The Power of TikTok with Sarah Weiss

Jillian: Hi, Sarah. Thank you so much for being on today. thank you so much for having me. Yes. I'm excited to chat because I just started on TikTok and I'm very excited for this chat. 

Sarah: Yes, I'm ready to nerd out. 

Jillian: yes. So to begin with, do you wanna tell us all about Sarah and what you do.

Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Sarah or On Brand by Sarah on everything and I actually have a little bit of a cool story. So I'm originally a certified speech pathologist and I left the field because I just was not like having my creative cup be like filled. And so I found that I could make, you know, the equivalent or more of my SLP income doing social media stuff, which is so creative. Like it never changed. It never changed. It never, it never stops changing. And so I went down that road and I'm so happy. I did because now I get to stay home with my dogs. I live with my fiance in New Jersey and we are just living our best. 

Jillian: Yeah. Oh, that's a great story. I love that. So before we get into all the TikTok stuff because I do have a lot of questions about that. Why is it important to actually put ourselves out there on social media? Like actually show our faces and use our voice? 

Sarah: Yeah. So that's a great question. I feel like a lot of business owners and online business owners, especially. Totally know the importance of using social media to market their business. And now they're seeing that video is not going anywhere. Right. And like, why is video important? Because think about yourself. Like if you go to somebody's page, what makes you know that person and warm to that person more, a beautiful Canva graphic or actually seeing a video of the human? As much as we love our beautiful camp graphics, it's the video that really. Helps our audience feel like they're hanging out with us and like they know us. And so it's, it's so important to like the social media world and the marketing world, especially if you're using it to market your business. That video is not going anywhere. 

Jillian: Definitely not. Yeah. And yet, like you said, yeah, we need to know that person and connect with them before we're gonna buy anything from them and video is the way to do that. 

Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. Whether you are a service-based business, right? Like you, you are a coach or consultant or a marketer of sorts, or you're a product-based business, right? Like a candle maker or a clothing business, or anything of the sort, being able to see the human either dropping their knowledge, right about their service or interacting with the product is gonna help you make that purchasing decision way easier than a static image. 

Jillian: So do you have any tips for anybody who's like, I'm so scared to show my face? People are just gonna say all sorts of bad things because there are those trolls out there. 

Sarah: Yeah. So it's funny that you say that I literally yesterday just, I just put out a real on like things to do. If your camera shy oh, awesome. Because you know what? It's so common that people are like, no, I totally get the importance. Video, but I'm petrified to show my face mm-hmm . So let's like break it down. So like, if you've never, ever been on video before I suggest like you could start with like, You interacting with your product and putting like a trending sound in the background. Then you can do you interacting with your product or service and doing a voiceover in the background. And then you can jump to doing a face to camera trend, and then you can jump to doing a face to camera talking video, right? Like you're almost desensitizing yourself. To video because it's totally normal, right? Like anything new to, to feel a little scared of it. But like once you get into the groove of it, it's fun. Right. And like, people can sense that like, oh, this, this person is like enjoying it. And like I'm seeing their authentic self mm-hmm . Another tip that I have is. Do not like watch the video over and over and over again and let it sit in your drafts for a month because that's not gonna do you any good either, because if it's sitting in your drafts, it's not gonna convert. Then another big tip that I have is don't press record more than. And people are like, what, what do you mean? I press record like 15 times and I say that because people will go down the rabbit hole of like striving for perfection. I'm like, I get, if you like mess up once, like we're not perfect. Do it that second time. And, and just be okay with the fact that it's imperfect and that's okay. And you have a million other chances to post a million more videos. 

Jillian: You get better. The more you do it and the more you post you're gonna get better, your first one is not gonna be as good as your hundredth.

So yes. Keep going. So as we shift over to the TikTok world, cause I did just start there. How would you suggest that we get started with TikTok? Like after we downloaded the app, should we just, just go for it? Just film. 

Sarah: That is a great question too. So I would recommend looking in the search option at other people in your niche. So like, if you are a podcast manager, literally look at the keywords podcast manager because TikTok is becoming, or it is already a search engine, as much as it is a social media platform. Like it exceeded Google in 2021 as the most used platform. Which is wild. People are going and looking for those keywords or for example, like if you're searching for something else that you might talk about in your niche. So like for me, I might search for like TikTok trends or TikTok tips, or if you're a candle maker, you might look up. Candle ingredients or candle makers. If you're a clothing maker, you might look up cricket tips. Right. Like all those keywords, and you're gonna find so many amazing creators, right? And I'm not saying to copy what they're doing. You are going to form a community with them and you're gonna connect and you're gonna get inspiration from their video. You're gonna see, oh, these are the kinds of videos that hit well in the TikTok world. Right for the kind of business that I'm in or the kind of brand that I have. Then two, you start to form this community of creators that are doing what you do. 

Jillian: I love that. Yes. Yeah. I'm definitely gonna do that. So how often do we need to be posting on TikTok? 

Sarah: The hard hitting answers I have the, your mental health answer. I have the answer that is, What has worked for myself and my clients when we're on the sprint to a thousand followers. And I'm gonna explain the sprint to a thousand followers before I get into how often you should post.

So, if you're using TikTok for business, you most likely want to monetize the platform. Right? Use it as a top of funnel strategy to eventually get people to convert and make money off of the platform. So you cannot put a link in your bio until you have a thousand followers. And you can't go live on TikTok until you have a thousand followers, but the link is the most important thing, right?

Because you want to drive those people to wherever you want them to go. An email list, a landing page, maybe right to a checkout page for a low ticket offer. And we can't do that until we have a thousand follow. So let's get into posting when you're on that sprint to a thousand. So I find that if you can swing it posting two to three times a day, and again, it can be really like quick videos, maybe 30 seconds to a minute of you just like dropping a tip or two, and maybe one of the videos can be.

