Why Bother Building A New Audience On TikTok? (Penelope Walker)

Penelope Walker


TikTok is good for business

Let’s face it: there is only so much you can sell to your existing customers. How many times can you repackage the same thing? At some stage you will need to grow a new audience. A brand new bombshell enters the villa = Enter TikTok flouncing by without a care in the world.

Did you know that growing a new audience on TikTok actually helps grow your Instagram following? It does!

And here’s why: there is a great big Instagram link up for grabs on your TikTok profile.

No other platform is so willing or pompously confident as to offer you an escape route to another platform. It’s outrageous self-confidence, saying here, “Go and check out Instagram to remind yourself why you like it better here.”

Harsh? Yes.

Useful to your Instagram growth? Also yes.

Here’s the thing: make good videos, and your viewers will come and see what else you do.

And if you go viral on TikTok (which will happen!) (…yes, we’re grownups now, and consistency is way better than going viral :yawning_face:) you’d better make sure that you link in bio is ready for it—expect the website sales pings, the bookings, the email subscribers, and the Instagram followers.

So who knew that when Instagram introduced Reels over 2 years ago—making us adapt to something we weren’t ready for—they were actually training us to get ready for TikTok success?

Yup!

Let’s not forget that Instagram dragged us kicking and screaming into the world of short-form video with Reels. Whilst the teens were twerking on TikTok, we were getting to grips with some pointy videos and wondering what on Earth the marketing world had come to.

However, fast forward 18 months or so, and—thank you, Instagram!—small biz owners are now outrageously over qualified and most excellent TikTok Creators.

Case study: @pothiesmakes

Take the example of Belinda @pothiesmakes—a rural Welsh business selling, amongst other things, a very cool/hot hands-free hot water bottle carrier.

What? Yes.

Belinda is in possession of most excellent video editing skills. This is a well-established brand on Instagram, but stalling growth this year—whilst IT focused its attention on boosting ad revenue—meant Belinda popped over to TikTok for a sniff around.

She liked it. It liked her. A brand new and considerably-sized audience was ready for the grabbing.

A month or so in, and boom with the virals—then ba ba booooom with the 1 million views!

All sorts of biz success, that is simply so hard to currently achieve on Instagram, was now possible. Including a crashed website from the sheer pressure.

Take a look at Belinda’s pinned post and see how her new (global) audience is chatting to each other, putting ideas out, celebrating purchases…

Come on, Instagram—keep up!

Take a look this way. And whilst you’re at it, look a the sheer volume of comments coming in from the TikTok community: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFyXR9hN/

I’ve made it sound easy. It isn’t.

However, herein lies the difference.

TikTok is a personality-led platform. We are becoming used to being ourselves in biz rather than hiding behind a curated front end. Allowing people to get to know and like you helps build trust and ultimately lays the foundation for conversions to sales.

What will you do?

So how are you going to start over with an audience that doesn’t know you yet?

Cue cold audience attraction methods:

  • No need to invent anything new. Take your existing content and see how else you can present it.
    Here are 3 examples but the list is endless:

  • Can you use a lip sync or effect trend to share biz tips or relatable situation humor?

  • Can you use a trending audio to share a serious message?

  • Or will you just repurpose your core messages as original talking head content?

The key is to try a variety of content styles then review and refine. Keep learning from big creators. Start with simple.

If you haven’t set up a TikTok profile yet, please do. Grab your account name before someone else does.

Have a nose. Familiarise yourself with the abstract weird world that it is. Now start scrolling.

Your goal here is to get 1k followers, so you slap your www links into your profile, go live, and get on with the job of making money.

Show me the money

So to be clear, in all likelihood you are not going to be making money directly on TikTok. The most solid way to make this work is by sign ups to your email list, having a shop, selling products/services via your link in bio offerings, or embarking on projects with your new TikTok contacts.

To be even clearer, this is not about abandoning your Instagram account, but rather finding a way to make TikTok and Instagram compliment each other in your biz growth.

So watcha gonna say—“no” to reaching a new audience, growing your email list, getting more eyes on your Instagram and more sales?

TikTok Success = Instagram growth. Plain and simple.


Want to know more? Take a look at my Talking Head Cheat Sheet, and come and connect with me on TikTok and Instagram at @BarBrusa_Social.


Penelope Walker @penny
I am TikTok Marketer helping Instagram Savvy Business owners to launch, grow and be successful on TikTok. Next 3 week course kicking off Jan 16th.


Tell Us Below:

Are you using both TikTok and Instagram Reels?

2 Likes

I had forgotten you could link Insta and Tiktok… and also you can link your youtube!! Although I haven’t gotten around to it.

Great to see you sharing your awesome TT & IG expertise on here Penny. I’m so enjoying being on your course at the moment.

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