Confession time: I’ve been messing around on TikTok this year after COVID crashed my business networking plans.
Gary Vaynerchuk is completely to blame. For a while he’s been pushing business owners to use TikTok as a way to get amazingly wide and free content reach.
I finally caved when I had to admit I had some free time open up. Thanks, Global Shutdown. PFFT.
I started a personal account and a business account but didn’t really do much with either for the first several months.
More recently, I began using the app more and I saw how many niche content creators were building strong, focused audiences.
Below is a TikTok I made about…this TikTok phenomenon. Oh, we’re getting meta now.
After noticing other successful users of this app — some even with super strange niches — I decided to give it more attention. I started posting more regularly on my personal account.
And then one of the videos took off.
No, not with 5 million views, or even 500k, but this video below now has over 115,000 views, and hey — I think that’s more reach than for any other single piece of content I’ve ever produced. And I write for 2 magazines!
This whole story about my viral-ish video even made news on this other website, DanaNicoleDesigns.com:
SO OK, FINE, GARY. YOU WIN. I’ll work on my professional TikTok account under my business name, too: @spirestarter
So far, I’ve been working on quick, but valuable tips for freelance engineers on the account for Spire Starter, and humorous engineering things that non-engineers probably don’t get.
One of those is “The Engineer’s Curse” which was one of my first pieces for Solid Smack. Back then, I focused on engineering designs that weren’t done well enough. Recently, however, I realized The Engineer’s Curse can extend into over-engineered products — such as a microwave that doesn’t shut the hell up:
Are you on the TikTok with the cool kids, too? If so, look me up, say heeey, and if there freelancing issues you want tips on, drop me a line!