TikTok is a social video-sharing app where users can share short videos cell-phone videos. Users can utilize filters, music, animation, special effects, and more. Like other social media apps, users can also follow, like, and comment on everything they watch, so what makes TikTok so special and why is it so hot right now? In this episode We talk about the basics of TikTok and get some first-hand tips from Izzy Lundquist – who has gone viral with her ACT prep videos on TikTok.


Shownotes


Episode Transcript

Missy 0:00
Welcome to the social feed podcast. I’m your host Missy, thank you for listening. In this episode, we get into the mind of Izzy Lundqvist, who is a Tik Tok superstar influencer.

Pat 0:10
Oh, what superstar?

Missy 0:12
Tik Tok, you heard it right. And this episode we dive into everything from what is Tik Tok who’s on it, what can brands be doing on it? And Izzy gives us some really great insider information on how she beat the algorithm how to beat the algorithm and how she creates content for Tik Tok. So let’s get into this week’s episode number 101. What is Tik Tok and how can marketers use it with special Tik Tok guessed the ACTA girl.

So, Tik Tok, um,

where can we start? I’m obsessed. I know. Pat doesn’t have Tik Tok.

Pat 0:51
I don’t have Tik Tok.

Missy 0:53
Why?

Pat 0:54
Because I’m old. So help me understand this thing.

Missy 0:59
We will catch you all up on everything you should know about Tik Tok to make you are enjoying.

Pat 1:04
Okay. All right, if you can get me to download Tik Tok reg. That will be a good episode.

Missy 1:08
Oh, Challenge accepted.

So to start, if you those of you who have maybe never heard of Tik Tok or maybe you’ve heard of it and like what the heck is that? Essentially, it’s a another social media platform just like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. It’s another one out there. However, this one has been picking up a lot of steam lately because it’s really generated by video content, which is huge. And this was really interesting as I was doing more research, so it’s owned by a company called Bytedance, which is based out of China. And essentially, they bought the rights to musically Do you guys remember that? Yeah,

Anna 1:43
yeah. And I never conformed to music.

Missy 1:46
I didn’t either. I was not it was weird.

Anna 1:49
But here I am today. Tik Tok.

Missy 1:50
Tik Tok. He was like a resurgence. Yeah, basically. But what’s cool about it, is that how they basically took the music concept, but then they added a few other things. So the statement says they combine the power of artificial intelligence, with the growth of mobile internet to revolutionize the way people consume and receive information. So what the heck does that mean? Basically, they use artificial intelligence, like some facial recognition, they have a lot of filters on there. And they fill everyone’s feeds with highly customized, content based off of that. And it is interesting, because I have noticed, like on the for you page when you’re looking through that, I’m like, how do they know? Like, I don’t follow that person. How are they filtering that content?

Anna 2:05
I get so many like Wisconsin ones, like where they are. They’re like Wisconsin check. And I’m like, whoa. They’re following me.

Missy 2:46
So that’s the platform is it’s super addicting from a user standpoint. I mean, I could sit on here for a couple hours.

Anna 2:52
Well, you don’t even need to have an account. You could have the app and just scroll through the for you page. And yeah, you sit there for hours. They’re so funny.

Missy 3:01
And it’s just random stuff like people from all over that. I explained like how unless you have to, like download it to see it. But essentially, is people just picking funny songs, not songs just talking to. And it’s really creative.

Anna 3:15
The best are the 30 plus club is what they call it. It’s a hashtag. And they’re like moms who are like, oh, gosh, there was one because I’m going to try to do it. I close the door, and I don’t let anyone in the room until I finish it. But they always joke about how they shouldn’t be on here, but it’s funny being on here and it’s fun and they should be on like it shouldn’t be just a younger platform because it really is 24 years and younger.

Missy 3:44
So the main demo on tech talk right now. Anna, tell me how you got this deck again because this was like

Anna 3:52
I like to creep on LinkedIn and on Add age because I like to see what other company bunnies and big brands are doing for advertising. And somehow I ended up on someone’s LinkedIn page that had access to this. So I downloaded it. So legally.

