Have you been eyeing TikTok for a while now but are scared to jump into the unknown?
Don’t fret! The long wait is over.
This week’s episode is with Wave Wyld of Wave Wyld Media. She is a TikTok expert and course creator. Her passion is to help businesses manage the overwhelm and use TikTok the best way for their business.
In this conversation, we’ve talked about the following:
1. Instagram algorithm VS TikTok algorithm
2. Two main uses of hashtag
3. How many hashtags do you need?
4. Trends for Businesses
5. Best Content for TikTok
6. TikTok features that you need to use.
Tune in to this week’s episode and understand how to go with the trend in TikTok.
Visit Wave’s website: https://www.wavewyld.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wavewyld/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wavewyld/
Youtube: https://www.facebook.com/wave.wyld
Katie Brinkley 0:02
Hi friends. I’m Katie Brinkley and you’re listening to Rocky Mountain marketing. This podcast is all about helping Colorado based small business owners, entrepreneurs, realtors and professionals discover the strategies and systems that take their marketing to all new heights. Let’s dive into today’s episode. Welcome back to Rocky Mountain marketing. I am so excited for today’s guest. Today’s guest is a tick tock expert and I have been searching for somebody to come on the podcast and talk about tick tock for forever. And today’s guests. I saw her at Social Media Marketing World this year, she and I have connected on clubhouse and she is she has been helping people with their tick tock strategy. She’s helped over 300 clients. She’s a tick tock marketing and trends expert, wave wild, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thank you so much for having me. I am super excited to talk about tick tock oh man, and you know, tick tock has been one of those things. But I’ve struggled with full transparency. I mean, I got kind of sucked in during the pandemic when I couldn’t leave my house. And so there’s some videos of me in the bathroom, less comes with me in the bathroom, you know, doing some of the the Tick Tock trends after my kids went to bed. And it’s one of those things where I know it is an incredible tool. And it’s so different than the other social media channels out there. So I’m so glad that you’re here. I don’t feel like I’ve given you enough of an introduction as to how much knowledge you have with tick tock. So you’ve been helping businesses and brands with their tick tock strategy. And just tell us a little bit how you got involved with tick tock? Absolutely. Yeah. So first of all, I eat sleep, breathe, tick tock is just what I do. Yeah. So before the pandemic, I was working as a personal brand photographer and coach and sharing a lot of digital marketing tips with my clients, because, you know, they were not using our photos, I was helping them make content and they really didn’t understand social media marketing, and I was helping them with that. And then, of course, you know, march 2020, COVID hit and I had to return lots of deposits of money from clients and was like, I’m not really sure what’s going on with my business and I had an Instagram coach friend say hey, you should just get on Tik Tok. Like there’s a lot of potential there right now. It’s very early. And you know, just just play around and see what you can do. And I thought, okay, maybe I could generate leads for some personal brand coaching clients, I did not know what I was doing. I was posting all kinds of different things. I was posting some photography stuff, some personal branding stuff, mindset tips, actually, were doing really well. And I had a few videos do really well. They went what I call now I thought they were viral back in the day, like 100,000 views, which I call now more semi viral. And I got hooked. And that’s how tick tock gets you. It just made me I just fell in love with the app. I really liked how fun it was over there in comparison to Instagram. And I, I just really fell in love with the culture of tick tock, it was a lot of fun over there, and the creativity on the app and what other people were doing. So I just, you know, started learning everything I could about tick tock experimenting, watching content creators to see what they were doing. And yeah, that’s how it all started. I was sharing my success on Instagram with my audience there and got a lot of questions like, Well, how do you use this? What are you doing? And it was like a lightbulb moment like, oh, well, I could be a tick tock coach. There’s lots of Instagram coaches, why wouldn’t there be a tick tock coach, I mean, at that time, I had only seen probably five or so. And I was like, Okay, there’s a lot of potential here. And I felt just really in alignment with bringing some of my digital marketing skills to the app and applying that and helping people grow well in wave. I love that you said I just started out by having fun on it. And it is different than the other social media apps that are out there. One of the things that’s really different is that algorithm and it is a different spot for you to be seen a you don’t need to have. I do feel like a lot of people are like well I didn’t get started on Instagram right at the beginning. So now I’m I’m behind where with tick tock, really all it takes is one video to give you that new audience to promote what it is that you do. So for those that are listening right now on the right, Katie, you guys are talking about tick tock like Isn’t that for kids? Talk to us just a little bit about
Wave Wyld 4:37