Behind the scenes of you setting up your workspace for the day, and then another video can be a trend, right? So you're not like reinventing the wheel. okay. That's if you can swing it, but if that's not sustainable for you, then that's okay. Right. I hear people say like, oh, what's this crazy amount that I need to post.

Well, if that's not sustainable for you, then you need to do what works for you. So I always say, if you can just do one post a day, even just during the work week. So Monday to Friday, That is also good enough because as inorganic as this sounds, you are feeding an algorithm, right? So the algorithm needs to know this person is giving me consistent content.

So whether that means once a week or sorry, whether that means, once a day, five times a week, or if you're pushing out content two to three times a day, You need to be consistent. And then the algorithm will say, okay, they're giving me consistent content. Let me start pushing them out to people that I think would be interested in their content.

Jillian: That makes sense. Yes. I, I have been doing three a day right now and yeah, it is a lot. 

Sarah: Yes, it is. It is. Listen and. I'm gonna be honest. When I got to a thousand, I did like backpetaled some, like, I, sometimes I will post still like two to three times a day, but that's like, if I'm on like a kick, I'm like, Ooh, Ooh, I got tea to spill but keep in mind. I also work in social media as my full-time job. Okay. So it's not sustainable for everyone. Sometimes I won't post at all. That day, sometimes I'll just post once a day, but it, it is, it is hard, but like, if, if your goal is to monetize the platform, just know that bulk of content can be a short term thing. 

Jillian: Yes. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Once I got that link button, I might back off just a little bit. So most of my listeners on this podcast have their own podcasts. So how as podcasters can we use TikTok? 

Sarah: That's a great question. Okay. So. I have some dos and don'ts, cause I've seen some things that don't work for podcasters specifically. I'm gonna get into the don'ts first, because I feel like now your listeners are probably like, well, what shouldn't I do? Yeah. if you make like the pretty audiogram graphic without probably work on Instagram. Those will not convert on TikTok because TikTok is very much like a face to camera or behind the scenes kind of platform and graphics do not convert on there.

So if you want to use a clip or a snippet from your podcast, I would either, try and record yourself while. You're recording your podcast, like with a, with your iPhone or a camera, which is, which is great practice anyway, because then you can repurpose it to YouTube or YouTube shorts or idea pins, or what have you, Another thing you can do is put that audio in the back of a behind the scenes video.

So for example, like we talked about, like you setting up your workspace, maybe a video of you like a phone to screen video of you up editing and like the editing software people love seeing behind the scenes of that. But just not the graphic is not the graphics. . 

Jillian: That is good to know. Yes. because I do create the audiograms, but I haven't put anything of my podcast on TikTok yet because I just wasn't sure. Like what should I put on there?

Sarah: Yeah. And those, those do work well like on Instagram and you probably could, like, you could put those on reels because graphics work on Instagram. But they don't work on TikTok mm-hmm 

Jillian: yes. So do the hashtags work the same way as Instagram on TikTok? Like how many hashtags should we be putting on our video? 

Yeah, so. 

Sarah: Yes. And no. So yes, in the sense that they work is keywords, for sure. Like they help people find your content, but on Instagram it is still best practice to use probably upwards of like anywhere from like 15 to 20 hashtags on your.

Post and some people put them in the caption and some people put them in the common. I'm just gonna drop a little Instagram knowledge from here, even though we're talking about TikTok I very much recommend putting them in the. Caption. Okay. Because if you think about, if somebody shares your post, that whole post right is being taken.

So the SEO of your hashtags are being taken with it, but not the, if you put it in the comments, then that whole SEO is being left behind. So that's why I, I don't understand why people are still putting it. The comment, but I digress. I just had to drop that little tidbit anyway, on TikTok you 100% need to put the hashtags in the caption, but the caption and hashtags are much shorter.

Than Instagram. Amen. Hallelujah. I hate writing captions. yes. Let's talk about what that means. So your caption can literally be one to two sentences. It is beautiful. It is not a whole blog post. Like it is on Instagram. It is one to two sentences again, like make it. Keyword rich. and then for hashtags, on TikTok, you would probably just do five to 10.

Again, if you don't have 10 hashtags that are relevant to that video, you don't need 10 hashtags do five, do three. If they're only really three that are relevant, and make them like very specific, right? So like, Podcast tips, 20, 22 or podcast editor, or, you know, like make them very specific, no hashtag tide pod challenge hashtag for you, Paige that's.

Cause that's not gonna get your specific audience to your video. That's gonna get. Potentially no one or potentially randoms to your video. So you wanna make it like really, really targeted and specific. So hooks are very important too, for your videos and hooks are that enticing statement that you say at the beginning of your video that hooks your audience in and keeps them watching.

and I have a freebie of 20 hooks that you could use on your tos and Instagram reels. 

Jillian: I love that. Oh, thank you so much. Like I'm gonna, as soon as we get off this, like on my TikTok 

Sarah: yeah, of course. 

Jillian: Do all the things you just said. Yes. So if people want to connect with you to get started on TikTok to improve their TikTok, how can they connect with you? Obviously on tikTok, right? 

Sarah: yes. On, on TikTok and Instagram, I'm at, On Brand by Sarah, or you can go to my website, which is onbrandsarah.com. 

Jillian: I will make sure that is all in the show notes. And thank you so much for all this knowledge. Like it was so, so helpful. I can wait to implement it.

Sarah: Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Jillian: Yes. So thank you for being on. 

Sarah: Of course. Thank you for having me.