EPISODE 80 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: HOW TO HIT 5 MILLION VIEW ON TIKTOK

Sonya:
Have you ever wondered what it takes to hit five million views on TikTok? It seems there are all these people that overnight are

Sonya:
having videos that just explode. So, I tracked down one of them to interview her to find out how she did it, and it's none other than Sarah O'Terra who was on the podcast previously back in 2019, actually discussing the app when it first started getting traction. So, I'm very excited to share this episode with you. Enjoy.

Sonya:
Welcome to the Boom Your Biz podcast, a podcast for the movers, the shakers, and even bigger action takers in business. I'm your host, Sonya MacIntyre-Reid, and each week I'll be exploring the question of what really makes businesses and organizations thrive. I'm on a mission to educate, empower, and inspire business owners and myself along the way.

Sonya:
Hello, Sarah. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Sarah:
Hello, mate. How you doing?

Sonya:
I'm good. It's been a while since we've done a podcast episode together, hasn't it?

Sarah:
It's been pandemic long.

Sonya:
For the original fans of the Boom Your Biz Podcast, Sarah has been a guest a few times now, and one of those episodes was actually back in, I believe it was 2019, Sarah. One of the original episodes where we sat down and talked about this brand new app that we were obsessed with that no one else had heard of called TikTok, and that's what we're about to talk about today. Two years down the line, you, my incredible friend, have had a series of videos and one of them has reached over 5.5 million views. You're up to 150,000 followers, and seemingly this all happened overnight. So tell me about your Tok journey, Sarah.

Sarah:
Yeah, so we, you and I started on the platform two or three years ago when it was super new, that feels like such a weird thing to say, but it was super new when we were on it, and I loved it because it was really similar to Vine and kind of a shorter version of YouTube, so I got addicted quite quickly. It was when you could actually scroll through TikTok and still get the same content. You'd reach the bottom of the feed and it'd show you the same stuff again. That doesn't happen anymore.

Sarah:
Yeah, I've been on it the whole time, and I quickly grew to really, really like it. I like the short format. I like the video format because I like to watch things. I don't really read things very well. If you've ever seen me write any copy, you know I'm not a good reader, but we've been on there for a long time. We've seen a lot of trends come and go and that's been pretty wild. My personal journey was to publish just whatever I wanted across the platform, whenever I felt like it because it didn't have any of our friends there. It didn't have any of the people that I know. You were the only person that I knew on TikTok, so I posted whatever I wanted, craft, and cooking, and cleaning my car.

Sonya:
And cleaning your couch. That was an excellent one. I revisited that one two weekends ago, and I actually messaged you and said, "How did you do that again?"

Sarah:
Highly recommend, highly recommend your little home steam cleaner. They're great. And I just posted whatever I want, because I felt super free to do it because no one was watching, no one cared, so I just did whatever I wanted. And then about a month ago, I published a video of me wearing my grandmother's coat and talking about something that I'd learnt at uni, and then two days later, I woke up to 50,000 views, and I was overwhelmed with joy at 50,000 views. It was wild. So, that was really exciting.

Sonya:
Yeah, and I mean, I think something that's really interesting about TikTok is that you might have a fantastic video that essentially gets these 50,000 views, but weeks down the line, it can still be gathering views. I think last time we spoke about it, you said to me, "Oh, it's had 5.4 million views." I looked this morning, it's up to 5.5 million, despite the fact that, what, how long ago did you post this now?

Sarah:
A month.

Sonya:
Yeah.

Sarah:
Yeah, nearly five weeks.

Sonya:
Still gaining views, and the video, look, I don't want to ruin it for you guys. I am going to link directly to the video Sarah posted in the show notes, but without giving too much away, what do you think the reason is that this video got the traction that your others didn't?

Sarah:
Hmm, hmm. Hard to say, because I don't know, but I mean, there's certain things in this video. So, the general theme of my page at the minute is puzzles, right, and I combine what I learnt during my psychology degree at uni, and then with my current skill set of video production and content creation, and I've combined the two, and I've somehow hit this niche. I don't know how any of these people found it, but it's hit a niche. So, now, there's a lot less effort in trying to reach out to new people because the hashtag strategy we've talked about before, it's at a point where that's not as relevant to what I'm trying to do. Initially, absolutely, but not so much anymore.

