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#227: Best Tips on How to Use TikTok to Grow Your Business

ByJillian Leslie

Today, I’ve got TikTok expert, Keely Stawicki, on The Blogger Genius Podcast, to share her best tips on how to use TikTok to grow your business.

Keely shares tips on not only growing your followers on the platform, but how to grow your actual business with TikTok!

Think of TikTok as a free discovery platform. Your job is to get your message in front of the right people, then figure out how to funnel those people from TikTok to where you want them to go.

Keely shares how she thinks about her own content creation, how she attracts the right people to her, and how she sells her products and services to them.

Hopefully this episode inspires you to start creating content on TikTos. It definitely has for me. In fact, please follow me on TikTok at @milotreeapp and watch my journey.

Best Tips on How to Use TikTok to Grow Your Business | The Blogger Genius Podcast with Jillian Leslie

Show Notes:

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Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here’s your host, Jillian Leslie.

Jillian Leslie 0:11
Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the Blogger Genius Podcast. I have a great episode for you today all about TikTok.

But before I launch into that, I wanted to ask you if you were thinking about setting up a paid workshop where you teach something for an hour to your audience on Zoom, but yet, you don’t know what exactly your topic should be?

Get My Free Download to Help You Come Up With Your Idea for Your Paid Workshop

Well, I have the perfect thing for you, I have a free download, and it is a worksheet that will help you come up with your workshop idea. You can fill this out in five minutes, but it really leads you on a journey to figure out what you could teach, what your audience would want to learn from you.

Get the download by going to milotree.com/workshopidea kind of makes sense workshop idea. And I am seeing so many bloggers and creators have tremendous success, selling paid workshops to their audiences.

In fact, today, I was on two calls helping women set up, one their second, one their third paid workshop because it works. If you have an audience there is money to be made selling directly to your audience. And even better, you get to attract your true fans to you and build deeper relationships.

And if you want me to help you one-on-one for free, set up your paid workshop just email me at jillian@milotree.com and I will be so excited to get on a call with you.

Best Tips on How to Use TikTok to Grow Your Business

For today’s episode I have Keely Stawicki from Rebel Keely on the podcast. And she teaches all about TikTok but not just how to grow your followers how to use TikTok strategically to grow your business, how to funnel your followers, your traffic, to your products, to your blog to your Facebook group.

It’s all about intention. It’s all about exposure, getting in front of a new audience and directing them where you want them to go. TikTok is a really powerful platform that I’m just starting to lean into. But I think there is tremendous opportunity. I think you’re going to like this episode.

Without further delay. Here is my interview with Keely Stawicki. Keely, welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast.

Keely Stawicki 2:44
Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be on here and be talking about TikTok with you.

Jillian Leslie 2:51
And this is by the way, our second recording, we did a whole recording, but our Zoom connection kept cutting out. And it was super difficult to try to edit that podcast. So I reached out to you. And I said would you come back on the show and you so graciously and generously said yes. So thank you so much

Keely Stawicki 3:11
Of course. I really love nerding out about this stuff. And I feel like since the last time we talked, I’ve made so many new discoveries that I’m really excited to talk about today.

Jillian Leslie 3:21
Will you briefly share your entrepreneurial journey and when we get talking before I press record, it’s always so fascinating, because you’re from the US and you moved to Mexico about a year and a half ago and you are living that kind of nomad life.

So, will you just share how you got into this and how you got to Mexico?

Best Tips on How to Use TikTok to Grow Your Business | The Blogger Genius Podcast with Jillian Leslie

The Path to Becoming a Digital Nomad

Keely Stawicki 3:46
I’ve always been a serial entrepreneur. And before I moved to Mexico in September of 2020, I previously had a sawmill in business with my now ex-fiance and then I had a vintage consignment store. When COVID hits it really crashed my vintage consignment store and I had owned the real estate that I was in.

I had a few apartments, so my tenants quit paying. And I was financially collapsing, everything was falling apart. I was three days away from filing bankruptcy when I was able to sell off all of my assets and my building that I owned and escaped that part of things.

Luckily, I had been developing a high value skill called lead generation funnels. So, I had turned my vintage consignment reselling business into an online coaching business where I had been teaching aspiring resellers how to sell vintage items on eBay.

And so I had been learning how to use lead gen funnels and sales funnels to drive. I was making a few thousand dollars a month from that side hustle.

And so, when I was selling everything off, I was like, okay, I’m just going to travel around and take this funnel design business and do it freelancing because I’d already been making little bit of money from it helping friends.

And when I moved to Mexico, and I decided on Mexico because Airbnbs in Arizona and Texas were like, thousands of dollars. It was like $2,000 for a double-wide in the desert in the middle of nowhere in Arizona, and I was like, I’ll only have two months to survive if I do that.

So, I started looking more south. And in Mexico, you could get places for like, $500 a month that were still fairly nice. And so I just took the leap. I’ve always liked the Mexican culture. And so I was like, why not? I’m just going to do this. And I was able to in 45 days generate $7,500 from that funnel business.

