My Experience on Tik Tok as a Wedding Planner
Whether you have downloaded the app or not, you most definitely have heard about the buzz surrounding Tik Tok! I started using tik tok for my business in early February after hearing MKW Creative Co constantly talk about how small businesses should be using this as a platform to gain followers and even book clients! (P.S. she has a great facebook page to help any businesses trying to break into the platform!) After a TON of trial and error on my tik tok page, I finally started building my views and gaining a following. I have now been on the app for 3 months and have gained a following of 80k, amassed 1.8M likes, and have had inquiries skyrocket from brides who found me on the app. So to any wedding vendors looking to start utilizing this new social media platform, here is my experience and what I have learned!
Why I was hesitant to start:
Before I started, I had SO many limiting beliefs about the app:
The audience on tik tok is too young- no one on there is getting married
This app is just for dancing and lip synching, not wedding content
I don’t have time to master another platform or create new content
But all of these thoughts that I initially had about tik tok were FALSE! And here is why:
Although tik tok started out as an app for mainly GenZ-ers, its audience has grown to people of all ages! It is the number one downloaded app in apple right now, so ya there are a lot of people on there. Also, even if it is only GenZ-ers (which hello it is not), who do you think the next generation of couples getting married are? And where is that entire generation hanging out right now? TIK TOK!
If you spend some time on the app, you will quickly realize that it is more than just dancing and lip synching. It is everyone around the world sharing funny videos, fail videos, puppy videos, baby videos, and yes, informational series videos!
Tik tok has probably been one of the easiest platforms to master. It took me no longer than a week to understand how I wanted to make videos, reach my audience, produce content, etc. It is the app I spend the least amount of effort on, but get the highest return!
The basics of how tik tok Operates:
Tik tok is unlike a platform we have seen before, and so you can’t go in to it comparing it to how instagram, facebook, etc. works… it truly is an app all its own. So here are some important things to understand about the app!
FYP- also known as the ‘for you page’… this is where everyone is hanging out on tik tok! Unlike instagram, where followers usually stick to their ‘feed’ and only occassionally mozy on over to the ‘discovery’ page, tik tok is almost the exact opposite. Tik Tok basically creates a feed for you based on previous videos you have liked, other accounts you follow, etc. The app curates a feed of videos it thinks you are going to like and this is where users on spending hours upon hours on the app.
Hashtags matter- becuase tik tok has this ‘FYP’, hashtags are actually very important. This is one of the ways it calculates who’s ‘fyp’ your videos appear on. So make sure you are using lots of relevant hashtags to your content and to the audience you want to reach. For example, I am using hashtags like: #bride #wedding #planningawedding #weddingtips #weddinghacks #weddinginspo #engaged #weddingvibes #weddingvideo etc.
Chronology does not matter- One important think to understand is that tik tok does not work chronologically like instagram does. On instagram, you have a feed of accounts you follow, and the most recent post from each account will show up on your feed… not pictures that those accounts posted months ago. Well tik tok does not work like this at all. Because tik tok is constantly sending videos to other users ‘for you pages’, this means they are continuously circulating all of your videos- despite when you posted it. So a user can have a video I made months ago on their ‘fyp’ at any point, not just in the time frame I posted it. Therefore, every single video you make should be able to stand on its own because a lot of the times, that will be the first time someone is seeing ANY of your videos. So do not make the mistake of thinking tik tok videos work the same as instagram stories, each video needs to make sense in its own entirety and not be referencing other posts/videos or be a continuation of a previous video. (if you do want to do a continuation, make sure to label those videos as “part 1, part 2 part 3, etc” so users know to go to your profile and watch the other videos in that series!
Consistency is Key- even though we have been hearing this for years about instagram and having a good ‘flow’… a consistent feed on tik tok is even more important! As I mentioned previously, tik tok is circulating all of your videos on their own. Likely, if a user enjoys one of your videos on their '‘fyp’, they will go to your profile to see if there are any more like it. If you have a completely random feed doing a bunch of different things, you will lose that users attention pretty quickly. They clicked on your profile because they liked what they saw! But if nothing else on your feed is like that video, then they are not likely to stick around. You want to make your content “binge-able.” So make sure you have consistent content, whether that is informational videos, like I have been doing, or behind the scenes videos/inspiration videos/etc. I also like to add text on top of every one of my videos so that when users go to my profile, they can scroll through my feed and pick which videos they want to watch/they think is relevant to them. Instead of having to sift through my feed or watch a whole video to see what I am going to say, I make it easy on them by having a quick text description on each video. Here are examples of the text I put on top of my videos: “wedding planning 101: flowers” “wedding planning 101: budget hacks” “wedding planning 101: engagement rings” See how these are all consistent, but give the user an idea of what the video will be about? This is what you want to achieve! Here is a screen grab from my account so you can see what I mean:
Example:
You can see that the cover of all my videos are consistent and that every one has a quick caption to let the user know what the content of the video is going to be!
Never delete old or low performing posts- in case you have not caught on to what I am saying yet… tik tok circulates your old videos- so DON’T delete them. You may not be gaining a lot of views or followers, and then overnight one of your old videos might go ‘viral’ and you wake up with a ton of new followers! Always keep your old videos up and let tik tok do the rest.
Always take a second look- it is super annoying, and I suspect tik tok will fix this feature shortly, but currently, tik tok does not allow you to edit your videos or your captions after you post a video. So make sure you are taking a second look over EVERYTHING before you post. Make sure there are not typos, make sure you have added your hashtags, and make sure the text that you add on top of your video will be legible once the video is posted. (if you place the text too low on the screen, it will get covered by your caption and no one will be able to read it.) Here is an example:
Example:
See how the caption and hashtags are completely covering the text I had added to my video? This is a mistake you definitely want to avoid. However, if you do make this mistake… do not delete the video. Leave it up! Even though the text is hidden, this video still had 539 likes!
These are all just basics of the app that I have learned in my short few months on the app. Within the few short months I have been on the app, I have booked several new brides, received over 50+ inquiries, and have grown my instagram following as a result! Follow along on my tik tok journey here and start makin those videos!