7. How To Use TikTok For Business with Wave Wyld

We're diving headfirst into the world of TikTok, the app that's shaking up the social media game. Wave Wyld is a TikTok Marketing and Trends authority with an impressive following of over 370,000 on the platform. With a focus on content-first strategies and community building, Wave has revolutionized TikTok marketing, guiding countless creators and business owners to enhance their impact and profitability. 

Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or a curious newcomer, this episode is your best resource for improving your approach to TikTok marketing.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

• [02:32] - The pivotal moments that led Wave to discover TikTok's potential for business growth and community engagement.

• [07:36] - The importance of authenticity and relatability in building trust and connection with audiences on TikTok.

• [11:41] - Key differences between the cultures of TikTok and Instagram, and strategies for effectively navigating each platform.

• [16:10] - Leveraging TikTok's unique features, such as the For You page and short-form content, to optimize discoverability and engagement.

• [19:27] - Practical approaches for businesses to drive sales and monetize their TikTok presence, including utilizing the link in bio and crafting compelling content.

• [20:24] - Strategies for rapidly growing your TikTok following and access to essential features like the link in bio.

Links mentioned in this episode…

TikTok Mastery Membership (only $19 a month for Strut It listeners!)

https://www.wavewyld.com/a/2147527043/VCzzUPmk (affiliate)

Free Guide: 9 Short-Form Video Formats You Can Make In Under 10 Minutes

https://www.wavewyld.com/short-form-videos

Wave on IG: https://www.instagram.com/wavewyld

Wave on TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@wavewyld

Quotes

"[13:48] - One of the easiest ways to sell on TikTok is through trends. It doesn't feel so salesy. It's more subtle. 

"[18:27] - 'If you're new to TikTok, you can grow to a thousand followers so much faster than on Instagram with the right strategy.'

TRANSCRIPT

S3 Ep07  How To Use TikTok For Business with Wave Wyld

00:00

You're in luck because today I have TikTok marketing expert and influencer, Wave Wyld on the pod. She is gonna be answering all of my questions like should your business be on TikTok? What is the difference between the culture on Instagram versus TikTok? And what kinds of Instagram content that we're already creating can be repurposed for TikTok. So your content can go further faster.

00:26

I'm so excited for you to listen in and learn all about TikTok and how you can leverage it in your social media marketing strategy. Let's dive in.

Welcome to Strut it, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole lead work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place.

00:31

Let's dive in.

00:43

and pumped about our guest expert today. Her name is Wave Wyld and she is a TikTok marketing and trends expert with an audience of over 370,000 followers on TikTok. Holy cow, that's amazing. She has helped thousands of creators and business owners grow their TikTok accounts with a content-first and community approach.

01:10

so that they can make more impact and profit. I love that so much. With a background in personal branding, Wave launched a brand on TikTok as the queen of trend alerts, which then started the movement of trend alert style videos that has become a mainstay within the social media industry. Wave has participated in creator community programs with TikTok and YouTube and regularly appears in national media.

01:38

Top rated podcasts like this one and social media summits. Wave welcome to the show. I'm so happy you're here. Thank you for having me. I am so excited to be here and talk all things tickety-tock, yeah. Oh my gosh, I love it. We're dancing. Okay, so for people who don't know you and your background, can you give us a brief overview of how you landed on TikTok?

02:05

and grew your following in your community. Yeah, the short story is I got on TikTok during the pandemic, like a lot of people. I had a business doing personal brand photography and personal brand coaching, and I got on the app. A friend encouraged me to just start creating. I didn't know what I was doing, so I know what it feels like when you just get on the app and it's like, what? This is like another planet on here. What is going on?

02:32

I did not know what I was doing. I was just posting all kinds of random videos about photography, personal branding, mindset tips. I had one video go viral and that's how they get you hooked. And I got so hooked. I started sharing my story, my viral stories with my audience and was getting a lot of questions. And then it was like light bulb moment. I could help business owners use TikTok as another social media marketing tool. Cause that is how I saw it. It is primarily an entertainment platform.

