5 simple ways to step up your business's TikTok game
A single viral video on TikTok can launch your business into the stratosphere
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Your support makes all the difference.Dan Oliver, founder of Dan-Oās Seasoning , was slinging his signature blends at trade shows and flea markets around the country when COVID-19 hit, shutting down his primary sales channel and forcing a hard pivot. Oliver turned to TikTok, going all-in on the video-sharing platform, and struck gold.
First, a video of him making crab cakes went viral. Daily sales increased sevenfold. A few months later, his bacon-wrapped jalapenos caught fire (figuratively), catapulting sales again.
Three years, hundreds of videos and millions of views later, Dan-Oās Seasoning has expanded from an e-commerce business to a supermarket staple and overall revenue has increased nearly 10,000%.
Dan-Oās success isnāt a one-off case. Thousands of entrepreneurs have seen their businesses take off on the social video platform. After all, with TikTok youāre only one viral video away from becoming the next big thing. But you have to play your cards right.
1. START STRONG
āThe most important part of your video is the first three to five seconds,ā Oliver says. Jump in, make a splash and get to the point before people start to tune out.
āStart with something thatās attractive, like slapping a piece of meat,ā Oliver says. More than a few of Oliverās TikToks start with him dropping a monster slab of beef or pork onto the cutting board (and yes, heās slapped a brisket or two). āMake it interesting and donāt waste peopleās time.ā
2. PITCH YOUR BUSINESS
Video views are literally worth nothing if you donāt translate them into dollars. Sprinkle your businessās value props into your videos and tell viewers where to go next, whether thatās to your website, online storefront or email list.
āSocial media followers are great, but you have to strategically move people to your other platforms, whether it be your email list or another high-leverage pipeline,ā said Elise Darma, a marketing specialist turned influencer who now coaches e ntrepreneurs on how to grow their social media presence, in an email.
3. WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER
āBatch create content if you can,ā Darma said. āThis is the most efficient way to use your brain power.ā
What does that look like? Rather than drumming up ideas and shooting videos on the fly, create an editorial calendar that outlines what youāre going to post and when. Film and edit multiple videos in one session, rather than one at a time. Then, squeeze as much juice out of each video as possible.
āRepurpose one video as much as you can ā across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts and Pinterest Idea Pins for maximum impact,ā Darma said.
4. DEFINE YOUR GOALS
Any good social media strategy should be anchored in specific goals, whether thatās views, comments, clicks or some other type of engagement, says Danielle Wiley, founder and chief executive officer of Sway Group, an influencer marketing agency.
āSocial media is amazing from a metrics perspective ā you can get so much data ā but that data is meaningless if you donāt create goals,ā Wiley says. āIf you donāt know what the goal is from the beginning, you wonāt create the right type of content.ā
5. LEAN IN TO WHAT WORKS
Posting anything and everything makes sense at the start; you need to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. But when videos start gaining traction, it pays to follow that thread.
āA big thing I see is that once people see success with one video, they forget to continue their momentum by creating videos similar to the one that took off,ā Darma said. āYou know what style and what topic resonates with your followers, so make more of that. Invest in what works.ā
For Dan-Oās Seasoning, the thread was recipes. TikToks of Oliver making everything from sushi to deep-fried mac and cheese to parmesan potatoes to prime rib rack up hundreds of thousands of views. If one really takes off, like a recent video for pulled pork tacos, views are in the millions .
Videos of Oliver sharing his entrepreneur story or scouting out Dan-Oās on store shelves did well, but didnāt strike the same chord. So his team made a strategic decision: The official account for Dan-Oās Seasoning would only feature recipes.
āItās definitely working. I follow all these other creators, people weāre in competition with, and their accounts are kind of stagnant. Ours is not,ā Oliver says. āWe continue to grow, anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 followers a day.ā
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This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Kelsey Sheehy is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: ksheehy@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @KelseyLSheehy.
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