TikTok for founders (Recorded Live Session)

Introduction

The following transcript is a summarisation of a session titled,” TikTok for founders” conducted by Jessica Lawson and Capri Win the pioneers of Tiktok in Tech and Web three. Throughout the course of the session, the moderators delve deeper into the ways in which one should establish one’s business or create one’s publicity on a medium like Tiktok. They throw light on the pre requisites of building a great rapport in front of viewers and suggest mechanisms to engage with the maximum possible audience through one’s content.

PERSONAL VERSUS STARTUPS TIKTOK

The initial speaker suggests  creating a new account if one has been on Tiktok for a while and hasn’t been creating content or hasn't seen a lot of success. She gives an insight into her own experience, and how starting a new account brought her success.  The second step, according to the speaker is deciding on one’s niche and then thinking about how one wants  to add value within that niche. The first thing one would have to do when they try and grow their account is just sitting back and observing what happens. Initially it would seem like a time consuming and stagnant process but one must have to honestly dedicate oneself to the process at first to start seeing some early signals.  One would begin to see certain forms of content, and then continue posting regularly with the topics that are doing well on their page

ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS WITH INFLUENCERS

According to the speaker, establishing relationships with influencers can be a really great way to build one’s  business's credibility. Having a face of an influencer who's associated with one’s  brand, increases the possibility of people trusting them because hundreds of thousands of people already  trust and follow that influencer and care about their opinions. Moreover, it's also an affordable way to work with influencers as a brand because one is paying them hourly and they can negotiate  the number of hours they would like to work together for.

Another factor that is really, important when one is thinking about their business, is deciding what their goals are, so that they are always prepared to create content accordingly. In the speaker’s opinion, there are a ton of benefits of having a personal brand on Tiktok. For instance, people would build a more personal connection to you and to your brand and they would be wanting to root for your success. It can also come across a lot more organic than a business Tiktok.  However, the speaker also acknowledges the possibility of major scams happening in the Web three space. Therefore one must be very particular about the brands they would work with. 

MASTERING THE ALGORITHM. 

Another very significant theme that forms the basis of this transcript is the science behind TIKTOK. What we must remember is that this is an algorithm, and just like an algorithm has inputs and outputs, so does Tiktok.

The speaker brings to light the process that goes behind the engagement process. When a video gets posted, it gets immediately sent out to a couple of people, and the important is evaluated. Tiktok's algorithm examines the  video taking into account the number of  people who are interacting with it. If the performance is bad, the video dies and falls. If it's a good performance, then it gets pushed to more viewers and this whole cycle of performance is evaluated.  So it's just like a giant funnel and one would see that when one has a video that is getting pushed out, it's like in real time. 

But one must remember that Tiktok is an ads platform,  trying to make money by  showing  more ads to more people. Tiktok  demands people to spend as much time on the app by showing  them content they think is good. Therefore, every single aspect on a video matters. If one is trying to reach the right audience then even minor details such as the title or the visuals in the video will serve as an algorithm for the target audience. Other things that are important are comments since more comments means that people are spending more time on the video. That's really great because then that video is just playing in the background thereby increasing it’s average watch time. Creating content  that sparks controversy is an engaging element as well . And finally, there are elements like bookmarking and favoriting. For instance, Tiktok recently moved the favorite button to the UI to make it more clear on the screen. This is mechanism to prioritize a new feature associated with the app thereby increasing it’s engagement with the public.  Therefore one must create shareable content and spark conversations that people want to return to because again metrics like number of views and average time Watch would give an indication of how good the content is. 

CONCLUSION

The speaker concludes by emphasising on the fact that even if one doesn’t succeed in their first attempt, they must try it again. She acknowledges that one of the hardest parts about creating on Tiktok is managing one’s own psychology and not obsessing over quantitative determinants like the number of viewers and likes. One must have to give it time to grow while at the same time dedicate time to it. 

