, and relatively little, if any, from the “Follower” page.
This is a good lesson! And I’m seriously not at all upset by this.
The Takeaway:
Don’t start short form videos with text-only visuals. You have a limited time to capture a person’s interest, which is what all of the social media algorithms are geared to do. Us “older” video producers need to change our mindset for this medium.
To continue the analogy from the beginning: I don’t mind it, as a brown belt in jiu jitsu (which is one belt below black belt), when a lower belt, even a white belt, taps me out. Why? Because 1) I probably made a mistake, and 2) they were able to capitalize on it. We both learned something. We both feel good about their progressing in their journey, and I got to see a hole in my game. We both come out better.
The same can be held true in marketing, or, frankly, any endeavor. I now have a little more knowledge about the TikTok platform. The only way I could have gleaned this is through making a mistake, and I did.
And you know what? Maybe all of this will be proven wrong in a week, or a month, as I continue to post videos. And that’s OK, too. Trust the process.
If you have any questions about what I’ve learned about the TikTok platform, or need help getting started, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
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