With more than 2 billion downloads, TikTok is a phenomenon that has taken the world by storm. And it isn’t just for dancing teens! Content creators and brands are seeing tremendous success for their business – many users even used the platform to LAUNCH a business.
In this episode, I am talking to Marybeth Santos, brand manager at Pocket Business. Marybeth helps to manage the coaching programs, uses TikTok daily to promote Pocket Business, and also co-leads the TikTok 1000 Followers Challenge.
We talk about the TikTok phenomenon, how online business owners can take advantage of TikTok to grow their business, and how to get started if you are uncomfortable being in front of the camera (no dancing required!)
Find Marybeth:
Marybeth’s TikTok suggestions:
Stephen – Dare to Capture
If you can craft your message correctly, so that you’re reaching the right people, TikTok does an amazing job at actually putting that video in front of the right people. I have never seen an algorithm work so well as TikTok does to give you exactly what you’re looking for.
Marybeth Santos
Full Transcript
Joelle
Hello, and welcome to Your Beautiful Online Business. My name is Joelle Brisland and I am very excited for our topic today. If you’re like me, you’ve seen the TikTok craze sweeping by but you haven’t jumped on it just yet. Maybe you’ve got an account, followed a few people. But you’re uncertain as to just how you can use it to grow your online business. So that is why I’m very excited today to welcome Marybeth Santos to join us to talk about all things TikTok. Marybeth is the brand manager over at Pocket Business and uses TikTok daily to promote and grow that business. She has also run a live challenge which takes members from zero to 1000 members. Is that right?
Marybeth
That’s the goal. Yeah.
Joelle
Okay, so. Today, Marybeth is going to be sharing with us why TikTok can be so valuable for your business and how you can get started. So hi, Marbeth, thank you so much for joining me today.
Marybeth
Thank you for having me. So excited.
Joelle
That’s great to hear. I’m actually very excited to discuss this. This platform, I know very little about it. Other than seeing kind of just how how successful people are being on it, which is just insane. So we’ve seen businesses explode and we’ve seen businesses explode just through using TikTok. So even people who got onto TikTok and had no business at all, are suddenly just seeing this, you know, exponential growth, what is so special about TikTok that that sees this happening?
Marybeth
To me, TikTok is the, it does such a good job of if you can craft your message correctly, so that you’re reaching the right people, TikTok does an amazing job at actually putting that video in front of the right people. So you’re gonna, I have never seen anything work like an algorithm work so well as TikTok does to give you exactly what you’re looking for. So like, as a consumer, and people might be rolling their eyes at me going Wait, all I see is dancing teenagers. But if you kind of curate your, for you page a little bit that page where you’re just kind of getting whatever videos that TikTok shows you, if you start liking things, and following people that you are interested in TikTok does an amazing job of showing you what you want to see and also showing you things that you might not have thought you wanted to see, but you end up being really interested in. So from the creator standpoint, it’s just such a, it’s, it makes things so simple. If you if you are crafting the message in a way that is going to resonate with people who are interested in what you have to talk about, they’re probably going to see that video. And so it’s just an amazing way to get in front of not just a bunch of people, but a bunch of the right people for what you are talking about.
Joelle
Okay, so you mentioned about crafting the message. How does kind of TikTok connect your message with putting it in front of the right people? So how does that that link happen?
Marybeth
So I’m sorry, I’m certainly not an expert in the actual algorithm itself and how it works, I don’t know if anybody is but to me, this, the way that it works is it TikTok sees a few things, it sees your hashtags. So whatever hashtags you have in your description of your video is going to help it decide who it’s going to put that video in front of, that’s kind of an easy one. And, you know, I think it’s how it works for almost every platform, they also can supposedly read some of the stuff that you have on the screen. So with TikTok, you can add captions to the screen itself, so people can read while they’re watching. But, to me, the most important thing is when once it has gotten in front of some people that are interested in it, it’s the engagement that people do with that video. So if I post a video about making money online, and people like it, it’s gonna get presented to more people like that person who will, you know, hopefully also engage with it. So it kind of just is like a domino effect of, if this person likes it, then this person follows all the things that that person does. So they’re gonna like it, and it just kind of carries on that way. So to me, it’s you know, the actual content, what you’re saying what you’re putting on the screen, what you’re using for hashtags, but also who’s engaging with it, who’s sharing it, who’s liking it, who’s watching the video, and then following you, those are the things that push it to the right people, as opposed to just you know, sometimes it will just get pushed to everybody, depending on the message. But my goal is always to have them go to the get in front of the right audience.
