#124: What You Need to Know About TikTok for Your Business

There’s a new kid in town called TikTok, and it’s not just for thirteen-year-olds.

In this podcast episode, I’m talking to Evey Alvarez-Flores from Evey’s Creations about what you need to know about TikTok for your business.

One thing I always recommend is to jump on a platform before it gets too popular. It’s the easiest time to grow your page.

Of course, you have to take a risk to do that because what if that platform fizzles?

But TikTok is exploding as we speak. I think you are going to be hearing more and more about it. And I believe it’s here to stay. So listen to this episode to begin to understand the power of the platform.

And I definitely recommend you download the app, if you haven’t. Start playing around with it. One thing I have to say… it’s fun!

Show Notes:

• MiloTree
• MiloTree Membership Program
• Evey’s Creations
• MiloTree Mastermind Facebook Group
• Old Fashioned Milk Paint
• Unicorn Spit
• CatchMyParty TikTok
• MiloTree TikTok
• Catch My Party

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Podcast Transcript:

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

Jillian Leslie 0:11
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the show. Before I start, I wanted to announce that David and I have opened our MiloTree Membership Program to everybody.

What you get in our monthly membership is tech support for your blog. So all those nitty gritty tech problems you have, or tech questions, we’re there to help you and to answer them.

Two, you get a monthly workshop where we teach on a certain topic related to growing online business, and a monthly Q & A session where you can come and ask us anything about technology, about growing your business, about marketing about social media. We’re there for you. Check it out.

Go to MiloTree.com/membership and you can join. And by the way, there are no contracts you can cancel at any time.

I forgot to mention that what you also get is community and it is a wonderful, wonderful group of entrepreneurs all supporting each other, learning from each other, and showing up for each other, which I think is so cool.

So please, again, MiloTree.com/membership. You have any questions reach out to me, I’d love to hear from you. I’d love to answer them.

What You Need to Know About TikTok for Your Business

And for today’s episode, I have Evey Alvarez-Flores from Evey’s Creations on the show. And this is really fun because what we’re talking about is TikTok.

It’s no longer just for 12 and 13 year olds. I think we’re starting to see the explosion of TikTok and how to use it in your business. The thing that I will say is, it’s fun. So if you have not downloaded the app, definitely do start playing around.

It’s an interesting platform and I really think this one is sticking and people like us are starting to migrate over to TikTok. So, Evey and I talk about the platform, what’s unique about it, how you can make money on it, why you might want to show up there.

So without further delay, here is my interview with Evey. Evey, welcome to the show. I’m so glad you’re here.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 2:39
Thank you so much for having me, Jillian. It’s an absolute pleasure.

Jillian Leslie 2:42
I met you in my Facebook group, the MiloTree Mastermind Group, I was experimenting with this new Facebook feature where it’s almost like Zoom on Facebook and I said, “Hey, I’m going to do it.” It’s like I think called a messenger room.

And I think did it and you came into the room. And so we got talking, and we got talking about TikTok and I looked at you and I said, will you be on my show?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 3:11
Yes, I love that. I’m not sure how I got into your group. I think one of our mutual friends might have added me, but I am so glad I found it.

Because it’s just been such a wonderful little place to go to encourage each other and also to get feedback. It’s been amazing. So it was a pleasure. I’m so happy that I got to randomly go into that group.

Jillian Leslie 3:30
I know. I know. And it was so interesting, because I was saying that I had just recorded my first TikTok with the help of my 13 year old daughter and you’re like, Oh my God, I totally understand TikTok and I make money on it.

And using it and I was like, “Okay, we need girlfriend we need to talk.” So first before we launch into talking about all the different ways you make money including TikTok. Let’s start with your entrepreneurial journey.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 4:04
Sure. So I started blogging super differently than most people did. I actually have a background in nursing. I was in public health for a long time. But I’m actually chronically ill. I have eight autoimmune illnesses and a very rare genetic disorder.

And it got to the point where I was just too immune compromised to be around patients, especially because I was in public health. I was in infectious diseases. So at that point, I decided to step back from that world and came home.

And we had just bought a house here in Lebanon Township in New Jersey. I live in a very rural part of New Jersey, the part that is actually the Garden State. Everybody has this idea that New Jersey is nothing but turnpike and I actually live where we have mountains and waterfalls and trails and farms.

So we bought this ranch in the middle of nowhere and I decided I was going to fix up my little ranch the middle of nowhere. The way I bonded with my stepfather was basically building so I have been in his workshop. My dad is a constructor. Well, he was a contractor back in the day.

He’s now retired because he’s 85. But he was into construction. He was also a carpenter. So I laid my first floor with him when I was like, 12.

Jillian Leslie 5:18
Wow.

How to Start a DIY Blog

Evey Alvarez-Flores 5:19
So I learned all things DIY and I came home and I decided I was going to blog and I started building stuff for the house and refinishing furniture, picking up curbside fines. And randomly I also started baking as a source of income because one of the many venues that my father had, in his whole commercial property business was a bakery.

So I grew up kind of hanging out in that bakery.

Jillian Leslie 5:45
What year was this that you moved?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 5:47
This was 2009.

Jillian Leslie 5:49
Okay.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 5:49
I stopped working 2008 and 2009 was when I decided I was going to make my house look better. My income was basically baking allergen safe good to a home baking business, but I would work it out of the commercial kitchen that my dad had.