tick tock. Yeah, absolutely. Not just for kids anymore. The app completely changed in the pandemic and the millennials and Gen X took over. So the 25 to 45 range is the biggest growing demographic on Tik Tok right now. And yeah, so all ages are they’re all community He’s and niches are there if you’re, you know a fitness coach, a real estate agent, your food creator, it’s all there. You know if you want to make pet videos and become a pet influencer a big influencer, influencer marketing like it is like everything is on tick tock now it’s, it’s just amazing. You can also make a new shot of anything, which I think is so fascinating on Tik Tok. But basically, you know, if you want to get into how the algorithm works, it’s a recommendation system. So when you first join the app, the algorithms trying to figure out who you are and what type of content you like, so that it will keep you on the app longer. So if you start watching a lot of cat videos, it’s going to show you more cat videos. And it’s trying to figure out who you are. So yes, at first, you’re going to see a lot of that dancing and lip syncing content, because that’s kind of the broadest, most popular content on the app, you know, the app was known as musically before it became Tik Tok. So that’s why I think that misconception still exists that like, Oh, it’s just for teens. Oh, it’s only just like dancing and silly lip synching videos, but there are so many communities, like I mentioned on Tik Tok that you can find people and you can easily build community. That’s one thing I love about Tik Tok to you, mostly going by live streaming. But now I’m starting to ramble because I can just go on and on and on. I hope that I hope that was helpful. It is because you know, you said, you know, with the algorithm when you first join, it’s going to see where you’re located and the type of videos that you first start watching. And I’ll never forget, I made one video standing outside of my house. I think it was the Elsa the Oh, like, it was a trending audio for a bit. And I remember my neighbor three doors up from me, who at the time was like 13 years old. She goes, that feeling when you see your neighbor on Tik Tok, and that was her. And I was like, oh, that’s embarrassing. But somehow the algorithm plays me into her feed. Yes. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, you it is also geo focused app. So when you post videos, they are shown to a local region first, and then depending on how users engage with it, it is pushed out to more people in a wider geographic area. So I guess that’s a great like, like I said, I am. So novice when it comes to tick tock, I will be the first to raise my hand and say that and on Instagram, I know you can use location tagging in your posts, but with tick tock, do they still have the location tags? Or is it all just based on what IP you have? Or how does it Yeah, so if your IP address for sure, so yeah, tick tock knows your IP address and your location, there’s not so much location tagging. However, if you’re a small business, you can be using hashtags to kind of target I’ve done that with some real estate clients like Missouri real estate agent, you know, using cities, that kind of stuff just to get a little bit more exposure in that area can help if anybody is you know, searching content or searching for that type of service. Well, and wait, you bring up a good point on hashtags. And I, for those listeners that follow me on social media, I’ve been going on a huge hashtag, kick lately. And hashtags are very different for each platform. They’re different from Instagram, to Facebook, Facebook, to LinkedIn, and LinkedIn to tick tock so talk to us just a little bit about hashtags on tick tock, are they necessary? Or that is that how you get found with reach? How many should you be using?
Oh, my gosh, I Okay, hashtags. There we go. So first of all, I want to explain what hashtags do on tick tock, they really do two things, they help to tell the algorithm who to show your content to. So you, of course, really want to use relevant to your content, right, you want the right people to see your content, so that they will watch it, engage with it, and that you will get more views and more exposure. So that’s why you want to stay away from those generic hashtag like FYP. They don’t really do anything for your content. And FYI, it helps to tell you all that have hashtag FYP means for you page, which is a real thing, or I’m sorry, which is a tick tock thing. Yes, the for you page is that main vertical feed that you scroll. And when you open up the app that you see all kinds of different videos from people you fall in from people you don’t follow. Yeah, so they do they tell the algorithm who to show your content to and then the other thing they do is just like Instagram, they categorize your content. So you can go to a hashtag and find videos that use that hashtag. Now, you don’t have to use hashtags at all. However, if you are a business owner, I do suggest using because they are just a strategy. Now I also don’t recommend getting too hung up on hashtags. A lot of people do this they get a ton of hashtag questions and I say to them, You know what, it is a strategy to help increase your views. The first and foremost thing you want to be doing on Tik Tok is focusing on your content. Is it directed to your ideal audience? Once you know is it valuable? Is it entertaining does it make people feel an emotion, all kinds of things, you know, another topic we could go into. And then for hashtags, three to five is all you need, do not spam and fill up your whole caption space with hashtags. That’s not how the caption spaces are meant to be used. And you only need three to five. Awesome, so three to five hashtags that takes away a lot of the overwhelm, I know for trying to find those right hashtags, because again, using the mass mass hashtag of FYP, and hashtag, social media Hashtag