Grow your business on TikTok (no dancing required)

IMPORTANT: THIS TRANSCRIPT IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED. WE GIVE IT A QUICK CHECK THROUGH BUT WE DON’T CORRECT EVERYTHING AS IT’S INTENDED TO HELP YOU FIND PARTS YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO AGAIN - NOT AS AN EXACT TRANSCRIPT. SO THERE MIGHT BE A FEW QUIRKY WORDS/PHRASES HERE!

:: 00:01

One of the things that I want you to understand when it comes to utilizing video is your visibility is power. You deserve to be seen, heard, and paid. And one of the things you have to understand about your visibility, especially when it comes to doing short form video, what we're doing on Tik TOK is that your confidence is your superpower. Would you like to start using TikTok for your business,

:: 00:24

perhaps you're already on Tik TOK, but feel frustrated with your growth. In this episode of the courageous content podcast, you'll hear from four business owners who have quite an engaged followings on the platform, which they've used to promote their businesses. I think the key is literally to be really analytical about what you're looking at. Get used to storing the data, storing all your good ideas,

:: 00:47

really, really well, and then going into your day with a video mindset. So you're always looking for opportunities to make videos and not putting it off. You'll hear about their Tik TOK strategies, tips on creating short form video and the benefits of using tiptop as a platform for your business. And also what kind of mindset you need to succeed on Tik TOK.

:: 01:08

You have to understand that this camera, whether it's your smartphone or whether it's this right here on your laptop is your friend. And the reason why you can't show up confidently on camera is you treat the camera like it's an enemy and what it is it's really your friend. This episode has been created at using content from a session on Tik TOK videos from my 2020 Ryan at courageous content live content planning event,

:: 01:35

the session was hosted by producer and broadcaster. Ant McGinley. You'll hear from in the opening, you'll also hear from video marketing pro Penelope Walker, crime author, Clare Mackintosh, social and content manager Jasveena Sahota and video and visibility coach and producer Roshanda Pratt. And if you still have questions after you've heard them speak, stick around,

:: 01:56

because I've also included the questions our delegates asked, you're listening to the courageous content podcast. I'm Janet Murray, and I love helping poachers creatives and entrepreneurs create super engaging content that generates leads and sales for their businesses. No one starts a business and just knows how to create engaging. Content is a skill that has to be learned from practice. And there's always something new to learn,

:: 02:21

no matter how long you've been in business. And I know running an online business can feel messy, perfectionism, fear, self doubts, and other mindset styles can stop you showing up online in the way that's best for you. So you'll get help with that too. Where did you get courageous with your content? Let's get started. This session is all about Tik TOK and how you could use it to help grow your business.

:: 02:49

And we have a real panel of experts. They're going to have five minutes, which doesn't sound like a lot of time, but having spoken to all of them briefly, this is all gold dust. So get ready with your notes. We're going to start our nation's capital here, and we're going to go to London where penny Walker is waiting for us.

:: 03:09

He's a Tik TOK and Instagram wheels expert. If you lived in Italy for 22 years and has been a social media pro for the last six, she coaches businesses to create engaging video content and has run campaigns for many creatives, including musicians, interior designers, and an award winning gardener. Please welcome penny Walker. Hi everybody. Nice to see. So today I'm going to talk a little bit about video mindset for tech talk.

:: 03:36

And this is really for people who are needs to talk and considering taking your business on Tik TOK. So really it's about figuring out what kind of videos you can make and stopping the overwhelm of all the mess and noise that you see. So it's really less about the scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, and more about being really analytical about what you're seeing. So what you want to do is go and look on the discovery page in your niche,

:: 04:02

put in your keywords and see what other people are doing in your industry. What kind of videos are coming up? How are they putting those videos together? How long are these videos? Often when you're new to talk, shorter video is going to work a lot better. What hashtags are they using? Are they using printing music or are they doing trends?

:: 04:21

And by doing all of this, you want to really dissect what makes a good video. What made you stop and watch and how can you recreate that for your own content? Because on TechTalk you tend to scroll through a lot. And there's a lot of information that he's full, something that you don't, and then it disappeared and you don't know where to find it anymore.

:: 04:39

You just want to have a plan for getting all your good ideas down. So you take Janet's great big planner, and you want to write down the hashtags that people are using. You want to write down your good ideas as they come to use a funny little episodes that might happen in your office. You wanted save your favorites as you scroll through. So I don't know if you know that you could long press on videos you like and save them as favorites.