And since then just kept rolling along. But I hit a brick wall about a six months in, I got burnt out on doing the done-for-you funnels. I was doing client work where I build out the whole system for them. And I just got burnt out.

And I decided to go into more of selling courses. And I created this course and I was trying to launch it with Facebook ads, and I was no stranger to Facebook ads. I ran Facebook ads for all of my different businesses.

I had done lead gen for my vintage reselling business with Facebook ads, but something unique had happened that I was 14 update, which is Apple’s version of slapping Facebook. We all remember that they slapped Facebook and said, “Oh no, you can’t track the usage.”

Jillian Leslie 6:24
The conversions.

Keely Stawicki 6:30
The conversions and the use you can’t track iPhone users anymore if they opt out. And they say 90% of people opted out when that notification came on their phone. Right as I was launching my courses it killed my ad campaign. I spent over $2,200 on ads, and I made $500.

And I was like, great. Now what? And so that’s when I decided to turn to TikTok and I didn’t have any other options. So, when we think about building an online business, our options to lead generation are ads, organic traffic, which is like DMing, Hangout and Facebook groups.

Doing podcasts interviews like this, which are fun, but they take a lot of time. And so a bunch of people were like look at my TikTok videos. I’m doing this 30-day reel challenge and then I’m sharing them on TikTok. And I was like, I don’t have anything to lose. I’ll just have fun with it and try it out.

And so, I dedicated 30 days to this. And I made a video a day it was like pulling teeth because I’m very much introverted wildfire, I didn’t want to have to do video content. I really wanted to be more behind the scenes. But I put myself out there and I did it.

And within 30 days, I had a few videos go viral, and I was able to capture this insane amount of traffic that I had never experienced before even using Facebook ads. And I made $9,000 in sales, just that first month using TikTok.

And so since then, I’ve been in the trenches nerding out about how TikTok works, especially through all of the algorithm changes and the shifts, social media is constantly changing thing, feature.

And learning what was working, what’s working now and really dedicating to helping other female entrepreneurs utilize this powerful platform to be able to grow in ways that we never were before.

Jillian Leslie 8:43
Question. So, the pandemic let’s say is in a new phase, we’re no longer at home on TikTok. TikTok has of course grown let’s say even since we recorded our first podcast episode.

Do you think there is still as much power in TikTok to go viral to get this big audience for free? Or was this like lightning in a bottle at a certain time in place?

There’s Still Lots of Opportunity on TikTok

Keely Stawicki 9:15
Absolutely, that’s a really good question because a lot of people think that they miss the boat on it. And when you look at TikTok, it still is as far as the size of it, it’s still a baby. And so there’s still a lot of opportunity and this is why it’s really important to get started like now.

Don’t keep putting off like I’ll do it next month, I’ll do it when I figure out my message. I’ll do it when I have something to sell.

This is really something where you need to start taking action and learning the skills and building an audience even before you have anything to sell even before you feel like you’re ready because it takes time to develop the skill.

And there’s a statistic where TikTok has grown even before the pandemic had grew in engagement by 1,553%, all while Facebook engagement gone down 26%. All before the pandemic, and then it exploded during the pandemic.

Even though people are no longer sitting on social media all day long stuck at home, they still have gotten into the habit of utilizing TikTok. And now we’ve gotten so used to and we like the type of content that people are putting out from the short form videos.

But now even when they consume content on Instagram reels or on Facebook, that’s what they want to see. Look at all the other social media platforms, they’ve basically had to copy TikTok and implement TikTok the short form videos into their platform to survive.

We see Facebook now has reels. It used to be down lower on the page now the reels are up first. Reels they’re up first. Take YouTube, one of the first thing you see is the short form videos. And so that speaks volumes to what TikTok has done to social media and the shifts that it’s created.

Jillian Leslie 11:12
We have to discuss this. I was just listening to a podcast this morning. and they were saying TikTok is no longer just dancing, which I totally agree with. Is it only for young people?

TikTok’s Audience is Getting Older

My audience tends to be female mompreneurs like women maybe in their 30s who have families who want to build a business so that they can have the flexibility in the lives that they want. Is that audience there?

I know it’s there for food. I know it’s there for crafting, but let’s say I talked about parenting, let’s say I talk about wellness, or even something, let’s say more niche. Is the audience there?

Keely Stawicki 12:00
Yes, so statistically speaking, they are there. And they’re there. For those niches that you said. They say that only 25% of users on TikTok are under the age of 19. The fastest growing demographic is the 40 and over, and you’re definitely seeing that when you see these.

TikTok Tip 1: Research Your Niche

Jillian Leslie 12:18
The 50s and 60s something creators on there just blowing up to like hundreds of thousands of views, or hundreds of thousands of followers with millions of views on certain videos. I can’t speak to every single niche, but if you have doubts about your niche, go on there and search for the keywords.