And one day I was doing a birthday party and somebody said, “Hey, you know, that piece of furniture that’s on your site?” And I was like, “Yeah, which one?” And they were like, “The one that looks like it’s for a princess.” And I said, “Yeah. Where did you get that?” And I said, “Well, I refinished that.”

“That was for my daughter’s birthday party.” And they just looked at me, like I had said the most amazing thing. And they were like you refinish furniture. And I said, “Yeah.” And they were like, “Would you do something for me?” So I started doing it professionally and kind of stepped back from the baking world.

And before I knew it, my blog was strictly a DIY blog.

Jillian Leslie 6:40
Oh how funny, and that you would be doing posts. Are you selling the refurnished furniture and blogging about it?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 6:48
I was in the past. For the first five years of my blog, that’s what I did. And then somewhere I think it was 2012. One of the pieces that I had refinished for a client somehow made its way over to Twitter and found some virality very early on in those days. I mean viral today is millions viral back then was thousands.

How HGTV Can Launch Your Business

So it had a few hundred thousand views and shares and retweets and Flea Market Flip saw it and decided to go ahead and give me a call. So very early on in my quote unquote blogging career got to do Flea Market Flip on HGTV and that just open the doors for everything that was what did it for me.

Jillian Leslie 7:29
Okay, first of all, what did you do on the show? What did you refinish and what doors opened for you?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 7:40
I decided to go the very traditional route because as somebody who was restoring antiques at that time, I didn’t want to just slap a paint like acrylic paint on a piece and call it a day. So there was a lot of actual refinishing done on the show which took up so much of the time for the flip day.

But we actually built a rolling bar cart from two garden carts like we soldered, took it apart, completely took it apart, and then put it all back together to a cart. And that was our mirror project. So we made our own little mirror with fake mercury glass, just the Krylon spray and some apple cider vinegar.

And then we refinish the very beautiful old, old old chair. It was a Bishop’s chair, the chair had to be at least 200, 300 years old and it had come out of a giant Catholic Church, beautiful, beautiful church in New England somewhere. So we actually restored that the proper way.

We took the entire chair apart and completely fixed everything that was wrong with it. And just varnish it. We did not paint that beautiful chair. And we also did a captain’s desk, which was also a refinish as opposed to just spraying paint on it.

Jillian Leslie 8:55
Nice. Okay and then from there, what doors opened for you and how did you move your business forward?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 9:03
Well, after that, just having that little as seen on HGTV on my blog, even though it was just one episode was huge. That was the first time somebody from a different type of world to me, which was the Home Show Trade Show and Conference World reached out.

And said, “Hey, we’re doing a local show in Philly and we are looking for people to go ahead and speak and do appearances. Would you be interested?” And there was a blogger that was local to the Philly area that was in charge of spearheading that whole new part of that Home Show.

And so she was like, “Hey, there’s this girl Evelyn, you should check her out.” Which was huge and helpful and wonderful. And they reached out and that was when I started basically going from home show to home show all over the United States of America.

And just talking about how to refinish furniture, how to DIY green. How to make sure that it’s era appropriate if you’re doing restoration and you’re using the right products, etc. And that was when I started getting sponsored by brands.

Jillian Leslie 10:05
Oh, interesting. Interesting. And are you still doing that?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 10:10
Yes. So currently because I am so immune compromised, I had to step back. I haven’t done it since January, because I have been in full quarantine because again, I am very immune compromised.

Jillian Leslie 10:20
Yes.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 10:20
I have cancelled my upcoming shows. I did have one that I was supposed to do in Kansas City but I’m not sure if I’m going to do it. It’s in the fall but to me it’s still a risk. Yeah. I still do it. I love doing it I have found that for me what works the best is finding a few brands that I’m gungho about that I believe in greatly.

Because I personally won’t represent anything that I don’t believe in. I don’t recommend bloggers to do those one sponsor blog post per brand type thing. I prefer you develop relationships with the companies that you represent. For me it has worked out.

How to Create Ongoing Relationships with Brands

I’ve work with a company name Old Fashioned Milk Paint for over five years and then it was successfully sold. I didn’t just do the blogging for them I ended up doing the marketing for them which was amazing. I also worked with this other company called Unicorn Spit since the very beginning.

Jillian Leslie 11:14
Wait. What is the name of the company?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 11:20
It’s called the Unicorn Spit?

Jillian Leslie 11:22
You said that like as if it just kind of rolled off your tongue and I’m going wait, did she just say what I thought she just said? Unicorn Spit?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 11:31
Yes. It’s paint, stain and glaze all in one and I have worked for a long time with that company. So for me it is kind of like a very common word that comes out of my mouth. With no thought whatsoever.

Jillian Leslie 11:45
Okay, got it.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 11:46
But I could see how you’re like, hold on a minute.

Jillian Leslie 11:49
Yeah. Let’s pause there. Okay, got it. I will, of course be Googling that after we get off this call.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 11:56
Well, I wouldn’t be a good blogger. If I didn’t tell you to check out my website for my affiliate link.

Jillian Leslie 12:01
Okay, great. Okay here and plug your blog so people can go.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 12:08
So my blog is EveysCreations dot com that’s E-V-E-Y-S Creations, plural dot com. Every social media is EveysCreations as well.

Jillian Leslie 12:17
Okay, perfect. Okay, great. So anyway, so you’re working with these two brands and you’ve developed what I like about what you’re saying is it’s not that one and done philosophy, but that you’re digging in and building relationships with these companies especially they seem like smaller brands.