Access the complete transcript here 👇

Welcome in everyone, just giving it a few minutes for the hot incluso. Just enjoy the tunes and documents. People are still trickling in, but I think we're good to go. This meeting is being recorded. I'm just gonna get Capri and Jessica up here, but welcome welcome everyone to day two of Tiktok for founders. We have some amazing special guests with us, Jessica lawson and Capri win the queens of Tiktok in tech and Web three. We're so excited for you guys to be here today to talk about the algorithm personal versus branded accounts and just ultimately how to grow and be the most successful on Tiktok. So Capri, do you want to kick us off with a brief intro and then hit it off to Jessica? Absolutely. Hey everyone, thanks so much for coming. I'm Capri, I'm the founder of dressed and recently have seen some success on my personal as well as my startups. Tiktok. So super excited to talk about going to zero from I am Pesca Ceo and founder of radio. I was previously the Ceo at a music tech startup. We're creating virtual characters. So imagine like gorillas and figured out that our core audience for agency Really, really expensive to animate a lot of content. So kind of just started having some hypotheses around content and making my own content. Um, as me as a human and kind of quickly exploded. So have, you know, kind of started off by learning about the platform itself and then now, you know, Amazing. Amazing. And yeah, Capri and Jessica are also in the launch house community. They were hustling on Tiktok as they were gone through our cohorts and we have definitely seen the results happening in real time. So just super excited for you guys to chat today. But Capri, I know you've put together some amazing Alpha for the rest of the group. So I'm going to stop sharing my screen and I will hand it over to you awesome. Thank you so much. Let me just share my screen here already. Yes, present this. Okay, so I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about leveraging your personal versus your startups Tiktok. So in terms of my experience, I previously founded a company called thrift. organically not from Tiktok but from instagram. So if you have any questions about that, feel free to ask me as well. Um, not the founder of address where a peer to peer clothing rental startup. Um still pretty early, Um, so yeah, super excited to get into it. Um, cool. um the first thing that I would recommend is if you've been on Tiktok for a while and haven't been creating content or haven't seen a lot of success, I would recommend creating a new account. Um, I followed all these steps with an account that I had had for, I think like two years and I never really posted anything. And then all of a sudden I decided that I wanted to start creating content and for some reason wasn't really working. And then I heard someone say to start a new account and as soon as I tried that I followed these steps and then I ended up seeing some success from it. Um, so yeah, and then I think the first thing is really like deciding on your niche and then thinking about how you want to add value within that niche. And I'll go into more of like thinking about your why later on, especially when you're running a business, but for me, I decided my niche was going to be fashion fashion commentary and my life as a fashion tech founder. The first thing you want to do when you want to try and grow your account and then just sitting back and observing what happens now. This is the most frustrating step of this entire process because it is really time consuming and probably won't really see a whole lot of anything at first. You kind of just have to honestly dedicate yourself to the process at first. And then I promise if you do this, you will start seeing some really early signals. Um so you'll start to see certain forms of content, outperforming others and I'll kind of go into some examples of that later and how to look at that. Um and then really you just want to lean into whatever that is and continue posting regularly with those forms of content, um and those topics that are doing well on your page and also give you some examples of how to a b test videos with different types of formats and different types of content. Yes, Okay, sorry, there we go. Okay, so here's an example of a b testing different content formats. So here is an example of a video with the exact same content. So here, I'm talking about wide leg jeans, um that girls in Italy like to wear. I was talking straight to the camera and giving my commentary Um on a few different picture examples and a video to, I was giving the same content, but it was in a different format of using a trending sound and then pointing at the looks. Um and so that's an example where you can kind of see where the videos, where I'm talking directly to the camera, really connecting personally to my audience and giving them my thoughts typically tend to do a little bit better than the videos where I'm using a trending sound and just kind of pointing at things or having a caption on the screen. Um and that's been pretty consistent with my page. I've been seeing videos where I'm talking straight to the camera and videos, where I'm providing some sort of either analysis or informational content um significantly outperforming the ones where I'm just using a training sound, but it depends on the content that I'm talking about as well. So here's an example of, like, a B testing, not only the format, but the type of content as well. So here's an example of two videos where I'm talking about relatively the same thing. Um, so like dissecting or giving my opinions on some of the outfits that the Kardashians wore um to a wedding in Italy, and in the first video you can see it does really well and on that video, I actually am using a trending sound, but what I did, well there was, I made it sort of controversial um, so there's like a part of the sound that goes literally traumatizing and so for that, when it said literally traumatizing, I pointed to one of their outfits, it was saying it was like literally traumatizing. Obviously it's not that deep, but essentially that created some like conflict and um, made it a little bit controversial because then people in the comments wanted to like give their feedback on what they thought about the outfit and somewhere agreeing, some disagreeing. Um, but you know, when you create small bits of conflict or talk about things that are like very slightly controversial um, than that can lead your videos to do much, much better versus in the second video I was giving my commentary straight to the camera, but I wasn't really saying anything that would like catch the attention of the audience or um be slightly controversial in any way. I was mainly talking about my favorite looks. So you know, obviously that one didn't perform as well. something that I did initially was actually hired influencers and pay them as hourly contractors to create Tiktok and instagram content for us. Um, so we're working with three different influencers, there's one who's not on here, her name is Shannon, Yea, the girl Sienna that we, um was like the first person we brought on, when we first brought her on, we chose them because they're really um like prevalent in our niche of like sustainable fashion and thrift ng. Um, so our target audience and their target audience aligns really well and the reason why I chose to do this is because, um, a, I wanted to grow really fast and I wanted