12 Takeaways From 2 Years On TikTok

I’ve been posting pretty much daily to TikTok for two years. I’ve built up a bit of a following in the process.

I also write thefyp.news, a weekly pop-up newsletter from FWIW spotlighting the top political content, creators, and trends on TikTok ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election.

After my first year posting, I wrote a blog post on what I had learned. You can find that here.

Now that I’m 2 years in, I pulled together 12 takeaways — some new, some less so — of things I’ve learned about this important, but complicated platform.

I mentioned a Pew Research study in the episode. You can find that here.

I also spoke about a blog post I wrote about Publer, a social media scheduling tool I love. You can find that here.

If you haven’t already, join my community on TikTok. I’m @jlemonsk.

Listen to the full episode right here, or wherever you stream podcasts.

Find all episodes at HelloMergeTag.com or wherever you stream podcasts.

Big thanks to our sponsor Civic Shout. Learn more about how they’re helping Democratic campaigns and progressive nonprofits build their lists ethically at civicshout.com/partners.

Rough Episode Transcript

I’ve had a TikTok account since before TikTok was a household name.

I opened the app sometimes to scroll, and occasionally to post some silly video, but that was about it.

Then 2 years, heading into the 2022 midterms, I pulled out my phone and recorded a short take sharing my frustration with Wisconsin gerrymandering.

I had less than 100 followers on the platform, but my post reached over 12k people.

A little while later, I did another post about Senator Ron Johnson and it reached over 40k people.

And with that, I was hooked.

I’ve been posting about a post a day ever since.

And I’ve built up a bit of an audience in the process.
I recently hit 500k likes and I’m actually already nearing 600k.

That’s despite not being a candidate or representing an organization – I’m just a guy with a phone some hot takes.

I did a deep dive blog post about what I’d learned about the platform one year in – you can find that at bit dot ly /jk-tiktok

Or just Google Josh Klemons TikTok — it’ll show right up.

Along with posting daily, give or take, for the last 2 years, I also partnered with the awesome folks at FWIW Media to write the FYP, a weekly pop-up newsletter spotlighting the top political content, creators, and trends on TikTok ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election.

You can learn more, read past issues and subscribe at thefyp dot news.

Researching and write this newsletter for the last few months has given me a pretty unique perspective on this powerful, if complicated, platform.

One other thing I’ll share before getting into my takeaways – people are getting their news on TikTok. Those both my experience, what I’m seeing in my research and according to Pew.

I’ll have a few links in the show notes to a few studies they recently released, but without question, folks are relying on TikTok to keep up with the world.

So with that, let’s jump in to what I’ve learn about the platform, 2 years in.

TAKEAWAY 1: It’s random as hell
I post things I think are gonna pop. And it’s crickets. I post something silly, just because, and it blows up.

Sometimes I barely get any new followers for weeks at a time. Then in a weekend, I’ll pick up hundreds.

My takeaway from this is simple — just keep posting.

quality matters, but not how you think

Quality on TikTok only matters as it relates to lighting, sound and content. Nothing else.

That’s my experience anyway.

I’ve tested really professional edited content – it’s always a bust!

People don’t want to see TV ads on TikTok – they want to see people.

I literally hold my phone up to my computer and talk about what I’m showing on the screen.

And in the millions and millions of people I’ve reached, I’ve never once had someone question my quality.

I’ve had some trolls, for sure. But quality only matters as far as what you’re talking about – not how fancy you’re able to present it to the camera.

That’s my experience anyway.

And in case it wasn’t clear, THIS IS A GIFT! You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on good equipment, or spend dozens of hours nailing the perfect take.

I almost never spend more than a few minutes creating content for the platform.

And my audience keeps growing.

TAKEAWAY 2: TikTok Loves Carousels

They announced a while back they’d be giving more love to carousels and let me tell you – they have!

Once while research FYP, I realized that 3 of the top 5 Harris posts were carousels.

Recently, I was rounding up top posts for an FYP and found that one of the top ten posts about Harris on TikTok that week was literally a 2 picture carousel, set over Piano Man. But the wild thing – the 2 pictures were the same!

I did a carousel for a candidate with virtually no followers and it reached 100k impressions.

On my own account, I rounded up a series of funny tweets when Laura Loomer was trending and posted them on TikTok and it reached just shy of 500k impressions. Which would put it on track as one of my top viewed posts yet.

But bear in mind, I’ve tried to recapture this magic, both for myself and for my candidates, and not seen the same kind of magic.

So – I’ll refer you back to point number 1.

TAKEAWAY 3: TikTok is so random.

Keep posting and some will blow up. Some will not.

Just keep posting.

TAKEAWAY 4: Timeliness matters

Like on most other channels, timeliness seems to matter.

If you are sharing a story everyone already knows about, it’s less likely to blow up than if you’re sharing something brand new.

But obviously, plenty of your content doesn’t need to be tied directly to the news cycle, making this less relevant.