And therefore you can provide a lot of support and promotion and even like boots on the ground marketing advice for them as an influencer as a blogger, seeing what people are doing. Am I right about that?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 12:52
Yes, to a certain degree, it definitely helped. So Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company was actually the first type of Milk Paint on the market. The ex-owner’s father actually came up with the concept of marketing modern day milk paint.

So it had been around since the 70s. It really had been around since the 70’s and 80’s. But my job was strictly to make it a household name. It was kind of a small company. Unicorn Spit was a very small company when I first joined it.

We were lucky enough that it became global and huge and it’s actually now owned by Collectic Inc. which are the makers of E6000, which everybody uses in the DIY world. And I like that it still feels like a small company because the owner, Michelle is still the head of the company.

The president, the face of the company, and she still continues to work as not just somebody that’s promoting her brand, but also a creative mind. She’s still making prototypes. So I enjoy that process.

And I think it is important to find a company that not only you believe in, but that you form a bond and a relationship with. Everybody knows me as the Unicorn Spit girl. Everybody knows me as the girl that used to do the Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company.

Actually, I’ve been working with another brand. It’s a large brand, Cricket for a very long time. So everybody knows that I’m the Cricket tutorial girl, which has been fun and amazing. Just getting that foot in that door and being yourself.

Honestly, I came into Cricket in the funniest way possible. I was at a blog conference and I sat down at the bar and had a conversation with the old marketing representative and she didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know who she was. I was just kind of being my crazy self.

We had this long conversation about retro clothes about the 50’s inspired style that she rocked so well. And before I knew it, I was traveling the country with them. I was lucky enough to go on the Cricket tour with them. So it’s being yourself and ultimately that’s it.

I am not by any means an expert at marketing. I am not an expert at being a blogger. I always joke that I’m the worst blogger. Because I forget to blog and if you look on my blog you see a testament of it, I hardly ever write it down.

I am much better at doing the videos, I am much better at presenting myself in public on a stage and saying, this is why I love this company. So don’t feel like you have to change who you are to be successful, just be you.

But definitely you have to have a drive and you have to understand that you will get a whole bunch of no’s but for the yes’s that you get, those are the ones that you should invest your time in.

The Importance of Relationship Building for Your Blog

Jillian Leslie 15:30
Absolutely. And I love this idea of relationship building because it’s so much more profitable for you to have these long term relationships and to do the work meaning to show up and provide value for these companies.

And that if you can continue if you can be smart about how you can continue to work for them with them coming up with ideas, pitching them to the companies, you can create this level of trust. Where you make them look good, you make their marketing person look good. They want to go to you because they know you’re going to deliver.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 16:08
Yeah, 100% that’s it. You become a part of their family. Especially when it’s a small company. Michelle is one of my closest friends. I love Michelle. Whenever I go do Unicorn Spit stuff in Kansas. I literally stay at her house and we hang out and we have fun and obviously, that’s a very unique situation.

Not every brand is going to be that way. But it has worked out for me to just be natural and be who I am and not just talk about Unicorn Spit, but talk about my struggles. Why do I do DIY green? Why do I only use green products because I’m chronically ill it’s a part of who I am.

It doesn’t define me. But it is a huge part of who I am in my identity. So I definitely talk about that. That’s my opening statement. When I’m on stage, it’s the DIY girl that DIY green girl because I’m chronically ill, and I don’t use products that are toxic.

Or chemicals that are going to off gas and hurt me. And that’s part of being who you are, I think is important. It’s accessibility really.

Jillian Leslie 17:08
Absolutely.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 17:08
People can identify with it.

Jillian Leslie 17:09
And it’s showing vulnerability.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 17:11
Yeah.

Why TikTok Is Becoming More Important for Bloggers

Jillian Leslie 17:12
Which I think is great. Okay, so what was interesting though, what bonded us was this TikTok. Your excitement around TikTok. I feel like I posted in my Facebook group called the Milo Tree Mastermind group.

And if you are listening and you’re not part of it, please join the group because it’s a really lovely place and I’m in there all the time.

But what was so fascinating was, I think during quarantine especially I’ve been seeing TikTok just showing up in my feed people are posting their TikToks but not just as something that 12-year-olds are doing, but that all of a sudden, I’m seeing mom’s posting on TikTok.

And I posted in my facebook group who’s exploring TikTok and all of a sudden you post something in your Facebook group. And when people just start commenting you can feel there’s some sort of energy juice around it and all of a sudden all these people are posting I’m on TikTok, I’m on TikTok.

I’m thinking about TikTok it’s like you can see that it is now the platform to start exploring to start playing around with learning about it. So of course, I’ve got my 13 year old daughter who is a TikTok expert. She taught me the choreography to one of those famous TikTok dances and I actually posted it on TikTok and now I have two TikTok accounts.

I have MiloTree and I have Catch My Party, which is our original site. And literally I’ve posted two dances. However, I’m starting to see, I have this podcast and I was thinking you know what, typically, I go live with my episodes on Wednesdays.

And then I post them into my Facebook group and onto my Facebook page and onto Instagram and I thought hmm, I could post about my new podcast episodes on TikTok so I’m going to start doing that. Let’s talk about first of all TikTok and then how you are monetizing TikTok.

Also how you think about other social media networks like YouTube, which I think is really important to your business. So let’s start with TikTok. Tell me your experience when you got on the platform and how you think about it. Especially for older people, not just 12 year olds.