Sarah:
And the theme of my content, they're puzzles, so they're very engaging as in people have to participate or people choose to participate in the videos. So, they leave a lot of comments, they share it, and then they share it to other platforms, and all this engagement then pushes it further, and I think, without that puzzle element, and I've posted a few random ones in there, they don't do as well. People watch it, they're like, "That's nice," but if they're engaging, it goes so much further.

Sonya:
Mm, and I think it's really interesting to watch that video and seeing people debate in the comments about how you've done something in that video. I'm sounding like I'm keeping this big secret. Guys, you'll get it once you go see the video. Please watch it. It's 60 seconds. It's in the show notes which is the description of this podcast. But yeah, I think the next video that you posted was in response to a question from someone in the comments. That's a feature that is pretty well just used on TikTok, right? Tell us about that feature.

Sarah:
Yeah, that's a really good question, and I think this is what I noticed about some of the biggest people I was following at the time, some of the content creators I was following, is that they will use a comment from a previous video, and you can link it into your new video. You say, "Respond with video," and I've already prerecorded the video I'm responding with, and then I load it in. And so, at the start of the video, I let it show that old comment, and I usually have picked one that is about the trick, or about the engagement, or people's minds being blown, or something like that, or something a bit controversial where they think it's super easy and they're calling me an idiot, which is also fine because then that sucks in the next group of people to really engage in it, and I've always been sucked in by those. I always read those at the top of video to see the context, so it's another way to show social proof I think because someone else has watched the other one, so they're coming to this one.

Sonya:
I think with Tok because it started out with people being on there without their friends being on there, there's kind of like this global community, and it feels, I don't know, it feels really different the comments than say an Instagram post. You probably wouldn't have positive engagement on a stranger's Facebook comment feed or an Instagram comment feed of a stranger. Right? It's only really debates and bites that happen in those, but on TikTok, it's not like that at all. It's a completely different vibe.

Sarah:
Yep. And the friends versus not friends, so your mutuals on TikTok, I've only got a couple of mutuals, maybe like a hundred, and one of the people that's mutual, the mutual friend equivalent, is I get served that person's content every 50 videos and it's driving me nuts. I don't want to see that much. The content's good, but I don't want to see it that often, whereas if you don't follow people you aren't mutually connected, you're being shown everything in those genres and in the areas of TikTok that you've engaged with before. The algorithm's really good like that.

Sonya:
Mm, and I think it's really interesting having a look at how they've structured the For You page because essentially that is equivalent to the Instagram Discover page, the difference being though that you have two tabs. Right? You've got your Following tab and you've got the For You page. Your For You page still shows content from people that you're already following.

Sarah:
Yeah.

Sonya:
Interesting. I guess that keeps you engaged with that existing audience as well, whereas on Instagram, if you're just going straight to the Discover page all the time, you're not actually seeing your friend's content. So, a little bit of a different setup there. I just want to talk quickly about how you create your videos because I am someone that has been saying for ages, "Hey, I really need to get onto TikTok," and I've been saying that about TikToks way more than about Reels, right, and we've discussed this previously, but I feel like Reels are just regurgitated content from TikTok that's three or four weeks old, and old trends and I'm like, "Nah, seen it before. Boring. Next." So, it hasn't sucked me in, in the same way. So, when you're creating your video, Sarah, how do you do it? Do I need to be a video editing pro? Can I use the editing within the app? Help. Where do I start?

Sarah:
Of all of the social platforms, I would say that the TikTok video editing inbuilt functions are really, really good, the way that they've allowed all the features of overlaying text, overlaying graphics, or icons. The filters, there's some really fun filters. This morning I texted you to say, "Hey, they've introduced links." For the first time ever, I've seen the ability when you're watching video to link off. So, the thing I clicked was to Wikipedia, and the other thing I clicked was to a recipe on someone's website, which was wild. I'd not seen that feature.

