fbpx

Content Marketing

Episode 112: 3 Steps for Getting Started with Reels and TikTok

May 31, 2022

Chasing Simple Marketing

FREE GUIDE: 8 EMAILS TO SEND TO YOUR WAITLIST BEFORE LAUNCH

You'll also love

tell me more

I'm  Amanda — simplicity-focused content marketing strategist.  I'm here to help you fit your marketing into your business.

Meet Amanda

The Chasing Simple Content Planner

Looking to learn how to start a tiktok for your business? These 3 simple steps will set you up for success as you're getting started!

Want to Know How to Start a Tiktok for Your Business?

Curious about Tiktok, but not sure where to start? Worried that you need to be funny to succeed over there? Or do dances that you know you aren’t coordinated enough for to see growth?

Don’t worry – you don’t have to do anything you aren’t comfortable with in order to grow an audience on TikTok. On last week’s episode, I shared all about my own personal Tiktok experiment, and conclusions that I had from that. If you haven’t listened to that one yet, I highly recommend you do. Because today, I’m sharing 3 steps that you can take to get started. You’re listening to Chasing Simple, episode 112, and I’m your host Amanda Warfield. Let’s dive in.


Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:


Did you love this episode?

Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Also, if you would be willing to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the world to me. It’s such a small thing that can make a big difference in helping me spread this message of simplicity to other overwhelmed women.

Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at hello@amandawarfield.com!


Rather Read? – Here’s the Transcript!

*Just a heads up – the provided transcript is likely to not be 100% accurate.

Tra

Curious about Tik TOK, but not sure where to start worried that you need to be funny to succeed over there or do dances that, you know, you aren’t coordinated enough for in order to see growth. Don’t worry. You don’t have to do anything you aren’t comfortable with in order to grow an audience on Tik TOK. On last week’s episode, I shared all about my own personal tectonic experiment and conclusions that I had from that.

If you haven’t listened to that one yet, I highly recommend that you do, because today I’m sharing three steps that you can take to go ahead and get started over on Tik Tok you’re listening to Chasing Simple episode 112. And I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. Let’s dive in.

 Now, you already know that the very first step I’m going to give you for getting started on Tik Tok is to batch your content. Here is what I would do if I was starting off again, if I was to start using Tik Tok for this business, I would take my time. Take a couple months if needed and batch out enough.

Tik Tok to post two to three times a day for an entire month. So about 60 Tik Tok, I would do a little bit at a time when I’m batched. My Tik Toks for the experiment that I talked about in last week’s episode, I batched all, I think it was 56 because it was February. So I didn’t need as many. 56 Tik Toks during batch week.

I would not do that again. I did it that way for a couple of reasons originally first, I thought of. Doing the project about a week before batch week. And so I didn’t have a ton of time. I had batch week. But the second reason is because I thought that I was going, this was going to be my new normal, and I would have to batch that many every month.

And so I figured I needed to go ahead and get started doing that, but as I’m going to share for step two, that’s not going to be the case. So I actually wouldn’t recommend trying to do all 60 during your batch week, but start batching them out. Get onto Tik Tok. I guess this is a pre step, get onto Tik Tok and start looking at what others are doing.

Get your account set up, do all of those things. Anytime you see something that you think you can replicate or do something similar with, or a sound you want to use, save it so you can go back to it. And then every week set aside an hour film as many batches, many as you can. And then do it again the next week and do that until you have about 60 Tik Toks.

So. Batch out your content. Step one, just do an hour a week. As many as you can, until you have 60. And then you can start posting step two. Once you’re posting, you are going to want to keep up your creation momentum. I’ve got three different ways. You can do that, but something I found. During my experiment is that once I was posting consistently, I actually built up a ton of momentum.

And when the next month, when my February batch weeks of getting prepared for March came around, I had so many Tik Toks and drafts that I didn’t need to batch. As many as I thought I would have to. I actually still had, I think, 20 sitting in my drafts at the end of February. I had batched 50 something, 56 at the end of February, I still had 20 because I kept up my creation momentum in a couple of different ways.

So first and foremost, when it comes to your strategy for that first month, I would recommend just focusing on consistency and whatever simplist. We’ll talk about this for tip number three, but. Keep it simple. Don’t worry about trends and dances and things like that. But then once you’re posting consistently, one of the ways you can keep up that creation momentum is by following.

There are a lot of Tik Tokers out there right now that their whole Tik Tok is dedicated to sharing about currently trending sounds or sounds that they think will be trending soon, follow one or two of them. And then anytime you see a trend in sound that you think you can jump on, go ahead and create and post that trending sound..

So with the two to three, I created enough tech talks to post two a day for February. Right? Then if I was feeling up to it, I would look at a trending sound each day, record another one, and post that for my third one. For the day. So using trending sounds or soon to be trending sounds to try to get some kind of visibility.

Here’s the thing. When it comes to your marketing and strategy in any way, shape or form, you want to have the majority of your marketing be true to you and your brand. You want it to be educational. You want it to be. Valuable content, but you also do want to try to sprinkle in some trending things to get that virality, right. To get that growth, but you just want to sprinkle those in. So keep up your creation momentum first way, use trending sounds and things like that. When you’re feeling inspired, you don’t have to do it every day. The second way you can keep up your creation momentum is to respond to comments with new Tik Toks.

Again, if you listened to last week’s episode, I talked about a troll, my very first troll that I had and how that was like kind of a stab in the heart, but also it made me realize that I can respond to comments with new Tik Toks. So anytime someone asks a question, that’s a whole new Tik Tok, anytime someone posted any kind of comment that I could respond to in any way, shape or form I would.