Missy 4:11
So I’ll put this deck that Anna found. It’s like a Tik Toc deck and it has everything from the downloads compared to the other social networks, the age range, what Tick Tock is how it’s been growing. And it’s from Tik Toc and adage itself. So some really good info. So we’ll put a link to that on the site so you guys can download and check it out to

Anna 4:30
my favorite is that they say we don’t spark trends. We set them on fire, which is so true. Because it’s hard to figure out like, funny organic content by yourself. Like you’re more inspired by like what other people are doing and what’s on the for you page. But sometimes you’re like, Oh, I could do something like this, or I could twist it and that’s why the funniest ones come from like, their organic.

Pat 4:54
So speaking of organic and just funny content, what is it about Tik Toc that makes these So like is if somebody posted the same thing on tik tok versus Facebook or to their Instagram? Would it be the same? Is it? Is it the content? Or is it the way the content is consumed? What What is it that makes Tick Tock so special?

Anna 5:13
Like, you know, when you’re on the Facebook app, and you see all these funny videos, and then also you start scrolling through, it’s kind of like that, but it’s more accessible. And Tick tock, I don’t

Missy 5:24
know. I like that. What’s funny is I’ve noticed now when I’m on Facebook or Instagram, a lot of people will share their Tik Toc videos on there. So it’s starting to integrate into those other platforms already. But with Facebook, I mean, there’s the videos on there. They’re a little bit and this is gonna sound so millennial of me, they’re a little bit longer. We’re like the Tik Toc videos. It’s like, Okay, cool. How’d you do that project? Three seconds later. I know how it’s done. And they showed the process. Yes. Where it’s, it’s a lot shorter content. Sure. Or,

Anna 5:53
yeah, we have short attention. Yes.

Pat 5:56
Certainly.

Anna 5:56
We need things that are Go go go.

Missy 5:59
So too. Tik Toc was the most downloaded app in the world in 2018. And in q1 of 2019, in this deck that Anna found, they have like the overall downloads compared to the other platforms. I will say that that’s a little bit of an ego number because Facebook Instagram have been around for a long time. So of course, to touch the new hot thing, it’s going to be a lot more downloaded. But the fact that it stayed that way, and people are enjoying, that’s something to be aware of. Yes,

Anna 6:29
people are spending 46 plus minutes on the app each day in the US. like, That’s nuts.

Missy 6:37
So the biggest demo on tech talk right now is people between the ages of 18 and 24 42% of those users are on Tech Talk. And then next is ages 13 to 17 27%. And then above that it dwindles significantly. But I think one thing that’s coming into play is the privacy policies with Tic Tok because young people are on it. So they’re really cracking down on. I know, just a couple days ago when I was on the app and made me verify the terms and conditions again, oh, yeah, update all of that. So they’re really cracking down because it’s a lot of younger audience on the app.

Anna 7:14
Yeah, but I feel like I mean, I was never on MySpace, but I was on Facebook and I felt like that was kind of the same thing where Facebook had kind of an age thing but people might have lied about when their birthday was.

Missy 7:26
Yeah, and that’s the thing like anyone

Anna 7:28
save their butts. And I can say that on here?

Pat 7:31
Yeah.

Missy 7:40
I think the cool thing too about tech talk and maybe this is just because I’m kind of a creeper is it’s like an inside look into like the gen Z’s world. Yeah, you can like see all these things and like I’ve learned about trends and we even had like we had someone we’re talking about with Tick Tock and little bit and just like learning about different like So

Pat 8:01
it’s changed language like-

Anna 8:04
Visco girls!

Pat 8:05
to this girl named Izzy, who has a viral video through tik tok. And she threw out words that I didn’t even know were words. And she did a good job of explaining them to us. And so I feel much more hip now. And the fact that I used the word hip much. But yeah, it’s just I mean, I’m sure that happened with Facebook. And I mean that the term hashtag was wasn’t a thing until, you know, Twitter picked it up and made it a thing. So that’s happened before, but I was always young enough to be on the cutting edge of it, and now I just feel old.