03:02

but I saw it as another social media marketing tool. And so I just quickly did a pivot, huge pivot and started learning and became obsessed with TikTok, everything I could and started, you know, my TikTok coaching consulting business. I love that. And I had a similar experience when I first got on the app. I was so overwhelmed by it. I was like, I don't get this. Like the videos I was seeing, of course, at that point.

03:29

when you first create an account, your feed is not curated to like your interests or what you're into. So it was just showing me these things that I was almost like offended. I was like, what is this? Why do people like this? And it really takes some time to get the algorithm like showing you the content that you want and for you to just find your community within the app. Would you say that that's true? Absolutely. It is scary. I remember.

03:58

I think for at least two weeks, my first two weeks on the app, I was scared to even like tap buttons. I was like, man, there's so many buttons and things that you can do on this app. It was so overwhelming. Yeah, and it took a little bit time to get used to it. And now it just feels natural. Yep. Totally. And I also wanna just highlight, like we are both two successful CEOs who are leveraging this platform to grow our business. And...

04:26

I love to highlight that because so many of my clients that I work with say to me, Elizabeth, I thought that TikTok was just for teenagers dancing in their driveways. There are like grown people on this app making money and growing their business is my audience on there. So what do you say to those people who are like, TikTok is just for kids. It's just for kids who are like dancing in their basement and mixing music in their basement. Like what do you say to those people who are like, I don't know if TikTok is for me. I say...

04:56

That is so 2020. No, that is a myth that is totally been broken because we know how the whole app changed during the pandemic when so many different age demographics came on. Everybody is there now. It is insane sometimes with types of accounts. Last, was it last year or a year ago, I spoke at an auctioneering conference.

05:22

And when they asked me to speak about TikTok at an auctioneering conference, I was like, are there like there's auctioneers? Yes. There was a community of auctioneers on TikTok. Like everything is there. It's all there now, all different age ranges. You absolutely don't have to dance. Educational content is huge. And there's a lot of business owners doing educational content. So you are not alone in just doing talking head styles of videos.

05:49

Yes, I see that a lot. I see chiropractors and dentists and just like all these different professions Growing their brands and and building that know like and trust factor and I agree with you like all those educational like talking head videos They do so well because people come to these apps same with instagram. They either want to be entertained They want information or education or they want to be inspired, right? They want to feel something. They want to feel motivated. So

06:19

If you can incorporate all of that into your content, it's just like the gold star. Do you agree that that, like, do you try to do that? Do you try to incorporate like all three of those into your content or are you mostly focused on like educational informational content? I would say I am not very funny. Or.

06:37

Entertaining. So I tend to stick with my I think strongest attribute, which is educational content. That is what people know me for. That's what people come to me for. That's what works on my account. So that is primarily what I do. I love it. I just want to have everyone just stop and note what we've said, because a lot of us I think get really overwhelmed on these platforms where we feel like we have to come on and be someone that we're not. And what we've just said is

07:07

That's not really like my thing. Like my thing is I'm an educator. I want to teach people. That's what people expect when they come to my page. And that's, I would assume, Wave, what you enjoy delivering to people, right? Absolutely, yeah. You know, authenticity is key. So you have to do what feels comfortable for you because otherwise it is that energetically is going to show up. It's so important that people show up authentically on the app. That is a big part of the TikTok.

07:36

culture and you can tell when you're watching a video and someone is trying to be something they're not, it translates through camera. You know, you can you can spot that people spot it. So and trust is so big. So the best thing is to just show up as you. I love that. That is so true. And I've noticed that there's this thing about when people start promoting like their business or their brand, people get weird. You know, they start to.

08:06

be like all buttoned up and serious and they don't move their hands and they feel like they have to like read from a script. And I'm like, my coaching to my clients is always just be a human, okay? Like we want you to be yourself. Like you are the it factor of your brand, right? So, and the only way I would imagine like part of Wave's story that I also wanna highlight that she shared with us is she got on the app and she started creating and she just started.

08:35

playing with different ideas. It's not like Wave got on this app and she had this whole pre-calculated plan of how she was gonna use it to grow her business and all these things. When you're in a new app, you do have to have that mindset of like playfulness and experimentation and learning as you go. And then she started to find her path. So I just wanna highlight these points of your story because I know that so many of our listeners are gonna resonate with that.