Sarah:
But in terms of creating the content in TikTok is great. There is a lot of functionality and features for people not that familiar with video editing. You don't have to be genius, and we've talked about this a bunch of times, but I think one of the biggest appeals of TikTok is how real it is, that I've yet to see brand dominate through really curated, polished, about tens of thousands of dollars in photoshoots, and video shoots, and stuff. It's all very organic, very behind the scenes kind of feel to it.

Sonya:
Hmm, yeah, absolutely. And I think everyone, when you see Sarah's videos, you will note that, look, she hasn't edited them within the app. Full disclosure, but I think where your point there is, Sarah, that you don't need to be this incredible video editor to be producing good content or engaging content on TikTok.

Sarah:
Yeah, that's right. And I don't edit inside the app most often because I'm quite good at Adobe. That's the platform that I'm familiar with, and I edit client work videos in Adobe, and I've been building up those skills for years. So, that's part of my professional skill set. So, it's quicker, easier for me to do it outside the app. And I know a lot of people use phone apps to edit them because they want a particular look, or feel, or filter, or cut, or whatever, so I use a bunch of phone apps when I've been on the go for other kinds of content.

Sonya:
Okay. What are some of those phone apps? I'll check them out.

Sarah:
I really liked the Videoleap one, and that's where you can get really smart. It's kind of like a mobile version of After Effects in Premiere. It's pretty sharp. I'll shoot you a link, and if you want to share it with people, you can [inaudible 00:11:48].

Sonya:
Oh, yes, do. I will link to that in the show notes as well. We're always after some handy tips about some things like that. Just touching quickly on what you said about brands. This is something that I've really been grappling with in my agency. We're seeing TikTok absolutely explode, and when we have clients who have been using TikTok, we can then use some of that content for ads, which have seen absolutely incredible results. We're getting leads for a client at the moment, it's something like 29 cents per lead, which is insane prices. That's like circa 2015 Facebook lead prices. But we do organic social media management for clients, and I just do not see at this stage how we're going to introduce TikTok as a product offering with that because as you said, there's no brands that are really dominating that it's like preplanned kind of content. Trends move so quickly TikTok. Something that was relevant three days ago might not be relevant anymore. Where do you see brands fitting in terms of having engaging pages?

Sarah:
That's a really good question, and I'd answer that by saying I don't know. I'm not sure. I have hunches about what I've seen and what I think might happen. There's always the early adopters and it happens a lot. It happens a lot in youth culture where, always, traditionally, the young people adopt something, and then everybody else sort of follows along, and last ones, obviously, being major brands because there's so many levels of approvals and brand reputation and management and all that kind of thing that we've learned now that we're professionals that come into it.

Sarah:
So, I think a brand to do it would need to be nimble, needs to be quick, needs to be open to trying new things and not stuck I think maybe in old ways that have always limited brands on social across every platform I think we've ever seen. There's always brands that are a bit... They're playing in a bit safer, I think.

Sonya:
Mm, absolutely, and I think the times that big brands that I know get my attention on TikTok, and I don't know, honestly, if this is because I'm a marketer and I go, "Ooh, who approved that?" or what it is, but it's when they going to play it on the edge a little bit, and it might be a bit cheeky or naughty and I'm like, "Ooh, didn't expect that from you."

Sarah:
It makes you go, "Oh, that was actually really engaging." And I've done that, and you and I send each other TikToks all the time. You want know how marketers know different things and think different things? It's because we're all texting each other all this other stuff, but it's because we saw something the other day and it was from a brand we wouldn't expect to see this from, very, very big brand around here. They'd got like a junior or a younger person to have input on it, and it felt native. It didn't feel forced. It didn't feel weird to have that brand's content in the feed. I thought it was a personal account and someone's filming behind the scenes of their job, but it was the official account for the brand, which was captivating. I was like, "This is great."

Sonya:
Yeah, absolutely. There's a fantastic one. It's like some juice product or something in Ireland, and I've sent that to you in the past. I'll find that as well, guys, and leave that in the show notes. The quality of content on this page is subpar. It is terrible, but it does the job because it looks like it fits in with all the other random content on TikTok, and the fact that it's coming for a brand, you're kind of like, "Oh my god, there's people behind this brand. This is funny."

