by Ailish McCarty (@thesleepycomedian)

Hey everyone! Very excited to be submitting pieces to the Comedy Crowd, a fantastic platform that encourages creativity and showcasing comic talent. I’m writing a series of how comics can increase their brand online through my own trial and error. Tiktok has managed to outshine Instagram in terms of online content and can be a very powerful tool when it comes to approaching promoters and agencies. The thing to keep in mind about your Tiktok channel, is that it is a marathon and not a sprint. You will need to post a couple of videos a week, and the platform boosts creators that engage with other pages in order to boost a community online. Be patient and its better to put an idea online than to be quiet.

To get the ball rolling, I’ve listed a couple of do’s and don’ts when it comes to Tiktok to help comics boost their exposure on the platform.

DO’S

• Unless you have been living under a rock in the last year, odds are you’ve heard of TikTok. It is a video editing application that sky rocketed in the pandemic. The app promotes short videos in order to enable users to scroll through their for you page and absorb higher amounts of content. If your videos are 7 seconds long, it has been proven that Tiktok will push your video to reach more users

• The algorithm changes constantly. This is because recreations and sounds that go viral have a short shelf life. If you notice a sound is trending, make notes and see if you can hop on the trend while the algorithm is pushing it. If you hop on a trend too late, you will not have the same exposure as early initiators

• Do engage with the comments on your videos. This tricks the platform into thinking that your video is topical as it is reporting high levels of activity (comments), when all that you’re doing at the end of the day is thanking people for watching your content. TikTok boosts all activity when it comes to engaging with your community, so remember to like the comments and reply to them

• As I’ve mentioned, building a community is at the forefront of Tiktoks platform. Leave comments on other users videos and follow friends. This leads TikTok to avoid perceiving your account as a bot.

• Use the same username as your other socials so that its easy for people to find you on Instagram, twitter, facebook and Youtube.

DON’TS

• In the previous section, I mentioned jumping on trends in order to get your video boosted on the platform. Avoid creating a page where all you’re contributing is miming. This lowers the value of your content for followers – diversify. Post your own content as well as trends

• For the love of god – don’t tweet on TikTok. It is a video platform that promotes, you’ve guessed it – VIDEOS! If you want to post pictures, go to instargam or Twitter

• Don’t post reaction videos unless you have a following over 20,000. Nobody cares

• And last but not least, don’t lose hope in going viral. I was using the app for 18 months and following these steps before I got huge exposure. Be patient and be consistent

In our next blog post, I will discuss hashtags, so be sure to keep an eye out!

Check out Ailish’ superb comic stylings on her TikTok account – @thesleepycomedian

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