In this article, I’m going to show you exactly how to use TikTok if you’re a:
- YouTube Gamer (thanks to the many of you who read my articles!).
- An entrepreneur (I’ll use a friend’s startup for this).
- A student.
- A locksmith (my friend Elad is a reader – he’s a locksmith and has insane stories).
- An employee.
- A freelancer.
First, here’s why TikTok is one of the best marketing hacks in the world right now.
- If you shoot and edit everything within the TikTok app, it takes 1-30 minutes to make a single video.
- You don’t have to do promotion, as the algorithm pushes your content out for you. I’ve had multiple videos made in under two minutes get pushed out by TikTok’s algorithms to receive literally millions of views.
- You don’t have to put yourself out there. You don’t have to tell your social circle about your new TikTok. You can experiment, and only the people that the TikTok algorithm pushes your videos out to will see.
- You can have all your videos come out automatically with no TikTok watermark to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. I use Repurpose for this. You should never leave subscribers and followers on the table.
Quick best practices for TikTok
- Use four hashtags per video.
- Use trending sounds if you can find some that flow with your video.
- Use Repurpose or a tool like it (TikTok isn’t as great a hack if you don’t have your videos go everywhere at once).
- Spin your niche to meet what’s trending in the news (you don’t always have to do this, but if you can, videos do a lot better).
First use case – you’re a YouTube Gamer
- This one’s easy. Quick recaps of your videos with Trending TikTok sounds and themes in the news.
- “I built the OceanGate submarine in Tears of the Kingdom and tried to give it a different outcome” – would have killed on TikTok.
- Or take your existing content and chop it up into 7-30-second clips. Add trending sounds. Put out one video a day. You’ll gain momentum on many of the platforms I mentioned.
Second use case – you have a startup that uses AI to teach people languages
Shoutout to Alain Goldman, who’s doing this.
- One video a day of a new word in a different language. Use the word in a phrase.
- “Here’s how to say submarine in Japanese. ‘潜水艦.’ Here’s how to say the submarine is in trouble. ‘潜水艦がトラブルに見舞われています。’”
- The description for each account that videos come out on says, “We use AI to teach you languages.” The link points to the landing page with a sign-up for when the app is released.
(In all seriousness, the OceanGate event was tragic, but it’s trending news, so it’s still easy to use for these examples).
Third use case – you’re a student
- This one’s so easy. Make a daily video about something you learned in whatever you’re studying.
- Just do videos talking to the camera.
- Within six months of daily posting, you’ll be seen as an expert (people often view curious, obsessed learners as experts even when they are not).
- This status will get you a job in your field when you’re done studying.
If you’re into this so far, by the way, I recorded a podcast about it yesterday:
The above podcast is also available wherever you get your podcasts.
Fourth use case – you’re a locksmith
- Seriously, Elad (my locksmith friend who’s a reader), your stories are too crazy to keep to yourself.
- One video a day, telling a story to the camera of something crazy that happened to you.
- You can repeat stories if enough time goes by, people’s attention spans are low, and you’ll continue getting new followers.
- I legitimately believe you’ll get a Netflix show if you tell stories to the camera the way you told them to me on the phone a few days ago.
Fifth use case – you’re a corporate employee
- Talk to the camera about what you’re learning and doing (when possible) daily. Stay within your niche.
- One video a day.
- Within six months, you’ll have enough status to ask for a raise or find a higher-paying job.
- Within a few years, companies will hire you to mostly be a brand ambassador, and you’ll do very little work other than making videos like you’ve been doing. HubSpot does this with podcasts, for example.
Sixth use case – you’re a freelancer
- It’s the same as an employee, really.
- Your subject matter is what you’re doing and learning. Stick to a niche.
- Make daily videos.
- Like all the other use cases, your videos come out on every channel.
- You’ll get higher rates through this, more prestigious work, and more.
- I know people who are doing this with social media, and they are crushing it. Not TikTok, but a few years ago, I met people who paid Ryan Holiday $10,000 for an hour consulting call on the phone. Ryan Holiday wrote Trust Me I’m Lying, a marketing bestseller. I asked if his advice was very meaningful and worth it. The client “not at all.” But Ryan Holiday could charge this amount because he had prestige. If you’re consistent with videos for years, you will get that too.
- Gary Vaynerchuk’s speaking fee is $200,000. He built his brand off social media.
You don’t have to be Ryan Holiday or Gary Vaynerchuk, but by being yourself every day on TikTok through the strategy I described, amazing things will happen to you!