blessed, that’s not going to do anything for you. So let’s just get those out of your hashtag strategy right this instant. So you mentioned also wave is not just about dancing and lip syncing, but there are trends on Tik Tok that can definitely help you and it’s encouraged to kind of stay on trend with your content on tick tock, absolutely. I do recommend trends that you know, I also known on tick tock as the Queen of trend alerts. That’s how I build my brand, and stood out in my niche on tick tock. And yeah, so I do recommend trends for a few reasons. The first one is that they do help with exposure and growth. And I just know that from speaking to, you know, hundreds of followers who’ve told me that and clients that it’s worked for them. The other thing is that it helps you showcase your personality. So if you are a service based business, you are going to do a lot of what we call educational content, like maybe talking head videos, talking head videos are very popular on tick tock, what that means is, you’re just doing what I’m doing right now, just speaking to the camera delivering information, so you don’t see a lot of my personality. And when you do a trend, you can kind of be a little bit fun, a little bit silly, don’t take yourself so seriously be a little bit goofy with some of these and make a joke. So you get to see that other side. And then it also helps you be relatable a lot of well, one of the key ways to grow on Tik Tok is by being really relatable to your ideal followers. And then the last one is that you can use trends to sell and that’s something I talked about it Social Media Marketing World, there are some certain ways that you can kind of adapt them and make a joke about your business or something and use them with call to actions to sell. Yeah, and I think that too, a lot of clients that I’ve worked with on the Instagram reels side of trends, they say, well, that’s not me. I’m not a trend person. But it is good to have that balance between like you said, the talking head videos, and then using the trending. I mean, even if it’s not you dancing or doing something funny, using that same audio is also just is just as good for videos, or maybe is it is it a little different on tick tock?
Yeah, well, you know, if you don’t want to do trends, that’s fine. There are lots of people who are successful on tick tock without doing trends. But one thing to think about with the trends on tick tock is there are a lot of different types of trends, I rarely recommend dancing trends, I recommend the types of trends that business owners can use. So they’re generally what I call a POV trend. A POV trend is where you have your lip synching some dialogue or lyrics of the music, and then you’re making a joke with relatable jokes using text in the video. And that joke is going to relate to whatever the punch line is in the audio. And these are great because they only take like five minutes to make they’re so quick, you just have to think of the joke. And then you just lip sync. And it’s you know, it’s generally not doesn’t require dancing and being too silly or goofy and that type of thing. I love the trending audio videos, those ones are some of my favorites. Those are what I do mostly over on Instagram are the lip syncing, where I can bring out a little bit of my personality and talk about a customer pain point and how we can solve it. So we’ll be talking about reels here and Instagram if someone says Okay, so maybe I’ll go ahead and repurpose my reels over to tick tock and just see how it goes. What would you say to someone that’s like, should I just repurpose or do I have to create all new content? Yeah, so I know a lot of people that repurpose Tik Tok for Instagram reels and I see less people repurposing Instagram reels to tick tock just because tick tock is so culture specific. There’s a lot about tick tock videos that make them feel really native to the platform and they generally perform better when they do feel native like using features like green screen and the text is what kind of helps with that. And there are some different strategies for reels that I don’t see really using in the same way on tick tock. So for example, on reels I see these videos where they’re very short, like maybe five seconds and they tell you to read the caption for more information, and that’s because the video will keep looping right and I’m assuming that that’s that’s helping them get more watch time on their video. We know watch time is really important in these algorithms. That’s like the main determining factor to get more views on your video. Whereas on Tic Toc, that strategy doesn’t work so well, because we don’t have a large caption space that you can do use that. And there’s a pause button. And people are very familiar with it. So when people go into your comment sections, they generally, we’ll hit the pause button on your video, and they’ll go into the comments and read them and maybe they engage that sort of thing. So the comments section is a big part of tick tock that is in itself can be just like there’s viral comments in there, it can be very entertaining, and people really, really liked the comment sections have left that well. And you said to that you on tick tock, you can pause the video and I know that in the Instagram feed, you have to actually be in the reals channel to pause the video can’t pause it when you’re just in the regular feed, and it’s clunkier. So is there a doing a don’t for for repurposing any of your content. I know that on Instagram, they don’t like seeing that tick tock watermark isn’t the same over on tick tock. It’s the same, it is definitely the same. Remove watermarks. Yes. And if you can re add the sound within the app, that’s better as well.
