Serial Entrepreneur Club – EP72: 3 Things Startups Must Do On Social Media

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 We run this show every Friday at two o’clock Eastern, and it’s all about figuring out what serial entrepreneurs do over and over again.

What’s their secret formula. How do they do it? And I know today we’re gonna be talking about, you know, one of those secrets and Adam, it’s an area that I’m not as familiar with. I’m just really not as comfortable with either, which is this whole social media. Understanding social media and the complexities, every startup needs to embrace it.

And I knowMichele, you’ve done well building a community with, uh, meowing tins. Uh, so I’m, I’m, I’m really gonna be more of a listener today. And I may ask you a lot of questions, but this is like, it’s like a black box. Uh, Adam, what do you think? Yeah. Um, I mean, I’m really happy to [00:01:00] be here to actually discuss, um, yeah.

A as you said, you know, like a black box, I, I think like the, most of the information about social media out there that is. Out there right now is like 90% BS. So, uh, because like, it really does not apply to everyone. Like all these social media tips is not one size fits all. So I’m, uh, really happy to be here and, uh, actually give some good knowledge for people to actually be able to apply that knowledge in their business instead of applying it, seeing no results.

So, yeah. Excellent. So let’s give Adam a proper introduction. So Adam K a is with us today. He is the owner, the founder of the WT K agency. And his specialty is in helping clients go viral, organically on TikTok. And he is actually done it several [00:02:00] times, many times. And he’s gonna give us some of his top.

You know, tips and hacks are what needs to be done. So if you’re interested in finding out more about Adam, obviously you can look at his profile and you could go to the WT k.com, but without further ado, Adam, just give us a little bit of highlights about your experience and, and what you’re finding, um, in TikTok.

And I think we just start diving right into your tips. Um, folks that are in the audience are dear members. Please start asking questions, raising your hands. We want this to be a very interactive session while we have Adam here to help us out. So over to you, Adam, Yeah. Thank you so much,Michele, for the introduction and, uh, yeah, for, as for the highlights we’ve done over 3.4 billion total views in the last 11 months going into 12 months, I mean a year.

Um, [00:03:00] uh, yeah, we’ve gone viral multiple times. A lot of, I mean, every time because, you know, we know what, what we’re doing, we know how the algorithm works and the O when you know how the algorithm works, the only component that is missing is your creativity. And yeah, I mean, I mean, That’s really from, from, from the company’s perspective.

But for me, uh, I’m a young, uh, young, 19 year old entrepreneur that is, uh, doing this. I don’t know. I don’t know. Sometimes the people don’t want to listen because, uh, they hear I’m a younger person, but you know, it’s actually working. I’ve, I’ve done some crazy numbers for companies. I completely changed companies.

We’ve done some videos that have gone mega mega ver I talking about eight figure nine figure videos we’ve done. Uh, I don’t know if you guys know about Alta buddy on, uh, on TikTok, but we have a video with over 124 million views that we’re, we are proud of. So, um, if, if, if you’re ready to, [00:04:00] you know, take on that information, if you’re ready to actually go viral, And take that piece of content.

When a piece of content is viral, by the way, on TikTok, it it’s TikTok telling you that that piece of content is actually entertaining and it actually grabs the eye. So you don’t have to, like, for example, create a creative don’t know if it’s going to capture people’s eyes and then pay, you know, Facebook or Instagram or even TikTok for ads and it just not converting.

So there’s lots of, lots of things you can go by. Uh, there’s lots of ways you can go by creating these videos. And, uh, I I’m, I’m ready to hear all everybody’s questions. Yeah. I love that, Adam. Um, you know, I run a company, we have about a million and a half Facebook followers, but we really don’t have a presence on TikTok.

So one of the things, and I’ll just kick it off with my question that, um, we have found challenging is, oh my [00:05:00] gosh. How do we do these videos and how in the world are we gonna find the time to do several videos a day or even a week? So, so what is your suggestion? Um, for someone like us, the company’s meowing tens, it’s all about cats.

So obviously a popular subject, but we don’t have video content. So what would you suggest somebody do to get started with just content? Yeah,Michele. I actually looked at me Youngs. You’re absolutely crushing it on all these other platforms, but TikTok. And it’s funny enough, um, that you are crushing it on these other platforms because the main platform that you, I see you crushing it on is on TikTok.

So basically you guys sell, um, a pets, um, uh, like accessories and toys like that. So for me, I, I always say these two things, there are two things on TikTok that if you do, I don’t know why you’re not viral [00:06:00] on it. And that is pets. If you do anything related to pets, or even like a pet blog for your pet, you know, that absolutely goes viral because like, this is what you have to get.

TikTok is like, you can’t, you can’t go viral. Unless if you know your audience, it’s like the stock market, you know, each industry has a certain amount of money it can make. And each niche, there’s a certain amount of audience that are actually interested. So. If you’re super niche, you need to actually broaden up.

So one way you can do is broaden up by, by the terms that you say into your video and show like the highlights of your, of your products. But for example, fromMichele, it’s going to be very, very easy. It’s just, you know, showing the products in the video, using some trending sounds and the pets, because everybody loves pets.

Like, trust me, there’s no audience problem there. It’s just, you know, creating that content and using a wire frame. And the wire frame is going to unleash that, that, um, like creativity, because [00:07:00] when you have the wire frame, you know, what to make instead of, you know, just like randomly making videos and stuff like that.

So I have a question, um, because often in a number of our companies, I know Jeff and I have talked about this a lot about, Hey, let’s just create a viral video. We saw what dollar shave club did. If we could just create a viral video. We could have millions of people look at it and we can make millions of dollars.

And, you know, that’s what we’re talking about today. You have a, you said you had a video that’s 134 million. Is that what you said on TikTok hundred 24 million? Yeah. Hundred 24 million. That’s phenomenal. So how do you do it? Like, what is the secret sauce that you use to, to, to, to get, to create that viral?