to just bring people on that were already experts in things that do well on Tiktok and two, I wanted to establish more credibility for our brand because when you have a face of an influencer who's associated with your brand, um, people are way more likely to trust you because obviously hundreds of thousands of people already kind of trust and follow that influencer and care about their opinions. Um, it's also a lot more of an affordable way to work with influencers as a brand because you're paying them hourly and you can sort of discuss like how many hours you would like to work together for. Um, so it can be a really great way to sort of like start establishing relationships with influencers while also building your business's credibility. So I think something's really, that's really important when you're thinking about your business, Tiktok versus your personal Tiktok is thinking about um, what your, why behind it is and what your goals are. Um, I would really recommend reading this article. Um, there's Sarah Tavel from benchmark row, it's called the hype subsidy. It's a super fascinating article and she basically breaks down how too much hype too fast can actually work against your startup and why it's really important to be strategic about how you and how your company received hype. Um, so that you're always like perf prepared to um, take that on and you are creating content ultimately with the goal in mind because as founders, we really don't have that much time. And there may be a certain instance, instance, in instances and certain types of companies where um, it's more important to have that personal brand on Tiktok than others and ultimately that's just a really personal decision. Um, but there are a ton of benefits to having a personal brand on Tiktok. Um, so the first is that people will build a more personal connection to you and to your brand and they're actually gonna be wanting to root for your success. Um they love a good girl boss on Tiktok. Um, so especially if you're a female founder, you can really lean into that and people will want to be on your team, they want to support your brand. Um and it kind of just puts a face to the name of your business and also creates more, you know, empathy for your brand when something goes wrong um because people like know who you are and they see a real person representing your business. Um you can also significantly amplify your reach because you're talking, you're talking about your startup on two different Tiktok accounts. So um, those Tiktok accounts might have slightly different audiences, or it might just be another opportunity to get the word out there to the same people, principal times. Um it's also going to grow your credibility. Um so for example, for me, a huge benefit is, you know, if I'm talking about fashion and my videos are doing well, people trust me more when I'm, you know, selling fashion start up to them. Um you can also build a more personal relationship with your customers and potential customers, which is really awesome when um some of them start commenting on your Tiktok videos on your personal page, um it's just a really good feeling. Um and it can also come across a lot more organic than a business Tiktok, something that we struggled with. Um early on on our Tiktok was not wanting it to feel like everything was an ad. Um and so we're very intentional on our business Tiktok to create a lot of like styling videos and fashion videos and fashion commentary at first, so that it didn't really seem like we're just feeding people a lot of ads and I think that really worked to our benefit because we were able to grow an audience. They cared about fashion really quickly, and then we were like, oh, by the way, here's an app where you can actually rent cool clothes like this. Um, so here's an example um from my Tiktok, like just giving you an idea of the type of content that I typically try to put out there. So I'll do, um, some fashion commentary. Like I was breaking down victoria Beckham's dress um, for her son and Nicola's wedding, um, which did really well. I was talking to the camera there and I also tested it with another format using a trending sound. And then I give examples of things that you can buy that are relevant to the season and under certain price points. And then I also talk about my startup and my journey as a founder as well. I was using a trending sound and kind of making a joke about. um, you know, launching the first peer to peer clothing rental app, hope it goes well or something like that. Um, so that just amplified the reach of my startup in a really organic way. I wasn't like trying to sell anyone, anything, it was just sort of like about my journey as a founder and it ended up doing decently well, which is good. Um, I think the most successful example of a founder utilizing both their personal and their company to talk really well is Nadia Okamoto from august, she runs a sustainable period company. Um, they, you know, sell tampons and pads and other things. Um, she's really great and she has sort of built this really cult following and cult brand of people who love her as a founder and want to support her journey. I think that's the reason why august has seen so much success. Um, so yeah, I would really recommend, um, checking her out and checking out her story and yeah, here are my socials, um, feel free to contact me if you have any questions um, after this as well. Thank you guys so much. Amazing. Yeah. Nadia, she is an example of a Tiktok er, that just absolutely blew it out of the water in terms of personal brands and if you actually go to her account, Of just consistent content, which was like never done before. I don't know, that's the type of hustle I'd never do. And then we did have a few questions I wanted to give you a chance to answer really quickly. Capri Melissa had asked, how much do you generally pay influencers per month with this method? Yeah, it really just depends on the month. but it really just depends there times when, I mean we kind of let them create their own schedule for the most part, so, um, and that's the reason why we chose to bring on three of them as well, because some of them get busy and then the other ones end up covering more. So it really just depends. Um, I would say, depending on their following, you can sort of like set the amount of hours per week, but it really depends on like how much of a personal connection you have with the influencers as well, that affects your pricing a lot, because two of the influencers that we're now working with on an hourly basis were actually the previous customers of my last startup, so I've been working with them for almost two years, so they were already sort of on board and wanted to support the mission, so I think that's one reason why we're able to work with them at those rates, but it just depends, um, I would say like definitely reach out to influencers and don't be scared, even if they have a ton of followers, because I think one thing that has been interesting is that certain influencers who have many followers can still sometimes struggle to monetize their social media. So a lot of times they're always looking for other avenues, especially if it's something they care about. And I know a common question to when working with influencers, especially on Tiktok, is how do you kind of look at, um, analyzing their engagement or knowing that like, they're worth the price that they kind of give you? I mean, I think it's difficult, I