Katie Brinkley 16:14
Man, it sounds. I mean, well, this is like this is where I really feel like it takes a whole strategy for these different social media platforms. And that’s why it does you can’t be on all of them. I mean, if you want to be on Pinterest, Tiktok a Google My Business, LinkedIn, Twitter, I mean, that’s a full time job. Yes. Show up the right way. You there’s always copy Facebook deals now as well. Yes, so well. Okay, so let’s say they say listeners are saying, okay, tick tock. Sounds great. I know I can get really good reach there. Maybe my demographic is on this platform. After all, I’ll go ahead and I can do some talking head videos and mix them in with some trending audio. What kind of content strategy is best for business owners to implement as they’re getting started on this platform to avoid burning out?
Wave Wyld 17:06
Absolutely. I love this question. Because it’s the number one thing I do with all my clients is, the first thing is develop that content strategy. And I use content pillars, which is very familiar to other content marketing, well, content marketers and other social media platforms. And so I got really excited when I saw that you could do the same thing on tick tock, because you don’t want to just be posting the same video all the time. And one of the biggest mistakes I see is that people just post trends, they post way too many trends. And they’re not really giving the value. And they’re not also talking about their products or their services, or how you work with them, that kind of thing. So you need to have a good mix for your followers, right? Content pillars, there are some ones I find that are a little bit different than on Instagram. And one of those would be what I call having an original series. So an original series is a theme or a type of video that you post on a regular basis, I suggest at least once a week. And the goal of this video, it has to be content that you can make a lot of so maybe it’s one tip about something. And the goal of this is really to help you stand out within your niche and give people a reason to follow you. And that’s what I saw with my Trend alerts. So that’s an example of an original series. When I started that series in August of 2020. I noticed that like really what these are at the core are content ideas, and people need content ideas all the time. So they’re going to follow me because they want more content ideas. But yeah, so that’s an idea. Sorry, that’s an example of an original series. I love that idea. Well, I mean, it’s definitely something that is pretty business industry agnostic. Regardless, if you are a mechanic or realtor or you know, a social media manager, no matter what it is that you do, there should be something that you can talk about on a regular basis for that original series. Like for me, I could talk about hashtags one week, and then you know, and then I could talk about location tags, and then I could talk about LinkedIn strategy. I mean, like, if you have that original series, the content ideas should be endless. What’s another content pillar that you could see is pretty industry agnostic for tic tac? Well, definitely what I call promotional pillar, that’s your promotional content. You know, we’re very familiar with that on Instagram. This is where I see business owners not promoting enough because sometimes people feel like I’ve heard this before it you can’t sell on tick tock, people don’t like it when you sell. I’m like, Yes, you can. Lots of people are doing it. Your community wants to buy from you. So making these promotional videos that’s either promoting whatever products you have or services or a challenge or your lead magnet. I’ve worked with so many clients and like you have a lead magnet let’s build your list. Tick tock is amazing for building your list. Let’s make a video that’s talks about the benefits of you know why they should get your list why they should be on your list, and then you drive people you know through that Lincoln bio to sign up like it’s so, so powerful for that so that promotional content is one pillar, I see people kind of lacking and within promotional I also consider things like social proof and the testimonial videos can be very, very powerful as a way of selling on Tik Tok as well. It’s definitely something that I see across all social media platforms. Us as business owners, we either fall into, I feel like two categories. We talk about our business all the time, and how you can buy it from us and we want you to buy now. So we’re constantly selling, or we don’t tell you what it is that we do and how to work with us. There there really doesn’t seem to be anyone that does is doing it exactly the right way. But it’s so true. You have to tell people how to work with you why they should work with you, what are the services that you offer? So I absolutely love that promotional content pillar as well. I love the content pillars. I love the trends. I love the talking head. I know that growing an audience can be so hard and that’s one of the reasons why a lot of business owners get discouraged by social media as a whole because they’re not growing. They’re out well no one’s seeing my stuff for nobody likes it, nobody comments, and they get fed up and they throw in the towel. What are some tips that you would give to that the listeners about growing an engaged audience not growing a massive audience but growing an engaged audience on Tik Tok? Yeah,
so I’m all about that because I teach more of a community over virality approach. As we know on tick tock, there’s a lot of focused on growth and going viral. When when I came to that app and realized you can use it as a social media marketing tool, just like Instagram, I was like, okay, you don’t you don’t need to go viral, you just need to attract the right people just like all the other platforms. So you know, my biggest tip is caring about your followers listening to them. responding to your comments, there are a lot of people on Tik Tok who do not respond to their comments. And I noticed when I make when I comment on people on people’s stuff that I’m like, Oh, they’ve never even responded, you know it, you know, it’s hard to get comments right? On social media. So if someone took the time out of their day to, to comment, like engage with them build focus on building that relationship. I 1,000% agree with that. You know, if someone takes the time to get both thumbs going to leave you a comment, the least you can do is right back to them. And that’s like the whole basis of social media anyways, for Instagram is to be social with one another. Hmm, yeah. And build relationships. So commenting on other pee on people that leave comments on your posts.