Keely Stawicki 12:37
And I guarantee you because I spend a lot of time on TikTok, I guarantee that you will find creators in your niche that are very, very successful. And so, that’s the easiest way firsthand to be like is my people there?

And I’d say for the business space, if you’re a mompreneur, or especially if you’re mompreneur or if you’re a social media manager, or you’re doing some sort of business-to-business conversation. Rachel Patterson million followers. She’s one of the OGs on there.

She’s always doing mom body mompreneur, she’s the one on Monday saying, “Hey, if you’re a mom, and you want to create side income, become a social media manager.”

Jillian Leslie 13:19
But she though I put her in this rarefied category of like, whoa, but she got on there at the right time. And she was showing her body and it was that lightning in a bottle?

Keely Stawicki 13:25
Yes, she was there early. So she did get in on that early, when it was easy. There was a time where it was easier, just like you could look at Bitcoin and crypto and like, “Oh, I wish it would have invested then.”

Jillian Leslie 13:44
Exactly.

Keely Stawicki 13:45
But there’s still this argument where it’s still growing. The platform is still growing. And so I would say for the next five years, we’re still early enough. Maybe it’s not as easy as three years ago. But we’re still early enough that it’s a better use of your time than say spending time making Canva images for Instagram.

It’s still a better use of your time and resources than investing a bunch of money into Facebook. And so when you compare it to the other options of lead generation, it’s definitely your best option and the best bang for your buck when you spend your time.

Because you can create a single video and put it on there.

Jillian Leslie 14:34
So let’s walk through this. I am listening to this podcast I think ah, not another platform to invest in. I don’t even know how to get started. So, I love your first tip, which is go on to TikTok go search your keywords, go see what other people are doing on the platform. Then what is your second tip?

Keely Stawicki 15:09
The second tip when you’re like, I don’t know where to start is after you go in discover those other accounts that are doing well that are maybe in your niche or in complementary niches.

Sometimes I hear from creators, they’re like, I don’t want to go see other people in my niche because then I get impostor syndrome, or then I get in comparison mode.

Best Tips on How to Use TikTok to Grow Your Business | The Blogger Genius Podcast with Jillian Leslie

TikTok Tip 2: Look at What Others Are Doing for Ideas and Model Your Content Like Theirs

So if that’s a struggle for you, another tip, just look at people in complementary that you can potentially collaborate with instead because their ideas could still cross into what you’re doing.

To get started would literally just mean setting up your bio, setting up your account, and then start getting familiar with how you create content on the platform, how to actually create a video.

And the easiest way to do that is to use like a trending sound. And to just model a trend that someone is doing and type in some text and create a message doing that. That’s like the easiest way. Sorry.

Jillian Leslie 16:08
To interrupt you for one second, just to clarify the things you just said, who were my audience? Sound, could be music, could be what somebody has said. So just know that’s the terminology. Think of sound as like music or any sort of, I don’t know sound.

Two, I think TikTok is a platform where copying is encouraged. And in fact, it’s a good strategy. And the idea is, you do want to copy what people are doing, and add your little spin to it. So, as you’re scrolling through TikTok, you’ll notice this, somebody will do something, there’ll be the original version of it.

And then other people will take that sound like somebody says something and uses that same sound, record something very similar, but might tweak it in some way.

That was so shocking for me, with TikTok, you do not want to reinvent the wheel, you want to see what’s already cresting or starting to crest and get on that trend.

Keely Stawicki 17:20
Yes, and it’s kind of like, I like to use the word modeling. You can even copy the trend, but you want to model the messaging. So you can still make it your own. Because you’ll see people use it in their own niche.

And then you can add your own message to it, because that’s what makes it like the coaching and the entrepreneur space so amazing, is that we’re never really competing.

We all have our unique stories, we all have our unique message and TikTok in these trends really allow you to get those out there in a way where you are able to express your unique way of doing business and your unique opinions on things.

Jillian Leslie 18:03
I want to say this again. If you sit here and go, oh my god, I’m not creative. And I can’t dance. You don’t have to. It’s like actually really easy. It was so funny because I said to my daughter, I need to TikTok stuff and she goes, “Mom.”

And she started sending me TikToks. And she’s like, you could just take this and just change the messaging. And I was like, oh, it was like a lightbulb moment for me. And it was like, whoa, it’s not as hard. I don’t think as people think it is to get stalled.

Keely Stawicki 18:41
No, it’s really simple. It’s as easy as just going on there and saying like a little something you believe. Even if you’re like, oh, I don’t want to do this silly trends. I don’t want to have to lip sync something. Because I don’t dance on any of my videos anymore.

Some of my first ones I tried it, I had fun with it. And I was like hmm not anymore. You don’t even have to do that. But just getting on there and be like, Oh, I have something important I want to say. And it’s just like, I believe this and you just speak it from the heart. And that’s your message. That’s your video for the day.

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And now back to the show.