:: 05:03

And then you can go into the bookmark in your bio and pull them out. So that's a good way of saving everything that you like, but basically have a record of everything that you think is making a good video and what's industry appropriate for you so that when you come to making a video, you know exactly what kind of information you have to use,

:: 05:20

and you don't have to spend a lot of time thinking about, hang on a minute, where was it? What was I going to write? I saw something good. It's that? And you know how to use it. But my last point, and I think it's the most important one is having a video mindset and your day-to-day life. And I think this is something that people struggle with,

:: 05:35

you think, okay, I'm going to go on tech talk. I'm going to make some videos, but it's like, well, how's that going to happen? Because we all know making videos take a little bit of time. So I think it's just being ready to spot opportunities in your everyday life. So for example, in your industry niche, if there was some breaking news,

:: 05:52

you might want to make a quick video about that, but you want to do it quickly. You don't want to it late. You want do it early, so that you're not the last boring video saying the same thing, but you the first video. And so you want to know how to be able to do that. So you want to have maybe a tripod ready in your office,

:: 06:07

understand where the good lighting is in your office, so that you can just hop on and do that in your white space or in your daily work. Like, oh, there are things that you can talk about that you might not be used to talking about. Is there a delivery? Is that some sort of transformation a before and after, or are you doing something as basic as targeting your desk and you might want to show you the before and after all of these are really human sort of personality,

:: 06:33

like bits of content that work really well on the platform. So you don't always have to do something dumb and structured. And I think by doing all of these things, you want to find yourself a content rotation that you can use for starting out. So when you start out and take time, often you might lay out the groundwork by introducing yourself in a few videos saying what you do.

:: 06:52

But after that, what are you going to be doing? What have you seen in your niche? Well, you might be delivering a tip and talking to the camera. That might be something with a bit more value. It might be a little bit longer. You might be jumping on and doing a GYN or a stitch and sort of riding on the success of someone else's video that you can just comment on,

:: 07:13

or even just react to with your face. That works really well as well. And then lastly trends. So trends are kind of quite an abstract art that take a lot of getting used to. And I think if you look at anybody on this panel, everybody is using trends differently, specifically for their niche and doing a really rare to get jobs. So I think the key is literally to have been really analytical about what you're looking at,

:: 07:36

get used to storing the data, storing all your good ideas, really, really well, and then going into your day with a video mindset. So you're always looking for opportunities to make videos and not putting it off to your recording day next week, but just seeing what's happening, what's relatable. And what's funny that you can share on Tik TOK. Wonderful.

:: 07:56

Thank you very much, penny. So we move on and we're going from London and we're going Northwest to Snowdonia and saying Bano to Claire Macintosh. She has multi award-winning author, five Sunday times bestselling novels, New York times international bestsellers and possibly the biggest accolade of them. All three of our novels have been in Richard and Judy's book club picks highlight his novel hostage is a locked room thriller set on a long haul flight.

:: 08:27

So please welcome Claire. Awesome introduction. Thank you. So I'm very much the newbie on Tech-Talk. I only joined three months ago and I suspect my mindset then was similar to perhaps how some of you are thinking now, which is, I feel like I should do tech talk, but I'm not doing tech talk and I don't know how to start. And so I decided that I didn't want to still be here in a year's time.

:: 08:51

Wondering if I should join Tik TOK. I thought I'll join. I'll see how it goes. Three months on I'm sitting at roundabout 4,000 followers. I'm not spending huge amounts of time on it, but I'm already starting to feel some real benefits. So I've reached somewhere in the region of 2 million readers around the world, but that leaves a lot of billion readers.

:: 09:09

So for me, tiptop is all about discoverability and it is by far and away, the best platform for reaching people who don't already follow you. I'm going to give you five things that I found to be really, really important when you're starting on TechTalk the first one is to try and create some content first, before you go off following everyone. I think the temptation,

:: 09:32

when you join any platform is to hit that follow button and start following all your contacts and people in the industry. The problem with that is if you follow me, the first thing I'm going to do is go and look at your profile. And if all I see is an empty grid, then there's nothing there that makes me want to follow you. So start by creating some really good videos,

:: 09:54

at least an introduction. So there's something that when I look at your profile, secondly, think really carefully about who you're following. So who do you want to reach? Who are your customers in my case, who am I readers again? I think there's a temptation to follow all the experts. And I'm not saying you shouldn't, but here's a top tip.

