"In a month I have collected a million people in my account": stories of people who became stars on TikTok

If you don't know what TikTok is, this is at least strange. Short funny videos have already filled the entire Internet and are gaining millions of views in just a few hours. We talked with Russian-speaking bloggers who managed to catch the wave of popularity on the social network, and found out how millions of subscribers change lives, what techniques to use to gain more views, and why none of the new stars are planning to return to Instagram.

"I was amazed when the first video in a day was watched a million times."

I used to work as a top manager in a large company and I felt great, but at the end of 2013 it happened burnout. I realized that I no longer want to sit in the office, and decided to change my life. I spent about a year looking for myself: watching motivational films, reading books, meditating. So I realized that there was an artist in my soul. In my youth, I did not follow in the footsteps of my parents and entered the law school, and by the age of 40 I suddenly realized that it was time to return to art.

I began to paint and became interested in miniature painting: I made images on pumpkin seeds and matchboxes. Later I found out that there is a genre of miniature sculpture, when various figures are created from wood or nutshell. I noticed from someone that you can use graphite to make shapes on the tip of a pencil. The material is very unusual and under a microscope it looks nothing like it does with the naked eye. In addition, graphite is easily recognized by children and young people. They are very surprised that a work of art can be created from a pencil.

I started making shapes and uploading them to social networks: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Gradually, the audience's interest began to fade, and I got bored, so I asked my twelve-year-old daughter what TikTok was - I constantly saw an advertisement for this social network on YouTube. She showed it to me on her phone and said that I could upload my videos there. I decided to give it a try.

@ salavat.fidai♬ Don’t Start Now - Dua Lipa

I was amazed when the first video was watched a million times in a day. This helped to gain several hundred thousand subscribers in just a week. Over time, it became clear that the videos should be short and with trendy music.

I reduced the video time from a minute to 15 seconds, and the activity became even more active.

It became interesting to me, because an artist is always pleased when people like his work. I started uploading videos almost every day, and within a month I gathered a million people on my account. A couple of months later, the counter exceeded 3 million.

It was a discovery for me that there are such active users on TikTok. The response for a creative person is very important. Yes, you can work in the table as hobby, but I quit my main job and have to feed my family, so I also do art for sale. In this regard, social networks are very helpful in finding an interested audience, which can subsequently order something. The main thing is to find a balance and continue to do work for the soul, in order to satisfy not only the interests of numerous subscribers, but also our own.

TikTok's recommendation algorithm is very different from Instagram. Here, any video of an unknown person with zero subscribers can shoot and get into recommendations. The main thing is that the video must be watched to the end, so you need to make the video interesting and not too long. The audience on TikTok is very young, so you have to think about what kind of content will be interesting for children from 5 to 15 years old. Videos that will definitely go to Instagram may not shoot on TikTok. For example, the heroes of the series "Game of Thrones" were not liked by my TikTok subscribers as much as baby Yoda on the tip of a pencil.

Moreover, it turned out that if you use the names of popular performers in the titles of videos and put their music in the background, then the views increase significantly. For example, Billie Eilish or such Korean pop singers as Bts or BLACKPINK. The video with the music of the latter scored 49 million views. I stopped being surprised at how fast the numbers on the counter move, but this time I was again in shock.

Another life hack from me: keep your accounts in English. I did this from the very beginning to take into account the interests of a larger audience, because English is an international language. If you position yourself as a Russian author, your activity will be less. You must always keep in mind that you are making content for the whole world. Hollywood films aren't just made for America, are they?

With the millions of TikTok subscribers, my life hasn't changed in any way.

I am just pleased that so many people have subscribed to me, like me, comment, they like my work. The number of orders did not increase, because the audience will become solvent in five years. For now, she is only ready to like and scroll the feed with her thumb. However, over time, the platform in Russia will begin to monetize and promising authors will be able to earn money. For example, in the American TikTok, some guys already put active links in their publications.

TikTok is gaining popularity so quickly because the developers have taken into account points that were not thought of on other social networks. The platform is based on the Musical.ly service with a huge database of licensed tracks that you can insert into your videos. On Instagram you will be banned if you put Billie Eilish on the background, but here you can use popular music and create content with it: dance, sing along, cut figures out of graphite. This is a fantastic opportunity.

TikTok is a time bomb. Now the adult generation does not take him seriously and thinks that there is only pampering and antics on the platform. However, over time, everything will change. I think in a year TikTok will overtake other social networks in terms of the number of users. And if someday this platform also disappears into oblivion, something else will surely replace it.

"It's easy to make money on TikTok now"

We learned about TikTok when it was called Musical.ly. There were ads on YouTube and Instagram all the time, and we thought, “What the hell? Some kind of aggressive marketing and an incomprehensible application for children. " Then they stopped advertising the platform so actively, and gradually everyone forgot about it.

In January 2017, my brother and I started a business: we burned portraits to order. Previously, we promoted our services on VKontakte and everything was fine, but then our method started to get worse and we thought about working through bloggers. True, most of them have very expensive ads, so they decided to become popular on their own.