Joelle
Okay, so to get it in front of the right audience, like obviously, if you’re starting from the very beginning, you haven’t got, like the algorithm services, and it doesn’t really know who it should, put your videos in front of. So for someone that gets like me, for example, I’ve just downloaded the app, I think it was last Thursday, I’m maybe following five people, I haven’t set up my profile, what should I do from the very beginning so that I can set up my account to make the most of it and to get to start getting my videos in front of the right people.
Marybeth
So there’s things you can do in your profile itself. You want to have certain keywords like in your bio, in your title, you’d want to have, you know, keywords that relate to whatever type of person that you want to attract. But those things are important and you know, but they’re kind of one and done. You put them up there and then you’re you’re good. The videos that you make, you want to make sure that you are talking about specifically the first thing you probably want to be talking about to get kind of the most exposure is the outcome that you’re offering to people. So, for me, I’m lucky I’m in the How To Make Money niche so I can just talk about Barclays visiting us I can talk about how to make money and what our members have done to make money. So my videos are going to be like an immediate in that first three seconds, I’m going to talk about, do you want to make $5,000 a month with digital products so that I’m getting like that. And before someone can scroll past me, they know exactly what I’m going to talk about. And, you know, decide whether or not they want to listen. And that’s usually a pretty easy message to get people’s attention and get them to listen. So I think in the beginning, talking a lot about specific outcomes that people really want is really important. And then as you’re kind of you also, you can’t only talk about outcomes, because then people will be like, all you talk about is what you know what other people do to make money or what you need to make money, like, Can you help me in any way. So then you want to talk about the problems that people are facing, and the roadblocks, that they have the things that are stopping them from moving forward, the questions that are coming up, those are all really good. Supplemental videos to have as well. And those can capture a lot of attention too depending on what you’re talking about.
Joelle
Okay, great. So we should kind of start with the outcome. Like for the first few videos, and
then kind of start adding in questions.
Marybeth
To me the outcomes always get the most attention. At first at least. And then it’s, it’s, you know, those the problems, questions and roadblocks are more, someone that’s like, yeah, okay, I want to definitely take that next step. But how do I get past this thing? But the outcomes always get the most attention.
Joelle
Okay. Like what I suppose that makes sense to start with it because then it’ll be much easier and quicker then for TikTok to pick up kind of the people that you know, that want to be seeing your, your videos, you mentioned earlier about dancing teens, and how important are those sort of trends to do in your videos?
Marybeth
Okay, so I’ve never danced in a video and I don’t ever intend to, but the trends can be important they can you don’t ever have to actually do a trend in trends. So trends are the dancing videos are definitely trends. I actually don’t even see those anymore, because I don’t engage with them at all. If I see them, sometimes I’ll even unlike them, because I don’t want to see them in my page. So that you don’t have to do that you don’t have to dance. You don’t have to do this like silly stuff like the lip synching, you don’t technically have to do that. I personally am not somebody that would ever want to dance in front of a camera, but lots of people do we have lots of members that are just enjoy that and do it. And they get a lot of attention. So it is good to use the trends if you can, you know, if you don’t want to dance, don’t dance, but I do tons of the lip synching ones because I just think they’re so much fun. And I like when I’m having kind of a down day. I’ll do a TikTok right. It’s like a fun lip synching one. And they’re important to do because first of all, if you’re going to deal with them, you have to still obviously keep it relevant to your niche, you still want to be attracting the right people. But what happens is, those trends become instantly recognizable by people. So, you know, depending on what it is, you hear that first kind of like note of the of the trend about to happen, whether it’s you know, lip synching or even the song that goes to the dance. And it’s like, your, the person’s attention is immediately caught, because they want to see, okay, what did this person do with this trend? And so the trends are the trends, people will say that the trends are important, because TikTok wants to push the trends, and they want to put it on more for you pages, because, you know, people are engaging with it, and they’re popular, but to me, they’re important. Like, the reason that they that TikTok wants to do that is because people are engaging with them, they’re watching them all the way through. And they it’s catching their attention. So if you if you’re open to doing it, and I definitely suggest like finding the ones that are comfortable for you. They can definitely help a lot because it is that instant. attention grabber, when you hear like the first note of the song or the first word of whatever the whatever the trend is, and people are going to be interested in going okay, what’s this lady done with this little trend that, you know, we’ve seen a million different people do? So I love the trends.
Joelle
Just like personally, like I’m actually a former dancer, like it was a huge part of my life but the idea of dancing on TikTok to me just like I just can’t even picture it. Like I just feel so awkward in front of the camera like no matter what I’m doing, even just talking I feel awkward in front of the camera so kind of the idea of dancing just feels like a little bit too much right now.