:: 10:13

I have two separate Tech-Talk accounts and one, I use to follow people outside my niche that I want to steal ideas from. But one, I keep fairly focused so that the algorithm understands that what I want is bookish content. So if, for example, you are a therapist and you follow hundreds and hundreds of other therapists, that's great for networking, but Tik TOK might then think that all you want to see is other therapists or other industry professionals.

:: 10:43

So think about your customer and start trying to follow them, build that community first, but keep the social in social media, start chatting, answer questions, ask questions on other people's comments, like follow, share all those sorts of things before you start hitting people with what you're selling, because I'm so new. My focus has very much been on funny,

:: 11:06

engaging content and only in the last couple of weeks have I started to slide in some slightly more serious content. Now, before I get creative with sounds sounds on my favorite favorite thing. I love the lip sinking. I'm totally addicted. My tip with that is if you come across a sound on your, for you page that you liked the sound of,

:: 11:27

then go and look at what other people have done. And you can scroll through hundreds of different videos that people have used across different industries. And I always find that something sparks an idea and I can apply it to my own industry. Finally, I am so vain that what stops me doing video a lot of the time is because I don't want to get dressed.

:: 11:49

I don't want to do my makeup. I'm just not in zone for it. Firstly Tech-Talk is very much a platform where you don't have to be in stir shiny. So don't worry so much about that. But secondly, use the enhanced filter. Like if makeup is a thing for you and it is for me, I prefer to present a video where I feel like I've got my face on and I'm very much on brand Tik.

:: 12:12

TOK makes that so easy because you can hit the enhanced filter and just tweak your makeup a little bit so that you look the way you want to look and you feel good. Well done, Claire, thank you very much. All right, well, let's move on to our next speaker. We're going to meet a social media strategist creator, and this is just Venus a hotel.

:: 12:34

She helps and supports businesses with a social media presence and she teaches brands how to leverage platforms like tick-tock to play a key part of their marketing funnel. Her mission is to show people how effective social media can be for brands. When used with an effective strategy. Here we go. So have one I'm jazz. My tape is basically to tell you that you can relay strategically use Tik TOK as part of your marketing funnel.

:: 13:05

And one of the main reasons for that is that whenever you're starting a business or you're looking to scale and grow your business is one of the first things you're trying to do is to reach as many people as possible that might be potentially interested in your brand product or service. And that is what tick-tock gives us the potential to give you. So it has the potential to give you reach and more in views on your content.

:: 13:28

So it's just not looking at TechTalk in a real strategic way. Another key point to remember is that even though TOK is this great platform, doesn't have the bandwidth of other platforms like Instagram. You can only share video content on picked up. So you need to start looking at Tik TOK thinking, how can I drive traffic elsewhere? So for example, if you are someone who has a YouTube channel or you have a podcast,

:: 13:54

your main goal would be to create short form video on tickler, 15 to 32nd effects. And then you want to be driving those people to watch your full episodes of your podcast or YouTube video, because you can actually link things at your Instagram, your YouTube on your profile. You want to use your tip-top page to drive awareness about your brand. And another key reason as to why I think people should be on Tecta is that there has been a complete consumer shift,

:: 14:23

not just from small businesses, but from large businesses where consumers now want to build a human connection with a brand. So that's like brands love Ryan air notoriously on Facebook, get a lot of negative comments, a lot of negative engagement, but on Tik TOK, they've managed to grow like a really positive and fun audience by actually like taking the Mick out of them being a cheap airline brand.

:: 14:50

So it's a really good place to start to humanize your brand and to build a connection with your followers. And another point is, is that when you went on to talk, as I'm sure many of you are, you will be scrolling through the, for you page, which is content, you know, built for you based on your digital behaviors. So,

:: 15:08

you know what you watch, what hashtags are in the videos that you've watched, the type of videos that you like, the type of videos that you've watched the end. That's why it's called the for you page. What seamlessly slide into the, for you page will be high-performing pieces of content that Tik TOK thinks you might be interested in. So for example,

:: 15:26

if I've come across a video of a puppy or a dog and I've interacted with it, or someone is, you know, given dog training tips, I'm thinking, okay, this isn't particularly what I've gone on to tick up for, but I've seen this video. I've seen an interest in it or follow that person. And then I like think actually is that person UK-based,

:: 15:46

you know, do I need to find out some more information and then going to go onto their Instagram, if they've linked it on the profile of follow them on Instagram and they might have a website and I might think actually, let me look on their website and see what services they offer. So it's a really good way to cross pollinate. You'll follow it and to drive traffic to a website.

