I love TikTok because it has enabled me to be silly and creative for a few minutes every day (watch my videos here: @mattcatbat). It has encouraged me to learn a lot about drawing, I even bought new pens this week that are specific for doodling. So.. on the one hand I’m trying to grow a social media account…but on the other and more important hand… I’ve been able to improve a skill that I’ve always been interested in.
A few days ago I passed 500k followers (now at 520k). Ask me anything!
1) in the first 3-4 months, what was your most difficult challenge in getting traction and engagement, and what did you do to overcome that? [please assume I'm already focused on creating great content :)]
2) were there specific days and times that you found to be the best time to post?
3) did you discover any video specs (ie, lighting, sound/music volume, transitions, filters) that improved your ratings with the tiktok ai?
1) In the first month especially I would follow anyone who engaged with my content and I would reply to every comment. I tried different types of videos until I found something that worked and then I made more videos like that until that stopped working. I looked at what others were doing on TikTok and did similar things with my own twist. I still follow these guidelines.
2) I still have no idea if certain times of day are performing better than others for me. I feel like videos I post in the evening can then take off overnight and then go viral for a few days, but I don't have all the analytics around this.
3) Good lighting and something very interesting in the first second.
1) What's your content distribution strategy? Almost everything I've seen involves adding maybe 2-3 really general hashtags. Not sure how this grows a targeted audience, especially if you're trying to start a specific business.
2) Have you done anything to monetize this audience? If so what?
3) I'm having trouble deciding what to post, especially since I'm not great on video myself. I'm looking to build an audience where I can launch a luxury chocolate brand. If not, maybe a luxury cologne brand. I don't find anything anywhere on TikTok though about this to model after (TikToks specifically on these topics vs random videos. What do I do?
4) If you were starting all over, what would you do differently?
5) What are you using to keep your camera up like that as you use your hands to draw?
6) Any particular tips no one has asked about, but you feel is critical to grow a TikTok?
1) The best way to get your video distributed is to have great content that gets people to engage with it via likes, comments, downloads, and shares. The hashtags can help TikTok decide what type of people to put your video in front of, but I see plenty of popular accounts using zero hashtags on their videos so it is not a requirement.
2) I haven't done anything to monetize my audience, however I have been thinking about some things to experiment with. I think potentially selling prints of doodles or an instructional doodle book would have product market fit. For example what if on my next doodle I put a text overlay saying you could buy that print somewhere? Would anyone buy? This is the type of thing I want to try.
3) Most of my videos don't have me in them, so you can definitely go viral without being on camera. I would think about what types of things you could do that are interesting or satisfying to watch that don't require you to be on camera. What about breaking apart a chocolate bar to the beat of a song? What about making something with chocolate, like a food dish or something decorative? What about videos of chocolate melting? There are a lot of opportunities to think about. Also try searching TikTok for "chocolate" or "cologne" and see what comes up.
4) I don't actually think I would do anything different besides maybe jumping straight into the type of content I'm doing now.
5) I do it a few different ways. Either I lean a tripod against a table or I stack books on two sides, lay the tripod across them, and then balance my phone on the center of the tripod so that it is facing straight down. In my more recent videos I'm holding my phone in one hand while drawing with the other.
6) These were good questions! I hope these answers are helpful.
Probably 85% of my videos are 60 seconds long with me talking in the background and 15% of my videos are 10-15 seconds long using a song from TikTok's trending sound directory.
This has definitely changed over time. For a while now I have by trying to find a theme that would be broad enough to enable a limitless amount of videos to be created. Recently I found this in making short videos that show how to draw something. Because there are so many possible things to draw I can make these types of videos forever without fear of running out of content ideas. I use google image search and YouTube to find interesting things to draw and then I make videos for them.
What's funny is that I'm learning how to draw each thing first and then making a video for it, so as a byproduct of making these videos I am learning along with my audience in real time.
congrats Matt! so a few questions here...
1) in the first 3-4 months, what was your most difficult challenge in getting traction and engagement, and what did you do to overcome that? [please assume I'm already focused on creating great content :)]
2) were there specific days and times that you found to be the best time to post?