Like, did you actually consciously think about it or did you just do it by accident? I, I don’t know. Like, I don’t know what the secret sauce is. And I’m just curious if you have the answer to that. Yeah. I mean, look as simple as it is. I, when I, when I’m talking about a wire frame, the wire frame is [00:08:00] just like these three simple things and it’s going to be catch, keep, and then wow.

Factor. And that’s literally the essence of every single viral video that you, that you see out there because in the, because like, this is what people say, people say nowadays, um, that most humans have a attention span of, uh, like two to five seconds. I say, People have like an intention span of half or a third of a second, and you have to really, really capture the people’s attention.

So like that catch has to be something, you know, and something that’s a little bit out of place sometimes or anything or anything that’s intriguing, you know, like if you place, for example, um, let me just send a, give an example fromMichele. So for example, let’s sayMichele has a, a, a product that she brought and it’s a really new product.

Just like the product looking weird is the catch and just placing it. And then the keep is going to be actually, you know, using it. [00:09:00] And then the wow is going to be showing that the cat really enjoys that. Actual toy or that the toy does is like something cool. You know, so it’s, it’s really, but the, the video that went viral, you know, if you look at it, you just know it is just entertaining.

You can’t not watch all the way through, because another thing about the algorithm is the most important thing is watch time. And that’s the name of my company. The WK is, is watch time critique . So, so really just getting the people to watch through the whole video. That’s like the most important thing, like the likes, the comments and everything, you know, it’s no, and it’s generally what you want people to do watch throughout the whole video.

So, um, for that video that has 124 million views, first of all, um, when I say, when I said broaden up your audience, I seriously meant broaden up your audience because in that video it does not have a single word and would it doesn’t have a single word. You know, [00:10:00] uh, you know, because most of the videos have, uh, uh, people talking in English in it, so that didn’t have words, so everybody could understand the video.

And by the way, it was a back cracker. So, you know, you put it and then you lie on it and then cracks your back. So, first of all, the catch was like the, the, the thing, it looked like a weird contraption because it looks like a, a half circle and then it adjusts, you know? So like, people are like, what is that?

So that was the initial catch, placing it on the ground, and then somebody lies on it. That’s the keep. And then they’re gonna see what’s gonna happen. And then is we, we added like a sound effects of like, people like somebody’s back cracking, and then somebody’s screaming. So like, uh, it was, so it was so good that it cracked our back and it was so satisfying and relieving from the stress that, you know, they had to scream.

So that was the initial initial thing. So it was a really great video and it reached an international audience cuz obviously 124 million [00:11:00] people there isn’t 124 million people in just north America only. So that’s really an international audience and everybody understood it because it did not have certain words, like not everybody understands English and all these other languages.

So yeah, that was like, that’s crazy. That’s crazy. So catch, keep. Wow. And if you’re in the audience, you’re on stage and you love this topic, cuz I’m telling you I’m loving this and I’m loving you, Adam. This is great stuff. Please feel free to share the room. It’s that second icon right on the bottom. You can share it on clubhouse just by clicking the button and share on clubhouse.

It’ll go to your friends. Well, that is unbelievable. I know Jeff, you’ve done a lot of your, our CMO for many of our companies. You, you, you, you you’ve actually produced movies. You’ve written a book called, um, everything. I know, I know it from toxic Avengers about marketing. So I’m curious if you have any thoughts on this before we go to the audience?

[00:12:00] Well, the, the only thing I was thinking, Colin and, and Adam, thank you for sharing all your, your tips and the great experiences you have is, you know, It’s all well and good to say, oh, I want to make a viral video. I want to go viral. I wanna go viral. But, but, but underneath that, I think it’s also very important to know why, why do you want to go viral?

What is it you’re trying to accomplish? You know, cause to Adam’s point, if, if you’re really just looking to get the highest number of views as possible, then as Adam said, you can design a video. That’s gonna have global appeal, global reach. Anyone can understand it cuz there’s no words in it. And, and you’re gonna be more likely to get more views, but, but what is your goal is your goal to have those views convert into sales?

And if you’re trying to drive revenue, not every viral video succeeds in driving revenue. So it’s not just about going viral in my mind. It’s about understanding what your ultimate objective is. And again, if the objective is just to rake up millions of views so that you can say you’ve got a [00:13:00] video with millions of views, that’s great.

But if the objective is to drive sales or a particular. Call to action. You know, the number of views may not be the most important thing, um, to look at as the result for that video. So, so it’s really about knowing why you want to go viral, not just saying, yeah, I want to go viral. That’s my opinion, Adam, what do you think?

Yeah, that’s exactly true. Cuz obviously you can get a video that’s millions of views, but if it does not convert, then you know, it was just a waste of time because this is, this is the hard part. This is what like other agencies cannot do or none of the agencies can do because, um, I, you know, not to brag or anything, but our agency is literally the first organic, uh, viral growth agency in the world.

But this is, this is the, the, the main focus. People, you know, what’s viral. It’s always stuff that isn’t about the products. You know, this is why it’s super hard for businesses. You see all these influencers going viral, uh, all these people doing random dances and it going viral. [00:14:00] But you know, when, when you check those millions, uh, the, the influencers with millions of views and you check their posts.

And as soon as you see a sponsored post, their view, what does their view, uh, their views? What do they do? They drop basically, because like, it’s very hard to make a viral video making also the product, you know, uh, product centric. So obviously you have to be very precise with what you want and you have to really think, what are you gonna do with, what is the initial goal of this video?

Is it, uh, to like tell people that you do this stuff? Is it going to be like, just showing your product generally? Um, is it going to be a call to action? You know, you have to be very precise and also make it viral at the same time. So that’s going to be very hard, but that’s what we do at the WT. K. It’s awesome.