Marybeth
I completely I am I want you the you during your intro you talked about like, if you are someone who hasn’t, you know, you know the value that it could have but you aren’t comfortable yet. That was 100% me like I was never somebody who thought they would ever get on TikTok I had to like dare myself into doing it. So I completely can understand how people are like, that’s not for me. But there’s something it to me, it’s a lot of fun. And I was super, I’m kind of reserved and held back in the beginning, I’m still reserved and held back I think in my videos, but I’m getting a lot better. So I’ve been there, I totally get that. And there are certain things that I probably won’t ever be, I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable enough to dance. But I’m much more comfortable after. I mean, I’ve done hundreds and hundreds of videos, but it gets so much easier and more comfortable as you go.
Joelle
I actually went through the last few of your videos, and you look just so natural and so comfortable talking to the camera.
Marybeth
Scroll all over all the way to the end and see the first one.
Joelle
I’ll do that it might make me feel a little bit more comfortable.
Marybeth
And I’ll link you a couple.
Joelle
That actually reminds me when we first met virtually online in that that blogging community, your profile picture was of a felted soap that you had made. How do you go from someone that that isn’t even comfortable having a profile picture in a blogging group of your face to now being on TikTok every day even jumping on the trends, the non dancing ones?
Marybeth
Yeah.
Joelle
How do you get to that, that stage of being so comfortable in front of the camera?
Marybeth
It was honestly, it was not a short journey. It was a long journey for me. And it started. Probably, I want to say it’s like a couple of years ago, the first time I ever had to do anything on camera. My daughter was taking a TV class in high school. And she needed to interview someone she wanted to interview me about the work that I do. I was like, oh, okay, I was never so terrified. I almost have anything in my life. I mean, there’s probably a couple of things in my life. But I was so scared to be on camera. And this is with my own daughter interviewing me. But in front of her entire class of high school students. That was the first like, I had to rip the band aid off and do it. I certainly couldn’t say no to my daughter. And then through the work that I do, we eventually, you know, we needed to do some zoom videos and have people on calls together. So that was also super nerve wracking for me at the beginning. It’s like, I would get incredibly nervous. I’ve done interviews like you’re doing and I was, like, just panicked about those. But honestly, like, just the more times, the more reps like the easier it gets the last it, it gets easier. But it also doesn’t really ever completely go away. Because the newest hurdle for me has been going live on TikTok in the first time that I went live, which is just now maybe a month ago, I was an absolute wreck. I mean, it’s just me sitting here by myself in front of the phone. But I can remember just sitting like, I got to press that red button, I get to go live I have to do and I have to do it. And I was just you know, super terrified. Now I’ve done it like five or six, seven times, something like that. And that feeling of like, fear is just it just dissipates. And it gets easier and easier. But but it still also will come back with each new thing that I have to do.
Joelle
So do you find it easier kind of talking to people when they’re in front of you versus like, versus through a camera? Even if it’s say the same number of people?
Marybeth
Um No, I don’t. I wish I could say yes. But I’ve had, you know, you mean like live in person talking to people?
Joelle
Yes. So, yeah, I’m just curious, like, if you had to say give a presentation to five people that, would you feel more comfortable with that versus going live knowing that five people are watching?
Marybeth
Nope, I would be just as nervous. But I do have like, I when I was a kid, I was a I was a gymnast. And so I would always be when we would have like a gymnastics meet and there would be people there watching, I would be terrified. But I think that that’s where I kind of learned to like be terrified and kind of push it down I guess and just not not let people see how scared I am somehow. And so I would be just as scared live in front of them not scared, but nervous and super anxious, in front of, like, you know, and actually in real life in front of people, because I have had to do that too in previous jobs, I would be equally nervous. As I am virtually, I, the one, the only thing that I do to help myself is I like super over prepare for things like incredibly over prepare, so that I feel like I know every possible, you know, scenario that might come up. And it’s the only thing that gives me like a little bit of comfort, but but no matter what I’m always going to, I’m just always going to be nervous about it, which is okay, I’m getting past it.
Joelle
You say you over prepare. Do you ever use scripts for your videos? Or do you just kind of talk off the cuff?
Marybeth
I started with kind of scripting things. And this is actually one of the things that I’m sure that you can do this on other platforms. But it’s something that I love about making TikToks, I would start with, when I first started making TikToks, I would hold the phone, I would hit record and I would try to talk for a minute straight, which doesn’t sound like it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. But it’s not easy. It’s really hard to do to talk for a minute straight.
Joelle
Yeah.