Missy 8:38
The other thing I think getting into like, so we’ve talked about, like what Tik Toc is, but how can marketers use it? We’ve actually launched a couple Tick Tock campaigns with some of our clients. So and you want to talk a bit more about what that all entailed?

Anna 8:50
Yeah, so one of our clients is a mall and we were kind of trying to figure out how we can get that younger demographic in the mall. Actually, physically And one of them was we found that a lot of people were actually Tik-Tocing while in the mall. And so we were like, Okay, well, I never thought I’d see the day that we would pitch Tik-Tocing to people. Um, but it’s been super fun. We’ve used a brand ambassador and who’s a dancer so it keeps it even more fun because that’s what a lot of them are, too are people doing dances? And then of course for the holidays, doing different stores, the turning Mariah Carey songs. Yeah, it’s fun, but there are a lot of work to make it takes hours.

Missy 9:37
That’s what like what some of these videos people will post like don’t let this flop this took me two days to find it. It’s like, Oh my gosh, like just the work that they have put into this stuff. I

Anna 9:47
mean that energy of like, and then what if it does flop?

Pat 9:51
They’re short videos too. So put spending two days to put it together for a short video right? It’s not like it 10 minute video for Facebook or YouTube or something?

Missy 10:02
It depends. So I follow like a lot of like artists account so they’ll show like actually like maybe building something or like yeah, painting that might take 48 hours to do. They’ll speed up really quickly so you just see the beginning and the end of the painting. Yeah, so it’s more products like that that are there

Anna 10:16
was one guy yesterday I was watching he did it to a song that named the days of the week. And so each day he took a video of him at work and he was like a doctor or something. And I was like he’s another he said he’s like this took me a week to make Don’t let it flop or whatever.

Missy 10:31
what I’ve noticed and maybe this is just because it’s targeting me I’m not sure what’s going on here. I get a lot of plastic surgeons that are on Tick Tock. Have you seen that? No. Yeah, there’s all these doctors and they’ll have like, there was a few plastic surgeons and they give you like tips on like, oh, like celebrities have had plastic surgery and just different things like that. Because one of the trends right now which and this gets you into the Gen Z world is hashtag nose job check. Oh people who get nose jobs and stuff. I have not been a doctor. met their process on Tic Tok. It’s really it’s a strange world but this is

Anna 11:05
fun because then I always read the comments on some who do like famous or famous celebrity famous relative check yes famous relative check, and then they do Oh gosh, oh, they do it like a weight loss check or something else. And then they I read the comments and some of them will be like, that’s not even true. You just did this your last video and I’m like, Ooh, I like that. that’s I live for.

Missy 11:31
the other thing that’s crazy too Is anyone who goes on Tic Tok you’ll notice a couple people that are constantly on everyone’s feeds because they’re like the Tic Tok influencers a girl named Charlie is one of them and Ali’s another one and what’s crazy and what’s it I think kids they’re just think so, so fast and put this together is they created a tipped a Tic Tok hype house, which essentially these tech tech influencers go to It’s in LA. And their main goal is just create crazy amounts of videos and content for Tic Tok. And if you if anyone follows like the makeup community like James Charles goes there and he’s been featured in videos with these Tic Tok influencers. And they’re basically trying to use their influence of influence of power together to do cut like combo videos with each of them and each and each of them. So it’s been really interesting to see how they’re using that to build

Pat 12:27
so tik tok set up the hype house?

Missy 12:29
oh, just a Tic Tok kid. Like I want to rent this room, a bunch of tech talkers. Let’s get together and let’s make it and let’s beat this algorithm and keep it running and make us move to the top. And that’s cool hype house. Wow. It launched in, they start talking about it in November. It launched in December and they started moving out there. And a couple of the girls cuz a lot of them are under the age of 18. We’ll fly back and forth to bypass on weekends to record videos.

Anna 12:56
Well, Pat, what do you do with your free time?

Izzy 12:59
What were you doing when you were I’m

Pat 13:01
not flying back and forth to LA creating videos that’s for sure.