Jillian Leslie 20:20
Okay, I’m getting started, like one thing that I did. So, I was telling you offline that I tried, I did it for 30 days, I didn’t see a lot of traction, you just gave me some free coaching. So thank you so much for that, because I’m going to get back doing it.

And my account, follow me please is @milotreeapp, and then you can watch me on my journey. But what you said is, it is that first hook that matters. Can you explain what that means?

TikTok Tip 3: Decide Who You Are Talking To

Keely Stawicki 20:50
Yes, so we’ll back up even further, we’ll back up. So, what I’ve learned especially recently is when you start creating content for TikTok, you want to define who it is you’re speaking to. Some of us, I have one member of my inner circle TikTok program, and she does mind mapping and so she could help.

Jillian Leslie 21:12
What is mind mapping?

Keely Stawicki 21:14
Mind mapping is a form of organizing thoughts like a roadmap, and she’ll have like, an initial idea. And then from there, she’ll go into the who, what, why and when of things.

So, if someone is developing a course, she can help you design an entire course based on like, oh, well, they’re on this journey. They’re here. And then they have to go here. And here’s the points of the journey. And here’s how you branch all those things out.

And then authors, if they’re writing a book, here’s the point of the book, here’s all the things I want to say. And she can help you organize the chapters of the book, based on the things you want to talk about in the book.

For speakers it’s how you organize a speech. And it’s taking all of the thoughts in your head, dumping them on some paper and organizing and restructuring them into a way that’s productive. So it’s actually really boring in some ways, but we’re helping her to organize it and gain clients through TikTok.

But her issue was that when she would come on, she would say something like, “Hey, are you building a course?” And you want to sell more courses. And it was just this like generic messaging. Or, “Hey, are you struggling to plan your idea?”

Again, very generic, she didn’t really know who she was speaking to. And so you want to develop an avatar and be like, Okay, I’m working with authors, female authors who are doing self-help books, or I’m working with female authors who are putting together a digital book that will then help sell courses.

Now there’s an avatar. Now you can really speak to somebody. And so, I think when you get into creating a message and a hook that hook needs to say exactly who it’s for. So, if you’ve been testing the waters, and you’re like, “My videos aren’t getting more than 500 views, I’m really struggling to gain traction.”

It’s probably because you’re speaking to too many people with that initial line. It’s like, “Hey, are you trying to feel more grateful today?” While we’re all trying to feel more grateful today, like, man, but if you came on and you’re like, “Hey, are you ambitious and excited?”

For me, I get my second wind at the end of the day. And I’m like, okay, are you ambitious and excited at the end of the day, and then you wake up in the morning, and you’re like, oh, my God, I’m overwhelmed by all the things you have to do.

Here’s a tip for you to get past that quickly in the morning to get back to doing something. That’s like a really, really specific moment in somebody’s day-to-day that you can speak to.

And so, the fun of the hooks is that you can really dial in who it’s for what they’re going to experience and speak to that struggle that they’re having right now. But you want to make it interesting, because as people are scrolling the platform, they have goldfish brain.

They’re like, oh, this or that, or this or that. So when we put out content, we want to make sure that first three to five seconds is really interesting and speaks to the people we want it to capture. Otherwise, they’re just going to keep going by.

Jillian Leslie 24:39
I think that is such a great tip. I really do. As the internet, as TikTok, everything gets bigger, it’s like we’ve got to get smaller.

Keely Stawicki 24:48
And it sounds counterintuitive, and it’s something I feel like as entrepreneurs we all struggle with it and some of us struggle with it for a little bit of time. Some of us struggle with it for years, because we feel like we can help and speak to so many different people.

But in doing that, we become the best kept secrets. Because we’re not really speaking to anybody and marketing is as much repelling people as it is bringing people towards us. And so that’s a whole other conversation.

It’s one thing to narrow in on who you want to speak to. It’s another thing to be okay I want to repel people that are procrastinators. I want to repel people that make excuses. I want to repel the people that consume free stuff and never invest in themselves.

So you can do that strategically, with using TikTok content as well.

Jillian Leslie 25:40
Okay, logistics. Let’s say, I am going to do 30 videos every single day for the next 30 days. Does that sound like a good challenge for myself to see if I can get traction or to get traction to learn?

Keely Stawicki 25:57
So are you doing 30 videos daily or 30 videos?

Jillian Leslie 26:01
No, no. One video every day for 30 days, I wish I could get 30 videos daily, one video every day for 30 days.

TikTok Tip 4: Challenge Yourself to do 30 Videos in 30 Days

Keely Stawicki 26:08
Yes. So when you get started, or if you’ve been away from the platform and sporadically posting challenging yourself to create a video every day for 30 days is the best way to really kickstart things.

Because you can then test out different types of content, you can test out messaging, you can have enough time to get feedback from the TikTok community, on what’s working and what’s not working for you and your content. And this is where the magic really happens.