You know, um, something you said was it’s, it’s very video centric, but you’re making me think to the most [00:15:00] successful TikTok poster, very entertaining. Right? Very, they grab your attention and they’re very, very entertaining. Yeah. Sometimes, sometimes like how we try, how we try to find the trends, you know, because most of our, our, our effort goes into finding trends before they’re actually trends.

So we have to be like scrolling on the, for you page. And sometimes you catch yourself just like watching through the videos, even though it’s not what you’re looking for. That’s how entertaining the stuff is. So it is a very hard trip. Sometimes you just like pop on TikTok just really quickly to see what’s going on and you end up like watching for like, you know, 20 minutes and you’re like, whoa, where did the time go?

and it’s really, it’s really entertaining. You’re that’s super right. Excellent. Well, we have a member up on the stage Lewis that has a question or a tip. So Lewis, what is your question or tip for the folks here on the stage? [00:16:00] I have a question. The question is, as a traditional filmmaker, I sometimes have clients that confuse traditional commercial production for a ver for a video that’s gone viral and they automatically, they wanna hire me and say, here’s my idea.

And I wanted to go viral. Um, Adam, I don’t know if you’ve been in that position before, but how. Do you navigate realistic expectations without losing the gig? I lost a valuable job because I was very honest. I think I was honest. I wanted, I didn’t wanna promise what I couldn’t deliver on a guarantee of it’s gonna go viral.

The idea was great. Everything was great, but that doesn’t mean it’s gonna translate to millions of views, to be honest with them. And then they went with another company that promised that, but I don’t think that it’s true. Have you been in a situation like that? [00:17:00] Yeah, I mean, First of all, I, I, I’ve spoken to filmmakers.

I actually spoke to a filmmaker like last week and he was just trying to brainstorm like ideas or how to actually make his movie so I can go viral. And I’m like, no, please do not do that. Just make your movie as, you know, as interesting as it can, the best movie you can make and then whatever’s gonna make it viral is going to be after.

So for example, yeah, I, I mean, yeah, like companies now, they think like it’s very easy and they can just get somebody that can make that makes videos, you know, and then if they post it on TikTok, it’s just automatically gonna go viral. But if it was that, that easy would be just like everybody would do it, but this is what I would say to you, Louise is if, if you really think that your content creation is super interesting and it’s very entertaining and people obviously have to watch through the whole video.

To like, understand it and it’s captivating eyecatching and everything. I seriously think that you can actually just do [00:18:00] make a video, but you know, no guarantees, no nothing, but just try to experiment with it a little bit, just like post some of your, your material. Um, try to take the best of the best parts of it and try to edit it.

So like, people have to watch through the whole thing to understand what’s happening, but also don’t make it too vague so that they just skip the video. They don’t wanna know, Hey, Louis, I, I was looking at your profile. I bet you could make some amazing to videos. It looks like you work with some pretty awesome, um, bands, a lot of heavy metal and various things.

So, uh, I, I would love to see ones of the band, you know, uh, almost like outtakes, you know, behind the scenes, some funny things like that could really, uh, you know, be interesting. It seems like. I, I, I love, and I agree with your idea. I love it. The challenges lie in the [00:19:00] purpose of what link or what TikTok it’s gonna live on.

I I’ll be specific cuz I’m, I don’t want it to be confusing sometimes. I may have a, a, a fabulous piece of video or idea that makes no sense to put it on one of my talks or one of my Instagram or whatever channels cuz they just don’t correspond. So then I find myself making a new TikTok or a new Instagram and then I, I run myself thin in trying to populate that with enough content, for it to be valuable.

It’s a very frustrating experience in, in essence, great video. Um, the follow through, I think is so important and I don’t have the bandwidth or the ability to follow through on all these different channels I’m working on. So a lot of these videos just stay stale, made I’m Lewis. I seriously look, I it’s seriously not your, [00:20:00] your problem exactly.

Because like, I, I, I understand exactly what you’re talking about. Cause like people really want those guarantees and stuff like that, but. The problem is nothing is actually guaranteed. You know, even though, even though you might be the best filmmaker ever. And obviously the core thing of, of, of, uh, TikTok is video, but, you know, it’s not always guaranteed.

Like for example, like we’ve had, I’ve had videos that I was super confident of them going viral, but they did not give, uh, go viral until I posted them. Like for the third time where I edited them or I took tweaked them. So just making one video and putting your whole, um, you know, expectations on that one video going viral on TikTok TikTok might not push it to the ideal audience because this is how it works with TikTok.

You, they analyze the video. They, you know, estimate, you know, from that, uh, computer analyzation, they estimate what audience is going to love that video. And then they push it out to, and it’s going to be a small audience at first. So if that small [00:21:00] audience and TikTok, you know, maybe it wasn’t clear, you, you didn’t make it clear to them.

What was in the video by using the hashtags and use like two to three and just make it super precise or the copy that’s inside the description. Maybe it pushed it out to the wrong audience and it didn’t those audience didn’t let it, you know, go up, you know, to the next audience and then to the next audience and then eventually go viral.

So like, there’s like so many metrics, like it could even be like tos fault. They didn’t like push it out to the right audience. And that’s why it didn’t go far, but seriously, you cannot guarantee anything in life. So I, I don’t get how people really want that, that guarantee. It’s just like, , there’s no G so you’re saying if you build it great.

They still might not come like, so you, if you think you’ve got a good viral video and I’d be curious, uh, if you could help us with this Lewis or Jeff as well. Um, but Adam, if you’ve got a really, you think you’ve got one, what are the actions you need to take so that it does get a [00:22:00] hundred thousand viewers or a million viewers?