Missy 13:05
Yeah, it’s just amazing Gosh, um Tic Tok is also released Tic Tok advertising that brands can be you know, just like any other platform go in and hyper target the areas they want to focus on and target them. But it’s only two specific brands right now. Like I think HBO is a partner the really big ones. But I know that in the next few months are talking about releasing that to more brands. So if you are business and you’re trying to reach that younger audience Tic Tok advertising can be really effective for that.

Pat 13:34
So since you can’t get like traditional ads, or most brands can’t get traditional ads or any ad on Tic Tok, what are we doing for our mall client? Is Is it the mall clients social or Tick Tock account that we’re posting on?

Anna 13:48
Yes. Or is it utilizing like influencers to kind of get that reach and then having them reported on their Tic Tok accounts and then kind of trying to get noticed that way? Because that’s what’s the hard part. It’s like, oh well how can we, you know, it’s not like Facebook or Instagram where you can just place an ad. And some of the ads are like super intricate it’s like a whole new video. It’s like a TV commercial that they do for some of the ads and I’m like, Okay Pat get to work.

Pat 14:16
Is that part of the reason why Tick Tock is so big right now? because there aren’t ads on it?

Anna 14:21
I think so. I think so too. That’s why I’m a little nervous for it to get super ad heavy because you never know.

Missy 14:30
yeah, they’ll eventually try to monetize it, obviously just like every other platform but I do think that one I think it’s really fun how it’s like integrated and that short Yeah, that show it it’s like it’s a cool new it’s like how Facebook was back in my day. Facebook was like the cool thing and you know, now we’re on it yet and now it’s just become part of my daily life. But I don’t Tic Tok gonna be like that for

Pat 14:52
for these kids. It kind of reminds me of vine, the way you’re describing. videos and stuff. Yeah, and vines no longer a thing. So Tech Talk is just the new vine basically,

Missy 15:02
kind of I think it’s a good mixture of like vine and musically would probably be the best way because they’re combining like the music and everything. I wasn’t a big vine user though, either.

Anna 15:09
Oh, I loved it. It was so fun.

Missy 15:12
When did it Why did it go away?

Anna 15:15
I thought it just I think it flopped. I

Pat 15:17
think it nobody just nobody used it enough anymore. And so

Anna 15:21
maybe think about it, it probably didn’t make any money. So probably didn’t I don’t remember it having ads or anything?

Pat 15:26
I don’t think so. I think once Snapchat and Instagram Stories came along that kind of stole the thunder from vine.

Anna 15:33
Yeah, well, I got an article in my email today saying that Snapchat and tick tock are both reportedly working on new deep fake type features, which I know Snapchat just rolled out with like new features. So you can just it’s like those, those musical elves that you can do around, but I don’t know what that’s called. Oh, yeah. Around the

Pat 15:54
holiday. Talking about you put your face on it. Oh, yeah,

Anna 15:57
yeah. And so something like that. But the Snapchat ones are so real, that now Tick Tock and snapchat are kind of supposed to be I mean, that’s the the new mainstream thing in 2020. That’s supposed to. I mean, I’m just here trying to be hip. But, um, I don’t know, it’s just super interesting to see how all the features that tik tok will come out with because they’re obviously going against Snapchat. And now Instagram Stories are trying to keep up with the times but Instagram stories, I don’t really. I don’t really post about them.

Missy 16:35
I’m huge on Instagram stories, but I think just depends on the person.

Anna 16:38
Yeah, I mean, I’ll sit there and watch everybody’s, but I don’t know. I might take that. It’s just funny. It’s like a feel good thing or you’re not like, I feel like sometimes you get sucked into everyone’s business on Instagram, and then Tick Tock. You’re just like, oh my god. I don’t even know this person, but that’s hilarious.

Missy 16:53
I feel like the best way to describe it is like Instagram is a lot more curated content and tick tock is a lot more like off the cuff like you’re not seeing that. Someone who’s done like a full glam makeup. Perfect pose background. It’s like I’m sitting in my dark room dancing being a total weirdo. And that’s my tech talk video. Yeah seems a lot more like natural and organic, which I think social media needs a little bit more up. Well, that’ll be interesting to once ads start popping up on Tick tock, because I’ve now reduced add in that environment is going to look very weird.