Why TikTok Is not Just for Twelve-Year-Olds Anymore

Evey Alvarez-Flores 19:41
I love that question. I am so excited about Tik Tok. I keep telling everybody how much time I waste on TikTok because it is a time suck. So I decided that rather than it be a time suck, I would actually use it to my advantage. I resisted joining. I have teenagers too.

I have an almost 18 year old who’s going to be 18 in 20 days which I can’t wrap my brain around. And a 16 year old and my daughter is 14 in August so she’s also a TikTok genius of course and she would say, “You should see all these people on TikTok. There are artists on TikTok.”

And I would say, “No, I’m not 12. I am not about to start dancing on TikTok.” That’s not something I personally want to do

Why Is Everyone Dancing on TikTok?

Jillian Leslie 20:27
Let’s step back for a second and explain the dancing on TikTok. So it looks like what happens is, there are these influencers who come up with these dances and most of the dances are arms and it’s like you’re not necessarily moving around the room because you need to be able to be videotaped on your phone.

But there are these dances and then people learn the dances and then recreate them and post them. So there are these TikTok dances they go viral and everybody seems to know them. My daughter’s in her room learning the choreography for these very specific dances.

I would say kind of the way TikTok got, at least in my mind it was the dance platform. It was like doing these kind of cool funky dances. But then now it’s become so much more.

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It’s Easier to Get Noticed on TikTok Today

Evey Alvarez-Flores 23:22
Yeah, so TikTok. One of the things I do want to say is that you don’t have to be an influencer to ge famous on TikTok and that’s what makes TikTok so cool. It actually didn’t start with the Madison Beer’s of the world or the Charli D’Amelio’s of the world.

They were just regular kids that happened to go viral because they were good at dancing. And that’s kind of what I like about it, that you don’t have to be this huge celebrity to get on there and actually make a difference reach wise.

You can actually do something on there that’s going to get to people and be featured on that elusive FYP your For You Page that everybody wants to be on. It’s kind of like the featured page on Instagram per se.

Jillian Leslie 24:05
Right.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 24:06
And you can do that without being a young kid that’s dancing or a famous person. I looked at it at first, it was this annoying teenage thing that I had to yell at my kids about all the time, because they were just spending so much time on it, instead of doing, in my opinion, something more productive.

And I would get mad, and my daughter would say, “You could really be doing something on there.” So I had her open that up one day, and she decided she was going to create me an account and she was like, “What do you want your username to be?” And I said, “Well, I am my brand. It’s always Evey’s Creations, so use Evey’s Creations.”

So she went ahead and started it. And she posted one video and I want to say this was back in February or January. I don’t know I can’t really go back that far in my feed, but it was one video and then I didn’t open TikTok again until I guess about two weeks before quarantine set in.

And I opened it because of quarantine because I was bored. And I started seeing a whole bunch of artists because of the way the algorithm works and it’s a very funny thing like you get the videos in your For You Page that have to do with what you’re excited about.

Jillian Leslie 25:17
Rght.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 25:18
So you’ll see videos if you’re this if you’re that then you’re probably seeing me in your For You Page. So I was seeing a lot of art and a lot of different either musicians or artists because that’s what I do. That’s what I love to do.

And I decided I was going to start posting my own videos and I posted a wrap up for the last trip that I did before quarantine set in, which was the Philly Home Show. And so I posted a little video of myself teaching people how to make solo wood flower arrangements.

And that was that. I think it got 50 views and I was like, “What this is pointless. This is useless. But my daughter was like,” Just keep going just keep posting”. So I started posting almost every day, just little funny things that I would see in my day, or little tutorials.

Or I would basically take my YouTube videos and speed them up and put them in there on a minute because you either have 15 seconds or you have 60 seconds. That’s it. So I started doing the minute long things and I realized that one of my videos got a pretty good reach.

How to Monetize TikTok with Affiliate Links

And I was like, “Alright, the next time I do a video, I’m going to drop my affiliate link in there.” So I did an opening.

Jillian Leslie 26:26
You get one link, is that right?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 26:28
The thing is, you don’t really get links. In order to have a clickable link on your on your profile, you have to have at least 1000 followers, which I still don’t I’m still working on.

Jillian Leslie 26:40
Okay.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 26:43
Basically what I created was a Bit.ly, because that’s easy to remember. And it’s also trackable, and that was my experiment was like let me put a Bit.ly in here. And it’s going to be easier.

Jillian Leslie 26:51
Let’s explain what a Bit.ly is. A Bit.ly is a link with B-I-T dot L-Y that you can customize.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 27:01
Yeah.

Jillian Leslie 27:02
And it can link to whatever.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 27:04
Yep.

Jillian Leslie 27:05
Okay.

Using Bit.ly For Affiliate Links on TikTok

Evey Alvarez-Flores 27:05
And so my Bit.ly was very easy. It was my brand name and I think it was Unicorn Spit was the first one I did. And it was like my name brand and Unicorn Spit. I opened up a Unicorn Spit affiliate platform and dashboard, I want to say three days later, and I had four new conversions.

And they were Bit.ly because I tracked it in Bitly. I literally tracked it and they were directly coming from TikTok. So I was like, ‘Huh, okay.” So I started posting.

Jillian Leslie 27:34
Okay, so let’s step back for one second.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 27:37
Sure.