09:00

Definitely it takes a little bit of time to kind of find your groove on TikTok. My original account, I still have it. I've privated it because I can't go back and watch those videos. It's just, oh my gosh, it's so cringy because I've grown right as a creator. And

09:18

and short form video expert, right? So yeah, it's just a little cringy to watch those old videos from when I first started, but you can expect that it will take a little bit of time to feel really comfortable and natural and get into your groove. I love that. I have so many questions for you, but all these things are popping up as you're talking and I just wanna ask you. So I am in love with short form video. I absolutely love that format. I can tell that you do too.

09:47

So can you tell me like what you love about it or what you enjoy about that particular form of content? This could sound kind of funny. One reason why I haven't made long form YouTube content is I am not super chatty and long winded and I am very pretty much like the way I am in my personality, I'm pretty much like to the point, give you the meat. I am not like hype, hype, hype. And

10:17

I will just give you the information. And I feel like maybe that's why I do a little bit better with short form. However, I have clients who come to me and they're like, there's just no way I can make a 15 second video. I have so much to say. And it's like, well, no worries. We've got strategies for that. Believe me, I can help you. All kinds of things that we can do. So, you know, to make shorter videos. Although, you know, short form nowadays is kind of getting like...

10:43

What exactly is short form? I always consider it a minute or less, but now these platforms keep kind of going longer and longer, but I like to define it as a minute or less. I rarely make videos longer than that. Yes, I think Instagram is now allowing us to record up to three minutes. Yeah. I have not done that yet either, and it is so interesting. It's true. The length of the video definitely impacts your strategy and like what works and what doesn't. Like what works in a...

11:12

seven second reel may not work in like a 60 second reel. So that is so interesting. And I also kind of consider like short form content under 60 seconds. I don't, that's just in my brain. It's cool that you kind of view it that way as well. I am curious because you are the TikTok queen. I definitely feel much more confident in my Instagram knowledge. So I would love for you to share in your opinion, how is the culture of TikTok.

11:41

different from the culture of Instagram? Oh my gosh, I love this question. There's a lot of different things I think are really important for people from Instagram coming over to TikTok. I can think of about four differences off the top of my head. So the first one is that TikTok has an FYP, that for you page, right? That's where people scroll and they consume content.

12:09

And there's not just one For You page, there are billions of For You pages because every For You page is unique and curated to that one person who has their account. And the For You page is how you get discovered, right? That's how people find you, they see your content and hopefully follow you. And when you stop to think about that as a marketer who is watching your video, it's likely a stranger.

12:35

It's someone who doesn't know you. They're scrolling their For You page. They don't know who you are because it's discoverability based. So, and you have no established relationship with them. So in marketing, right, we call that a cold audience. Complete strangers. There's no relationship there. And it's harder to convert a cold audience because there is no relationship. So your content...

12:56

has to really make them care. And you've mentioned this already. Like you need to stand out. You need to speak to their pain points, relate to them, create connection, make them feel something or teach them something that's of value to them. So sometimes I do see these large creators on Instagram come over to TikTok and they struggle to find their groove because they make what I call a lot of me content. And that can really work for your followers on Instagram because they know you, you have that

13:25

relationship already established, that's that warm audience. So if you post about a retreat that you went to on the weekend, this beautiful place and by the pool and the food that you ate, they are more likely to care and be interested in what you're doing. Whereas on TikTok, if a person doesn't know you, they don't care that you went to a retreat on the weekend, you know? What's in it for them? You have to think what's in it for them.

13:48

Is there something educational about it? Are you sharing a hack or a secret place that you can visit? That's how you would make it more user focused instead of me focused. That is probably the biggest difference I see. Other than that, there's definitely the authenticity versus on Instagram we see that curated vibe and highlight reel. Maybe it's a little less than it was a few years ago. I remember...

14:15

When I was more active on Instagram, it was like all about the checkerboard pattern and all these like different patterns you could do on your grid. And I think with Reels, it's becoming a little bit less curated, but on TikTok, authenticity and personality is key, right? People connect with people. That's why, you know, you don't see a lot of faceless accounts that you see all over Instagram. I don't see them on TikTok. They don't do very well because people connect with people.