think it's different when you're talking about like an influencer partnership where you're paying them to create a video on their page because that is a lot more expensive and in that case, um, it's really, really hard to quantify because I think there are so many things that you can't really put a price tag on, for example, like credibility or, um, you know, name establishment on Tiktok, um, or number of followers, Like, I think all of those things are beneficial in a way that kind of like transcends the actual dollar amount that you spend on it. And a lot of those things also like, they might not have an R. O. I the day the influencer posts, but over time you might really see the y there once you and your startup are really kind of building a brand. I think, you know, some things you just have to do, even though it's like, you know, the dollar, the R. O, I might not be there, like the day that the post is done, if that makes sense. Like it's not all about like, oh, an influencer posted this as this number of views and it requires x number of customers. I mean for a certain number of, for certain businesses, you might want to think of it that way and for other businesses you might not. So for example, because like my startup is so consumer facing and it's related to fashion, we don't really care about that ry as much because we understand the importance of building that brand for ourselves and we know our customers are on Tiktok, but um, it just depends if that's worth it for you. It's really personal. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's also just a great pivot into pulling Jessica into the conversation as well, Jessica, you are kind of more on the influencer side of things. So I would also love to just hear your perspective on like working with those brand accounts, what do you as like an influence particularly look like? How do you think about rates and charging by the hour by the piece of content? Yeah. So in the Web three space there's a lot of scams. So I, I am very particular about brands that I will work with just because, especially with N f T s like there's a number of creators in no matter the social media platform that have, you know, just kind of fallen under a trap of like, being associated with, like, a potential, like Deadpool rate, so um I look for brands that are established, it doesn't have to be a giant company um but I don't have to do my own due diligence and so I'm really looking for credibility talking to the team um seeing if they work with other influencers or if I'm the first one they've ever worked with and just like really getting a sense of, is this something I feel comfortable promoting? First off, um does this align with what I talk about on my account and then going from that point, I think a lot of it, a lot of it is just kind of like trying to, in regards of rates, talking to fellow influencer friends, seeing what they're getting because there isn't really like a glass door for influencer rates there, I know there's some people trying to create something like that um but they're really all over the place and so a lot of it is just kind of seeing, you know how much that creator is charged in the past and also thinking about how can you actually include clauses, like a vibe, reality clause, for example, is a clause, you can put in a contract where like, you, you win if the creator wins and you have so on, so like there's mutually beneficial terms um so I think approaching it from that standpoint where, you know, it's a win win situation for both parties, this is ideal totally. And I would just hop on that and just clarify like the difference between like bringing someone on your team is like an hourly contractor versus paying them for, um, like posting videos on their own page because the latter is much much more expensive. So for the type of influencers we're working with right now, like for launch in august, we'll be paying them So that's, but it depends, And um, typically we just go with whatever rates um they send over, but we like to kind of also make it the same for like, for example, if we know we're collaborating with influencers that are all in the same friend group or like all kind of like follow each other, we'll all like, we'll pay them all the same rate even if some have like slightly less followers because for us as a brand, we're also understanding that like, we're paying for like the amplified effect of like all the followers in the same for all the influencers in the same niche with similar followers as well. So that's kind of some transparency into like, um, influence of partnerships that we're doing as well? Absolutely. And I know we have a lot of questions in the chat, but I do want to reserve some time because I know Jessica has some alpha to drop about the algorithm to kind of continue our conversation from day one. So thank you so much. Capri, we'll definitely hop back to you after Jessica's finished so we can have a quick little Q and a. But Jessica, what are you thinking about the algorithm and what alpha do you have to drop with us? Alright, here we go. So mastering the algorithm. Okay. Everyone needs to remember this is an algorithm, right? So essentially like a giant math equation, the algorithm isn't magic, it's science. So if you stand, you stand in front of it from that standpoint, you'll be successful. And just remember like an algorithm has inputs and outputs and you'd be thinking about all those things in order to work it well. And so let's first talk about what happens when a video gets posted. So your video gets posted and then immediately gets sent out to a couple, you know, Um, and important is evaluated. So Tiktok's algorithm is looking at the video seeing how people are interacting with it. And if the performance is bad, video dies and falls off a clip so slow down actually quit. That sounds slow. If it's a good performance, then it gets pushed to more viewers. And so this whole cycle of performance evaluated, is it good? Is it bad keeps happening over and over and Tiktok is like a funnel, so probably a little blurry, but, but you start out right here for probably everyone in this calls account. So it gets down to, you know, to other people. Tiktok's algorithms testing, figuring out is this video, something that people want to watch is a good contact. We'll talk about what that actually means. And then if it is, it gets pushed out more and then it gets pushed out more and then more and more. So it's just like a giant funnel and you'll see that when you have a video that is getting pushed out, it's like in real time. But this is important to understand because this is how the algorithm is working, right? It's, it's an equation, it's math, it's science. Okay, so what metrics matter. First off, let's, before we go into two metrics, just remember Tiktok is an ads platform. So I just somewhat newish like last two years. Um, and as an ad platform, Tiktok is trying to make money, so how they make money, they show more ads more people. So Tiktok's goal is to get people spending as much time on Tiktok as possible. Okay, so I think maybe last month a news article came out saying that Tiktok surpassed Youtube for the most amount of time per day that people are spending on it. So people are spending a lot of time on Tiktok, which is awesome for us for people trying to create on Tiktok. But just remember like it all comes back money. Tiktok Tiktok wants people to spend as much time on the app. So we're gonna show them content they