:: 16:05

And then if you're someone that uses Facebook advertising and you've had high-performing videos where you've been telling people to go over to the link in your bio, you can then actually think, but I want to retarget these people. So if I'm sending people to a particular landing page on Tik TOK, and I want to retarget these people, you can actually use the free rates that you've managed to get from Tik TOK.

:: 16:27

And then you can actually use it to be target people with any social media advertising. So it's to really look at, take talk as a way to fill your funnel and to drive people further down into your funnel. So for me, if people see one of my videos on Tik TOK, and they can see that I'm a social media expert or I'm positioning myself as a social media expert,

:: 16:50

they want to find out more information. They're having to go onto my Instagram. So I've already that attracted one new potential follower to my Instagram. And then if they want to find out more or connect with me, then I'm going to drive them to my website. So it's really good way of fading people further down into your funnel and further down into your business,

:: 17:08

all by creating really fun content. Thank you very much, Josephine. So we have one more speak. It's go. The preps who's known as the row show live. See as a media personality, video visibility coach and producer, she helps influential brands, leverage visibility with live video and television media utilizing her decades of experience as a news producer. Well listen up because here she is with all the headlines you need.

:: 17:39

I love that. What a great intro. I'm so excited to be here. One of the things that I want you to understand when it comes to utilizing video is your visibility is powered. You deserve to be seen, heard, and paid. And one of the things you have to understand about your visibility, especially when it comes to doing any short form video.

:: 17:58

What we're doing on Tik TOK is that your confidence is your superpower. And see, the thing that you have to understand is you're talking to the girl who didn't like herself on camera. Didn't like her voice worked 20 years behind the scenes playing a hidden figure. Wasn't really showing up on camera. But I had to understand that my confidence really is my superpower.

:: 18:22

And so if you really want to leverage Tik TOK to be seen, heard and paid, you have to step into understanding. Visibility's power. Confidence is your super power and visibility is an inside job. We got to go inside here. That's what people love. When we look at the videos that we see all across Tik TOK and some of the people that you love to watch it's because they come off as real people,

:: 18:48

they come off authentic. You're just like, man, they understand me. They get me. These are my people. You think that right? And so that's so important. As I love to tell my clients all the time, imagine you watching a Tik TOK and it's Oprah Winfrey, everybody know Oprah. We love her here in the U S who doesn't love Oprah basically.

:: 19:10

Right? And you're watching the Tik TOK. And you're just like, man, Oprah's like talking to me, you know, she's giving me all of the vibes. Well, here's the thing. You're someone's Oprah. Every one of you you're someone's Oprah. So the three things you have to understand about confidence is this confidence requires consistency. You have to show up consistent,

:: 19:32

right? No ghost in your people, no posting a video and say, oh, that one's going really well. I'm just going to ride the train and the wave of that. That'd be consistent. Number two, you have to have content. You have to understand the story of your people. Facts tell, but stories sell every single time. And your content is a piece of that.

:: 19:52

And then you have to we're dealt somebody, go ahead and say this. You got to make love to the camera. Oh, did I just say that out loud? Yes I did. But I feel like I'm among family. Here's what I mean about this. You have to understand that this camera, whether it's your smartphone or whether it's this right here on your laptop is your friend.

:: 20:16

And the reason why you can't show up confidently on camera is you treat the camera like it's an enemy and what it is, it's really your friend. And so when you really start to understand your camera confidence and step into that, like the CEO of live video or the CEO of video, it's going to be a total game changer for your business. Final thought here.

:: 20:40

What we have to understand is the world of media is changing ladies and gentlemen. And here's what I want you to take away among everything else that I said, the smartphone is the new remote control people. And I turn on TV like they used to, or as my aunt who lives in London says, no, one's turning on the tele. So that means we have to connect with people through this device and everything that you're doing on social media,

:: 21:06

whether it's a rail, it's a tick talk. It's a YouTube channel is your running your own media network. Think about that. That's what you're doing on social. You're running your own media network. It's a channel and you are a content producer. Remember your visibility as power you deserve to be seen, heard and paid Some amazing quotes in there. I think I had three ideas from t-shirts just from what you said,

:: 21:34

how do I know if my audience is even on Tik TOK? That's a good question. And that's the question I asked myself about over 90 days ago, are my people even here. I think the only way that you can find that out is just start showing up. I believe that once you start showing up and you start delivering valuable content and you allow people to see and experience who you are,

:: 21:56

you're going to start to create a community. And I was amazed. I was like, wow, what are these people? Why were they following me on Facebook? So I think it's one of those things. Like you just have to get in there and start doing it. I mean, the world is full of millions and millions of people, right?