3) did you discover any video specs (ie, lighting, sound/music volume, transitions, filters) that improved your ratings with the tiktok ai?
Thanks matt!!
Hi Myles,
1) In the first month especially I would follow anyone who engaged with my content and I would reply to every comment. I tried different types of videos until I found something that worked and then I made more videos like that until that stopped working. I looked at what others were doing on TikTok and did similar things with my own twist. I still follow these guidelines.
2) I still have no idea if certain times of day are performing better than others for me. I feel like videos I post in the evening can then take off overnight and then go viral for a few days, but I don't have all the analytics around this.
3) Good lighting and something very interesting in the first second.
What's your TikTok account?
great insight. @onlychoice just followed you!
Stardust is cool 🎵
p.s. How does the spotlight artist program work? What benefits do you get?
Verified! Nice! If you have anyone at TikTok please poke them to verify me :P
I've got loads of questions!
1) What's your content distribution strategy? Almost everything I've seen involves adding maybe 2-3 really general hashtags. Not sure how this grows a targeted audience, especially if you're trying to start a specific business.
2) Have you done anything to monetize this audience? If so what?
3) I'm having trouble deciding what to post, especially since I'm not great on video myself. I'm looking to build an audience where I can launch a luxury chocolate brand. If not, maybe a luxury cologne brand. I don't find anything anywhere on TikTok though about this to model after (TikToks specifically on these topics vs random videos. What do I do?
4) If you were starting all over, what would you do differently?
5) What are you using to keep your camera up like that as you use your hands to draw?
6) Any particular tips no one has asked about, but you feel is critical to grow a TikTok?
Great questions!
1) The best way to get your video distributed is to have great content that gets people to engage with it via likes, comments, downloads, and shares. The hashtags can help TikTok decide what type of people to put your video in front of, but I see plenty of popular accounts using zero hashtags on their videos so it is not a requirement.
2) I haven't done anything to monetize my audience, however I have been thinking about some things to experiment with. I think potentially selling prints of doodles or an instructional doodle book would have product market fit. For example what if on my next doodle I put a text overlay saying you could buy that print somewhere? Would anyone buy? This is the type of thing I want to try.
3) Most of my videos don't have me in them, so you can definitely go viral without being on camera. I would think about what types of things you could do that are interesting or satisfying to watch that don't require you to be on camera. What about breaking apart a chocolate bar to the beat of a song? What about making something with chocolate, like a food dish or something decorative? What about videos of chocolate melting? There are a lot of opportunities to think about. Also try searching TikTok for "chocolate" or "cologne" and see what comes up.
4) I don't actually think I would do anything different besides maybe jumping straight into the type of content I'm doing now.
5) I do it a few different ways. Either I lean a tripod against a table or I stack books on two sides, lay the tripod across them, and then balance my phone on the center of the tripod so that it is facing straight down. In my more recent videos I'm holding my phone in one hand while drawing with the other.
6) These were good questions! I hope these answers are helpful.
what is a key editing tip you've learned while creating?
A couple editing tips:
- Learn how to do cut transitions (look at the #tutorial hashtag to see examples).
- Touch up your videos to make sure they are bright.
- Make cut transitions go to the beat of the sound.
- The first second of the video is the most important.
What is the average length of your videos?
Probably 85% of my videos are 60 seconds long with me talking in the background and 15% of my videos are 10-15 seconds long using a song from TikTok's trending sound directory.
What's your method to ideate content?
Hi Joe,
This has definitely changed over time. For a while now I have by trying to find a theme that would be broad enough to enable a limitless amount of videos to be created. Recently I found this in making short videos that show how to draw something. Because there are so many possible things to draw I can make these types of videos forever without fear of running out of content ideas. I use google image search and YouTube to find interesting things to draw and then I make videos for them.
Hope this helps!
Yes people love tutorial and how to videos
What's funny is that I'm learning how to draw each thing first and then making a video for it, so as a byproduct of making these videos I am learning along with my audience in real time.
Hi could you send me followers for good luck?