Katie Brinkley 22:42
What’s another tip that you would have on growing that engaged audience? I love that you said community I have an engaged community around your brand ah tick tock. So using the feature where you can reply to a comment with a video is really helpful that helps to make people feel seen and heard. I love that feature. Just a little bit about that feature, because I know that it’s newer on Instagram, but I never see people using that that feature. So talk to us a little bit about replying with a video on text.
Wave Wyld 23:11
So you can use this to answer a question or to you know, further explain something or have some sort of commentary on someone’s comment, respond to a hater sometimes that happens. But yeah, basically all you have to do is go into your comments section and you tap on the comment, and then it pulls up there’s a little video camera and then it allows you to make a video directly responding to that comment. So really, really good for again offering value and responding to questions. Another thing I highly recommend on tick tock for building community is live streaming. So you do get that feature on tick tock to yes yes after 1000 followers you get the live stream feature and it’s very very powerful on tick tock for building community this is a chance for your followers to get one on one time with you which is very meaningful that you could there’s a lot of different things you can do on live as a business owner if you’ve got products you can be making showcasing your products working in your business packaging orders you can be you know some doing some aspect of your business if you have a service based business you can be doing anything like Q and A’s and little workshops to get people involved with you. And then they’re very also very powerful for again, funneling traffic to your offers if that’s your lead magnet you have a Facebook group a membership or whatever you have you can be suggesting that using call to actions in your life you can also sell on live I did my first course launch on live stream it was amazing and I just yeah generally love it just to connect and engage and get to know my followers a little bit more. I love it. Well we’ve I feel like I need to just bring you in for like monthly check ins on Tik Tok. Use it because it’s it is a it’s one of the newer social All media platforms out there. It’s one that’s definitely made good ol Mark Zuckerberg, a little nervous because they’re able to do things with their algorithm. And they’re bringing a different type of content that a lot of people obviously, were craving. They were craving those the raw videos, not the highlight reel polished and Yeah, he’ll Yeah, yes, in the moment, just real authentic moments. Yeah, well, I think. Yeah, I think we’ve with what you were saying to like, the real, authentic moments, that’s what these these tick tock videos are based around there not about being highly produced and having your hair done and having your makeup. I mean, you can if you want, but I mean, I feel like a lot of the videos that I was engaging with, maybe it was just the algorithm showing me more of it, were just that real life of someone like, Hey, I’m just gonna go ahead and record this video because it’s happening right here and right now, and I want you to be with me. Yeah. And this is why you, you see videos of you know, people just sitting in their car and talking and people putting on their makeup while they do a video, people eating in their videos and making and talking that type of thing. Because it’s just more it’s very, it’s in the moment, right? So it
Katie Brinkley 26:13
will will wave I’d have to ask you, do you think tick tock is here to stay? If someone says all right, even tricked me enough to just look into it a little bit more, maybe I’ll go ahead and create an account. You think it’s here to stay is not going to be the next Periscope or the next Blab? I think tick tock is going to be here and it’s going to continue giving some of these other social media apps a run for their money. What say you? Absolutely tick tock is a cultural phenomenon like phenomenon, you cannot deny that it sets trends in all these other industries. It blows my mind. short form video is here to stay. So you know, start learning and brushing up on your short form video content creation skills. Yeah, because tic TOCs here to stay. And it’s evolving and changing so fast. Yes, it really is. If we want to learn how to up our short form video game, how do we connect with you? How do we continue learning from you? Yes, absolutely. So you can you know, follow me first of all on Tiktok and Instagrams, just my name at weave wild. I also have a Facebook group, and the Tick Tock profit lab is now open. So you can check that out. If you’re listening to this at a later time. You know, just send me a DM if the sales page is not available. But yes, that’s just one of the many ways I have a tick tock profit lab. Yeah. So be sure to go check that out. Sign up. Now if you if you head on over there. And if the car has closed shoot with a DM so that you can continue learning from her because I agree, I think tick tock and short term video I think it is here to stay. And if you are ready to embrace that side, that fun side of your business and show up as the face of your brand. Why not start now and why not check out tick tock WAV, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Loved every moment. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Rocky Mountain marketing. As always, I’d love to hear from you. You can visit my website at www.nextstepsocialcommunications.com. Connect with me on LinkedIn or check me out on Instagram. Let’s keep taking your marketing to new heights.