Yeah, yes, hundred percent. There’s also I just saw this article that was posted 22 hours ago, that tik tok has silently partnered with Google.

Anna 17:31
So it says that why There’s more Android users?

Missy 17:34
I’m not sure that they might be but one thing that did you do this pat? Did you have this happen?

So one thing that they are doing is because what’s really interesting about this is when you like when we interviewed Izzy, when you search her, typically when you search someone’s account, you can see it but you can’t see everything because you have to be logged into the app when we search our account. You See everything through the Google platform.

Pat 18:02
So you don’t have to have the tick tock app to see people’s content.

Missy 18:04
Correct. So is that because of that, and this partnership with Google, if you have a tick tock account, and you’re posting content that’s using specific hashtags, keywords, things like that, it helps with your SEO for ranking Open

Pat 18:19
Google searches up. Wow.

Anna 18:23
So that’s a lot.

Missy 18:24
So if you search any popular person into Google, you’ll see their knowledge panel, and within that panel, you’ll see all the social icons, so there’s all these things, the tick tock influencers that helps to. what else…

Pat 18:36
that changes so much with privacy and stuff though, too, because Facebook or Instagram, you have to be logged in to get all that stuff. But now that that’s just like public data and information.

Missy 18:46
I’ll link to the article in the show notes. But there’s a whole Yeah, article about the partnership, which that’s a whole nother thing to think about. from an SEO perspective, SEO already freaks me out.

Anna 19:01
Yeah, oh my gosh. I know one of my homework assignments tonight is to go through Tick Tock for our clients and figure out which ones are going to be like great to do in the mall and things and so I’m just like, headphones in and I’ll be I’ll see if I

Missy 19:17
market research- Yes!

Anna 19:19
yes. I know my fiance was like, I wish I got paid to be on Tic Tok. You snooze, you lose.

Missy 19:27
The other thing too, that I’ve seen a bunch of articles around is can you get famous on Tic Tok and essentially you can but the biggest thing because because the app so new, like Instagram is really hard to be an influencer because it’s been around for a while there’s all these people who are way ahead of you. But with Tic Tok because the algorithm hasn’t I’ll say been as active as like a Facebook and Instagram yet. It’s really easy to get your videos featured And Izzy actually gives us some really good tips. Yeah, and the next part of this episode, that We’ll share on how to beat the tick tock algorithm. Yep, and get to the front page. So I’m really excited to jump into that part to

Anna 20:07
the so interesting like, people are googling that and like spending their time where we would be like how to post a good photo on Instagram and they’re like how to be Tic Tok famous. How to beat Tic Tok how to beat the Chinese government.

Pat 20:24
That’s the title of our episode.

Missy 20:26
That a clickbait. Most download episode done. The last thing I want to touch on is the Tic Tok challenges. Oh, yes, because the One really cool night that they did was hashtag create for a cause where people create specific Tic Tok videos and then there can be a donation component to it for the for nonprofits. But then there’s on top of that, there’s tons of other ones, too. I’m trying to think of like my

Anna 20:58
brother and I did one that were You actually had to have strength to do this, but we tried where you’re like, one, it’s kind of like, You’re like a tabletop pose. That’s like, my brother put his feet up and I like, put down and then you both were like kind of floating.

Okay.

Pat 21:20
I want to see this.

Anna 21:22
You have to see it.

It took us like an hour though to make at Thanksgiving and it was like a workout of the first battle.

Missy 21:32
The crew for a cause one invited craters to help raise funds for do something.org Best Friends Animal Society. They ended up with $2 million in donations. And then obviously the it was great for brand awareness of all those as well.

Pat 21:46
Is that an ongoing campaign or is that just a short term focus?

Missy 21:51
so basically, they’re having these creators create cool content and it’s the other thing too is if you are ever feeling stuck or in a rut with like, what did you Create creatively with any campaign. Tic Tok is like just such good inspiration. Because people think of things you wouldn’t even think about. Like the plastic surgeons or you know, things that aren’t even that should have no business being on Tic Tok and you’re like, Wow, that’s really freaking clever. That totally makes sense why you’re on Tic Tok for that. So I would highly recommend if you’re listening and you’re like, you still understand what the heck we’re talking about. Just download the app because you can’t explain it until you see it visually.