Jillian Leslie 27:37
In TikTok, it’s a musical platform, meaning what you do and they’ve got cool, like current songs that I don’t know how you can get to use them, but they have this whole library. So really, it’s video set to music with captions.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 27:58
Yes. You have to remember that not just the dances are going viral but the sounds. So what you’re calling a song on TikTok you call a sound. It actually doesn’t have to be a very recent hip song. Obviously, there have been artists that have gotten TikTok famous and then made it crossed over into the actual Billboard music charts.

That’s happened too. The very, very, very famous TikTok songs that everybody knows are those artists. However, there are also sounds that people take like silly sounds. Things people say during a movie or things that have been said and past shows.

Or even just little weird things that back in the musically and vine days went viral. They’re also going viral because actually TikTok used to be Musical.ly and it became TikTok just recently.

Jillian Leslie 28:44
Yes. I think they purchase Musical.ly.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 28:47
Yes.

Jillian Leslie 28:47
That’s what happened. Okay.

How to Use Trending Sounds to Grow Your TikTok Followers

Evey Alvarez-Flores 28:48
Yes. And so I started taking the most popular sounds and that’s what you want to remember is that whatever’s popular and trending at that moment is what’s going to get you on that for you page. So I started doing that, I started taking the popular sounds and putting my videos to it.

And as soon as I did that, it increased how many people started viewing my videos. The first video I think I did only like 300 on it and hashtags helped too of course. I think I only did like 300 on my first video, but I was floored. I was like, “Yes, 370, 377 views. That’s great.”

And before I knew it, I realized if you are very honest and very real, and like kind of funny, too. It’ll get it going a little more. So I posted a funny compilation of me scaring my daughter because that’s something that I do almost every day, my daughter. She’s very easily startled.

My daughter gets scared if you happen to walk in her direction and say hi. So I’m the mean mommy that every time she’s in the car, I’ll turn I go boo and she freaks out. So I posted one of those. And everybody was like, Oh, that’s so funny. And I had some people follow me from that.

And then I started posting old footage from ComicCon and all the different events that I presented that I work at, because I am a little nerdy so I do things like ComicCon then I posted like an Amazon live video because I just did an Amazon live tutorial back in October for Halloween.

So I posted that and I kept adding my Unicorn Spit and my Cricket Bitly’s and every single product that I use, and before I knew it, I had a video reach 20,000 views, and I had something like 114 sales off that video alone and the video was so stupid and so simple.

It was literally me pouring the Unicorn Spit into the cup that I was mixing it into. And I left the original audio. Now I usually mute myself or record a voiceover like over whatever I do. But that day I thought it was funny my son and I my oldest and I were just talking smack.

We were just saying funny things about somebody that we know that we work with or whatever, like he’s going to snap. People don’t realize how crazy people are and they’re going to snap and so he said that and I kept the audio going because I thought it was so funny that he was saying these things.

And all of a sudden he realized I was filming he’s like, mom “Are you filming?” And I was like, “Yeah, I’m filming.” And he was like, “You’re going to delete the audio, right?” And I said, “Yeah, I’m going to.” Let me tell you, that went viral, which was so funny to me because I was just like, okay, the silliest thing is what went viral.

And after that, I have been very lucky that every single video I post especially the Cricket ones, especially the Unicorn Spit, I make sales off them. So that’s what we’re doing. I’m trying to get to that elusive million because once you get the million everything else adds up.

What Happens with a Million Views on TikTok?

Jillian Leslie 31:27
Million or a thousand?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 31:30
No million, so you need a million views on one video.

Unknown Speaker 31:34
Pushing You

Jillian Leslie 31:35
Got it. Okay, so you need 1,000 followers to get the ability to add a link, but you need a million views for them to recognize you and start promoting you.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 31:47
Yeah, and not so much promoting because you won’t get verified until you have millions and millions and millions of views but definitely the algorithm finds that perfect 1 million number on a video to have a little more weight in the algorithm.

Jillian Leslie 32:03
Okay.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 32:03
Than something else does. So at that point your other videos will start feeling a little push to once you have one video start going viral, it actually starts showing your other videos to the different people on your platform.

And for the record, most of my views are from the For You Page, they’re not necessarily from followers because there’s another tip, if you are a business, don’t use the individual account, use the pro account, because then you can see your analytics.

You can go in and see everything that you’ve posted by content, what’s gone viral, what’s trending, what’s not, how many followers you have you can you even see demographics in that same platform.

So because of the analytics, I figure out what time my posts have gone technically more, quote unquote viral than others. And that’s when I started posting. So for me, posting at 10 a.m. works 3 p.m. works and anywhere between 8 and 10 p.m.

My videos don’t get viewed until the middle of the night, but for some reason those are the times that I get views. So you have to figure out not just who’s following you, but what time they’re watching.

Jillian Leslie 33:08
Okay. And you were literally typing the Bit.ly link on as like a little piece of text on top of the video and people are remembering your Bit.ly link.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 33:20
Yes.

Jillian Leslie 33:21
So they’re not looking or anything.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 33:22
Yes, I don’t just put it there.

Jillian Leslie 33:24
Okay.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 33:24
I just don’t put it there. I put it in the actual video and then I make a comment. So the thing is, and this is so funny to say because it’s embarrassing, but the other thing that my daughter taught me on TikTok, if you comment on your own posts, that helps everything.

Why You Want to Comment on Your TikTok Post

So what I’m doing is I’m commenting one post and if you see most of the creators do this, they post their video and then there’s one young girl that jokingly says, “First.” Because all the kids comment and whoever comments first like it’s a thing they do first second, or what like I’m here early.