Because one, the algorithm will reward you because it loves when people are consistently putting out content on the platform. Two, you’re able to get feedback. And three, you’re able to really gain momentum and momentum helps you buzz through procrastination, and momentum will help you stay motivated.

So with motivation comes the ability because you might get two weeks in and be like, “Wow, I’m getting so much better at this. And it’s so much more motivating.” Now you’re creating two videos a day.

Jillian Leslie 27:12
That was my next question. Which is this the case, the more videos you can create per day, the more likely you are to grow? Because your chances you’re at bots are higher for one to go viral?

Keely Stawicki 27:28
Yes. There’s a system and a pattern to it. But also, there’s chance and probability. So the more content you put out there, the better chances of going viral or getting some sort of traction.

But the other thing that happens is, I don’t know have you ever read Atomic Habits, the book Atomic Habits in there, he speaks to this case study. It comes from a book called Fear and Arts.

And this was the initial study they did where a pottery instructor decided one semester, he was going to judge half the class or grade half the class on the quantity of work they did. So 50 pounds of pottery equal to A, 40 pounds equal to B, 30 pounds equals C and so on.

And then the other half would be judged on the quality of the work that they did, they only had to do one piece, but it was based on the quality of it.

So, he found at the end of the semester, that those that had created, the greatest quantity of pottery had actually created a better quality piece in the end than those that had studied the art of the perfect pottery and created only one piece.

There’s no way around it, you can learn about the science of things all day long. But you act mastery comes from actually doing it. So you can sit there and you can go on and you can study everybody else’s content, you can take courses from me, you can learn about it all you want.

But until you actually get out and start creating the videos, you’re not going to get better. So the more videos you create, the better you’re going to get. And yes, TikTok reward you but because of the quality of your content is getting better, you’re going to see more and more results.

Jillian Leslie 29:12
Absolutely. And there is a randomness factor, you were telling me you did a reel that you didn’t even think was that great, and it went viral. And you don’t know why. But boom, it was like some sort of magic. So you want to kind of set yourself up for more potential moments of magic, even if you can’t explain it.

Keely Stawicki 29:33
Exactly. And I hate to admit the randomness of it because we all as business owners want to create some sort of certainty. But there is a hair pulling like madness to it at the same time, which actually makes it really fun.

Because you never know when you publish that video, if it’s going to be the one that radically changes your business overnight.

And I think that also speaks of those of us that love the law of attraction and manifesting is when you really feel because then on that goal, and you allow the creative juices and feminine energy to flow, you can then be rewarded back with this randomness.

Jillian Leslie 30:09
How long should my videos be? I know TikTok has now allowed you to make longer videos. What is your sweet spot? What would you recommend? Let’s assume I’m going to do one video a day for 30 days. How should I think about length?

Keely Stawicki 30:24
Yes, so only very few accounts are allowed to do over the three minutes. Most of my accounts, I can only do three minute long videos. The way I decide how long my video is going to be, is I decided if I want to share it to Facebook and Instagram. On Instagram, for reels, you can only have a minute long video.

And so, if you want to repurpose this content, you’ll want to create it for a minute on TikTok so then you can share it to reels on both Facebook and on Instagram.

If it’s something where I feel I’m going to need more time to speak, and it’s like, oh, I need that whole three minutes, then I’ll just know I’m not going to put it on reels and it’ll just be for Facebook and for TikTok.

So most of my videos, I would say 80% of them are under a minute. And a few of them are a little bit longer. And I know I will be able to share them everywhere.

Jillian Leslie 31:25
Got it. And what about your description and hashtags? What is the best strategy for that?

Keely Stawicki 31:33
There’s a lot of arguments around hashtags on TikTok. I’ve seen some creators make videos where they say no, hashtags are better because then TikTok will have to decide where to put your content.

Some creators like Rachel Pedersen, say when you’re brand new, when you have brand new account, just fill the box with as many hashtags as possible, similar to what you would do on Instagram. That way TikTok shows it to those communities.

And you can start dialing in the style of content that would speak best to the people you want it to reach. And so I feel like those creators that are like, just use no hashtags, and get it out to as many people as possible. They’re not trying to monetize.

For me and my new account that I just started, and I now have two accounts, I’m very much like, these are the people I want my content to reach. I don’t want it to reach a bunch of random people. I don’t want TikTok to decide who this is going to be shown to.

TikTok Tip 5: Use Specific Hashtags Related to the People You Want to Reach

Jillian Leslie 32:31
So, would you fill it with hashtags that are very intentional?

Keely Stawicki 32:35
Yes. So my new account, I’m filling it with hashtags that are very intentional. I do put like a sentence in my hashtag box that will add value to whatever my message was. So, it could be a question like, have you tried this hack before? Have you heard this?

Something to try to get engagement and comments, or doubletap if you agree, because the psychology of how people consume a video is they first will read whatever was on the screen, and then their eyes will trail downward to that hashtag box.

And so, if there’re hashtags, they typically don’t read the hashtags. But if there’s a sentence, people will read that, and they may take action on it.