Yeah. So like making that, that incredible video, that’s really awesome. Exciting, and, you know, leaves you in, like, I don’t know, whatever emotion, obviously. It’s not the job isn’t done. So like the next thing is actually making it precise, making it very clear to TikTok what is in the video. So it can estimate, you know, just guess what audience is going to love it.

And then that’s the audience that they’re initially gonna push it out to. And then it just goes through that loop, you know, uh, see what the audience liked, which people of those audience exactly like that video and then push it to the same people, but like in the bigger numbers and then push it again and then push it again.

And so it’s, it’s viral. So like seriously try to in the, in the description and the hashtags, just try to make it as clear as possible and, you know, as short as possible. So like for example, uh, let’s take the cat idea. Uh, showing kitty this new, um, cat toy and then hashtag cat and then hashtag toy, uh, cat [00:23:00] toys or something like that.

And just like make as precise as possible and as short as possible. So TikTok knows exactly what you’re talking about. Cause when you write too much, then you know, you’re off topic. Yeah. I think the, uh, like the cat videos or the pet videos, people like those be people like those because they’re authentic.

I wonder like, you know, you talk about making movies Lewis and, and you know, if can you actually hire actors to do something or people just get a sense. I think the people know whether it’s real or not. And if it’s a real sort of funny scenario that occurs in life, it goes viral. But if somebody tries to act it out, like, can it actually still go viral?

I’m just curious what your thoughts are on that Lewis. That that’s a very, very funny, interesting point. You bring up, there are several videos you can watch now today, which are rehearsed and done over and over. And, and if you pay real close attention, you can catch [00:24:00] that there was acting involved and there’s this weird line between natural and it was just captured.

And these guys pre-planned it. And there’s a lot of, pre-planned very successful viral videos that are to be authentic, but they’re not. And, uh, you know, it’s not illegal or nothing, but in, in, in the, in the comments, maybe one not ever 10, you’ll have somebody say, look at this or look at that. This is fake.

So yes, the answer to your question is, uh, maybe not so much professional actors, but people that really work at fool, the audience for the success of the viral rules. Like Charlie bit, my finger. I don’t know if you remember that video. Right. But, uh, everybody probably has seen that video was one of the first viral videos out there.

And it was just about this baby, who bit the per I sort of the backseat. And they, the baby had bit, uh, Charlie’s finger or [00:25:00] whatever. And it, just, to me, that was real, that wasn’t acted. And, and everybody got that and it had a billion views or something like that. Excellent. So, um, we have a question in chat from one of our audience members that I wanna put forth to Adam and the group here.

So Alejandra is from Zue online, bookkeeping and accounting. She wants to know if you have any advice on how a company like hers that is, you know, financial and technology, um, driven would make a presence. On this funny platform, they’re a serious business, right? They, they do accounting online. So how would you suggest a company like this or any other like SaaS company make presence on TikTok?[00:26:00] 

Yeah, I mean, look, um, this is, this is what I was talking about. Exactly. Look, there are two ways you can go with it first way is what everybody’s saying. Um, you know, know your audience and talk to like talk to the camera. Like if you’re talking to your ideal customer and all, all these, you know, all this, uh, these things, but at the end of the day, there are two results that you’re gonna get.

First of all, is, you know, let’s be, let’s be real. How many people are actually interested on bookkeeping and accounting? How many people are actually going to TikTok? And they’re like, I want to see some bookkeeping and accounting video today. um, nobody. Uh and that’s the truth. So basically, and this is, this is why I actually recommend for these boring companies.

And I’m not saying boring companies cuz they’re, they’re actually boring companies to the, you know, masses is actually telling like, say like trying to, trying to say like make it funny. Like this is like [00:27:00] the whole thing. You gotta make it funny. You gotta try to, you know, do something that’s gonna, that’s gonna cash the people’s attention.

And also at the end of the video, you know, I don’t care what you do in the video, as long as you get views, but make sure that people know that you do bookkeeping and account. So that’s the main, main focus because this is, this is what happened. And let me just give you an example. One of the clients that I’ve worked with had like winter.

It was a winter shoes company, only winter shoes. How many people need winter shoes? Not that many only people that live in cold areas. And that actually snows like for like more than three or four months, that’s the people that need it. And not many people need snow boots, but we applied that same strategy.

And this is what happens when you’re the most known, like the most viral person for what you do. People that watch the video that don’t need your service actually know somebody that needs your service [00:28:00] and they’re gonna recommend it to that person or for another example. And that person that I’m talking about right now is when was one of my first clients.

So I was working with them one on one, and I was actually managing their e-commerce store and everything. And we actually got a message from someone and it was like, Hey, my name is, uh, blah, blah, blah. I work with blah, blah, blah. Um, can you please contact this person? We’re interested in your boots? And then we proceed to contact them.

And it was an actual, like a construction company that in like Alberta, because it, it snowed a lot there. And their construction workers didn’t wanna slip because like winter boots have spikes on the bottom and they actually placed an order for 15,000 units. That was a $3 million due. So I don’t know what people are.

I don’t know what people have against going viral, but I seriously, I don’t care what you do. You have to go viral because you’re gonna be the first person that pops in mind for whatever you do. Just have to make it that at the end of the day, at [00:29:00] the end of the video, people understand what you do. That’s all.

Yeah. I would say that’s branding at its best. Right? You wanna be top of mind for people when they think of a problem that they need the solution for that is your product or service. Exactly. So Alejandra, one thing that, that I thought of, you know, like you could make fun of our us, right? Like us, we, oh my gosh, we don’t wanna do our taxes.

We don’t wanna do our accounting. It could be something really funny starting off with that. Right, exactly. Because I actually use your services. We use your services on two companies. Like it saves a lot of time and frustration. So I would totally suggest trying out just like making, you know, fun of ourselves and oh my God, it’s throwing papers.