think is good. Goodbye. Like I said already the algorithm, you know, you have an opportunity to input information into it. So Tiktok's algorithm only knows information you tell it. So help the algorithm help you and what I mean by that this is like every single aspect on a video matters. So first off, let's look at this particular picture, right? So here, if we just start looking at this, you know, we have a couple of different inputs. We have the video itself, right? The fact that there's two girls in this video, it looks like they're coworking, There's a coffee cup in there, there's Apple laptops, there's like the photos in the background, all that information is being analyzed to try to figure out like what's happening in this video. Additionally, we have the title of the video. So supposed probably supposed to say marketing, it's just typo but five marketing tips for startups. Um Yeah, I'm working right there. So you have a title which typically technically don't have titles, but this is probably something that was like on the in app text that goes on the video itself, and then there's a description. So in this video I'm gonna give you five top marketing tips for startups. So already like there's spelling marketing wrong, which is kind of bad because then you're, you know, you're not telling the algorithm what you're actually talking about. Sometimes typos can be good, but we'll talk about that later. Um and then we have our hashtags, right? So marketing startup steps coworking in addition to all this. So we're talking about computer vision that's happening, everything that's in the image. We also have what's being said. So today Tiktok will automatically make captions for you and it's also listening to what you're saying. So if you're saying the word of marketing a lot in the video, it'll push it more to marketing people if you're saying the word web free a lot, you know, so on and so on. So, you know, thinking about all these pieces of information, you gotta be really deliberate. Um if you're trying to reach the right audience because again, that's the ultimate goal is to use the algorithm to input information to send it to the right people. So the number one metric is watch time and this is something that I validated with the person that used to be the head of product of Tiktok for the U. S. So again going back to kick Thompson ads platform So the percentage of watch time that you get, which is a metric extra to calculate yourself um is the most important. So how this transpires is on your analytics and well I'll show you one in a second, You'll get, you'll get a number that's your average time watched. What you do is you take that number and divide it by the number of years and that gives you your percentage of time watch. That's like the average amount of time people are watching the video right? For the percentage. Um this is really really important. Like this is the number one metric nails. Other things that are important are comments. So more comments means that people are spending more time on the video that people are writing a lot. That's really great because then that video is just playing in the background and if it's shorter it can be on loop, right? So I have videos where sometimes people are writing like five comments in a row because like maybe the topic is pretty controversial or they have a lot to say. And so you know that can be really really helpful. So creating contact that sparks controversy. You know I know and talk about a little before getting things as much. Well, we hired people to actually say something is important shares again. Tiktok platform wants as many deer as possible. So if you share something and they watch it like that indicates interest too. And then bookmarking and favorite ng. Um, so Tiktok just moved the favorite button to the UI. It used to be like, you have to like press down and then favorite it, but now it's a lot more clear on the screen. So they're prioritizing that a little bit more whenever there's a new app or feature. Tiktok really any social media platform for the most part will push out content that uses that feature in particular. But this is, so this like the privatizing bookmarks little bit more. So take away from this and the metrics is like create shareable content, sparks conversation or that people want to return to because again, going to like number of views, average time Watch Tiktok is trying to figure out how good is this piece of contact and these metrics give an indication of that. Um, in a way that algorithms can always do. Okay. Next. Yeah. Okay. So you might be thinking, oh, I'm just gonna create a bunch of really short videos that will make me go viral, nope doesn't work that way. So not all videos are created equal. Here's just like, this is just kind of like some best practice information. The only thing that Tiktok has ever officially like said, um is like watch time matters and like that's something I also like validate with someone that worked at Tiktok. Everything else is kind of like general consensus of creators, right? There's no formal guidance. Um, there is like the creator portal where you can go to. Um, and I should also mention that analytics is something you actually could turn on in the, so you have to go into the application and at least that's how it was when I first started. Um, and actually turned on into creator mode. It's not my default. So that's really important to do like Immediately like today. Um, so here we have like a couple different video links. So people gonna be watching that on repeat basically the more life at the time that the video is, The percentage of watch time goes down. Here's like two of my videos. They were quite different topics. You can see here. So yeah, It's not all watched but there's other forms of engagement that matter that didn't hit the bar. a ton of comments. People were spending time on video, ton of shares and a ton of bookmarks. So people are going to return to this video in particular. So that's kind of how it can transpires. So making shorter videos is not always the answer. If you're new to Tiktok, I would not recommend going and making long videos first. Especially if you're doing like more educational content because I think that gives enough time to explain. But also what you want to be doing is You think about it, So that could be saying something with a greater emphasis. It could be changing your background. It could be showing showing a picture on the screen, like So those first three seconds are absolutely crucial, especially because you'll see like and so you know constantly re cooking and that's like how you need to structure your videos. Um when should you post? So times to post, this varies by season and then kind of update each month. So right now it's summer. So you know, kids are out of school even though like predominantly agency is no longer the dominant age group on the platform. It's actually like millennials and older, just kind of wild. But you know, people summer people are kind of, Is like the earliest time slot, Um If for example, like I was in new york last week I posted according to these time slots in new york time, not in my lifetime. So what Tiktok is they push your video out the people based on wherever your phone is located at that point in time. Um It's a geo focused out. And so just keep that in mind. So what you doing this information, analyze the data to state which slot you perform best, but also know that like if for example, like Memorial