:: 22:13

And I just believe people are not just on one platform. They're utilizing media as a former TV producer out understand that people may watch my show, but they're also gonna flip a channel and watch someone else. So it's the same with our media experience. I think you just have to go there and just try it out and see who shows up. Wonderful.

:: 22:32

Thanks very much. How do people find your website from Tech-Talk? Can you share legs or is it just what's on your profile? So at the moment, if you have a creator, a cage, you can add a link to your profile. Once you've hit a thousand of us, if you have a business account, you can add a link in your profile instantly if you're a product based business,

:: 22:54

but are rolling out something called tick tuck shop, which is basically where your tick talks will be shoppable. The simplest way to drive traffic to your website is to have a link in your bio. A lot of people who will have like a link tray or LinkedIn bio, if you want, you know, download my PDF and you can then list it,

:: 23:15

there's a bit of a, like a landing page for your business. But the best thing to do is to actually create a page like that within your website, so that you're directing all of your traffic directly to your website. And you're not using like a middleman, like link bio, and that's the best thing to do. Okay. Should you use the same video on both Instagram and Tik TOK or do you put it on Tik TOK and linking?

:: 23:37

So my Instagram is the Attica or best practice for how you repurpose or do you think they're very different beasts and you should just do take some videos on Instagram videos. Yeah. Say I start all of my videos and tech talk because I think the editing is much easier. Once I completed the video, I had to go and screen, record it on the edit page just before you post it.

:: 24:04

There's a little thumb now top, right? And then a little white square. If you tackle night, you get a clean copy of your video. You can screen record it and then save it to upload in Instagram. So that's what I'd normally do. Anything that you share between platforms you want to get rid of the watermark, if you care about the views,

:: 24:21

because neither of them like the other platforms watermark. So if you were making a video in reels, you can download that it downloads without the music, but you could download it before you post it. And that's another clean copy to share. I find that trending videos do well on both platforms for me and for my clients. They seem to do well because I think they're relatable.

:: 24:42

The humorous they're fun. That is in the spirit of both of the platforms. I find that sometimes Instagram reels tend to be a little more curated and sometimes a little bit longer. Mine. Haven't always done that well on tech talk and vice versa. What I feel about videos on Tik TOK is you've got to be because it's only videos and people are scrolling through.

:: 25:03

They're going to leave you quickly if you're not engaging. So you need to be ready really quick. So your hook is absolutely everything and he wants to really trim the fat out of your videos. Say, for example, I know when I record myself doing a talking head video, I always take a breath in before I talk. So I always go and edit that out.

:: 25:20

Nobody needs to hear that straight then with the talking, backing up everything you say with texts and just really asking yourself, do you need all of those details in there? Keep it as short as you can and as relevant as you can. I think you can get away with it a little bit more on Instagram, because I think we've all built probably slightly friendlier communities,

:: 25:39

possibly over a longer amount of times that people know us better. You can get away with a little bit more. That's what I think I'll take to my audience is still quite new as well. And I think going in with quick videos is a lot better, but I actually mostly make my reels and reels of potatoes and take Tums and they don't overlap an awful lot.

:: 25:59

Brilliant. Thank you very much for that. How do you get the demographics of tick-tock coral assumes that it ticked off base for young people? Only If you'd said that maybe two years ago I would have agreed, but the pandemic and lockdown changed everything in relation to Tex Hawk. And so that was a whole generation of people in their thirties, forties beyond who have joined TechTalk and what we've also seen over the last 18 months or so is,

:: 26:29

is communities growing sort of within Tech-Talk? So my area of Tech-Talk is book talk, you know, that's my world. It's like a subculture within tech top. And there are certainly older people. And, you know, I'm finding my community just as Rashonda said. So I think if you build it, they will come. I hope this has given you lots of practical strategies you can use to grow your Tik TOK community in 2022 and beyond.

:: 26:58

If you enjoyed this episode, do get in touch with myself and the speakers. We'd love to hear from you. You heard from Penelope Walker @barbrusa_social, Clare Mackintosh @claremackwrites, Jasveena Sahota @socialjazz and Roshanda Pratt @therosholive and we'll link to all of those social media handles in the show notes.

:: 27:17

Oh, and I'm on @jan Murray UK. Thanks for listening to the courageous content podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on apple podcast or share the episode on social media. That way more people can benefit from the free tips and strategies I share and be sure to tag me in when you do I'm at Jan Murray on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.