And you know, you hate having to do this like that. That’s just a suggestion that could be humorous that people might identify with. Cuz I think [00:30:00] that’s the second part of it is, you know, people identify with it, right? You, you kind of want them to go, oh my gosh, I have that same problem. Right. It’s crazy.

Now, are there different channels though for different companies and concepts? Like for instance, with startup clubs. We have a Twitter account, uh, startup club underscore HQ. We have a LinkedIn account, but we don’t have a TikTok account. And we actually get, I think our biggest pickup from LinkedIn when we do a posting on LinkedIn, like we’ll post this session here, it’ll go onto our website@startup.club.

It’ll go into your favorite podcast network under serial entrepreneur club. And, uh, we’ll also, uh, post it on LinkedIn and we’ll get a pretty decent response. So does the channel, does the social media channel matter or are you suggesting Adam and Lewis or Jeff, are you suggesting that, that we should be considering all channels or [00:31:00] is TikTok the best, like even for accounting software?

Okay. So this is like the main question I really love to answer is because yes, I seriously, seriously think that if you’re going to. Put any effort at all into content creation, it should be TikTok. And this is exactly why it’s because TikTok is actually is actually when, when a piece of content goes viral, it literally means that whoever watched that video watch the whole video.

So what does this mean? This means that you can take, you know, after a video performing very well, you can take it and put it on all of the other social media channels, because this is, this is the problem. It’s not a TikTok, just because they went viral on TikTok. It’s a video that catches people’s attention and, you know, they watch through the whole video.

So you just have to put it on other social media platforms. And there’s no problem people, as soon as they watch the video, it’s [00:32:00] captivating and they watch through the whole video if it’s viral. So that’s literally. You don’t have to just experiment on Facebook ads, creatives, and pay these people to make, you know, these creatives.

And you don’t even know if it’s going to work and people like it. So, and just spend money on it and a advertising and Instagram only showing that piece of content to 10% of your followers and nothing, nothing at all. Just post it. It’s free, takes 50 seconds. Do how two videos work well on TikTok? I know they work well on YouTube.

They do. Can, can I follow that up? Just, can I follow up what Adam said? Go and I don’t, I, I, Adam, Adam’s got a very successful company at this and, and, and what he says makes perfect sense. I’d like to tell you an experience though, that might, uh, might encourage you to consider the YouTube thing. Um, even though my videos may not go viral, I still cover them on YouTube because, uh, all I need is for it to hit one [00:33:00] client, uh, and that conversion.

To make money for me in, in, in a larger scale project. I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all, to follow your tos with YouTube videos. And, um, I like the idea of the education on YouTube of what you provide for what, whatever you’re an expert in. People are gonna find you eventually it may not need, uh, tens of thousands of followers, one or two people that find you that needed your particular product.

And you’re in a niche market. It, if it converts, that’s done very well for me. So I think it’s very worth considering YouTube being, uh, as much as you can, if it’s educating the public in what you are, optimiz. and do how to videos work. I know they do work Lewis on YouTube, right? I mean, they tend to, I know I, I Googled a thousand different things on YouTube [00:34:00] to figure out how to do this, but do they work on TikTok as well, Adam?

Yes, they absolutely do. But this is, this is the, the thing, it’s an audience thing. So for example, how to videos on something that everybody is going to eventually, uh, want to learn how to do that performs extremely well because the videos are longer and the content is broad. So for example, if you, if, if a seven second video gets a 70% of the people that watch it watch through the whole video, it’ll get maximum 12 million views.

But if it’s a 30, 32nd video and 70% of the people that watched the video watched through the whole video, that’s like a 50 million. View video, because this is what at the end of the day, TikTok wants you to do it just wants you to keep their users on their platform. , that’s all it wants you to do. So obviously how to videos, which are videos that are going to be longer are going to perform better.

But this is the, the, the thing is it has to be something that everybody [00:35:00] can relate to. So for example, if you’re calling, uh, uh, can you just like, gimme some context of, of the, how to video so I can probably answer your question, like, you know, how to, uh, do your taxes in 2022 with Zue or something I’m just trying to help Zue Andrew.

Okay. So, so for example, yeah, that example, um, unless, so, so for Zendo I think they have like YouTube videos that are longer form. I think just taking. Best the highlight of the video into like a 15 to 32nd part and then put posting on tick out. That would be, uh, first of all, you know, less effort, second of all, um, better because they just have to edit the edit out.

But like, um, I, I would like suggest just like giving out the best tip that everybody would understand the, the best thing. So for example, like a Booke, uh, bookkeeping tip, you know, that that’s very helpful, cuz like everybody would, you know, keep it in mind, save the video, like the video interact and ask more questions and then you can answer those questions [00:36:00] too and make videos out of them.

And we have that silent moment there coming and that’s our silent moment. Um, if you are in the audience and you have a question or you’ve done a viral video and you wanna share that with us, we’d love to hear about it. Um, You know, I remember, uh, reading OGL Von Mather, 1984 famous advertising book. And it said there are three things in advertising that make, uh, that stand out and they were pets, babies and sex.

Not altogether, by the way, I’m just saying separately. They mentioned those three things with, with respect to viral videos. Are, are these, is that, does that rule still apply today? Is it, is it, you know, are, are people watching sex, babies and, and, uh, pets, or is [00:37:00] there, or is there other elements that really take off?

It works very much. It is very true, cuz like at it’s the same thing that I said, you know, like pets and cooking, but add babies and you know, obviously sex, but it’s like sex isn’t like, because like at the end of the day, uh, at the end of the day, like TikTok is a, is a coded, uh, like. Children’s app because like, they, they want, you know, everyone to use the app, not just like people that are over the age of 18.

So that’s why like, uh, sex isn’t going to be the very, the very, most viral ones. But, um, there’s lots of content of like, uh, you know, like pranks, you know, like those pranks going up to girls and asking them stuff like that may, maybe that falls in the same category, but generally goes also viral. Well, you think of those early go daddy ads.