14:44

So yeah, you see people on tik-tok sitting in their car making a video. They're eating while they're making a video That's even better to be doing something while you're making a video. It looks more authentic The other two things I can think of are the way that you create content some content types Seem to be different on Instagram compared to tik-tok. So on tik-tok we have photo carousels Those are really huge right now. Tik-tok is pushing them

15:14

but they're not the same as photo carousels as Instagram. So, you know, on Instagram, you probably make some carousels in Canva and you have these really designed aesthetic graphics. If you post those on TikTok, it will not work. Nobody cares, right? It has to look more authentic. It's more about posting selfies with text on screen that tell a story or a trend. There is also the longer a content on TikTok. There are creators who are making, you know, five minute, 10 minute types of videos.

15:41

And then the, you know, the talking head storytelling is also really, really huge right now. It's been for a while, but really got amplified with Risa Tessa and her whole, you know, who the F did I marry series that just blew up and gave her like millions of followers, which was crazy. And then the last thing I want people to know, is that the captions and the DMS are so much different on Tik Tok compared to Instagram on Tik Tok. We don't have the DM.

16:10

culture. And that's largely because a lot of the DMs are set to private for certain age ranges. You have to manually go in and check your privacy settings to open up your DMs. Not everybody does that. And the DMs are just not as robust. We can't share clickable links. We can't share voice notes or photos. You can only really share text and like other TikTok videos. And then the captions are not long on TikTok.

16:39

There is a large caption space, but this is the one thing about why I don't love making reels because when I make a reel, I feel like I have to make the video and I have to make a caption. That's like two things. Whereas when it's TikTok, I just make the video. And a caption is more for saying something very short. There's different strategies for that, but it's usually some keywords, something a bit descriptive.

17:06

something that creates curiosity or getting people into your comment section. So that whole long caption space where you put educational information or inspirational information doesn't exist. People don't read captions on TikTok. It is video first. I love that. Thank you for highlighting all of those differences. And as we kind of talked in our pre-session, Wave and I met before this, we talked about how Instagram

17:34

for sure used to be like so heavily curated to the point of everything on your grid had to have a certain look and color and it was just like everything was very calculated and it's definitely I feel that Instagram is like piggybacking. It's like watching what TikTok does and is always a little bit behind what TikTok is doing. Like TikTok is definitely the leader in many of these trends.

17:59

And I find now that Instagram, like what I tell my clients is the authentic raw content is doing so much better than the overly curated content. So what bugs me on Instagram is when I see people posting reels that they clearly edited in Canva. And I'm like, stop doing that. Like no one wants to see this like perfectly edited like word bubble float in and like, it's like too heavily edited.

18:27

and curated and what people really are resonating with is that raw content. But I really appreciate you highlighting so many of those other differences because that was a big learning curve for me as a business coming on to TikTok. My wedding dance coach brand totally blew up on TikTok pretty quickly and it was awesome. I mean, we started to get leads from TikTok. A lot of our customers would say like, I found you on TikTok and it was great but there was a disconnect for me

18:57

so much of sales happen in the Instagram DMs. Like that's a huge part of your strategy. And so I wanna kind of jump forward into this question with like for businesses who are wanting to actually make money and sell their products or services on TikTok. If we're used to like leveraging the DMs like heavily and you're telling me I can't leverage my DMs, like how do businesses make money on TikTok?

19:27

Yeah, so you need that link in bio, that very, very important website, it's actually called the website field. You need that link in bio to be able to drive traffic to your offers and your products. That's number one. So that's the main way. You know, you can just get conversations going in the DMs. I've done that. I do send links. I make sure all my URLs are really easy to type out.

19:55

It's because I might just type it out in a DM so they can either try to copy and paste it or easily type it out in a URL since they're not clickable. But yeah, it's, it's mainly through that link in bio and then through your content. So we can talk about that if you want to know kind of some, some tips or one of my most favorite ways to create sales content, promotional content, whatever you want to call it. I would love that. I would love that. I want to highlight to everyone listening. Like if you're new to TikTok,

20:24

You do have to have a thousand followers before they let you have a link in your bio. But what I have found is it's actually like, if you have the right strategy from the get-go, you can grow to a thousand so much faster on TikTok than you can on Instagram. Would you agree with that, Wave? Yeah, I just had one student grow a thousand followers in a week.