Jillian Leslie 33:16
And you want to encourage people to comment or to like it, because that tells the algorithm, “Oh, people are engaging with this. We should show this to more people.”

Keely Stawicki 33:31
Yes. So, this is where the magic comes in for getting more views and really getting a video to reach more people they say that the algorithm has like a point system, where a like is worth two points. A comment is worth four points.

I don’t know if there is truth to this or accuracy to that statement. But I know when people go to comment, the video is still playing in the background.

So, if you did a trending sound or something that was shorter, more like seven seconds or 15 seconds, your video is really going to play a lot in the background as somebody leaves a comment. And the longer the comment is, the more your video is going to play in the background. So it might seem like multiple views are happening.

But yes, any sort of engagement, shares are really important than watching it multiple times is really important. And so this is why as you get better with your content, you can get more creative with how you get people to engage with your video.

Jillian Leslie 34:30
Now is TikTok a community like are people commenting and I’m commenting back and there becomes this back and forth and building relationships? When you think of Instagram, let’s say you can actually build relationships on Instagram. How would you describe TikTok versus Instagram when it comes to that?

Keely Stawicki 34:54
That’s a really good question because each one of these social media platforms are still valuable in their own way. TikTok is not a messaging platform where Instagram and Facebook are. The way you build relationships is heavily built on DMing. On Instagram, you can message people no problem.

On Facebook we have the Facebook Messenger app, which a lot of use to even talk to our friends and family. On TikTok, you can’t actually message people unless you are both following each other. And so this is a really hot tip especially for women, is do not follow accounts back.

On Instagram, there was this big movement where it’s like, follow for follow. And nothing would come of it. It’s just like you’re helping build each other up. But on TikTok, you really don’t follow creators, or other accounts, unless you want to see more of their content.

There’s no reason to follow them for any other reason than to continue to see them. But what happens is, you’ll get somebody maybe a bot or a man, and they’ll follow you and you’ll follow them, well, then they’re like, oh, she must be interested. Or hey, now I can slide into the DMs.

And then you’ll get messages from random people like a bot, a spammy bot, or a guy sliding in there being like, Hey, beautiful, and you’re like, oh, so you don’t need to follow people back. It’s not a messaging app. If you’re wanting to collaborate with another creator, then that’s when the messaging is really helpful.

I’ve gotten a lot of podcasts and reviews, because people have left a comment on my video saying, “Hey, I’d like to connect with you about, doing a podcast.” And I’ll say, “Cool, I’ll follow you back and shoot you a message.” So then I’ll follow them back and send them a message.

And now we’re collaborating in the comments. But as far as getting leads, it’s not a good communication platform for that. So what typically happens as people will go to your Instagram, and then they can message you there. But the way that relationships are built on TikTok is really that one-to-many.

And this is where marketing magic comes in, as you put out one video, and you’re speaking to hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, depending on the virality of the video.

And so, the relationship is built through repetition of them, seeing you, following your journey, gaining closeness through whatever you’re sharing. And then through commenting.

TikTok Tip 6: Commenting is Important

Commenting is huge, commenting is everything on the platform, because they can leave a comment. And you can reply to it either in a video format, where you actually respond to them on camera and create another piece of content based on the comments, or you can just write back to them.

And so it’s really is in the commenting that a relationship is built and repetition.

Jillian Leslie 37:40
Got it. Now, one thing, let’s say you comment to me, and I want to comment back to you, and you said I could do it as a video. Is it like a one-time video just to you or am I creating a TikTok response?

Keely Stawicki 37:54
You’re creating a TikTok, and that’s what is cool about it. So, the person that left the comment will be tagged in it. But everybody can see it, it will be set in the comments. But it also can be published to your timeline as a piece of content.

So, this is how you can create 5, 10 pieces of content in a day, because literally you were going to write back to them, you could just create a video response instead.

Jillian Leslie 38:20
Ooh, I think that is so interesting.

Keely Stawicki 38:23
It’s really cool.

Jillian Leslie 38:24
One thing that you talk about, I took your course, which I highly recommend, which we’ll talk about right at the end, because I thought you had so many good things to say.

And one of the things that you say over and over again, we even talked about this before we press record, the reason why TikTok is good for your business is because you get to put your content in front of lots of people.

TikTok Tip 7: Funnel Your TikTok Fans Off The Platform to Where It’s Best for Your Business

But you need to then figure out a way to funnel those people off of TikTok to where you want them to go. Just having followers on TikTok does not mean dollar signs unless you’re part of like the TikTok creator economy and you’ve got a million followers. So could you explain what that means?

Keely Stawicki 39:14
Like we were talking about before we hopped on here, there are creators on there with hundreds of thousands millions of followers that only make like $1,000, because they don’t understand how to monetize it.

And honestly, the creative fund a lot of people think that’s where it’s at, but they pay you nothing. You have to have videos that are reaching over 10,000 views per video to even start monetizing those videos. So, it really isn’t viable, especially for entrepreneurs we know how to monetize a lot better.