And I think that really put the company on the map. I know those were super bowl ads, but, uh, they, you know, they, they, I mean today, obviously in many ways they could be considered objectionable. Um, but, uh, they [00:38:00] seemed to really help GoDaddy takeoff. And, uh, it just, it’s very interesting to see that, that, that those three themes seem to carry on even today.

All right. We have Mimi from our editorial team up on the stage. Mimi has a question, Mimi. Hi, um, Adam, I’m curious about your like trial and error process. Like if somebody came to you and they’re say they’re doing like all the textbook write things, you know, like posting regularly and interacting with their followers and like explore page, whatever, but like, how would you suggest they.

Like what steps to see what actually works for their business specifically. Yeah. This is what I’m talking about. That’s an amazing question, cuz like you’re not gonna post one video and that’s all, that’s all you’re, you know, that’s all you’re gonna rely on to go viral. You have to post, like for example, one video you have to post multiple visions of that [00:39:00] video.

Just like change it. Maybe change the text, the color of the text or like, you know, which part starts, which part ends. That’s only from one video, you can make five versions of it to assure that it might, you know, it’s not, it’s not the video, like the algorithms problem just so you can make sure it’s like the video’s problem and then learn from the analytics.

Just like ha because now the new analytics from, from TikTok is very, very helpful. It shows you a chart of the retention rate and where it. You can see exactly when people have swiped off of your videos. So, you know, just like seriously, you should not post only one video. You should post a lot of videos.

And since TikTok, you know, most, most of the TikTok videos are between seven to 30 seconds. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem for the majority of the people here. Yeah. That’s a thank you. Yeah, that is an absolutely great suggestion. We do that a lot. Like repurposing content. It’s so [00:40:00] powerful, right?

Because we know in branding, you know, frequency and especially if you’re starting to get the, he something’s working, keep going for it. Um, we have another person, our creative director, actually from startup club here on the stage. Olivia, Olivia has a question or a comment as well. Olivia. Hi. Um, yes, I, I am one of those that started working in this industry before social media came along.

So even print magazines. So my question is we all know that not every startup or industry will have the possibility of going viral with their content. What can we do when we are in that position of our content is not gonna be viral, but what would at least work for us in going like increasing our reach?

What are like the tips for those that are not hot topic content to [00:41:00] increase our reach? Yeah. I mean, as I said, it’s like, literally it is just an audience problem. So for example, like the accounting, uh, business, it’s like not many people are interested in that and lots of people are interested in babies, pets and blah, blah, blah.

That’s why it’s so effortlessly viral. obviously the tips that at the number one tip is stop, like talking in terms that only your coworkers would understand. That’s like the first thing you should start with, because obviously like you even noticed that like your clients do not understand the stuff that you’d be talking about when you’re talking about like exact terms and stuff like that.

So stop using terms. The, think about it. Like you’re talking to a baby trying to like, make, make a baby, understand what you’re talking about using super simple terms. And so like most of the time that’s like what people do to go actually viral. Uh, whatever it is they’re trying to do. I love that. I usually say, try and explain things to your grandma first, and that will work for everyone.[00:42:00] 

Yeah. And I saw, I saw, uh, um, a question from Jennifer and she said that, uh, I am an art director and you guys are basically talking about advertising. And this is what I love because like, first of all, most of the, most of the marketing agencies, quote unquote, marketing agencies do not do marketing.

Marketing is not what they’re, what they’re doing is advertising. And even advertising is not what we’re talking about. Like exactly Jennifer, what we’re talking about is content creation, which is kind of falls down, you know, on the marketing side, since we make the video and we try to make the video like, um, you know, PR get a message out a certain message out.

So that’s like kind of marketing, but it’s also content creation because advertising is obviously, you know, um, advertising on, uh, for example, magazines, uh, all these other platforms, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok billboards, and that’s advertising. Exactly.[00:43:00] 

All right. Excellent. So I, I heard you say something that I just wanna like delve into a little bit. I heard you say, you know, you don’t have to do five posts today. Like a lot of people are just, you know, just like really trying to get that audience and they’re posting like crazy. What is your suggestion in terms of frequency and, and volume?

Yeah. So, um, so for, for people that do not know how to post lots of pieces of content per day, Over the WT. K we post like around like 300 videos, original videos per day. So, you know, like one of the biggest tips is obviously take, make one video and then just make different versions of it. You know, maybe re re rephrase what you said into [00:44:00] like two more times or like change, like when the video starts, when the video ends.

And like, for example, one of the, one of the main techniques that is being used to make viral videos. For example, if you, if you’re talking directly to a camera is actually adding, um, the answer at the start and then the question in the middle, and then lead back into the answer. So you can do a loop. So that’s like one of the most effortless ways to do it because you make the video and then you post it and then you make like, you edit the same version to say the answer at the start instead of the question at the first, but I mean, there’s like so many ways you can go with it.

For example, if you’re, if you’re going to be doing personal branding and it’s, this is exactly what I’m going to do to go viral for my personal running, as Adam is going to be, you know, recording myself in, in a YouTube video. Uh, in my particular situation, I’m going to have a VI video, uh, uh, camera guy following me all day and then just make, try to take the best parts of the day, make into [00:45:00] a 10 minute video, 10, 15 minute video, and then post it on YouTube and then take that same video that’s on YouTube.

Take the best parts or the 15 to 32nd parts where you’re giving the most value, the best, best parts, and then just take them and then post ’em on TikTok and add some captions. And that’s all there is to it. So obviously throughout that whole 15, uh, 10 to 15 minute video, there’s a couple 32nd clips that are very helpful.