First moved to Instagram, however, they quickly realized that they could not develop there without a large advertising budget. I don't know how we remembered TikTok, but we decided to try to advance there: the social network was just gaining popularity. We created an account on June 26 and immediately uploaded the first video - some kind of challenge. In a few minutes, it got only 10 views. We got upset and thought it was some kind of bullshit. And in the evening about 3 thousand people subscribed to us.

We started shooting trending videos and uploading them almost every day. A week later, the subscriber counter exceeded 30 thousand.

Once we saw a video of a guy in which he shows with movements everything that is sung in a song from a cartoon. The video got 300 thousand views, and we decided to record a similar one. It turned out that people like this. Then it seemed to us that it would be fun not only to listen to songs from cartoons, but also to watch pieces of video with characters. We shot a parody of the Ice Age opossum greeting - they are twins too. During the day, this video scored a million views. So we decided to do parodies all the time.

@ twins.verz♬ original sound - twins.verz

We haven't seen most of the cartoons we parody. More often than not, we just type into Google the query “An interesting moment from SpongeBob” or “A sad moment from Lilo and Stitch”, and then select the piece of video you like. Previously, we often did videos with Tom and Jerry, but views dropped and subscribers began to say that they were tired of the cartoon. Then we switched to other characters.

It is now easy to make money on TikTok thanks to artists and labels who want to promote their tracks on your account. Income depends on the number of subscribers and their activity. Sometimes brands come to TikTok. For example, we recently advertised Lays and Polysorb.

On average, you can get about 10 thousand rubles per video.

For us, such an active audience response on TikTok was amazing. I think it's easier for the twins to unwind: it's interesting to watch us. However, we saw a girl who dances with a parrot, and she is also actively gaining subscribers. It's important to just stick to the same authoring format. If your account only has trending video, you are unlikely to be subscribed to because it is too standard. But an account with parodies of cartoon characters is already more interesting. Some tell scary stories to terrifying music, others dance to Adobe After Effects, and they look great. The main thing is to find an interesting format that people like.

You also need to pay attention to trends. Go to other people's accounts and watch which videos are gaining more views. If the format has been watched by more than 100,000 people, it is most likely viable and you should try it too. For experiments, we created a second account in which we shoot something trendy and check which of the videos people like more. Now almost 500 thousand people have subscribed to it. We want to use the first profile only for the parody format to which the subscribers are already accustomed.

@ twins.verz♬ Falling - Trevor Daniel

When TikTok is no longer popular, we'll start testing new hypotheses. We think there will be another application that will become even more popular. We have high hopes for TikTok right now. Once everyone said that Instagram only had children, animals and food, and then brands came there and advertising became very expensive. It seems like TikTok is expecting the same. Well-known personalities and brands have already begun to catch up here, who consider this social network as a full-fledged advertising platform.

"My main producer is my grandson"

I live in the small town of Babaevo. One day my grandson suggested that I remove the congratulations on 2018 for our residents and put it in the regional group "Overheard". I agreed and we started making videos regularly. True, they had nothing to do with TikTok: I just read poetry, talked about politics. People liked it, but the activity was not very high.

Somehow my grandson came to me to drink coffee - we are flatmates. I noticed that he was sitting on the phone and watching a video, so I asked: "What are you watching there?" He showed me TikTok and offered to upload something too. We shot a couple of clips, and with zero subscribers, they immediately began to gain views thanks to the TikTok recommendation system. We were very hooked, so we decided to continue. I sang and danced to popular music, made trending videos. As a result, in just two weeks, 50 thousand people subscribed to the account. The people liked to look at the youth grandfather.

I myself am interested in popular music. I trudge from rap and listen to the track "I move for no reason" three times a day, which is currently at its peak on TikTok. Once we shot a video for the song "Lighter", and it was watched by more than 5 million people. My main producer is my grandson, so he comes and tells me which song is gaining popularity right now. Sometimes we make 10 clips a day, and then he just uploads them throughout the week, so that at this time I can rest or go about my business.

@ ded.officialHome Cooking BlackStar BurgeraraAlso Juicy, Powerful#grandfather
♬ Guchi - Timati

To get promoted on TikTok, you just need to feel free to be yourself and show your charisma. It is important to come up with something that will distinguish you from the rest. Our highlight is that I am a youth grandfather, and I like it. Recently we organized a meeting of subscribers in St. Petersburg, many children came. People support me, ask for autographs, take pictures - there is practically no negative.

I am now watched by 500 thousand people, and views often exceed a million. Where there are subscribers, there are earnings. From time to time we are approached by musicians who want to advertise their songs. They ask to shoot a video for a specific track and are ready to pay for it. Most often, advertisers do not try to influence the content - the main thing is that there is a certain song in the background. However, a couple of times we were thrown off ready-made scripts. If the plot is normal, we agree.

Our goal is to gain a million subscribers, and then we will see. We haven't thought of making TikTok the main source of income yet - we post videos for fun. Once the grandson said: "Let's take pictures, and then you will see yourself on TV." This was not said seriously, but as a result I really saw myself on TV and thanks to TikTok I have an increase in my pension.

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