Sonya:
The way I see it going with brands is two different options. Number one is showing behind the scenes, day to day, real footage, packing orders. I've seen for some skincare brands that's worked really, really well. And the other is what I would say it's probably the biggest thing happening in marketing right now, and that is user-generated content. So, essentially, I see brands engaging "influencers." And this could just be anyone, like me with no followers could do this, where I'm trying a product and giving a real review. I mean, there's a ton with makeup. Right? I have bought, guys, so many products during lockdown that I'm like, "I don't need this shit but someone's random grandma on TikTok told me it was good." Right? And it's not the beautiful people that I'm buying from. It is the everyday people that probably don't even have any followers. There's this massive shift happening.

Sonya:
So, I almost see there's the opportunity and I see some agencies doing it already, but there had to be some form of platform where you, I don't know, put your product into someone and then they give you user-generated content. And I'm not talking influencer marketing. There is a distinction there. But again, my answer is as well as you, I don't know. This is just my hunch as well. The user-generated content and how that forms and what that looks like and how you set that up as a brand, watch this space. I dare say, Sarah, we'll have to do an episode probably in three months' time when we're both clearer on this, on just user-generated content. But yeah, it's interesting. It's far from polished.

Sarah:
Absolutely. Back to the shopping thing, one of the most influential areas TikTok, it's split up into niches, obviously, and whatever niche you're clicking on and liking, that's the niche you get served. But one of the areas that I'm on is TikTok Made Me Buy It, and it's just all this content of people using products or services or whatever it is of what they saw someone else use on TikTok, and those are the absolute, most compelling, unofficial ads I've ever seen. So, if I can watch someone really use the steam cleaner on their couch, I am way more convinced than if I see mega brand, mega polish, $10,000 shoot to blah. I want to see my mates and other people that remind me of myself using it and being like, "That's pretty good. It's got some shit bits, but it's pretty good."

Sonya:
Oh my god, I need to do a TikTok and say, "Sarah O'Terra made me buy it for my couch steam cleaner." Honestly, guys. It just brought up something to me that I think we spoke about maybe a week ago, and somehow I found myself down the celebrity conspiracy theory or gossip theory path, which I don't usually engage in that kind of content, but hey, it's been lockdown. My mind's bored. I've been getting into it. And there was this woman that popped up, I would say like six weeks ago, and she was like, "Kylie Jenner's pregnant. Here's the proof." And she went through and dissected all of the photos can see that at Kylie Jenner's but they partied. Her nails were different to the official photos that she posted, and all these theories started popping up that basically Kylie had preshot all of these images to roll out content on her Instagram, and then on her birthday party, there were no actual pictures of her, but her manicure was different to the picture that had gone up, blah, blah, blah. Lo and behold, last week it was announced that she is pregnant, and you and I got talking about the days of Perez Hilton, where people like the Kardashians would go to Perez Hilton and they would leak stories, and that actually enables them to have some control of the narrative that is happening.

Sonya:
My gut feeling is telling me that the same thing happened this time round with Kylie's pregnancy, except rather than going out to major, I guess, influencers in the gossip space, instead they've gone out to a few TikTokers, and linked this, given them photos, whatever it might be. So, it's kind of like this buzz happening in that they're target demographic because realistically, their target demographic is not reading gossip magazines anymore. They're not reading fashion blogs and things like that. They're on TikTok. So, this was the best possible way that they could get that out there.

Sonya:
And just on that note, today was the Met Gala, and I was messaging you all morning because on TikTok it had popped up for me that Kim Kardashian was dressed, like totally covered head to toe in black, no face showing at all. I think you see a ponytail. That is it. And I messaged you and said, "Oh my god, this has popped up on TikTok." And that happened within the time of her leaving her hotel in New York to head to the event. And I was like, "All right, what's the big reveal going to be?" And she gets onto the red carpet and there is no big reveal. She is still absolutely covered. Her face is covered. But again, it's that controlled controversy, and we're all just sitting here waiting to go, "What does it all mean?" And I can guarantee you, there will be TikTok celebrity conspiracy theorists out there right now putting it all together, and they're all going to be flooding our feeds in the next 24 hours.