Anna 22:28
Or that cheer challenge that people did. So like men. Men aren’t able to do this pat.

Pat 22:35
Oh, were you like bend over you lift up? I didn’t try. It was a Tic Tok thing, but I’ve played that game before and you’re right. I can’t do it

Anna 22:44
Yea it’s weird

Missy 22:46
tributed right. Yeah. men versus women.

Anna 22:49
The future as women.

Missy 22:53
We can look chairs.

Pat 22:56
Can’t argue with

Anna 23:00
So I like are some challenges and this is why social media can be used for the good. And not just all the negative because they can use it for nonprofits and stuff. Yeah. Love it.

Missy 23:10
So in this next part episode, we are going to chat with Izzy, who became tik tok famous and she’s from Minnesota for getting the perfect ACTscore.

Pat 23:20
Yea she’s one smart cookie. That’s for sure.

Missy 23:22
She’s amazing what that’s like. And so she basically create a tic tac account that gives tips on how to be a better test taker. Yep. And she’s also a tutor, which is a whole other thing. She is just amazing. So we dove into really like her teenage Gen Z mind on how she beat the algorithm, how she came up with content, how she got Tic Tok famous. And it was so funny because in certain parts of this episode, she’s like, she’ll be at like something for school. And so like, Wait, is that the tick tock or the aect girl from Tick Tock. She’s like yeah, that’s me

So we’ll dive into all that and more about the hype house as well.

Izzy 23:57
All right. Hi, my name is Izzy. I’m senior in high school, and I am a tutor I tutor kids in a variety of subjects. Kids can be as young as like, I work with a third grader and then I work with a few high schoolers as well.

Missy 24:13
And you posted this video on Tik Toc that has gone pretty much viral. Tell me how Tell me more about the video describe it to me, we’ll post a link to it as well, but so the audience can hear about it.

Izzy 24:25
Yeah, so the video was talking about how I got a perfect score my ACT

Missy 24:31
Which congrats That’s amazing.

Izzy 24:35
Thank you. Yeah. So I was talking about that and tricks that I use that weren’t necessarily study tips, but more about how to work with the test to improve your score. Not necessarily by learning more material, but knowing about how the test is structured and how to use it to the best of your advantage.

Missy 25:00
Just ACT hack. Yeah.

Pat 25:03
Love it. Was this all after you got the perfect score? Did you? Did you post anything leading up to taking ACT or anything?

Unknown Speaker 25:10
No. So I got that score in April. And I didn’t join Tic Tok until around like June. And then I didn’t. I probably didn’t start posting until August and then this one went viral in September. So what made you like 2019?

Missy 25:26
What made you decide to create that tik tok video?

Izzy 25:30
So, it’s actually kind of funny. I saw a video of someone like so people will do stuff that like, it’s kind of weird, but though there’s this thing called like, inspect element, and people will like make joking videos about like, Oh, I got a 36 on my ECP and there were a bunch of people in the comments. And they’re like, what? That doesn’t look right. And then I was like, Yeah, I know you can do at it. So like, you’ve been Your video showed next to theirs. And then I showed mine and I was like, do you see how it says that? It says that you, when you don’t get like a really high score, it says you can still improve these skills. And I was like, look at the scores. That’s not what it looks like. And then I posted as like a tweet from my school district about it as like more proof. And like videos like that are pretty common. Like not like exposing people but just showing. Like, like, this is cap, which is like slang for lying. Yeah, so it’s kind of like, I don’t know, everyone just jokes around with that. So then people were in the comments like, how did you do that? And I was like, all right, well, I can like I tutor kids. Like I can just make a video posting my best tips and like, so my Tik Tocing has kind of gone from exposing people to helping people which I think is pretty funny.

Missy 26:55
Like, plan out the idea or did you just like I’m just gonna hit record and some hacks and go from there.

Unknown Speaker 27:02
Yeah, I just decided to I did each category and I was like I’m just gonna list as many easy tips as I can in 60 seconds.