So there’s this one TikToker very famous TikToker that very famously puts “first” as her own first comment, which I think is hilarious but that’s helping herself that’s actually helping that content, get more views. So what I took my first comment to be was my Bit.ly.

So I say shop all of my links here or I’ll tag Unicorn Spit on the app. And I’ll say love repping you and that converts to sales, that converts people. Oh, let me check out that page. What else can I do with this product? And before you know it, you’re getting actual track, you know, sales from TikTok

Jillian Leslie 34:30
Got it. So in your first comment, you’re putting your Bitly link, which by the way, it’s not a live link, but at least somebody could potentially copy and paste it. So you’re putting it in the video with text and then as your first comment,

Evey Alvarez-Flores 34:45
Yes, and sometimes only sometimes as the caption. Sometimes I put no caption because I find that those videos do better. So I just use the hashtags, not just the caption, and sometimes just for fun, I actually tried the other day. The algorithm seems to also read your caption and find out what you’re saying.

So if you mentioned the For You Page on your caption, it’ll take it as a hashtag, even if you don’t use a hashtag. So I jokingly posted myself doing I think it was a canvas tutorial. And I said, “Look, Ma, no hashtags.” And that also got equally as many views as my other stuff got, which was funny to me.

And then people will comment For You Page. And they get excited that they’ve seen something on the FYP with no hashtag. So more comments equals more virality and it enhances the weight in the algorithm.

Why You Want to Ask Questions in Your TikTok

So that helps too and also I’ll ask a question, and people answer when you ask a question, and you motivate somebody to answer, guess what, that’s also helping the weight of your algorithm, in the algorithm of your posts,

Jillian Leslie 35:49
Right, because you’re getting interaction. Absolutely. Okay. How often are you now posting on TikTok?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 35:58
So I’m trying to post about three times a day.

Jillian Leslie 36:00
Wow!

Evey Alvarez-Flores 36:02
And the thing is that I happen to be lucky enough to have endless hours of footage because I have been doing what I do for 10 years. So I’m not just putting current posts up like today, what I put up was a throwback to an event that I did last summer, which I know is not going to happen this summer because of COVID.

How to Reuse Your Video Content on TikTok

So I said, I doubt this event will happen, I miss it. But here it is and it’s just little clips that I took from Instagram. E.g. I have a whole bunch of old story posts, I have a whole bunch of YouTube videos, I have a whole bunch of footage that I’ve taken from all the different times I’ve gone on a morning news show.

Or every time I’ve gone and done any TV show, I keep all of that on purpose because it’s promotion, obviously and it helps. So I I’ve been feeding all of those videos into TikTok and that’s basically all I’m doing is just taking old stuff and whatever new projects I’m doing, and making little clips of them.

For example, one project I got four whole posts out of. The first one was me pouring the paint, that’s the one that got a lot of traction. The second was the whole tutorial telling people from start to finish how to make this really cool canvas that I made.

The third one was, did you know you can iron onto wood? And so it’s just talking about the specifics of the project. Well, you can here’s how and I just showed the small clip of me ironing onto the wood. So you can get a lot of different clips out of one video. And that’s what I’ve been doing.

Jillian Leslie 37:28
Now. Are you putting affiliate links into every single video?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 37:32
No, I think it’s important to be fun, organic, and I think it’s important to not necessarily be in everybody’s faces 24/7 about you what you do. Obviously when you follow my page, you know that I’m a business it’s Evey’s Creations. It says at the very top shop my favorites here.

So everybody knows that I’m an influencer. I disclose it, obviously, but at the same time, I think it’s important to just be yourself. So like yesterday, I post I went all the way down south to deliver a gift to my sister on her porch. Because it was her birthday and I didn’t get to spend it with her.

When I got on to her porch her dog was outside and what ended up happening was he came into my lap and that was that. So I posted a video of myself just holding him and he just was so excited to see me that he was just nuzzling me and I was like, it’s just puppy love and this is great.

So you post little moments too. You don’t have to always be a business you have to be accessible. I also posted a video of my birthday little video for my sister, my best friend and I posted all the funny little clips from over the years as well as how we met because she’s not really my sister.

I call her my sister but she’s literally my best friend for 20 years. So I think it’s important to also set up information about your life and be accessible. It’s not just I’m a business go buy me stuff.

Instagram vs. TikTok

Jillian Leslie 38:54
Got it. Okay, so my daughter explained it this way. And you can tell me if you agree. Instagram versus TikTok. My daughter says Instagram is a little bit more about me, me, me, me, me. Look at me look at my life and TikTok is more about me entertaining you.

I know there’s of course overlap and lots of stuff on Instagram is to entertain you, but TikTok seems a little more playful. A little more. Let me make you smile or laugh or come up with some funny, quirky thing it feels quirkier than Instagram. Even with Instagram stories and would you agree with that?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 39:36
I agree 100% with that Instagram is curated. TikTok can be curated to a certain degree, you will have some of the bigger TikTokers that are very specific about their content, but for the most part, what I like about it is that anybody can get TikTok famous because it’s just a more fun platform.

I personally haven’t danced on it.

Jillian Leslie 39:56
Okay.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 39:57
But I think that’s so much fun. I think people that put themselves out there like that. It’s amazing. I have filmed a couple dance videos, I just haven’t posted them because I’m me and weird. But at the same time, I think you can have a lot more fun.