Sarah:
Oh yeah. My theory is, after you sent it to me, I was like, "It's probably not her. It's probably somewhere else. She's somewhere else doing something else." We don't know if it's her. We don't know, and that could be part of the bigger thing. But look at the buzz that this has generated. We're talking about it today on a podcast. It's all across social media already. It's a stunt, but there's no outcome to it. And to your point earlier, the traditional PR and media landscape is really different. It's not like that. So, leaking information or utilizing influencers or on the ground, that user-generated content, that's smart. They are in the business. Kardashian family are in the business of creating news, creating content. They are doing it very well, and they are creating this whole mystique around it. So, it doesn't actually matter what the outcome of who's under the mask kind of thing. That's fine.

Sonya:
Exactly. It's keeping them relevant in a time when typically female celebrities say over the age of 30 tend to get forgotten about. Right? I mean, it's awful, but-

Sarah:
Except [crosstalk 00:22:09], obviously.

Sonya:
Oh my god, obviously, obviously because we're all scrolling through TikTok looking at her. But I think it's keeping Kim relevant and younger generations talking about her, whereas, what, 20 years ago, what do you think the chance would be? None.

Sarah:
Yeah, and yeah, and the media, like you said before, I couldn't tell you the last time I bought any kind of magazine, any kind. A few digital subscriptions to a couple of things here and there, but nothing. Don't see them. You don't see them in waiting rooms for the doctor anymore. No one buys them because everybody's sitting on their phone. The media is in people's hands.

Sonya:
Abso-freaking-lutely. Is there anything else that you wanted to touch on with observations around TikTok?

Sarah:
I got two things. One's a nugget about duets. If you're creating duets, which is when you respond to a video with another video, and it's kind of showing me your reaction. So, if you're responding to my video, Sonya, you'd record yourself speaking about it. And I watch those for each video that gets created, please don't create content like that, sitting on the toilet or indisposed in any kind of way. That's on the internet. Use that as an opportunity to create platform. I've seen some stuff [crosstalk 00:23:32].

Sonya:
Hang on a second. People are dueting your video while they're on the toilet.

Sarah:
Yeah.

Sonya:
Shut up.

Sarah:
And announcing it. It's not even that they're just in the bathroom. Someone's like, "I'm on the toilet." I was like, "I don't want to watch this." So, the point being, create content for your own viewers that you would like to watch. I feel very uncomfortable watching that.

Sonya:
Well, look, I didn't even realize that when you duet a video that the original creator sees the duet that you made.

Sarah:
Not even just the original creator. That now lives under my sound. So, if you click on the audio of any of my videos and there has been duets to it, anybody can watch those. That is on the internet.

Sonya:
Whoa.

Sarah:
So, the outcome of that is create content with intention, team. Just think about it. And then what was my other thing? Oh, create content that you like. That's the biggest takeaway I've got after four weeks of this. It's very exciting to see growth and have all these new mates responding and chatting to me. That's really nice, but create content you would want to watch. If you don't want to watch it, make it something you like, and then you'll want to do it.

Sonya:
And I think at the end of the day, you've got to realize that TikTok and you posting content is fitting in at the top of the funnel within the brand awareness stage. This is to help you be discovered by new people, get your product or your service out there with new people. The jury is out for me at the moment around whether or not this is something that will be super effective for local small businesses or service-based businesses. I'm thinking more it's going to be great for coaches that can work with people internationally, for product-based businesses, anyone that wants to be a thought leader in this space, but what you've got to realize as well, is that, yeah, it is top of the funnel. It's brand awareness. Do not expect that to flood your inbox with inquiries and sales and things like that, and I know that we saw a video about 12 months ago with this woman talking about how her video got a million views or a million likes or something, and she had no sales off the back of that.