Marybeth
So when I have like bullet points, but I knew I didn’t want to read from a script because I knew I would look like I was reading from a script. So I tried to like just memorize it kind of and kind of do it a little bit off the cuff but make sure I included everything but it’s that’s a terrible way to make a TikTok or probably to make any video What I love about making TikToks and what makes it so much easier now is I will have I don’t even write them down anymore. I have an idea in my head of what I want to talk about. And I’ll just start recording, I’ll record my first thought stop record my second thought stop. And then when you’re done, you just you know mix. Adjust everything together so that it looks like a nice cohesive video. But so yeah, I wouldn’t have a script exactly, I would definitely when I was starting have bullet points that you want to talk about there’s kind of a framework to what you want to do with a TikTok video, you want to start with a hook always some type of really strong hook that’s going to grab attention in that first three seconds, then I’ll go over like two or three bullet points that are relevant to what I’m talking about. And then I’ll do a call to action at the end. So for me when I have that system in my mind of what I know there’s like four or five key things that I need to hit. It just makes it flow so much easier for me and I you know, being able to just get one thought out instead of getting the entire video out makes it way easier.
Joelle
Having that kind of that system is actually just okay, I’ve never thought about it because that I’ve tried reels twice whole grand total two short videos. And I ended up using a script because I was so stressed about forgetting what I was going to say but your kind of your structure of having the hook the two or three bullet points and then a call to action that could just if you just follow the structure it would be so much easier and then your idea of filming like kind of short thoughts because then you only have to remember one thought at a time.
Marybeth
Exactly.
Joelle
So that is that is a very good idea because I was struggling even just 30 seconds and you said a minute with I struggled to to just speak for 30 seconds without completely forgetting what I would say.
Marybeth
And it’s it’s not even just for the fact that you you know that it’s hard to remember what you’re going to say because Scrivs who you obviously know enough to talk to you and have done a podcast with before he could just turn the camera on and probably talk for an hour straight and be fine. But the other thing with TikTok that it’s actually really important beyond just being able to get your sentences out and being able to remember everything you want to say you definitely want to say something stop kind of like reposition yourself like change let your background be like a little bit different in the next clip because it like refocuses the watchers attention so it actually really helps with keeping attention and having people watch through to the end too.
Joelle
Okay great,
Marybeth
But there’s two good reasons to do it.
Joelle
It’s actually a very good tip and as you’re speaking I’m like picturing kind of the videos that I’ve watched and I can understand that because it’s almost like your brain almost thinks it’s like a slightly different video it’s like not the same video. So like re engages that interest. So you’ve taken a group of people through your through your challenge you’ve done the one round already I’d love to hear like about that experience how people grew their channel, sorry it’s not the channel so the channel I’ve just gone on
Marybeth
Yeah, channel channel. channel I hear it called a lot of different things channel or profiles. Yeah, account So yes, when we started the challenge, we have a group of our audience. A pocket business is a lot of people that were formerly bloggers. So we’re very used to just being behind, you’re kind of behind the scenes like you’re not usually when you’re blogging, you’re not out in front of the camera, you’re not like, it’s really perfect for someone who is who thinks that they’re super introverted and doesn’t ever want to show their face. So we had a lot of people that were like, Oh, I’m not doing TikTok, it’s scary. I don’t want to put my face out there. I don’t want to have to talk. I don’t want to do any of that. But they would start to see, you know, we’ve had several members that have had enormous success we just had, one of our members just posted a win yesterday, she had her first she has earned $100,000 since June of 2020. With her since which was when she launched her first product and a massive amount of that audience that she’s built,that has bought those products have come from TikTok, she’s got an enormous following. So people will start to see the success that people were having and start to feel like okay, maybe I can get over myself and get on TikTok. Maybe this is worth it. But like, you know what, like, we’re sitting here now kind of seeing some of the the obstacles that you think about, like how do I how do I structure the video? How do I remember everything I’m going to say like, those things were stopping people from moving forward, they were roadblocks to getting them, you know, beyond just the mindset and the shyness or whatever that was stopping them there was like, well, like, how, what do I do? What do I say? What do I talk about? What are the controls, there were still tons of questions and problems that people were having that weren’t allowing them to move forward. And challenges are perfect for getting people past those things. Because people hear about a challenge. And they get super excited. And they’re, you know, get that feeling like of tons of their momentum and motivation. And so I knew a challenge was going to be perfect to get people like excited about it and to start doing it. What I did not know was whether or not it was going to work, and actually get people to 1000 followers because when I started TikTok, I was fumbling my way through and you know, had an enormous learning curve like beyond my mindset problems with like being comfortable on camera, I didn’t know what people on TikTok wanted to see. So it took me a very long time to get to 1000 followers. And so I had no idea if I could really help these people do that. But I knew that I could, I knew no matter what I would help them, like, make some quick, easy videos in the beginning that they would feel comfortable doing and not be so nervous about. And there would be a community around them. And we would give them feedback every single day on every video that they did. And I knew that like that little push of motivation and momentum would at least get them past the feeling, you know, get this get them to at least