20:47

That's awesome. Yeah, you definitely feel the strategy. She's, you know, in my membership, she just took my feedback. I do TikTok audits in there, took my feedback and you know, she's crushing it. I'm so proud of her. Yeah. That is awesome. Yeah, so will you for if someone's like a newbie and newbie to TikTok and or they're like me where they're on TikTok a lot for their business but they're still trying to learn tips and tricks on how to actually make sales. I would love if you had a few tips for our audience. That'd be awesome.

21:16

Yeah, so the first one is, you know, you want to pay attention to your pinned videos. This is a feature on TikTok. They allow you to pin three videos to the top of your page. So people are when they check out your profile are highly likely to watch those videos because they were kind of checking out like, who is this person? What do they do? What are they all about? Do I like them? All that kind of stuff. So generally, I recommend something like an intro video and then pinning a video about.

21:45

know, your freebie or if you have a discount for your shop of when you're selling products and then you want to post like some sort of promotional video about your offer or products. So one of the easiest ways to sell on TikTok is through trends and this is my favorite way because it doesn't feel so salesy. It's more subtle. Most people don't think of using trends for sales.

22:11

They think of it more for like relatable jokes and memes and that kind of stuff. But the key is to use what I call the POV trends. And it all depends on the punchline of that sound of that trend. So you have to think of a creative way that you can use that, put your own spin on it. The way I describe POV trends, these are very short sounds. They are typically five to eight seconds long.

22:41

And each sound has a punchline. You don't really know what the punchline is until you hear the sound, but you can, it's pretty intuitive. You can kind of figure it out once you hear the sound or you can watch a few videos and get an idea of kind of what that punchline is. Then all you do is lip sync that sound, which can be either a dialogue or lyrics of a song. And then you're going to use text on screen that relates to that punchline.

23:08

and you're going to adapt it to your niche. So these are the most popular trends on TikTok. You've probably seen them on Instagram as well, but they're very popular on TikTok because they only take minutes to make. I don't think I'd take more than five minutes to make one of those videos, a POV trend video. They're very quick and easy to make and they are adaptable to any niche. So they're very, very popular. So let me think of an example. So let's say,

23:37

the sound is someone just saying, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. That's the sound. So obviously the punchline, or you wanna use that sound to kinda like share something that's exciting or hype something up. So you could just come on camera, lip sync that sound, the oh my God, oh my God, do your little funny expressions. And then with the text on screen, you could say something like, when you just discovered how to do X,

24:07

because you got the course on blank. You see what I mean? Does that make sense? Oh my gosh, I was just opening up my phone because I literally just posted a video on Instagram yesterday that is this exact strategy. So it is a sound from the office and he's like, he's like, I am just on fire.

24:30

And I was like laughing and kind of lip syncing, which I always think it's hilarious when I lip sync to like a really deep male voice too. I just think that's really fun for my brand. And then my POV on the screen was the text on screen that Wave's telling us to do. It says POV, which by the way is point of view in case you're not sure. So POV, small business owners when someone likes, comments, saves or shares their posts.

24:56

So he's like, I am on fire. And so I'm just like so excited. And my purpose in that particular video, I'm not trying to sell anything, but I am trying to attract other small business owners to my page. So I called out my audience in that reel. And that was my hope is that it would be a relatable piece of content that other business owners would see and potentially even share with their network. So that is a POV. Yes, POV.

25:24

can point of view can be your point of view. It can be somebody else's point of view. It can be anything. It's kind of like setting a situation. Okay, so I stalked Wave on TikTok. So everyone needs to stalk Wave on TikTok after you listen to this, because she is the queen of trends, okay? So if you're like, well, how do we find trends? Just go follow Wave, okay? So first and foremost, go do that. But Wave, you did something recently about like the shark tank trend and...