Sonya:
You then have to have some form of funnel happening to actually channel people into buying. TikTok ads with what we have tested so far are working incredibly well. And look, guys, if you can get people a way to sign up to an email list or visit your website, this link situation that Sarah sees rolling out at the moment could be a great opportunity with that. Remember, you don't own the audience on the platform. So if you can get other forms of contact details, getting them following you on other platforms as well, that way they're going to see you more frequently too.

Sarah:
Absolutely.

Sonya:
Yeah.

Sarah:
I think one of the examples, and to your point, having a million views, they're vanity metrics. What does that lead to? If you've got an e-comm business and your website sucks, and it can't push people through, and no one converts, a million views is lovely, but for what, for business. And the local thing, I think that's a really good point, and unless you're targeting towards brand awareness purely, and then some of it leads to sales.

Sarah:
So, this is another option opportunity for you to market to people, but then, do you remember that boiled lolly brand? I think it's out of Circular Quay, somewhere in Sydney, in that main bit, and when COVID hit, obviously no tourists and no foot traffic. Old-school, handmade lolly business, they had to pivot, and one of the people in the team was a daughter or granddaughter of the owner and they said, "Hey, I'm going to start publishing this content TikTok and making behind the scenes video of rolling these boiled lollies out." They have gone viral, so viral that my dad, my 65-year-old dad's like, "Hey Sarah, I saw this thing about TikTok and the internet, and I need to tell you." They have more orders than they can fulfill, and they have opened up an international market to sell out their lollies.

Sarah:
So, that's not common at all, but that has happened. I just think that's mental. That's so exciting. That's a daughter in the team rolling out these lollies, saying, "Hey Dad, I'm going to share this." And it took off and they can't keep up.

Sonya:
Oh, I love that so much. And I think that the reason TikTok has risen to fame so well is because of COVID, honestly. It's meant a lot of businesses have had to pivot. People have more time on their hands. You and I were on it like 12 months before everyone else seemed to even discover it was a thing. Right? So, perfect timing for TikTok, really, with COVID.

Sarah:
Absolutely. I don't know about you, but I've never watched so much content on my phone in my life. The last two years of the pandemic and Melbourne's lockdown, absolutely. I'm absolutely addicted. Send help.

Sonya:
Do you see any other major social media companies actually being able to compete with TikTok? I mean, we've had Instagram respond with Reels. I know some people are obsessed with Reels. Again, I'm not a fan of them, you know, you know. Yeah, it's great. That doesn't mean they're not effective. I'm not saying that at all, but I do not think it has come in and replaced TikTok completely.

Sarah:
No, but they know that they've got to user base that that they need to cater to. So, Instagram have existing billion users or whatever it is, all these people already there. So, they're leveraging it with the features of other apps. They did the same thing with IGTV, which was meant to compete with YouTube, and now they're moving towards the... I think you talked about this, Sonya, is that Instagram is moving away from being a photo-sharing app. They're now a video and content app to share to sell for e-com, something like that. They are pivoting and changing their business. YouTube have introduced a similar piece of competition to TikTok, which is called YouTube Shorts, and they are vertical videos. I think they're capped at about a minute and they're very similar. I very purpose content from TikTok onto YouTube Reels because you can monetize YouTube. YouTube Shorts, it's not Reels. You ca monetize so you can get create a fund on YouTube more than you can on other brands, I think.

Sonya:
So, out of curiosity, your video that has 5 million views, have you made any money from that?

Sarah:
No. No. Not at all.

Sonya:
Whereas if you're on YouTube, I'm pretty sure we can look up how much you would have made, but you'd be making a little bit of money.

Sarah:
Imagine getting $1 for every view on all my videos in the last month.

Sonya:
Ah, that'll be nice, wouldn't it? You'd be like $20 million richer.

Sarah:
I'd open a lolly shop, to be honest. Raspberry licorice for everyone.

Sonya:
Sarah, thank you so much for taking the time to jump on. I'm going to link to all of the points we discussed in the show notes, and remember, guys, that is the description of this podcast episode. There will be clickable, sorry, links. Sarah, thank you so much.

Sarah:
Thank you, mate. See you soon. Bye.