Missy 27:13
So So and then what made you post it on Tic Tok versus like Instagram or Snapchat you’d mentioned that like to do at thing kind of inspired you for Tic Tok.

Izzy 27:21
Yeah, so with Tick tock, your videos are really easily seen by people who don’t directly follow you. There’s a feature called the for you page where I don’t know when it starts. But after you’ve posted a few videos, your videos start getting sent to the for you page to about 40 different people’s feeds. And if they like watch your video all the way through like it, comments on it or share it, it gets boosted to more people’s pages. So the main way people get popular on there, like other people watching it. So it’s a lot easier to reach bigger audiences by creating engaging content.

Pat 27:56
So how many people have watched your ACT video so far?

Unknown Speaker 28:01
Yeah, so it’s a 1.6 million.

Pat 28:03
Oh, wow.

Missy 28:04
Just a casual 1.6 no big deal.

Pat 28:08
Have you been recognized outside of Tik Toc, by anybody? Really? Yeah.

Izzy 28:18
Yeah, I was at a Quiz Bowl competition and you see you sit right across from the team, or the other team and the key was like, You look really familiar. Do I know you from somewhere and of course, my teammates gonna love to give me crap for my tik tok just because it’s like, some it’s funny. And they’re like, she’s viral on Tick Tock. He’s like, Are you the tick tock ACT girl? Yeah. And then I work as a receptionist at a Tennis Center and we do you tournaments a lot and a lot of times of high schoolers. And one time this girl came up to me She’s like, or do you make tik tok videos about the ACC and I was like, maybe it’s kind of fun. When I get recognized because like it for me tic tok is just like social media I don’t like I say like, Oh, my video got 1.6 million views, but it’s hard for me to picture in my head, like 1.6 million people watching it. So when I like, not when I’m out, like, not necessarily confronted with it, but when I faced like people who recognize me who I don’t know, it’s kind of just like, Oh, well, man, this is big. This is big.

Pat 29:27
Is it? Yeah. Is that something you want to do more of is create content that a lot of a lot of people see or is it really just something you’re doing for fun for right now?

Izzy 29:36
It’s something that I’m doing for fun right now. I’ve always really liked helping people with academic stuff in school, how I feel like I grade all my friends. And I grant I proofread on my friends papers, and one of them was like, why do you do this? And I’m like, because I like helping people. And it’s fun for me. And I think right now, that’s kind of my motivation for it. And like, I’ll get DMS on Instagram and it’s like, I watched your Tick Tock Your videos help me bring my score up three points, which helped qualify me for a scholarship. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, like, like someone got like a $6,000 scholarship because of me and I’m like, dang, I’m like, really changing people’s lives here, at least Well, part of their lives, not their entire life.

Missy 30:18
So if someone were like wanting to be like, tick tock famous, let’s say I’m like trying to be trying to be a tick tock star here. What do I have to do just hashtag the for you page to get on it or you’re just or just post constant content consistently.

Unknown Speaker 30:32
I am not sure if like the hashtag for you page thing works. I know a lot of people do that. But I mean, I never ever looked at hashtags. I only really look at my for page. So a lot of people have tried using that hashtag. And I’m not necessarily sure if that boost your chances of getting on the for you page bit. Because like I said, the content only goes to like 40 people stages and then if they like it, then it goes to more people. So the biggest thing for like getting viral on Tick Tock is creating content that people want to see. And sometimes it’s just getting lucky like, are the 40 people my video gets sent to going to enjoy this like funny video or because there are a lot of different kinds of things you can make on the platform. So like if you do a dance video, are the people going to be interested in watching you dance for 15 seconds? Or like, are they going to like this video of you making brownies for your cousins? So I would say that if you’re trying to get viral on Tick Tock just trying out different things and finding a niche Yeah.

Pat 31:41
Have you have you had success with any other videos that you’ve posted? Big time like that?

