This Is How I Went From 100 to 10 Thousand Followers In 3 weeks
In 2017 TikTok had a user base of 65 Million active monthly users and now in 2022, TikTok has a user base of over 1 Billion active monthly users. Instagram and Facebook have always been the top platforms for growing a brand online. So it was interesting to see a new player in the game change the social media marketing landscape so quickly. Every social media company started integrating short-form content into their platforms to compete with TikTok. Instagram introduced reels, YouTube introduced shorts and even Facebook has their own short-form content section that they call reels.
28% of TikTok users are under the age of 18 and most of TikTok’s users, 35% that is, are between the ages of 19 - 29 (Business of Apps). That is something to keep in mind when deciding on a marketing channel for your brand. But nonetheless, TikTok clearly has a lot of potential and it’s only getting bigger. Short-form content is the future so it’s best to get ahead while you can.
Since short-form content is something new, I wanted to stay on top of the latest marketing trends and discover exactly how to create and leverage short-form content to build a brand.
Instagram has been among the top social media marketing platforms so I wanted to compare Instagram’s short-form content platform, Instagram Reels, to TikTok and see which had the most potential for growth. So I challenged myself to post every day for 30 days on both platforms to see the results. Not only to learn how to create short form content but also to find out which platform will provide more potential for growth.
I documented the process and I will be sharing my results in this article. I will also be sharing my 10 tips you can use to grow your social media presence with short-form content.
Starting on December 24th 2021 and ending January 23rd 2022 I posted 1 piece of short-form content on both Instagram reels and TikTok. I did some research before attempting this challenge so that I wasn’t going in blind. I quickly realized I was going to need a strategy. I knew I needed a niche and since I love all things video production, I decided that was going to be my niche. All the content I was going to create was going to be related to video production. From my preliminary research, experience creating content, and studying other peoples short-form videos it was evident that my videos would have to provide value in some way or another. I looked at what other creators in my chosen niche were doing and I tried to emulate their videos but I also wanted to add my own personal touch to it.
Before I began my journey my hypothesis was that my TikTok will provide me with more growth because it is a newer platform. Since TikTok is a new platform they want to compete with the existing social media giants like Facebook and Instagram not only for users’ attention but also for creators. They need creators to create new content all the time if they want to stand a chance. Everybody is already producing content for the existing platforms and that content keeps attracting more users. So to compete, TikTok has to incentivize creators to join their platform. They do this by offering creators an algorithm that can intelligently match the type of content produced to the exact target audience, and they do it really well. This kind of organic reach has never been possible on other platforms.
I began my 30-day challenge with 1015 followers on Instagram and 175 followers on TikTok. As I was posting on the platforms I was trying to figure out how to make these videos so that they were actually interesting to watch based on how my older posts were performing. It was evident that it's not only about providing value but there also has to be some sort of entertainment element to it as well. I quickly realized that having a thought out hook was going to be very important. The hook is the first 3 seconds of the video and it is the most important part of the video. Even if the rest of the content was bad, the hook made all the difference. On videos where I didn’t think very much about the hook, they were a flop. While the videos where I put a lot of time into thinking about the hook, did really well.
For example, in one of my videos I wanted to show people how to use a colour checking chart to get accurate colours in their videos. I remembered that these colour charts are very expensive, that being $80 for a piece of cardboard with a bunch of coloured squares on them. So I thought I could play off the price tag for the hook. I came up with the hook “this piece of cardboard costs $80”. My thought process behind that was that most people will probably think that an 80$ piece of cardboard is ridiculous. I thought it might even anger them that something could be so overpriced. I also thought that it would make people want to watch the rest of the video to find out why on earth I would pay $80 for a piece of cardboard and also what could it possibly do to justify such an absurd price. In the end, my hook worked! In fact, my video got over half a million views on TikTok in just a couple of days. I showed the utility of the product and explained why the price was justified to me. Many people agreed with me and asked me where to buy it. Others called me crazy for spending the money. Something interesting was that the same video got a couple of thousand views on Instagram and nowhere near the same engagement as on TikTok.
Another thing I started to realize was that growing my account following was most effective when I included a call-to-action at the end of my video, this was true for both Instagram and TikTok. Videos that didn’t have a call-to-action saying “follow me to learn more about video production” would still get engagement as expected but the followers the video would generate was significantly less than videos that did have a call-to-action. So once I realized how effective the CTA was, I used it in every video. That was as people discovered my account they would scroll through all my videos and maybe the first CTA didn't work but a couple more CTAs later and they became a follower.
As I was posting on both Instagram and TikTok I wasn't just getting likes and followers. I was getting leads for my video business. Ultimately this is what I care about, not so much the follower count or likes and views. The account metrics just further helped me position myself as a subject matter expert. I quickly had people asking me to make the videos and sending me emails inquiring about my video production services.
Here is a short summary of what I learned and how you can do the same as I did to grow your online presence with short-form content.
Consistency matters more than anything else. You will learn from mistakes and figure out new ways to improve your content if you are posting consistently.
The first 3 seconds of your video, called the hook, is the most important part of the video.
Reply to all the comments, at least as many as possible. Building a community will help you grow. People also appreciate it when you answer their questions. Have fun with it. After all, the point of social media is to be social.
Post at least once a day to build momentum. Not only for your pages but also for yourself. You will condition your brain to think of new content ideas throughout the day. Platforms will help you reach a larger audience if they know you are active.
Set goals. Don’t set follower goals or view goals. Set post goals. For example, a good goal would be to post once a day for 30 days. Goals like this are more realistic because you can control how often you post but you can’t control how many people engage with your content. You can make changes that improve engagement but ultimately it's not in your direct control so you will drive yourself crazy if engagement is your only goal.
Emulate content that is already working. Especially when starting out you don’t know what kind of content works on the platform and what doesn’t. You can start experimenting with new types of content as you become familiarized with the platform, but figure out what is already working first. To find content that is already working, search for your niche hashtag and sort the results by recent videos that have the most views and engagement.
Be confident and passionate on camera. If you’re not, posting consistently will help you. The process will change you before it rewards you. People don’t want to watch someone who lacks confidence in their tone of voice and in the mannerisms on camera. Speaking with confidence and passion can make a boring video interesting.
Always provide real value. Value can be things like tips and tricks and entertainment value
Listen to your audience. They will comment and give you honest feedback. Sometimes it hurts to hear but it is necessary. Getting feedback from family and friends can be dangerous since they will always tell you what you want to hear and not what you need to hear.
Use a Call-To-Action. Whether you are trying to drive business results or simply growing your account, a good CTA is necessary for prompting people with the next steps.
After applying these tips to my short-form content for 30 days on Instagram and TikTok the results were in. After just 3 weeks my TikTok account hit 10,000 followers. After the full 30 days, my Instagram page grew from 1,013 followers to 1,270 followers, and my TikTok grew from 175 to 11,624. It was clear that TikTok provided the most organic growth. My conclusion is that growing a following isn't blind luck, strategy is everything. Sure, a video can randomly hit 1 million views, but anyone who has ever grown a following will know that it takes more than just being a one-hit-wonder. It is about building a community of people who like you for the value you add to their lives.
Using my experience as an example, people from around the world were privately messaging me saying how I had helped them learn something new and how inspired they were by my videos. They were asking for advice and even purchased some of the products in my videos. I even had someone make a video about my videos which was unbelievable. I did this knowing that my mission was to inspire people around the world and help them learn filmmaking. Even though I achieved my goal of posting every day for 30 days I still want to continue to provide value to the filmmaking community.
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