And that’s like one of, you know, one, some of the ways that you can make it so effortless and make so many videos per day, but it just, you know, it’s just like the wire frame, again, the wire frame, because like some people say like, oh, posts like five to 10 to 20 times per day, and that’s not helpful for anyone.

That’s never made content social media, and you’re telling them, you have to be on social media. You have to be on social media. And then next thing you tell them is post 20, 50 times a day. That’s impossible for anybody that’s listening here. It’s very hard to do, but when you have the wire frame of, you know, catch, keep, and wow, when you have the wire [00:46:00] frame, you just like replace, you know, take an example from one video and replace what you can do instead.

And that’s easily, you know, a viral video. And another thing you can do is copy the most viral videos and make them better. And it’s justly, not that hard.

I love what you, so one of the say, oh, sorry, Colleen, go ahead. Go ahead. I, I have been a different thought, um, about bucket term, but you go ahead. I’ll Olivia and then I’ll I’ll follow up. Okay. No, I just love what, what Adam said about like the clarification between advertising and content creation and what you’re saying now, because basically marketing is, I mean, at least the old school ways is repeating the same message in different ways across different platforms.

So what you’re saying about changing the way you’re saying the same thing and making shorter long versions of it is basically repurposing the same message in different ways. So we can reach different people or at least different ways people like to consume [00:47:00] content. So I I’m really glad that you clarified that point and you’re talking about making different versions of the same message.

Yeah. So we had a, our very first podcast. We had Joe Martin, he sold boxy charm, very successful. He worked with Kardashians. And so one of the things he did is he worked with influencers, cuz you know, take a brand like pot.com where Jeff and I are involved in that one. And we sell a lot of dog products online.

Um, maybe we don’t have the expertise to build this spiral video. Maybe we do now that we’re learning about this, you know, catch, keep and wow. That’s that’s the first time I heard that. I love it. Um, so may, maybe after this session we’ll be inspired to start creating some of these TikTok videos, but what if we wanted to just partner with an influencer on TikTok?

You know, have you, do you have any thoughts about that either yourself or Lewis. Oh my God and this topic. Uh I’m I really, this is one of the things [00:48:00] I hate the most, cuz like seriously, I know influencer marketing is a thing, but it’s not really a thing. Cause like on TikTok it’s horrible. People follow someone.

Okay. Let me just tell you, first of all, when somebody like surpasses a hundred thousand followers, it’s not, you know, just TikTok guessing an audience and posting the video and pushing it out to that audience each time it’s, it’s, it’s a new thing now it’s it actually pushes it out to your followers. And then if they like it, they’ll show it to more, uh, bigger percentage of your followers.

And if they like it, they push it out to, you know, the rest of the world. So first of all, off of that, what I just explained there, this is why you see so many like influencers that are, were very viral at a certain point of time. And then they just disappear out of nowhere is because when they start pushing it out to their audience, they actually stop going viral because their audience does not like their content.

So that’s the first thing. The second thing is people are following some, uh, you know, when obviously you’re [00:49:00] not gonna give your content to somebody that’s not very viral in TikTok. So we’re assuming you, you’re talking about partnering up with influencers that have a large following. I wouldn’t recommend that because people follow that person for whatever they’re doing and unless if you can or incorporate it exactly into the, the, the person’s brand without deriving too much.

Like for example, um, somebody that does like carat lessons or like an influencer that, that does dancing, you know, not many people are gonna listen to them when they’re gonna talk about, you know, pet, uh, pet accessories and stuff like that. So I really don’t like the influencer take on, you know, just paying influencers to do the, the stuff like that.

But yeah, I mean, , I, I really don’t, I we’ve never hired any influencers to do any of our videos at the WT. K and we’ve had major success. Well, it’s amazing cuz you know, Joe Martin sold the company for half billion dollars, but again, we’re going back a few years and he wasn’t doing it to TikTok, right? Yeah.

Go aheadMichele. Yeah. [00:50:00] But like Adam was saying, if you have a Kardashian talking about makeup, which is what Joe’s company did that aligned very well. So it made sense for a card app. Yeah. Obviously if, if the influencer, yeah. As I said, the influencer, if they, if their brand is exactly what you’re trying to sell, sell, or you can seamlessly, you know, incorporate it into their videos.

That’s perfect. That’s exactly what you want. But you know, if somebody, if like, because most of the most famous like char char deme on all these other, you know, influencers, younger influencers, you know, all they do is like dance and do random trends. You know, people like them for doing the random trends and because they’re, um, you know, little, a little bit better looking, but you know, at the end of the day they can’t move products like that.

So it’s not, it’s not a recommendation from me. From my experience when working with influencers, the first thing you have to do is go through their audience and understand their audience. If your product or service aligns [00:51:00] with the audience of the influencer, I believe it would be a strategic collaboration, but when it comes to just the number of followers, you can’t just like, um, collaborate with someone just because they have millions of followers.

Jeff, I know you might have had a few thoughts on this. You were about to go off, Mike. No, maybe around Paul and the mini influencers. I know you do as some work with some relevant influencers. Yeah. I think relevance is really important. Not, not as, as Adam and everyone has been saying and Olivia, it’s not just the number of followers.

It’s what kind of engagement they have. And this is why many brands, especially if you’re in a particular vertical are leaning more towards. What’s referred to as a micro influencer, as opposed to, you know, uh, someone who’s a, a macro influencer or someone big, like the Kardashians, you know, someone may have a million or more followers, but look at the engagement and look at the engagement as it [00:52:00] relates to what your product or services, you might actually get greater results from having 10 or 20 micro influencer influencers who might only have a, a thousand or 2000 followers each, but their followers are very engaged with them because they’re very much on topic and on topic with your brand.

And so a group of those could actually deliver better results than one big influencer with, with, you know, many times, uh, the number of actual followers. So there’s a, there’s a real trend now towards finding the smaller influencer. Who have a really dedicated and engaged audience that aligns very well with your brand, your product or your service.