Unknown Speaker 31:44
Yeah. Not none that have reached the million views like the other one, but that video kind of started me on making more and more videos about the ACT and I’ve started working with like advanced placement classes now to. I posted one of my first AP videos a few days ago and that one’s been doing pretty well. But so one thing about Tic Tok is that when your video that’s on there for you page you might not necessarily gain a lot of followers from it. But because I make it clear in the videos that I post more content like that on my page, I have a really high follow engagement from my content on the for you page. So a lot of people will have like 5 Million Likes, but like 40,000 followers, and I’m at around 500,000 likes, but I have I think this morning I got like 30,000 so it’s

Izzy 32:40
with my content I get more followers from that and that and then having more followers that also means that more people will see your stuff which sends your stuff to the for you page more so smart. That has certainly helped

Pat 32:54
look at you game in the system.

Missy 32:56
Do you think that brand should be on Tick Tock and if so would you follow them

Izzy 33:01
It’s, that’s an interesting question, because so part of me, like enjoy seeing branded content, but then part of me is like, I also just like watching other young kids making funny content. And like, there’s kind of a discussion that people are posting videos about right now. It’s like, Oh, we missed the old tic tok were, like audio, we’re trending instead of people and celebrities weren’t on the app. So I think it would really just depend on the brand and how they’re using it. And maybe if the brand were to incorporate themselves in their image into trends on the app, rather than just putting their stuff on there and kind of changing the culture because I think a lot of people are kind of noticing that happening and becoming. I don’t know how to really phrase it but getting smart not enjoying the trillions. Yeah.

Missy 33:58
So what do you I want to ask You are you familiar with like the hype houses and all that stuff?

Unknown Speaker 34:02
Oh, the hype house Yeah.

Missy 34:04
you what are your thoughts on that? Do you think that contents kind of like fake because they’re like purposely creating it for a reason or what are your What do you think? What’s your thoughts?

Izzy 34:13
Well, one of my biggest issues with the hype house is there is a really big lack of diversity with it. And I’m someone who likes to see a wide variety of content from different people and it’s I knew like three of the people in the hype house when it when I first started seeing those videos and like, I mean, if these people have built and developed their following that makes sense to teach for them to like, collaborate with each other on videos, but I think a lot of people kind of see it as something fake so I have mixed feelings about it.

Missy 34:52
Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. All links we talked about in today’s podcast will be the show notes at social podcast.com/EP101. Make sure you subscribe to the social feed podcast with Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast player to get a brand new episode delivered right to every Wednesday. Don’t forget about our Facebook group. We’d love to get your feedback. Tell us more about Tic Tok what you thought of the episode. You can search that when you go to Facebook and just search for the social feed podcast and click to join. Thank you for listening and we’ll be back next week.

Announcer 35:23
The social feed is a production of Hubbard Interactive with music provided by a Minneapolis based artist john atwell.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai


On This Episode

Missy Young

Social Media Services Manager

@miss_shredbetty Missy Young

As the Social Media Services Manager for Hubbard Interactive, Missy Young’s position entails working with clients and team members to drive social media strategy and lead initiatives to identify new technologies and digital best practices. She develops customized micro and macro campaigns that drive online interaction, promotes and creates content that enhances the customer experience and creates lead generation for medium to large-scale companies. She regularly speaks at local and national events on a variety of subjects including: social media, PR, analytics and content strategy.


Anna Johnson

Social Media Coordinator

@the_butterflypath Anna Johnson

A recent college grad (University of Wisconsin-River Falls) in marketing communications with a minor in business communications, Anna Johnson started her own brand called Just Anna. She also branded her non-profit, The Butterfly Path, that launch this past November where she helps others in her community with mental health. If Anna’s not at work, talking social media, or helping others brand their business, she can be found drinking endless cups of coffee or shopping at local businesses.


Pat Laeger

Digital Content Specialist

Pat Laeger

Pat has over 10 years of creative production experience and has produced radio shows, video campaigns, podcasts, and other digital content. Pat is an outgoing introvert, a spreadsheet lover, an Oxford comma advocate, and an avid Mountain Dew drinker.


Izzy Lundquist

Izzy is a high school senior in Minnesota. She also tutors other students as they prepare for the ACT. Her video on “How to get a perfect score on the ACT” went viral on TikTok.