And then I would save those in my drafts and use them the next day, instead of whatever, I might’ve posted, keeping some of my older drafts in there. So I created a ton of new content in February, just by responding to comments as you post consistently and you gain that momentum, you’ll start getting comments.

So you’ll use those to then create new Tik Toks and the third way to keep up that creation momentum is to keep batching as needed. But like I said, if you’re doing the first two, if you’re creating, when you feel inspired, if you’re responding to comments with new Tik Tok, you’re not going to need to batch as much as you did that first time.

So. Making your Tik Toks, making your reels into your batch week plan, but you won’t need to do 60 every single month. I promise. And then the third step that I have for you for getting started on Tik TOK is to keep it simple. Just like I did focus on consistency. When you first get started, don’t try to do complicated dances or transitions or anything like that.

I personally, my rule of thumb is. If there’s a dance that doesn’t seem too complicated. And I want to try it. I will give myself about five minutes to figure it out. And if I don’t have it, I give up and I move on. I know we’ve all seen Reels and Tik Toks where people are frustrated because they spent hours on a Reel it went nowhere.

They spent five minutes on a reel and it went viral. That’s just the truth of it. I personally think it’s really silly to spend hours on a Tik Tok. Anything on social media does not live forever with Tik Tok you can pin a video. I will put that caveat up there and it can stay at the top of your page for however long, but let’s be honest, the likelihood of you spending hours and hours on something.

And it flopping is very high. Keep it simple as you get into your Tik Tok journey. If you want to spend more time on more complicated, Tik Toks, be my guests, but at the beginning, keep it simple. There are a couple different ways that you can do this. And it really depends on what your personality is and what you feel most comfortable with.

What feels easiest for you. If you are someone who thinks dancing and just putting up a couple of words that go with whatever my niche is that feels easiest, then do that. Or if you’re like me and you’re like, I am an awkward, awkward person, but I can talk to camera. Like I’m making stories. I can do that all day long.

So I will just create talking to camera Tik Toks. Do whatever makes the most sense for you. There’s so many different ways that you can do any kind of social media really, and you don’t have to do it all in order to be successful. Do what works for you? My suggestion, if you already have a long form content, so if you already have a blog, if you already have a podcast, if you already have a YouTube channel, Make Tik Toks out of those things.

So if I was to start a Tik Tok for this business, which I may do, I haven’t decided yet, but if I was to do that, I would batch out that content ahead of time, create 60 Tik Toks ahead of time. And then once they’re ready start posting them and then use that to create momentum. But the Tik Toks I create.

I would take straight from the podcast. So if I was to create let’s say I’m turning this podcast episode into a Tik Tok. I would talk straight to camera. I would start off with a hook, right? Three steps for getting started with Tik Tok for your own small business.

And then I would record another clip that said, step one, batch out your content. Step two, create momentum with three different tips. First create based on trends. Second, respond to comments with new Tik Toks, third, keep batching as needed. And the third and final step for getting started with Tik TOK would be to keep it simple.

I’m Amanda Warfield, host of the Chasing Simple Podcast. Follow for more simplified content marketing tips. That would be the whole Tik Tok. And it would just be me recording my face, talking to the camera. I would close captioning and I would move on and that would be the whole Tik Tok

so if I was to get started with Tik Tok from the beginning for this business, I would take the long form content I’ve already created and turn that into Tik Toks that way I don’t have to think about what am I going to say? What am I going to post about? What are we born to here? I just take what I’ve already created and turn that into more content repurposing.

What I already have. So. To recap, if you were to get started on Tik Tok, if you wanted to go get started right now, or even with Reels, the first thing I would suggest is batch out your content, take as much time as you need to do so save them to your drafts. And then once you have enough to post consistently two to three times a day, do that.

Start posting second, keep up the creation momentum. You know that because I recommend batching. So often I’m a firm believer of not being stuck on a hamster wheel. I’m not saying create constantly. I’m saying create when you are inspired. Let me be clear about that, but keep that creation momentum three ways.

First. Great. One inspired based on trends. Respond to comments with new Tik Toks and third, keep up the batching each month. And then the third and final step for getting started with Reels and Tik Tok is to keep it simple. Do what feels most natural to you? Repurpose content you already have. Don’t overcomplicate it.

You’re just getting started. You’ll figure it out as you go. Keep it simple. And now your action step for this week is to start saving those sounds and making a list of the Tik Toks that you want to and can create. Now this week’s book recommendation is The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura, Dave. I think this is marketed as like a psycho thriller.

I don’t think I would call it a psycho thriller in any way, shape or form. There’s definitely some suspense. It’s more so like a mystery, a. Woman’s husband disappears just as his company blows up into this whole big scandal. Her husband disappears leaving her with his daughter, her stepdaughter, who is a teenager, and they are not exactly.

Best of friends and she is left to deal with the fallout and trying to figure out where in the world her husband is, what in the world happened, what happened with the company and all of this. It’s a whole great big mystery with a lot of questions. So if you are looking for a good fiction, read The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura, Dave, highly recommend.

Now I hope that this episode encouraged you to get out and go try Tik Tok to get started. Putting yourself out there growing your business in a new and different channel. Tik TOK is not going anywhere. And frankly, I know we are all overwhelmed by Instagram right now. So highly recommend that you get started over on Tik TOK.

If you do send me a DM over on Instagram and let me know so that I can give you a follow and encourage you and get more eyes on your stuff. All right. Until next time I hope that you’ll go out and uncomplicate your life and biz.


Hey friend! Just a head’s up — this post may contain affiliate links!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.