And that’s what we try to do in, in the pet space with, with part.com. We’re really not chasing necessarily the people with the most followers, we’re chasing the people who have the most engagement, um, and, and a community that really aligns with our brand. Hey Adam, what is it? You know, say, say a company like [00:53:00] pot.com wanted to engage with your firm.

What does it cost to build one of these viral videos? Is it based on affiliate income? Do you, do you have any models like that or is it all based on just like upfront fees? Like generally, what are the costs to do something like this? Yeah, well, with our agency, obviously it’s, it’s upfront cost because you know, most of the cost goes into the creative budget.

So obviously if there’s more creative budget, there are higher and better quality video videos, but. It really depends because like there’s two plans, there’s like a monthly based plan. And then there’s a performance plan, you know, performance plan. There’s like unlimited videos. And the monthly plan is there’s a certain amount of videos per month, but there’s a, an upfront cost for the, um, both of them.

So is it, is it so just gimme a perspective, is it thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars? Like I have absolutely no idea. Yeah. It’s it is within the range of, uh, five figures and for the, it can for the performance [00:54:00] plan, for example, we don’t get paid until we get per million views and, you know, it’s, and obviously it’s like unlimited videos to try to reach, you know, those, uh, millions of and try and, and, and fail lots of different strategies.

But, um, for example, Um, for the million views, it ranges between, uh, 1,540 500. But you know, that depends on how hard it is to promote your project. So, yeah, I think that’s a really interesting business model, Adam, and, and I like that. And I, and, um, because our interests are aligned, um, it’s not just a, a monthly fee would it’s, it’s really results focused.

Um, so I think that’s a unique, um, and great model for the brands and we should try it because it’s it’s performance based. Would you agree, Colin? I think it’s a great idea. I mean, I think that’s something I, to me, it sounds very cheap what you’re describing, because I know right now, yeah, right now it’s cheap.

But when I get my, my personal branding [00:55:00] viral and all that stuff, it’s seriously, the prices are going to go up because compared to like what you get with Instagram it’s I think the, the price is almost like 20,000 to 30,000 per million views. If you wanted to pay for a million views on, on Instagram or, uh, or Facebook.

It’s very cheap plus it’s organic view. So people actually chose to watch those videos instead of, you know, forcing it into their feet. So I don’t know. Right. All I’m gonna say right now is it’s very cheap, but it’s gonna go up. It’s very, it’s gonna go up soon. Yeah, I know. We just did a, a NASCAR sponsorship and so we’re like, okay, that’s interesting.

But you know, something like a viral video, I think could have more impact, uh, than a NASCAR, uh, than having your logo on a NASCAR. Um, I, I will say this, uh, I have a friend who’s, uh, name is Peter. Peter K will just call him that he’s DJ revival and he’s he’s same age as myself. And he’s been doing this DJ set, you know, weekly, and [00:56:00] he has a hundred thousand plus or whatever followers and his most popular episode was when he had a little too much to, uh, a little too much scotch and he passed out.

And his, his, his viewership just started blowing up because here he was and he was snoring really loud. I mean, this was authentic, again, going back to, you know, clubhouse being authentic, you know, a lot of these social media is being authentic when people see it’s real, it seems to go viral. That just thought that was a funny story.

Yeah. Oh yeah. I really wanted to talk about that point. You talked about, you know, the authentic part, uh, of a video. Like this is how our, our office, we really believe in like the real part. So 50, like no, 70% of the content is actually shot inside of, uh, Airbnbs. So like, because we really like the, the audience.

You know, feel like that the TikTok is the like seriously personal, like if they’re experiencing it, [00:57:00] that’s why like also like 60% of our, no, 70% also of our, uh, videos is like in a POV point of view, um, camera. So like person feels like they’re experiencing the product. And also they feel like it’s very natural cuz it’s, since it’s in a home setting and stuff like that, but also our offices, we’re gonna, we’re gonna move offices either to New York or Virginia.

We’re still like trying to see where, what is the more no, so Florida’s hot. Say Florida, Miami. It’s the hottest market now for that. Yeah. I, I really, really want to move to Miami, but I, I don’t know. It’s like lots of complications. Generally the office we’re going to be getting is going to have like furniture inside it, not like, you know, desks and workspaces to make it, you know, so we don’t have to go to Airbnbs all the time and also have, you know, just make the videos, boom here, you know, instead of having to go to this place and this place to achieve a certain aesthetic and we have it in our office and stuff like that.

So, yeah, so we have, we have a very unique [00:58:00] agency with unique offices and unique , you know, uh, forms of payment and stuff like that. So well, Adam, I’m following you now. I know everybody who, uh, listen to this show is probably following you in now because you are on the cutting edge. You understand what’s happening out there.

You understand the demographic and you’re, you’re really hitting it outta the park. And, and again, thank you very much. This is the serial entrepreneur club. And every week we try to crack that code. Well, we try to crack the code of a viral video. And if you like this video, please feel free to share it. On your favorite social media and also on clubhouse because after, uh, this session ends, it’s going to go into a record mode.

You’ll be able to listen to it in recorded, uh, mode, uh, on clubhouse. Uh, it’ll be posted on startup club and, uh, it’ll be seen on through YouTube. Uh, we post them, I guess, on YouTube and on startup.club. And it also will go into your favorite [00:59:00] podcast channel. And if you haven’t already done so we have over 70 episodes.

I always say, if you go back and you listen to these 70 episodes, you will have an MBA in entrepreneurship. Truly gr again, another great session, Adam. Couldn’t done. Couldn’t have done it without you really appreciate you coming on today. Uh, thank you for inviting me

be well. Thank you everyone.

Thanks Adam. Good to see you again. Good to see you, Jeff. Bye.