25:53

I want, I would love for you to talk about that because what I noticed just in the last few days is it's making its way over to Instagram now. And I actually just recorded it last night and I'm trying to find a really cool caption for it. And I know that one's a little different because it's not necessarily POV, but I feel like it kind of relates to like what you're trying to teach the audience. Yeah. So that trend, it doesn't...

26:15

work from like selling something because the whole idea is like it's this whole take on Shark Tank, the TV show, when the business owner walks in and they do the initial first pitch like I'm looking for 10 million dollars for point you know two percent of my company kind of thing so the idea is that you're pitching the sharks for something so

26:37

The most viral videos I saw immediately had to do with inflation. That's a pretty hot topic in culture right now. So people are kind of making a joke about how they want $7 to like buy, I don't know, a bagel or something like that, you know, because it feels so overpriced. So people relate to that. So you want to make more of a relatable situation.

27:00

And that's the most common way to use those POV trends is to relate to your audience, which is great for creating connection. And that's the key with the POV trends. And when you're making it relatable is that you have to make it relatable to your target audience. So if I'm going to do a POV trend, I'm not going to do it from the point of view of being a TikTok coach or strategist or whatever, like what it's like to be a TikTok coach.

27:29

I'm going to do it from the point of view of someone who's trying to grow their TikTok account and struggling with getting views, right? Cause that is what's relatable to my target audience. So sometimes it's really easy to be relatable if you have struggled with the thing that you're helping to solve. And sometimes it takes a little bit more brain power to think, okay, how can I use this sound and say something that's relatable to the target audience? I love how you just broke that down. I,

27:58

was trying to explain this in a master class on content and because I think that there's this confusion about it sometimes because I will do a post and it'll be hyping myself up to record another reel after my last one got two likes and 47 views. I think there's some confusion. People are like, oh, oh, I'm so sorry, you only got two likes on your video. And I'm like, no, it's not like that. Yeah, that used to be me.

28:25

But now I did that to magnetize my ideal client because my ideal client feels that way, right? They're so frustrated. They keep posting these reels. They're not converting. They're not getting great engagement. So I intentionally created from the perspective of my ideal client. And I think it is like, that's where I always say like, social media marketing is just a learning curve. Yeah, the basics of marketing are the same, right? Like we need to know.

28:53

who we're serving and how we help them and their pain points and their desires and their dreams and how we get them from point A to point B. But the way the vehicle in which we do it through social media is a little bit different. Absolutely, you nailed it. Awesome. So, okay, I wanna get into this question, which I'm hoping that you can have some good news for our listeners here because a lot of our people are creating a lot of content on Instagram.

29:23

So can you repurpose any Instagram content for TikTok? And what specific types of content can you repurpose? Yeah, this is a little bit of a tricky question because I have students who have massive success on Instagram from cross-posted content on TikTok. You know, they made that content on TikTok, they post it and massive success. And then for others, cross-posting,

29:52

doesn't seem to work. And then the same kind of goes for Instagram to TikTok because the culture is a little bit different on TikTok. So sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. You really have to test again, if you're making a lot of that me kind of focused content, it could be difficult to gain traction. But if you're posting the entertaining videos, you're showing a process, you're telling a story, you're educating, it could very much work. You know, most business owners are

30:20

posting educational content, that's that content that really helps you show up as the authority, as the expert, and it builds credibility and trust. So you could definitely try posting that to TikTok, to shorts as well. And then just take notice of what works and what doesn't work. That just keep in mind, I have seen some reels and some kind of real strategies.

30:46

that absolutely do not work on TikTok. And I guarantee they will flop. I've seen it so many times. One thing is on TikTok, your video has to be a minimum of five seconds. It has to be five seconds long or the algorithm just does not push it out. So if you make one of those like three second looping reels that tells you to read the caption, it will not get pushed out because people on TikTok, they don't read the caption and it's not five seconds long.