start and get them comfortable with the platform. We taught them how to use everything. We taught them how to what to talk about, like we talked in the beginning about the outcomes, problems, roadblocks and questions. We did a whole workshop about that ahead of time, so that they felt because to me wanting to always be super prepared for things, I felt like that was probably something that they would want to they’d want to feel extremely prepared before they actually started to get in front of the camera. And so that part of it alone would have been enough of a success for me to see people just get started and get past that fear and get past the you know, that feeling of not knowing what to do. But what was really great is we actually were really successful at getting people past 1000 followers too we had one woman end up over 15,000 followers like well, before it even ended on everybody that stayed with us from the very beginning to the very end, except for one on made it to well over 1000 followers, I think like 22 maybe I think yeah, I think though, the one that made it, we had one person that was at 550. And I’ll talk about him in a second. But the everybody else made it to like 1000 plus 2000 and 15000 was the highest the one got one person didn’t make it over 1000 and I gave him so much credit because in my mind, I imagined that there would be a lot of people like that, that you know kept with it but just kind of couldn’t get the traction. And he never quit. He continued making videos every day he would try to make like some type of a small adjustment. And that’s the most important thing with with TikTok is the woman that went from literally I think she had like 80 followers and ended up with 15,000 at the end. You could watch from the day we started the challenge to the videos that she’s doing now and see the changes that she made every day, based on the feedback that we were giving her and based on, you know what she was learning just by by doing it on, she just, she made so many strides and just made those tiny adjustments. And, you know, she just took off, she had one video that just went crazy. And then you know, once that happens, you just, it’s like a snowball everything. You’re getting more followers, you’re getting people to see that one video, then they’re gonna go look at other things. And it just, once you kind of get the ball rolling, it just goes, which is great fun to see.
Joelle
I can imagine and it seems to be a lot easier to get that kind of coveted viral video in TikTok, as opposed to on other platforms. And this challenge you were taking them through, was it a one video a day, or how often were they producing videos?
Marybeth
We did two videos a day. So what we did was I had, to me, the easiest videos to do are the ones that are like to some type of a trend to a trending sound, or lip synching video that are they’re like, when you’re doing the lip synching video, you’re not even talking. So if you are, if you only can get yourself to overcome one obstacle at a time, those are great to do because just it’s just you on the camera, and you know, copying whatever is being said. So you’re not even worrying about the talking part. And then there are others actually, that are even simpler than that. There are sounds that you can you don’t talk at all, and it’s just information on the screen. And you know, you’ll have, it’s very hard to explain this without having the visual, but you’ll have, you know, there’ll be a beat, and you’ll have new things coming up on the screen. And you can kind of point you don’t even have to talk at all on those or lipsync or anything, they’re really super, they’re like very low mental energy to create, they still have to have a ton of value in them, obviously. But some of those most, I think for most of our participants, those were the ones those kind of ones where you don’t even have to talk, you’re just doing a trend were the ones that really started to take off for people. And so I wanted to make sure we did one of those every day. And then one where you didn’t have to talk. So like a talking head where you’re just going over whatever topic you chose for that day. So it was two a day for 30 days. So by the end, they all had, I mean, if they had done every single day, they would have 60 or more videos on, you know, and when you’re getting feedback on them every day, and you’re making changes that’s like it’s just such a great way to quickly and easily grow.
Joelle
Now. How much time more or less would something like that take if you’re doing two videos a day? What sort of time and investment would that be?
Marybeth
It takes before I started TikTok I would have been you know, you don’t realize how much effort and time does go into each video, because they’re only a minute long. And so it feels like, you know, how long does it take five minutes no it’s a lot more than that usually. And especially at the beginning, when you’re learning the controls, and you’re learning how to, I have one of the tools in the challenge, I recorded myself recording a TikTok so that because I wanted them to see realistically how long it can take to actually go from no video to recording the video editing the video and you know, doing all of your hashtags in your caption and you’re we always want everyone to leave the first comment. So I think the video that I recorded for them ended up being nine minutes long, but I had to cut a ton of it out. So for me now like having made I’ve made hundreds and hundreds of them like a long produced like a video that takes me a long time to actually finish from beginning to end is probably gonna take me a half an hour to create because that’s adding all the captions TikTok does not make it super easy to do that. You’re literally just typing them out on your phone. And when I say I don’t mean the captions, like the closed captioning, I mean like the words that I add to the screen. But some of the simple like there are simpler ones that might just like if I can like nail a lip sync on the first try, that one might only take me like 10-15 minutes. So don’t expect that you’re going to like turn on the phone. You certainly could turn on the phone and talk and hit publish and it’s done in three minutes. But those you’re going to have to like really nail your beginning hook and you know have some way that you’ve really captured attention and kept attention through the whole video without adding all the you know, production stuff after like The the words on the screen and, and all that stuff. So they seem like they’re going to be quick and easy. But definitely, if you’re going to do two a day when you’re just starting out, I would plan like a couple of hours. And then you’ll get faster and faster as it goes. And you know, you can do it in probably under an hour.