Day's on monday. So that week, like I wouldn't really count that monday even though it's in the past, right? So when I do it like another week we get on monday um I'm keeping account for like holidays. So like fourth of july weekend coming up the best time to actually start like analyzing that one per three per day. We're just like thinking about those types of things. Um Additionally once you identify your niche, look at what times creators in your niche are posting. That's really important because in theory like the big big ones have already figured it out a little bit and everyone kind of has to constantly adapt but communication of okay I posted about crypto and all crypto videos like you know excellent views That gives you something to go off of and to constantly like test and retest because the kind of change um really based on like what people are doing like christmas time or holidays home et cetera. People are on their phones as much per se even though I'm probably on my phone more trying to avoid my family. Um But you know, something to think about. Okay what house actually is don't overthink it. That's a super important hashtag don't matter as much as they do on other platforms. It's only gonna make up like but again as an algorithm it's indexing hashtags can be helpful in getting your content to the right people, but it's not everything. So how would I do hashtags, these are kind of like strategies that are known in the community. Um They change frequently too, so just you know, always be experimenting post there's like four strategies to use. So one of them is like no hashtags fall, That's like the last one. the first one is post two specific ones. So this might be for me because I have web three content, it might be like hashtag free hashtag crypto and then one broad and the broad examples are not here. So like hashtag Third is three post specific and three brought to you. And again, experiment for one or two weeks and see what works and always change it up. Um I think that's the porn part is like kind of always changing so you kind of kind of stay on top of it, but just see what's working for you and what's working for other people and replicate that. There's an algorithm. It's math. Uh definitely. Yeah. See what video someone using, that's the last piece there. Okay, so not every video is gonna blow up and that is Okay, great. Like So if your goal is to acquire new followers, what I would do is like, you know, like we already talked about spend, you know, A week, two weeks a month experimenting with what works okay then take your top performing videos recreate them or repost them. Like it's ok to repost something from your page. What you should not do is repost a video that's on someone else's page because it won't perform well. And what I mean, every post is like you go to that person's page and you download the video and you pass it to your page like Tiktok flags and it doesn't do well. You can do what, like that's totally something fine and I do what I do, it's because it's easy to make contact and you have a piece of contact, like just you should ideally add value. But, you know, some, some of my more recent posts that have done well for us, um, so repeat your top performing close to dr Paulo requisition and then you could try to go with an engagement and existing followers create new content that is around your niche that educates entertains and engagement. So, these are things that you should be asking for their opinion. Um really just trying to cultivate community because, you know, once you get a bunch of new followers, they're now looking for more content that's similar to whatever you're talking about. So my like, classic video is like, what is what? Three? I think it's one upside. Yeah, so I've, I've made, um Once you know what works double down we press our feet. So like these were all done really well. Um Kind of continue to do well because It's if you go to like if you search Web three in the algorithm, I am what pops up now. Um and like that's really exciting. But now the algorithm knows like you know if I give it information and hope it helps you. Okay. So lastly it sounds like you guys just talk about something yesterday but these are my tips. If I were starting a brand new account first off define your niche, analyze that niche. So go and look at you know who what post are performing well who is performing well etcetera and then recreate some those top performing posts, your niche with your own spin on it. Like don't flat out copy it. But if you want to talk about finance or money, go to hashtag money and I promise you one of the top videos will be like top five side hustles recreate that video. But like to figure out what are the ones that you would recommend? Right? Use the exact same sound the color of the text, like the video length, the same hashtag etcetera because you wanted to target the same people. Um fourth make do and since it is your best friend for days where like maybe you're not feeling like making content, these can be really easy to do. seconds are key switch is the beginning of the video. So it's basically when you take a video that exists, you um, stag part of it and then you add that. Speaking of your video and then you continue filming. That's just you after that. So popping up over and over. So I think like last fall there was one that was, you know, what's something that feels illegal to know. And I swear to God, I saw that one constantly. Um, but one that's going on right now is, uh, what's something that's a scam And so try to find stitches that kind of have like controversial hooks that people want to know. And then I like, I just wish that one kind of dragged it for three seconds at the beginning and then said college because I mean that's very controversial, right? So then I got a lot of comments etcetera. So use those if you're lacking inspiration because we all have our days where we do, um, can be really easy to knock out some content. Um, you talked about this too, but like posting three times per day for one or two weeks and then like constantly and elijah results. So what I do is I carve out time, like on friday, I have a calendar invite for myself where I spend like an hour, um usually just like going through my analytics and analyzing them and figuring out what worked what didn't um because that's also have recently like delayed explosions. So sometimes um like you can post a video immediately and then they'll start getting gifts. Your videos and sometimes maybe there was a, maybe you made a post about kim Kardashian, maybe made a post about kim Kardashian and then Pete Davidson proposed to kim Kardashian. Now kim Kardashians now popular an algorithm and that post can resurface. So like first off, don't delete your post ever. Like even if you think it's shitty, don't don't do that. Okay. It's that um if you want to get rid of it, like private it, they'll punish you uh if you delete it first off, but also post can live on like they can live on beyond that initial day or two. Um and that's why it's important to analyze the results and figure out what did and didn't like once a week, don't like put your phone away to like sometimes I find myself constantly refreshing the feed. Uh don't do that. It's gonna drive you crazy and then just continue on like I think if you think about it as like an agile uh like an agile style of making content, that's what I think about it? It's like I have my plan, push out contact and then I analyze the results