And so TikTok is not for selling I can’t emphasize that enough. You don’t sell using TikTok unless you’re selling a physical product like Ecommerce is so easy. If you’re an Ecommerce you’ve got it made with TikTok you can sell through the Lives.

You can actually connect to your products like they have a shopping platform on TikTok for products. So easy physical products, I’m not talking to you, because you’ve got it made. But if you’re selling coaching or consulting, or some sort of digital products, it’s a little bit different. You want to get them off of the platform.

And you do that through merely just inviting. And this is really a sales tactic that I’ve latched on to because I don’t like hard selling, I just like to invite people if they want to work with me, great. Maybe I miss out on money. I’m not Grant Cardone, really hard selling people. That kind of energy is really icky to me.

And I feel like as women, we can do better than that. And so what I do is with my content, is I merely just provide a lot of value. And I mentioned how I help people in a creative way. And then I also invite them to my events to my Facebook group.

Hey, message me on Instagram, or I’ve got my Facebook group or I have this workshop coming up or I have this free thing. And they already know where to go everybody that consumes content on TikTok understands that there’s a link in the bio. And that’s where you go.

And actually, one thing you want to avoid is ever saying “link in bio,” or type in “link in bio,” because it will drastically reduce the amount of views your video gets. Instead, you can do things like Rachel Patterson puts link in bio, I put Zinc and bio, or I’ll type out profile, but I’ll leave spaces.

And I’ll use a 1 in 7 L or something like that. You just have to be creative with it. Or you can just say, you know where to go. And everybody knows it’s in the profile.

Jillian Leslie 41:44
But again, be thinking about that you want to have a strategy where you are funneling people off of the platform to places where they can get to know you, get on your email list, buy your stuff, go to your free events, whatever it is. So as you’re creating content, really have that end goal in mind.

Keely Stawicki 42:09
You want it. Everything we do on the front end of our business needs to be aligned with whatever we’re selling. And so for me, when I put out content, and I think about my content strategy, it basically boils down to who is my product for? And then what do they need help with before they’re ready to buy my product.

And that’s basically the content you create is you help them overcome the things or pre-frame them or educate them to whatever your product does. And then it’s really simple to get them to consume your product, because you’ve already done the work on the front end.

Jillian Leslie 42:44
Got it. As we wrap up, will you talk about why you ended up with two TikTok accounts?

Keely Stawicki 42:50
So this is really recent, basically, a few days ago, my original accounts, I had just been playing around with. I didn’t know the things that I know now. And I went viral for being a digital nomad. And all of the people that became clients based on that I helped start entry level businesses.

I ran a challenge and they bought into my courses. But then I also ran a challenge and I sold them into high ticket coaching program to help them start a business. I since learned, I don’t want to help them. I don’t want to help beginners, very beginners start businesses.

So, I created a free course that I now send them to, and I’m going a different route with all of that. But I learned that and I was like, okay, I don’t want to speak to digital nomad life as much I want to talk about funnels and marketing and TikTok, well, that audience didn’t want to hear that stuff.

And they were just like, “No we want to get a job. We want to get a job and jobs are easier to get and then we can travel.” And I was like, “No, not a job, jobs are for suckers, build a business. I know it’s hard, but it’s worth it.” And I just couldn’t get them to latch on that idea that audience didn’t want to hear that.

And so, when I put out my content about marketing, it would get like 500 views, 800 views and I was used to getting 10,000 views or 50,000 views on my videos and I was like what is happening? And for like six weeks now I’ve been struggling with that. And I was trying to pivot the account.

And I was saying flatline with my followers and I wasn’t growing. And then it was like affecting me because I was like, I’m the TikTok queen, and I’m the one doing these workshops and how can I be teaching it if my own account stopped growing.

And so I did this test, and it was like, okay, I’m going to go back to my old style of content, which is kind of this like vlog, sharing Mexico, sharing the lifestyle. And after weeks and weeks of getting like 500 to 1,000 views, the video, right as I posted it reached 10,000 in like eight hours and then it’s now at like, 15,000.

I don’t think I checked it this morning, but I’m like, Okay, I’m going to start a new account and I’m going to take some of my recent videos from my old account about marketing and publish them to a new account.

And they’ve done twice as well on my new account, which is Marketing with Keely on TikTok and they’ve been twice as well there. And I’m like, okay, because what I’ve learned from this validated what I’ve been seeing other creators say about how the algorithm works.

The way the algorithm works is that the video that you publish is shown to 5% of your current following. If your current following doesn’t interact or doesn’t like it or doesn’t watch it, then it won’t get pushed to as many people.

So immediately it is stunted because even though it’ll show it outside your following, it won’t be shown to as many people because your current following didn’t even like it. So because my current following didn’t want to hear about marketing or TikTok. It wasn’t reaching more people. And I was just staying stuck.

