This week we had a special guest on the Brand You podcast, Paul Kemshell, who is a TikTok expert and has his own TikTok business. We dived into the platform in more detail and got to hear about some of the great parts about it and how people could be utilising it more effectively to grow their personal brands and online presence.
Listen to the podcast episode below:
As always, with your personal brand and the social media channels you choose you need to think about where your ideal audience spend their time. Most people would dismiss TikTok because it’s a newer platform and can be perceived to attract younger audiences. However, TikTok has grown in popularity over recent years, and the people who hang out on the platform are varying more and more. Your ideal audience might not be showing up and creating on the platform, but they could be watching. If your demographic isn’t shown much on the platform, this could actually add to your TikTok USP, you could stand out by being one of the first creators of your demographic to be represented on there.
TikTok is a platform that you can see growth relatively quickly compared to some other social media channels, when done right. Other channels can take a long time to cultivate more followers and engagement, but with a strategic TikTok approach, growth can be faster.
Paul dived into the TikTok algorithm in the podcast episode and explained how incredible it is. The algorithm will pick up the smallest consistencies and detailing to enable your videos to be show to the perfect people. For example, if you are a Estate Agent and part of your personal brand is talking and sharing value about your industry, to film videos in front of a house with a for sale sign every time, will then enable your videos to be shown to people who have shown interest in buying or viewing houses. If you’re a Footballer who is creating a personal brand, filming videos on a football pitch, or having a football in your hands during filming will again enable your videos to be shown to football fans.
The key to working with the TikTok algorithm is to get really specific about what your personal brand is all about and who you want to speak to through your messaging. The more specific you get, the more you can curate your videos in a way that the algorithm will pick up on and show them to exactly who you want to show them to.
One of the differences between TikTok and other social media platforms is that TikTok is more of an entertainment, or value driven platform. The TikTok audience is scrolling for hours looking for something they can either learn from or entertain them. We’re moving away from the days where people watch TV channels for their entertainment, people are now heading to platforms like YouTube or TikTok to watch entertainment, instead of the good old days when we’d turn on our TV and watch soaps like Home and Away or Neighbours (am I showing my age now!).
The great thing about TikTok is that you don’t have to create long form content to be a success on the platform, so it doesn’t take as much of your time to create a full blown hour long production, you can simply film a quick 30 second – 3 minute video and get your value or entertainment across to your audience. You can go live on TikTok and you can create longer form content, however depending on your personal brand and what message you are wanting to put across to the world, you might not need to. TikTok also values being real and authentic, so again you don’t have to invest in the highest quality videos, filming straight from your phone with a real and honest backdrop could work well for you.
Another great thing about TikTok for any personal brands who have something to offer or sell their audiences is that it is fast becoming the place to go to shop. At the moment you mostly see clothing items, or make-up kinds of sales happening on the platform, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t also share services or higher ticket price products if you have them available in the niche that your channel is all about. If you are an Estate Agent, but then you start selling a protein shake on the platform that would confuse the algorithm, but if you sold houses for example that would tie in with the rest of the content you are sharing (don’t ask me logistically how you would sell houses on the platform yet, that might be a bad example to give at this time, but it won’t be long before this is happening if it’s not already!).
When I advise people to create a personal brand, I always suggest being on one or two platforms and not taking on too much. If you do try to show up on every single platform you will likely burn out creating all the different content for all the platforms, you’ll end up not being consistent. Just because this blog explains some of the benefits of TikTok, that doesn’t mean that it is a good idea to suddenly jump on the platform and add it to your to do list. You need to look at your strategy and what your end goal is, as well as the time you have to commit to your personal brand. If TikTok isn’t the platform for you, listen to your gut and don’t use it. But if you do have a niggle that it could work for you, then do some further research and explore the platform.
If you ever need any help creating your personal brand on TikTok or any platform, then reach out to us at Quirq. TikTok might be a great platform for your personal brand, but you don’t have to jump on it alone, we’re here to help.