I’m working with one candidate who does a phenomenal job of telling stories from the field. She’ll knock doors, have an interesting conversation, and then talk about it. It’s totally anonymous – she’s not naming names or anything.

But these are real, heartfelt stories and they’re resonating!

TAKEAWAY 5: Trends and audio are great, but you really don’t need them

When posting carousels, I might lean into trending audio. But normally I just ignore that stuff.

The longer title of my blog post last year was that I’d reached millions of people without trends, dancing or fancy editing software.

I know some accounts use trends and audio really well and if you’re into that, great! But if not, don’t let it stop you.

When filming a TikTok think about one person on the other side of the feed, and speak to them.

Don’t try to sound smart, don’t try to act. Just talk, like you’re talking to a friend or a supporter.

That’s what I do anyway and it’s been working for me.

TAKEAWAY 6: TikTok hates links and really any call to action aimed to take you off the platform

As with every other platform these days, TikTok hates anything aimed to move people off TikTok.

Which SUCKS! I mean hell, this whole platform might not exist in a year and it’s so hard to move people anywhere else.

But it is what it is.

TAKEAWAY 7: But you can move people!

That said, I have run some limited experiments and found that you can mobilize people.

I tell this story in my blog post, but shortly after getting started, Ron Johnson – my terrible senator – asked people to share stories about something or other on his website.

I built a bitly link directing to it and shared it on social.

I tracked the bitly link and dozens of folks took action. I’d only been doing this for maybe 2 months at the time.

I regularly hold my phone up to my computer showing a map from Ballotpedia or whatnot to let folks know there is a special election. And last year, when Wisconsin Republicans were talking about impeaching our newly elected progressive member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, WisDems ran a program called Defend Justice which I pushed hard.

I had hundreds of people in my comments and DMs telling me they had taken action based on my posts.

And I’m literally no one!

People told me they didn’t know there was an election before seeing my post, and they voted because of it. Or they had family there, and called them to be sure they voted.

It’s just wild how ready to go so many folks are. They just need someone to come over and help them find the path to getting started.

TAKEAWAY 8: Tiktok can absolutely do local

When I post something in Wisconsin, I tag myself accordingly. But whenever I’m taking about a local place, I do my best to mention it in the video, in the copy and in the hashtags.

Whatever I can do to let TikTok know who I want to show my content to.

And it works!

That was the biggest shock to me from my first 2 big videos — how many people were commenting that they were also in Wisconsin.

I just assumed TikTok was global. And it is. But it can absolutely also be local.

TAKEAWAY 9: If you want an audience, post; if you want a community, engage

I post every day. I found an audience. But audiences are cheap. What you want is a community.

And to foster a community, you can’t just talk at people. You have to engage.

Occasionally one of my posts gets so big I can’t keep up.

But for every other post, I reply or engage with pretty much 100% of the comments.

This takes way more time for me than the actual posting.

But it’s amazing.

People reach out to me all the time asking how they should vote, or literally requesting videos on specific topics.

It’s humbling as hell and I love it.

I have become an accidental news source for them, but I also answer their questions and engage with their content.

Would they keep coming back if I stopped? Maybe. But if I have time to post, I have time to engage.

I’m not saying you have to do the same, but I genuinely think it’s been part of my personal success on the platform.

TAKEAWAY 10: Length matters, but only a bit

My short posts tend to do well. But sometimes my long posts do well.

Yeah, it just doesn’t matter.

Say what you have to say. Don’t talk just to talk.

Keep it tight. But if a story is complicated, it’s okay to go on for a few minutes.

The most important part, in my experience, is to start with your hook.

Not everyone will watch to the end. But some folks will.

TAKEAWAY 11: If you’re not checking your analytics, you’re wasting your time

And that’s the beauty of analtyics. TikTok analytics were okay when I got started two years ago. Today they are much better.

Along with adding in more data, they stopped clearing away all data that was older than 60 days.

I also connected my account to my Publer account – I don’t use Publer to post, but it has amazing analytics and it’s a really helpful way for me to get quick snapshots on my account.

If you want to learn more about Publer, a scheduling and digital marketing tool I’m obsessed with, head to joshklemons.com/publer. I wrote a blog post on why I love it so.

TikTok analytics lets you see how long people watched, how many unique accounts you reached, age and gender and a lot more.

If you’re posting, and not checking your analytics, you are just throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick.

Your audience is telling you exactly what they like — you just have to listen.

The way you do that is through your analytics.

TAKEAWAY 12: Their customer service sucks

I wrote about this a bunch in my blog post, but it’s a big enough deal I’ll reiterate it here — just like every other social platform, their customer service sucks.

And since this is a political podcast, it’s worth noting that TikTok does not allow political ads. Like not at all.

FYI

Okay, this is a brief recap of what I’ve learned after posting and engaging on TikTok pretty much every day for 2 years.

Have questions or any takeaways I missed?

Hit me up on TikTok – I’m @jlemonsk. Or through hellomergetag.com. Or email me at hello@reverbalcommunications.com

Hope this was helpful. Come find me on the Tok!