Joelle
Perfect. Well, that’s not, suppose not too bad in terms of an initial investment. And then
hopefully after the first month or so, you don’t necessarily need to be doing maybe two a
day.
Marybeth
Yeah.
Joelle
How important is the camera quality? As far as like, as far as you know, that can be you may not know the details of this, but like, do you think having a really good camera and perfect lighting will make a big difference?
Marybeth
Lighting will. So I would say number one thing you want is really good sound quality if I come across, and I’m sure this is true for anyone, if I come across a video that I can’t hear it well, or there’s like, sometimes we have members that do a lot of stuff outside like gardening and things like that. So they’re out. And so if there’s wind, I like that background noise going through the cell phone, it’s that’s going to be an easy thing for somebody to skip past. So I would say start, start thinking about your audio first. I have never made a video other than just with my phone. Right in the TikTok app, I’ve seen people say that you should never create a video on the TikTok app. I don’t know why that is I think the quality is beautiful. I am obsessed with TikTok’s beauty filter, I have no problem using that on every single video. I’ve no I think, you know, for me, the visual quality is always nice and crisp and clear. I sit in front of you can tell it’s never crisp and clear when I’m a zoom call because I sit directly in front of a big window. That’s the only lighting that I ever use for my TikToks. If you don’t have that, you’re definitely gonna want some type of good lighting. Between you know, it should go the lighting, so my window, then my phone would be here and then me so the lights coming directly on my face. The lighting is even if you have a fantastic camera phone or whatever type of camera you’re going to use. If the lighting stinks, it’s not going to matter. You’ve got to make sure you’ve audio first lighting second. And pretty much you know if you’ve got decent lighting, I don’t think you can really hurt yourself too much with the camera quality. I think you know, most phones you should be fine.
Joelle
Okay, perfect. So we’ll focus on good audio, good lighting, and then worry about the camera afterwards.
Marybeth
Yeah, I wouldn’t work with I don’t think the camera itself it’s usually like if you see a poor video quality, I think it’s usually the lighting more than the camera.
Joelle
Okay, great. Well, that’s good to know. Because that was kind of one of my concerns. You know, the camera quality that I’ve got is not as great as what I’m seeing, you know, some other channels or other accounts. And so what would you say, kind of after working with all of these members through this challenge? What would you say is the biggest misconception that specifically online business owners have around TikTok?
Marybeth
The first thing that whenever I talk to somebody that has not used it yet, they literally they I mean, they think that I’m crazy. They’re like, I can’t stand TikTok, what are you talking about? Why would I possibly go on TikTok. It’s just people doing pranks and dancing. And that because that first experience that everybody has with TikTok, at least for the first like couple of weeks. It’s just the very most popular videos that TikTok is going to show you. And so unfortunately, those are the most popular of these crazy dancing pranks. And you know, just kind of out there kind of stuff. So if you don’t give it enough time to start to see some of the other communities that are within TikTok. And you’re going to think that it’s absolutely crazy to be on TikTok, but there are so many amazing, like little tiny niche communities within the app. And you just don’t get to see that until you until you get in and really kind of dig in and curate what you’re seeing. And that is one of them. And the other one is I hear a ton of people say I don’t want to, I’m afraid of the people in the comment section afraid of like, trolls, and having negative comments and all of that. And they are certainly they exist. But you kind of have to call them a little bit. If you’re gonna, you’ll start to see if you really kind of study things when you see a video that has those types of negative comments and Like just, you know, kind of nasty people on them, they’re usually a video that has been done. That is already itself a little bit not necessarily controversial, but it’s taking that on us against them stand. Almost always we have a member that does this amazingly well, she talks about women’s health, and she calls her doctors on like, she really does a super strong us versus them strategy where I don’t know if she does it intentionally or not, but she does a really good job of it, will, she’ll talk about how these are the problems that women have, and this is how doctors aren’t helping to solve them. And so she sets up that us versus them so well. And that creates a lot of controversy in her comments, because people will come in, the doctors will come and defend themselves. And other you know, just random people will come and defend doctors, which is not for everybody, I would never want my comments section like that, because it would give me anxiety to the ends of the earth. And so I don’t start I don’t ever try to set up a really strong us versus them. And people might people probably don’t recognize that when they see those videos that have those negative comments, but it’s kind of already set up in the video to attract that kind of attention. And so I don’t get a ton of negative stuff I’ll get occasionally like an annoying person or I had somebody ask if I was looking for a sugar daddy. So you get like those random, occasional weird wants, I just delete and block that stuff. I’m in lives or what something that people get nervous for that reason about to but if you’re not, there are ways that people will attract that kind of