and then do it all again. So I think that's how I think about it, that's how it works for me. Um they'll be my number one of my top lessons and then lastly uh another great thing to do too is if you're ever like lacking inspiration is to go to answer the public, into the public is a website where it just kind of um takes all of google search data and you type in a word or like a phrase and it pops up what people are searching. So here I type in what three and so it has results for search is to start with how can where what when are etcetera. So for example, here it's our Web three developers in demand. So then I'll go make a video. That's yeah, Our Web three developers in demand. You know, getting information from here because that's where the general public searching can be really helpful or reply to comments. Um I get a lot of my content inspiration by replying to comments and you'll see yourself if you have you kind of focus on niche like I do. Um you'll see yourself getting the same comments and over and over. So the comments I get are how do I get to web three? Is it a separate place? How do I get a job in Web three? you know, that's a bunch of content that like I just kind of make over and over to, but I do reply to comment because it's a feature on Tiktok and Tiktok, like when the user features um yeah, so I believe that. Is it, yep, that's it for me. So any questions? We have a lot of questions, so I'm going to pull up Capri as well, so you both have the staged and answer as you please. But it's just going back a little bit further, Maggie asked how fast our video performance being evaluated by the algorithm, like less in an hour or a day, I would be kind of noticed that gets checked. I think it depends, uh I think it depends on the activity. So if you're posting it like a prime time, Typically if you're brand new account will take like If you have no followers, Tiktok has to figure out who to push it to. And so that's something that I've noticed, just like whenever I start a new account, it takes a bit um, if you have existing followers, then it will typically get pushed to those followers immediately. So you'll see just to see like is this violating any community guidelines. So like is there nudity is there you know, guns, et cetera. Something bad in it that they wouldn't want the platform when you get to contact, wait, it gets sent to your existing followers. You have them if you don't, it's been kind of trying to figure out how to push it to on the for you page. So that's actually where like having an existing account or having a new account can actually be really helpful because now what I start to notice is like I can't talk about lifestyle contact really because my followers are trained to see me viewing but only talking about Web three. And so I'm now trying to figure out how do I actually yeah. Get my existing followers to care about me as a person so I can do those kinds of things. Um It's like a lot more lucrative from like a monetization standpoint. And so I'd say like typically it's pretty quick but it also takes some time to definitely C do you recommend adding keywords to the caption or how does that impact content? Yeah, for sure. Like definitely be adding keywords as much as possible. I believe you answered this Naomi asked how many hashtags is too much should those be a B tested as well? I wouldn't be test for sure. Going back to the list of them I had, I wouldn't do more than if you, if you die. It's like diluting it basically. Um, and making the hashtags not important. And so hashtags again are not gonna make or break your content. All it does is help Tiktok and pushing it out to the right people again. Tiktok's looking at, what are you talking on the video? So if you're talking about marketing a time in the video and you're also using the marketing hashtag like that's helpful. But you already talking about marketing the videos. So it might not be as necessary. So definitely don't overthink it definitely. And this might be a question for Capri as you have multiple accounts. But RJ asked if I wanted to start over, should I delete my current account and remake it or should I just make an entirely new account with a different user name? I mean, I think it depends on what you're already doing on your current account. So for me, I had an account where I had never posted on it. I had it for two years and then all of a sudden I was like, I want to grow my Tiktok and so I went through the process of like, um, posting really consistently for a couple of months. Nothing was doing well at all. So actually changed my user name. Um, and then created a new account with the user name of the previous one. Capri dot Lynn, which was the same as my instagram. So I really wanted that like old user name that I had and then I followed the process of posting really consistently for a couple of months and then things started to do well. So that was just my experience. I personally think that and I've heard this from a lot of other creators as well on Tiktok or saying like, you know, advising to start new accounts. Um that's what I would do if you've had the account for a while and either things aren't performing or you're just starting to post um, content on it. That worked for me. But I know like some people have like continued with their accounts and it's been fine. I think it just depends. But Jessica do you have any like advice on that? Yeah, I would say it all kind of goes back to the algorithm and Tiktok, if you have an account, you've been using your theory training tiktok's algorithm and Tiktok tip top views each video you post on its own, but your for you page, like the consensus is that your for you page mimics sometimes who your content is going to. So I think that's what's important about it, is like starting off with a clean slate with a brand new account. What I would do is um, as first off, like you should only be logged into one account at a time, um or like to max like that's what I used to do too is like when I did my previous company's account um if you're logged into too many accounts they'll flag it and it's not good. So no more than two. Um I have like my own personal account where like I don't post anything and just like where I actually watched my videos and then for my existing account I have all the hashtags that I talk about. Favorited and I specifically watch videos on my for you page. Um That are things that I would want my followers to see. So like I'm trying to train my own algorithm and trying to train my account in a way definitely. And this also kind of applies to it as well. Do you have any tips to reaching accounts in different countries speaking that language or add the hashtag of that country. That will be helpful but if you speak in that language it'll get pushed to that country unless it's english and it's a little bit tougher, right? Um But that's what I would do or like talk like use the word of that in the name of that country And the video. Absolutely ali asked I heard that using comment replies is really good. Does that actually help boost algorithm engagement? I think so yeah I do it a lot. Um People like to know what people are asking. Uh And if you can find a really controversial comment too. That's what I do. Sometimes uh people want to find out what you're gonna say about it. People people like a few right? It's like why we like celebrity feuds. Um people like controversy and I know Jessica you also mentioned in your presentation um that typos is