31:15

Or if you know you're real doesn't really it's it's five seconds or a little bit longer, but it doesn't really offer much It's more about just getting people to read the caption Then again, it won't work because you have to remember on tick tock people Don't really hit the little see more button and read the caption. It's it's hard to read You know the the text on top of the interface. It's it's just That doesn't work very well

31:43

and it's that video first platform. So if you're posting, reposting, or cross posting that type of content, I would recommend trying something else. These are such good tips. I wish I had had this information when I first started on TikTok. You're like, thank you so much for sharing this with our audience. And I completely resonate because I've in my wedding dance coach business, we do repurpose. I told Wave very transparently, I'm like,

32:10

I have a lazy TikTok strategy with my wedding dance coach brand. I have my studio manager create these reels and then we put them on TikTok. Many of them have done well, but part of it is because first of all, definitely our demographic is heavily on there. But secondly, it is the way that we create them. They're educational. So the best ones that we do are, here's three moves you can add to your first dance. Here's a first dance entrance that you can use, right? And think about that.

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How valuable is that to someone who's getting married and they're really nervous and they're working on their first dance? That is educational informational content and also inspirational, right? Like if I show a really epic wedding dance and tell the story of how they had two left feet and now they're rocking their dance with total confidence, what do they do? They tag their fiance in the comments and say, babe, let's do this. So we've done really well on there, but because of our lazy strategy,

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I have made that mistake. Our studio manager has made that mistake where she posts a video and it says like, cause she's just repurposing and it says read the caption. Those do not do well. Those totally flop. So after this interview, I'm gonna go meet with her and like, we're gonna tighten up because you can still take that video and then add the text in TikTok over it and say what you actually wanna say. Right, Wave? Is that okay to do? Yep, you can.

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Or you can add any extra information into the comment section and that will help boost your post, right? Engagement counts, right? The algorithm works on watch time on those likes, comments, shares and saves. So you want to get engagement on your videos, add some of the extra information in the comments and tell people to go to the comment section, get them in the comment section, because if you can just get them in there, it's highly likely they're going to stay.

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they're gonna engage or they're gonna say something. So it's just one way of getting them into that comment section. And that's different from Instagram too. We are starting to be told to like comment on our own posts and even like pin our comments to kind of start a conversation in the comment section of the post. But that's honestly fairly new, a new strategy on Instagram. So I didn't realize that that was so endorsed on TikTok that you were...

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But that's like good to like go into the comments and just add more content in there. Absolutely, I still do it even with my 370,000 followers. I'm always the first person to comment on my videos. We used to have a pin feature. They took that away I think because, you know, a lot of people, they didn't like the whole, you know, link and bio people just posting their links and that sort of thing and people leaving the platform.

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But I still do that. I still promote whatever it is, like tell my link in bio, but I just put emojis on it and make it stand out so that people will see it. But yeah, I'm always the first person to comment with either more information, more thoughts, more ideas along that line. That's amazing. And I just have one quick question about hashtags because I'm curious if I have the most updated information. What I was told is that you only need about five hashtags and that...

35:29

it's the opposite strategy from Instagram. So I coach my Instagrammers to find hashtags that are under 1 million views. And what I was told on TikTok, and you can tell me if this is right or not, that bigger is better, that the ones with billions of views, it's totally fine to use those as long as they're obviously very niched and directly correlated to your content.

35:55

Yes. So I used to teach that strategy to back in the day, 2020, 2021, to use the smaller hashtags. And then TikTok changed things and became like a search platform. And now TikTok SEO and using the search feature is so big on TikTok that now I use large hashtags that are specific to my content because it helps with ranking.

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It's all about optimizing your video for TikTok SEO. That could be like a whole other podcast on how to do that exactly. But yeah, I will use large hashtags with millions of videos in them, just because it helps with the ranking. Okay, yes. Okay, perfect. Thank you for clarifying that.

36:41

One last question and then I do really, I know people are gonna wanna know where they can find you and how they can work with you. And I know you have an incredible membership that I definitely want you to talk about. My last question is that I'm really leaning into that link in bio in terms of getting people to buy your product or your service. So you've already said that you mentioned it in the caption like you're telling people to go to your link and bio by checking out.

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your caption or not your caption, your comments. Is there any other strategies at the top line of your caption or is it okay to have it on your video? Like a compelling video and then at the end, like check the link in bio or is that not okay to do? Yeah, there's lots of different ways that you can do call to actions. I personally like to use text on screen and not say it because it saves a little bit of video time just to have the text on screen.

