My most viral TikTok was a HUGE mistake

It was late afternoon. I was just home from work, standing in my bedroom about to change clothes. I was playing with TikTok Creator Search Insights, which should be called Creator Crack.

They have a view called “content gap” that shows searches with high demand but not very many results — genius.

So on that day, I was tinkering and thought, let’s test this tool out. I decided to make a quick video right there in my bedroom using only the TikTok app… and get it done before I had to take my 9 year old to swim team in 15 minutes. Time crunches always lead to strong decision-making.

I saw “envy meaning” was there in the content gap, so I said, “hehe, why not.”

I decided on the format where you keep changing the angle for each line. I decided on a deadpan delivery and (fatal flaw) I decided on a joke about penis envy.

I hit record, I told them what envy meant, and gave a few examples ending with, “And if Jason has a bigger penis than you, first of all, f*ck Jason. Second of all… you might have penis envy.”

@spontaneous_content

#creatorsearchinsights #envymeaning

7 minutes until swim team and I still had to get the sunscreen and towel. I watched it, added subtitles, added a title and hit post. Immediately after I did it, I realized my test was a total wash.

I didn’t alter the swear word or the word penis in the subtitles. No way TikTok would let that get really big. My test was an innocent victim of my sad, sad attempt at humor.

18k views later I realized that my test wasn’t my only innocent victim. My first clue was that I started to get comments like:

As it turned out,  “envy meaning” was only trending because the new Disney movie Inside Out 2 had been released. 😳🫣😱

Which means my most successful TikTok was made possible largely by young teens going to see that movie and wondering what the emotion “envy” meant. Oy.

My daughter made it to swim practice right on time. She has to put up with my dad jokes, but other kids (and their parents) certainly should not.

My big mistake? I saw that “envy meaning” was trending and didn’t stop to ask why people wanted to know the meaning of envy. I wasn’t thinking about my audience. I was in the mindset of experimenting, and not in the mindset of publishing.

Everybody says “you have to know your audience” of course, all the time and for everything but for web video it means something a little different, and even more critical…

You have to know your audience because you are making the content with them. Not for them. With them.

The  success of your video will be 100% determined by their choices. Sit with that for a second…

You put up a video and, no matter the platform, first the algorithm auditions it for a small group of people. What do they do? Do they click (or, in shortform, do they not swipe away?) How long do they watch? Do they comment? Like? Share?

How the test audience acts in response to your video determines how many impressions the platform will create for you. And those impressions convert to more actions by more audience.

Your views, comments, likes, shares, retention rate, and conversions, these are how you measure your video’s success. But these are not your actions, they are the actions of your audience in response to your video. When I say you’re making content with them, that’s what I mean.

That’s why video creators are so fanatical about creating for their audience. At the end of the day great creators only focus on two things:

1. an authentic connection with their audience, and

2. getting their content in front of that audience

A video is kind of like a gift for your audience. But it’s also an invitation. “Here’s a video I made for you. I hope you like it. Can you help me make it a success?”

So for those of you who already have an audience, keep getting to know them and make great invitations for them. That’s how you grow.

And for those of you who don’t yet have an audience. Are you sure about that?

You may not have people watching your videos yet, but you have an audience. The people around you - your family, your friends, your colleagues, your clients, your competition. In fact, I’m writing this article, in part, to convince someone in my inner audience circle just how critical I think audience is.

So regardless how big your audience is, same playbook - get to know them and make great invitations for them. That’s how you grow.

Check this out

I think it’s really interesting what Skool and Alex Hermozi are doing with the Skool games - gamifying building paid community with expertise and collaboration as the prize. Stephen Pope has a good rundown of his experience coming in 4th in the June games.

I’m into it for the same reason I’m very bullish on paid community in general right now: I like opportunities where the interests are aligned.

If you’re paying to be a part of the community, you have an interest in making that community as valuable as possible to justify your own expenditure. That means everyone in the community has a shared interest in making it as valuable as possible, and a shared ability to impact the value of the community.

Aligned interests = win win

This stat BLEW MY MIND

I think back to all of the people I’ve interviewed since 2012 who insist on referencing their notes during their answer. How was I sleeping on this finding?? I wish I could go back in time and share it with them.

The article is chock full of other findings from Greunfeld too, like “people decide if you’re competent or not in less than 100 milliseconds.”

Now do this with me

For this week’s challenge I am finally taking the plunge and establishing a fixed “set” for my videos. I’ve been experimenting with different, more transitory solutions but I am thinking hard about friction. I’m trying to make choices that decrease friction against my goal of creating spontaneous content, and not investing in a location to film has been a big roadblock for me.

I’m approaching this by 1) looking at the space I have, 2) looking at what other folks are doing who make similar videos to mine (in and out of niche), and 3) investing in getting it right.

Join me in this challenge by establishing your filming space or, if that’s not your biggest friction point at the moment, decide what is and take some affirmative steps to reduce it.

Stuff I’m Reading

Walking robots aren’t coming… they’re here😳

A thoughtful and optimistic piece about how AI is creating jobs in the creative workflow. (this is the YT link, but you can also read it)

Some questionable sourcing from GPT-4o

A Until next time… be spontaneous.

Best, ae