something that like can spark a lot of controversy. Do you want to touch on that a little bit more? Oh yeah. So people feel very strongly about pointing out things that are wrong about what you're doing. Um Yeah, especially being a woman on Tiktok like, yeah, I'm sure you get it all the time. And so that again, it's kind of like what type of creator you want to be? Uh, I'm totally fine doing controversial stuff because it works and helps me get more engagement helps me get more abuse. Obviously there's a line, so you have to figure out like what's that line that you want to come from? So like when I first started posting on Tiktok, I would make videos that were about business school because I was at work at the time in business school and I would like take a shot, just water. Um trying to hook people and the text on the screen was like five bucks. My like the leap don't want you to know about were like five books. My warden NBA professors don't want you to know about and all the books were written by my professors, so you know, obviously like, probably, you know, my impression probably didn't like that? I don't really care. Um, so like using controversy to your benefit in a way that like, you're okay with you, That could be helpful. Yeah, I agree. And I don't think it has to be anything that's even controversial, like for me, I mean, like I had um one of the videos where I was talking about like giving my opinion on wide leg jeans, like I got tons of like controversy in the comments, um, just from that video. So I think like any time you're giving your opinion on anything or analyzing anything, especially if you rope in celebrities to your content, people are going to have opinions and going to want to comment. So I think like, just giving your opinion on something in your niche is also a great way to spark engagement in the comments because some people are going to agree with your opinion and some people won't, but then using misspellings, like using the wrong version of their, That's a great one. because people want to correct you. Yeah, and that typically drives more comments probably as people are calling you out, yep, it's all trick in the system. It's all psychology based, It's kind of what I see on Tiktok, like what pushes people's buttons and makes them engage with the content more very interesting. And this question also kind of ties into that as well specifically on call to actions for a video with decent views. How do you convert viewers to click on your link in bio or search up your app slash website. Is it pinned to comments? Is there a specific called action that you use at the end of your videos? What have you guys done in the past? Do you wanna go first country? Yeah, I'm trying to think about what the, So on our business page, I wouldn't say we really actually, yeah, we typically do have a call to action of like sign up with our Lincoln bio. Um but on some of the ones that have done the most well, um we're already sort of like talking about our product in the video um like for example, Address and it's like sparkling in the sunlight, looks really pretty and then I think it literally just says like Um and then people kind of like get the idea and that like drove um a decent amount of organic sign ups. So that's great. I think it's always great to have a call to action though, on my personal page, I just say follow for more fashion and style videos. But yeah, my call to action is typically like follow. Um and that's something that I put in text in both the caption, I'll say like tap the plus because sometimes people don't want to see the word follow um Or I'll put it in the last three seconds of the video. So usually like in green or blue tax because uh those colors tend to represent trust or like money. Um and so what I've also done really well is in November, and I was that's what I like was like thinking about quitting my job And I started a company about three. So twitter is all the rage as we all know right? Like there's the twitter for founders spring that you guys have to um What I did is I I use like my most popular video to drive people to my twitter by first off a song that had like really high watch time. And so that at the end of it said you know if you want to learn more follow me on twitter because I post things daily there and so people if you can hook them enough people want more value. So if you can drive people to a link where they know they'll be getting more value from you. I think that's when conversions are a lot easier. So maybe it's like like something I just thought of right now that I might do is uh making a video about like how to look at buying N. F. T. And then here's my checklist Lincoln bio. Um sign up with your email and here's my checklist of like here are the five things to look for. So like providing additional value, but only additional value if you go to the link. So like that's how I do it. Yeah, I've seen that work really well too. But we are closing in on the top of the hour. So I do just want to send a huge thank you so much to Jessica and Capri for being here today. If everyone could just throw a little clapping emoji in those reactions to celebrate them, we definitely will continue all these conversations as well in the discord. So if you have any specific questions, we will be hanging out there as well. I will send that in the chat right now in case you are not in there. But tomorrow we kick off with three car. He's going to be talking more about the dues and don't of being a startup. Founder on Tiktok, what has gone wrong for a lot of founders and how to avoid that. So definitely make sure to tune in the same time tomorrow, Jessica and Capri any less words. Any Tiktok accounts would like people to follow. Yeah, my last word is if at first you don't succeed, try it again. Like it's really an output game and you know, don't get your hopes stop. Well, sorry, sorry, don't get your hopes down. Don't get your hopes down if it doesn't work at first, it's all about consistency and like that's honestly what's most important. Um, in my handle on Tiktok is Jessica lawson. Uh, yeah. Yeah. I just want to echo that as well. I think one of the hardest parts about creating on Tiktok is managing your own psychology and not getting too down. Um, at least my experience has been like, you can create a lot of stuff that doesn't go well or like you have a video that blows up and does really well and then all of a sudden you're next videos aren't performing well at all. And you're like, maybe that was just a one time thing. You know, maybe this really isn't going to keep going like this. But I found like when I stick with it, there's always another video that does well. That's right on the other side of like me thinking that I should just quit. So, um, I would just say just keep with it and also don't overthink it. I think Jessica mentioned this as well. But like I have like sort of just started like just posting and then just like leaving it alone and not being obsessed with the views right away because I've noticed that just drives myself crazy, especially in the beginning phase. Like you really just have to give it time and like if you dedicate time to it. Like it will happen and you got this and my handle on Tiktok is Capri dot L Y N N. And then my stars. Tiktok is shop dressed with no second e. Thank you guys. So much fun. Thank you opportunity today. And we will see you tomorrow. Bye guys. The recording has stopped.

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