37:38

You can also put, I recommend putting a call to action in your bio. You probably recommend that for Instagram as well. So you want to optimize your TikTok profile page and bio, put a call to action to drive traffic to that link in bio. You'll see that in mine. I think I say freebies and there's like a little arrow. So yeah, you can also put it in your caption if you like. I would kind of make it stand out a little bit, maybe put it in capitals or have some emojis.

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So people see it and then you can also put it in the comment section. And you can also say it verbally too, right? So there's lots of different ways that you can do call to actions and the way that you say them, switch them up. I would recommend switching it up sometimes. That is so helpful. Thank you for your generosity and sharing all of your wisdom with our audience. Like you have been so generous and I so appreciate you just bringing all this wisdom and

38:32

Tell our audience where they can find you and more about your membership. Yeah, you can find me on TikTok, of course, and Instagram, it's the same. It's my name is at wave wild. So I just use my real name for my profile. And I think you have a link to a guide that I have, the nine short form video formats you can make in under 10 minutes or less. So you can grab that.

38:59

Or yes, the TikTok Mastery membership. This is a membership to help you grow and learn everything about TikTok. And if you don't wanna spend hundreds of dollars on a course, you get it all in my membership. So I have a whole module set up if you're just getting started with, you know, bite-sized learning and each step that you need to take. And then I also have monthly master classes. These are a lot more actionable. I just uploaded how to use TikTok to build your email list.

39:28

45 minute masterclass, absolute gold. And then you also get 50 plus trends every week, 50. That's for TikTok, reels, shorts, and content ideas. So there's a lot, there's a lot in there. And it's only 19 bucks. So yeah, definitely making it a no brainer. I would say that is a no brainer. Everybody go join it. And what we're gonna do is we are going to share the link to her freebie and

39:57

her membership in our show notes and on our website. So it should be super easy for you to find and access. And I also want to clarify that she spells her last name W-Y-L-D. So don't get confused. But Wave, it has been so fun to talk with you today about TikTok. I so appreciate you. Let's close out with just one.

40:21

final thought that you might have for our listeners who are feeling excited about getting on TikTok now after this conversation, but like what is one piece of advice or last thought that you wanna share with them? I would say if you really wanna get on TikTok or you're serious about starting, go consume some content.

40:43

But don't scroll on your for you page. Go to the search field and type in some words that you often use in your business and go find content to consume there. That is just going to give you an idea of how people are creating and it'll give you a lot of inspiration. So I'm not saying, you know, go copy anything, but watch the videos and study them. This is how I learned TikTok. Honestly, in 2020, this is how I learned. I just watched videos.

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And I studied them. I looked for patterns. I watched what were people doing. How did they get attention? What are people saying in the comments? That's like a gold mine of market research. Well, how are they getting people to engage? How are they being entertaining? How are they tapping into emotions? And I studied content. And that's how I learned to create content. But by doing all of this, it's just going to get your own creative juices flowing. And you're going to start getting ideas and thinking,

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and envisioning like, how am I going to do this for TikTok? How can I create a video, you know, this way? And it's really, really helpful. So highly recommend that's what you do. Even if it's just like five, 10 minutes a day, maybe it is a good idea to put a timer on it because you know, you can fall down that rabbit hole very easily on TikTok. So put a timer on it, you know, even five, 10 minutes a day of watching some videos, getting an idea and getting those creative juices flowing and starting to...

42:07

picture how this is going to look for you. Oh my gosh, you guys, that was gold. I'm so happy you shared that with our audience. This was so much fun. Thank you for being here. Thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. If you love today's podcast and you got so much value out of it, do me a favor. Make sure you have subscribed to the show so you do not miss when any episode drops.

42:34

and share this with a business bestie or someone who is looking to grow their brand or their business on social media. This gets to be fun, this gets to be easy, and we are here for it. So thank you so much for your support and I will see you back here next week. Thank you for listening to Strut It. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business,

42:57

then you're gonna want to grab my free monetize your IG guide where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at elizabethmarbury.com slash

43:13

freebies. That's elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies to get my monetize your IG guide. If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.