attention. And it can be a very good thing. It’s been a great thing for our members, Danny who’s either intentionally or unintentionally done it, gets what happens when you have those negative comments, people go to your video, and then they go look like there’s 1000 comments and they’re like, wait a minute, what’s going on in the comment section and they’ll go read. Meanwhile, your video is playing and one of the best forms of engagement on TikTok is to have your video watched multiple times. So when your comments are going a little crazy, your video continues to play. So it’s actually a really good thing for you. But you can there there are ways that you can avoid that kind of type of like, troll comments by the content that you make. You can avoid it or attract it. And also TikTok has, you can block people that are just notorious. You know, I’ve had a couple people that leave like, just out of context and negative things on videos multiple times. At that point, I just blocked the person if it’s not productive, I just block them so they don’t see my content anymore. And there are also filters that you can use so that we have someone that talks about crypto. And so she that’s obviously another super controversial thing to my people. I don’t know why exactly, but it is. And so she can set up filters that if she keeps getting comments that have the same have a keyword in them that keeps coming up over and over again, you can set up a filter so that if someone makes a comment with that word in it, it will not get posted. But yeah, because it’s a you know, it’s definitely a it keeps people from creating content and obviously TikTok doesn’t want that they want people making content. So they’ve set up ways to help with it. But it’s not something that it’s not as big of come I had someone asked me about it the other day and it the thought that came to mind it was like, you know, when you’re a little kid and people talk about our TV, you see on TV on quicksand all the time, and then you grew up and you’re like there’s no quicksand why why was that in every movie that I saw as a kid and it’s kind of the same thing with like those negative comments and trolls like there it’s not as big of a problem as you imagine it’s going to be you’re probably seeing it a lot because if those videos get a lot of attention but you know for you know, the regular everyday creator like me, like it doesn’t happen that much. Like
Joelle
Well, that’s good to know. Because that is something that can be quite kind of like off quitting and just add to the nerves that are building up there.
Marybeth
Yeah.
Joelle
On the topic of comments, how important is commenting on other accounts or other videos to grow your own account?
Marybeth
It can be really important, um, and I don’t do it enough myself. For for somebody for me, I swear I am on TikTok a lot. I like to say it’s because I’m studying and doing research and but I just enjoy it a lot. And I do not enjoy any other social media. I don’t participate in any other social media TikTok for whatever reason has just captured my attention and I love it. But I do I I spend a lot of time like Looking at what other people are doing and trying to pick up on different trends. And so for the amount of time that I’m actually on TikTok, I should be doing a lot more engaging, it’s really, really important to do. Because TikTok makes it easy to do it in a bunch of different ways. It’s easy to do, it’s easy to leave a comment. And it’s really important to do that, because I left a comment on unfortunately, a video that wasn’t even in my niche, but I just, it was a cute, it was a great piece of advice. And I had that like something to add on to it. So I left a comment. That comment, I was it was probably six months ago, I still have people liking that comment on that video. And so it had like, 20,000 likes my comment on her video, which had, like millions and millions of views ended up with like 20,000 likes, so every time someone sees that, and likes it, that’s a little tiny piece of branding for you. Unfortunately, it wasn’t my niche. So even if people were clicking my profile and coming to see what I have to say, it wouldn’t have been relevant to them, but it’s so it’s Yes, for that reason, it’s really important. You know, if you’re being helpful in the comments of someone else’s videos, it’s only going to be a benefit to you. And it can help to build your account. But there’s two things that I love about TikTok that kind of helps with this, too, is in that duetting and stitching videos. So if there’s a creator like in the same niche, or like in a what I like to call like a sister niche, so like, if there were somebody in a in productivity, for instance, for me, that created a video that I really liked, that I think would help my audience with something productivity related, I can do a stitch, which is basically you take the beginning of their video and add your own commentary to it at the end. Or I can do a duet of the video, which is would look like what we look like right now side by side, their video would be playing and I would be like, you don’t even have to talk for these actually, you can just put words on the screen, and you’re just kind of reacting to what they’re saying. So those are two really good ways to be able to like engage with some other, engage with other creators, either within your niche or like in a side by side niche to your own. That stuff is all really important to just, you know, when you’re leaving a comment and showing additional value, that’s always a good thing. When you are dueting and stitching video and showing additional value. It’s, it’s showing that you can add value, it’s also showing that you’re not just going to continue to like preach to people, you’re also going to bring them other information from other creators, that’s going to be helpful to them too. So it’s it makes your channel and your profile even more valuable.