Like the fact that one of the videos I post, like I said was me just messing with my daughter. Another one was my daughter had a fall when she was installing her strip lighting, her LED lighting, and it was funny as heck, so I freakin posted it.

You can definitely laugh at stuff that happens you can definitely see a lot of the content creators posting funny moments that they’ve gone through. I think that’s what makes it accessible.

Jillian Leslie 40:37
How are you managing all of your social media platforms? I see that you’re big on YouTube, you make videos and they’re pretty well put together.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 40:49
Thank you.

Jillian Leslie 40:50
They feel really professional. Whereas as you’re describing TikTok it’s much more playful. It’s a little rougher around the edges. How do you manage I’m assuming Instagram is important for you Facebook now TikTok. First of all, how do you manage them? And two, how do you monetize these platforms?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 41:10
So the most important one for me is actually Facebook. YouTube helps because I can edit all of my videos and then post them on there. And that helps because Google SEO, Google loves Google. So it’s good to have Google SEO.

For me, I would be lying if I didn’t say I spent the majority of my day on social media, because I do. However, I have made it a point to try to set times so I’ll say to my kids from this time to this time, I’m going to be working on a video nobody talks to me, unless it’s like an emergency.

Because it’s the same thing if I was leaving my house to go work at an office, that’s how it would be anyway. My home is my office. So I do try to set timers for myself. I set goals I set alarms, I tell myself from this time to this time and tasks and list.

How to Manage All Your Social Media Channels for Your Blog

From this time to this time I’m doing this. If I don’t finish it, then I’ll finish it tomorrow at that time. I try not to stay up too late doing these things. Obviously there are times where it happens things go wrong. Like yesterday, I was editing a video and my computer turned off and I forgot to save it.

I started all over again. That happens to all of us, even those that try to work efficiently. But the reality is, you can’t let it consume you. I do schedule posts for Facebook, because I haven’t recently, but I used to also manage social media for companies.

And so what I would say to myself, and what I would say to the brands that I was working with is these are the days you have me from this time to this time, I’m going to go in and I’m going to schedule a whole month out.

So I would go in and schedule on one Friday enough posts for two months or one month. And so I would just go in and answer questions and kind of interact. Obviously the groups take up more of my time. The groups are tough. I contribute to not just my own groups, but I contribute to a few different companies.

Again, I love my brands that I work with, and I have a relationship with them. I help them out to answer questions when I know their offices are closed, because I happen to stay up that way. Anyway, I like being up at night. I like working at night.

So I will go into the Unicorn Spit group and answer questions at three in the morning. I know nobody else is doing that. I just happened to do that. And that’s something that I personally enjoy doing. So if it becomes work, that’s a problem.

So for me enjoy what you’re doing. And definitely set timers and task lists and organize yourself so that you do not have to be sitting in front of your social media the entire day.

Jillian Leslie 43:42
Okay, so Facebook is very important to you both your own page and you’ve got groups and then you’re helping out with other brands’ groups.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 43:51
Yep.

Jillian Leslie 43:51
And then are you posting on Instagram every day? Are you making videos for YouTube every day and then you’ve got TikTok now.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 44:00
So I’m not making videos every day. Again, I sit myself down. One of the things that I do is and the people that follow me it’s like a running joke that we have. You know, if you’re getting an Evey’s Creations video it’s going to have almost every single brand that I work with in that video.

So I’m working smart you know what I mean? That canvas the wooden canvas that everybody likes there’s this rapper that passed away so one of my son’s friends is obsessed with this rapper that was like his favorite rapper so for his birthday, I made a wooden canvas of his favorite rapper.

On that wooden Canvas I covered Cricket because it was an iron on project. It was glitter HTV from Cricket and I use my Easy Press and I use my maker. Unicorn Spit was what I stained it with the spray that I love that I always buy off Amazon. I was an Amazon link.

So I try to make sure that I list every product and I try to make sure that I’m using multiple products in one go because then I have content for different companies and different brands, and I can make little tiny mini videos for TikTok or for SNAP.

For Instagram I can photograph very very cleanly because again curated right every step of the way or the finished product and that’s so out of one post at one project I’m getting every social media and all the companies I work with.

Jillian Leslie 45:22
Wow! Let’s order based on how much you are making via affiliate income, which are your most profitable platforms?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 45:31
Well, right now, for a long time, it’s always been Facebook. So Facebook is number one, but right now TikTok is definitely competing. I never thought it would. I honestly did not expect it to.

I didn’t go into TikTok expecting to make a crap ton of money but I’m shocked that I have because apparently TikTok kids will buy anything that they see on TikTok.

Jillian Leslie 45:53
Interesting. Okay,

Evey Alvarez-Flores 45:54
Yeah, There are actually TikTok accounts that I have run into that are nothing but Amazon links because TikTok people will buy anything and if you have an Amazon storefront they’re going to shop every single item you have on your Amazon storefront.

So right now I’m in the process of making and creating just static pages on my site. So instead of having all the different Bitly’s. So Bit.ly Unicorn Spit, Bit.ly Cricket like having every single one that I have, I literally have Bit.ly slash EveysFavClients.

And you go to one page on my on my blog now and all of my links, everything is embedded in a very pretty picture. I made a grid of all of my products. So I’m trying to work smarter. It’s obviously evolving as I go along, and I am doing a little bit of research on trying to figure out what exactly does better.

I’ve always had an Amazon storefront, I’ve always been an Amazon affiliate. So I’m working on that platform now.