And so this is why it’s really important to develop who it is that you want to help and speak with and really create content off the get go to that person and be really intentional about who you’re speaking to. Otherwise, you end up going viral or something you didn’t mean to and you’ll stay stuck for a bit.

Jillian Leslie 46:08
Got it. So, one of your accounts is about living the digital nomad life in Mexico.

Keely Stawicki 46:14
Yes.

Jillian Leslie 46:14
Cool things in Mexico, what it’s like to be an expat. All of that. And then the other side now is really dialing in on marketing, growing businesses, all that geeky stuff that only online entrepreneurs know.

Keely Stawicki 46:33
Yes. And I originally had thought they could go together, because I had been working my VA and a few other people were like, No, you can make it work like Rachel Patterson, you can make it fit together. And it just wasn’t working.

And I felt like I was hitting a brick wall all the time with getting my content out there. And I was like, okay, I’ll just separate them and then those that want to learn about marketing can still follow my Nomad life, but they just look at the other account. They can just follow those accounts

Jillian Leslie 47:00
And are you funneling people from your first account say, “Hey, if you’re this person, come follow me over here.”

Keely Stawicki 47:07
I’ve literally just started this like three days ago. So I’m planning on doing that. I’m slowly doing that I started telling my Instagram and my Facebook and everything go follow me over here. And you can watch my journey.

It’s kind of a progression and it’s always evolving, but yes, that’s the plan is to be like, hey, if you want to learn more in depth about marketing, I started a second account. You can go follow me over there. It’s tagged below.

Jillian Leslie 47:34
Got it. Keely, I have learned so much from you, I highly recommend your course. I did a live thing with you. Would you tell people how they can learn more about that how they can work with you and how to find you on TikTok?

Keely Stawicki 47:50
Yes, so you can find me on TikTok my two accounts @rebelkeely.

Jillian Leslie 47:52
Can you spell it?

Keely Stawicki 47:58
Yes, R-E-B-E-L-K-E-E-L-Y. That’s my account where I share my nomad lifestyle. So first accounts up to 38,400 followers. And then my second account I just started few days ago. That’s marketingwithkeely, K-E-E-L-Y is how I spell my name.

And that’s going to be all like TikTok and marketing tips and more business style. You can find me on Instagram @rebelkeely. And then my every month I host a three day live workshop called Jumpstart your TikTok workshop.

And this is basically how to set your account up for success and how to really dive into creating a direction for your content, and really starting out those first 30 days with success. My next one is the 2nd of May, depending on when this podcast airs and then I will have another one probably the beginning of June.

And with that what you had also bought was I have a 30 day Toolkit, which is really cool. It has the five things I wish I knew before I went viral, which is like setting up systems. It has a mini course on how to set up your TikTok funnel.

There’s also a TikTok madlib templates to help you kind of script out your videos especially the speaking of teaching style videos. And lastly, there are 50 high converting hooks that I’ve used in a lot of my videos that have done well.

So, you have all the resources you need to really set off on the right foot in your first 30 days using TikTok.

Jillian Leslie 49:38
I have to say, I have learned so much from you and I think you are a really awesome TikTok teacher, because you break it down so that it’s not intimidating and I was able to jump in and excited after taking your course.

So I just want to say I appreciate you coming back for a second time, and I have just so enjoyed becoming your friend.

Keely Stawicki 50:04
Oh, thank you. Yeah, this has been really fun. And I forgot to drop the link for that workshop. It is tiktokfunnelsforcoaches.com is how you can join the workshop for that. But yeah, I really appreciate this conversation.

And I’m excited. I forgot to follow you back on TikTok so now I’ll be paying attention to those that I can drop comments and little tips for you to help you grow even more on there.

Jillian Leslie 50:30
I love that. Well, again, thanks for coming on the show.

Keely Stawicki 50:34
Of course. Thanks so much for having me.

Jillian Leslie 50:36
I hope you guys liked this episode. I really like Keely. I feel like she has such warm, helpful energy. It’s why I bought her course. And why I wanted her on the podcast.

Couple things that she talked about that I think are really important. And one is intentionality that you really have to think about what your audience is struggling with. What problem you can solve for them, how to educate them about what you offer, and that all the pieces have to make sense and they have to line up.

I also like that she’s experimenting and she’s willing to be out there trying new things. I think that’s the name of the game. It’s all about experimentation because only the market will tell you whether you’re right.

So before I go, I’ve got two things. If you want to grow your TikTok followers, install our MiloTree pop-up app on your blog, and it will grow your followers while you sleep just head to milotree.com.

Also, if you want to set up a paid workshop, but you don’t know what to teach, get my free download, go to milotree.com/workshopidea. Get the worksheet, fill it out and you’ll have an idea and if you have an audience remember there’s money to be had.

If you want me to help you set it up. I would love to for free. Just reach out to me at jillian@milotree.com and I will see you here again next week.

Other Blogger Genius Podcast episodes to listen to:

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