Joelle
Can you choose? Who can use your videos to stitch or do you do a duet with? Like, do you have control over that?
Marybeth
You do, you can turn it on or off. So you can’t choose who can but you can choose to not allow it if you want to. I always have mine turned on. But it’s on an individual video basis. You can you know, so if there is something that you’re like, I don’t want any I don’t even want anybody to stitch or duet this. You can turn it off for that video.
Joelle
Okay, perfect. That’s good to know. Because some people do some strange things.
Marybeth
Oh, yeah. Yep.
Joelle
Is there anything that like I haven’t asked but I haven’t thought that you would like to share about using TikTok for online business specifically.
Marybeth
About TikTok specifically. Just nothing really, that I haven’t said already. I don’t think just I couldn’t encourage anyone more to try it. Like if you were trying to build an online business with some type of a service or a product. There’s really, it’s such a quick and easy way to build trust with someone. TikTok is kind of, to me it’s like a very raw interaction. The videos are not almost always they’re not like a super professional looking video. It’s really just kind of you and your personality in front of not personality. I don’t want to say personality because I think that even makes people nervous. It’s you just being yourself and doing your best to attract someone that’s going to that is going to resonate with. I don’t know of any better way and I’m someone who absolutely loves to write if I was given the choice of I’m writing all day or making videos all day I would take writing all day but I have come around completely on the ability to connect really well and to build trust with people through video I’m in the first layer of that is just the regular TikTok videos the second layer like it can go even further and deeper when you’re doing a live video. For people to be able to see how like human you actually are and like have the face to go with the brand. I don’t think there’s anything that can replace it. I, if you asked me this a year ago, I would have said no, I’m like, my writing is fine. That’s good enough. That’s gonna do the trick. But yeah, to me, it’s specifically TikTok, but maybe it’s all video. There’s just no replacement for it. If you want to, like shortcut it, you don’t want to wait, the, you know, months that it’s going to take for your blogging to take off and not just shortcut, but make like that even deeper connection. I 100% thing you have to video is going to be the way to do it. And I would if I were talking to myself to me a year ago, I would not agree with me, but I was I’m right now I was wrong then.
Joelle
It’s amazing. Just how much can happen and change in just one one short year.
Marybeth
Yep, that’s for sure.
Joelle
I may be putting you on the spot yet. But are there any TikTok accounts that you would recommend? Something someone new to TikTok to follow?
Marybeth
for learning TikTok?
Joelle
Yes, yes.
Marybeth
We’ve got Stephen at Dare to Capture. He’s definitely somebody I would recommend. There’s a bunch though. There’s a lot of people that do a great job. I’ll I’ll have to try to remember there. There’s Wavewyld. I’ll send you a link to her. So you can include it somewhere I’m sure but we Wavewyld talks about trends and a lot of different things that are specific to TikTok. She does an amazing job. There’s a guy named JT that does an amazing job. I have a bunch of them give you a bunch of them. And just there’s also a lot of just kind of general online business people that are really good too. So if you’re watching, you know if you’re looking for if you want to look at what your competition is doing so that you can get an idea of how to do your own videos. There’s a bunch of people like that too, Her Designs Co I think is one of them. And Rachel Pederson is her TikToks are amazing. All of her content, I think is great. Should be a really good person to follow. Coach Jaya Rose. She makes really good TikTok videos too she’s got a really nice big following. And she talks more about the mindset side of business. So yeah, I’ve got a bunch.
Joelle
Okay, great. I think I follow Rachel Pederson. I think she’s one of like, one of the five accounts I’m following at this point, I’m sure.
Marybeth
Yeah, I would not I wouldn’t doubt it. She’s great.
Joelle
And where can we find you online?
Marybeth
Only for social media. I literally only do TikTok so it’s @MarybethSantos and then pocketbusiness.com.
Joelle
Okay, perfect. Thank you so much for for your time today and for sharing all of your wonderful knowledge on TikTok and using it for your online business. It’s really been great having you here with us today.
Marybeth
Thank you so much for having me. This was great fun.