Should You Set Up a Facebook Shop?

Jillian Leslie 46:58
Right and the other thing too, is Facebook now has their shop functionality where they are going after Amazon it’s still too early I think to tell but I saw you had made a video on like oh here’s how to set up your Facebook shop.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 47:14
I actually think there will be more of a competition for Etsy rather than I don’t see it I don’t foresee Facebook shops taking over Amazon shops because Amazon is your one stop shop. Facebook, every store is going to be different.

I really don’t sell much. It’s funny because everybody goes well what do you do with all the stuff you make? Well, that’s the stuff that I sell are a lot of them are gifts. Except for Christmas time I sell ornaments at Christmas time. So that’s just something I like doing.

I personally don’t make a finished product for sale. Unless you’re ordering a giant order or small local little customs. Like this weekend I’m doing a onesy for a friend of a friend. But I don’t necessarily sell.

However, I know so many bloggers, so many individual people that follow my blog and the people that are in my group crafters that they literally make to sell. That’s all they do. That’s their whole livelihood.

And I think those are the people that are going to be opening Facebook shops. I think Facebook was so smart. To install this new feature, I’m actually really excited about it for people like me who don’t want to pay a fee on Etsy, year round to keep up one thing.

Because the one thing I keep up around are these edge glasses that I make. And I’m again a big huge nerd. So they’re bookish and inspired glasses. That’s the only thing I keep up that and maybe a canvas or two that I can easily reproduce.

For me, it makes sense to go to Facebook shops because I’m not going to have to pay a listing fee every time I have to relist to keep that active post up on Etsy. For people who are making a whole bunch of money on Etsy. Etsy might be a better platform.

Because they have way more strict guidelines than I think Facebook will have. I think Facebook will run into some problems. You’re going to be able to contest a lot more on Facebook than you’re going to be able to contest on a platform like Etsy that has been set up for so long and has worked for so long.

Jillian Leslie 48:59
What do you mean by contest? You mean like trademark?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 49:19
Not even trademarks? Because Facebook does a really good job. I’ve seen Facebook pages like of crafters completely shut down for selling Disney for example.

Jillian Leslie 49:27
Okay.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 49:27
But I’m saying more from the consumer end, if you’re not happy with something. It’s a little more difficult to contest it in Etsy because you have to have receipts you have to have like they literally asked for screenshots of you messaging the Etsy seller to see if they actually responded or not.

I think Facebook notoriously has had that Report button that everybody gets away with reporting, so I think that might be a problem. I haven’t seen too deeply into what their policies are. Their terms of service.

But Facebook has that sort of history of deleting pages with what people feel is no valid reason, but they saw something on it. So they’ll do it.

Jillian Leslie 50:11
Right.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 50:11
It’s a little more difficult to do that on Etsy. So if you’re a giant seller on Etsy, you might want to stay on Etsy, or if you have a Shopify, that’s even better.

Jillian Leslie 50:19
And you have to pay them to list things on their Facebook page.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 50:21
No, I haven’t seen that you have. I could be totally wrong, because I set up a very preliminary item for that video. I just, I wanted to go ahead. One of the things that I do in my groups is I talk to the crafters and I talked to my viewers that are selling to get feedback from them.

And I also try to help people. Like I said, I’m not an expert what I do is different than everybody else. I’m a blogger, but I don’t consider myself a big blogger. I don’t consider myself important enough to give blogging advice, but I have figured out ways to make a living for myself.

And a lot of it is just business sense that my dad imparted on me. So I try to offer that to my readers as well that’s why I do the videos like how to do that shop on Facebook or the tutorial videos on how to make your Cricket business more profitable stuff like that.

I try to help people so that’s why I posted that but I think that definitely has potential. I’m excited about Facebook shops. I haven’t really been excited about anything except TikTok lately, but I got excited about the Facebook shops the other day.

Jillian Leslie 51:34
I love that. Alright, Evey if people want to see what you’re doing on TikTok, how do they find you?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 51:41
Again, my handle is eveyscreations. It is very important to stick to your brand and I use my brand name.

Jillian Leslie 51:48
Yes. I get it.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 51:50
I am my brand. My picture is on everything so you see me but it’s E-V-E-Y-S creations on TikTok on Instagram and Snapchat

Jillian Leslie 51:59
And if people want to reach out to you just to ask you questions? What’s the easiest way?

Evey Alvarez-Flores 52:04
The easiest way is to either post any of your questions in any of my groups. And again, if you just search eveyscreations in Facebook, everything pops up. I do have a bookish nerdy group but that’s specifically for Cricket crafters.

But if you have any sort of question, you can always email me it’s info@eveyscreations.com. Or you could just reach out to me on any of the social media platforms, the many social media platforms that I am on all day long.

Jillian Leslie 52:31
I love that it sounds like you just have so much energy and I get why people respond to you so much, and why you connect so much on social media.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 52:42
Thank you.

Jillian Leslie 52:43
Well, I have to say this has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Evey Alvarez-Flores 52:49
Thank you so much for having me. It was so exciting.

Jillian Leslie 52:52
Who is downloading the Tiktok app right now after listening to this episode? I highly recommend you do. Start playing around with it see what you think and if you would follow me on both catchmyparty and MiloTree, I would so appreciate it.

And if you want to follow back, just email me reach out to me at Juillian@milotree.com and I will happily follow you back.

And also if you are using TikTok in new and interesting ways I want to hear about it, please let me know and I will see you here again next week.

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