Saumirah McWoodson

Well this is the latest I think I’ve been on writing my weekly check-in post, and this is the 6th week of me implementing this plan, which I can hardly believe!

But I apparently wrote my first post in this series on Monday, April 18, 2022, and today is Tuesday, May 24, 2022!

Also, this is the first time I really, really didn’t feel like writing this reflection post, so maybe 6 weeks is my limits for batch recording content, posting said content, reflecting on said content, AND writing a blog post to further reflect and analyze the content and how it is performing.

Okay, so in this post, I’ll briefly share my learnings from last week, and I’ll show the differences in my account stats from 6 weeks ago compared to today.

My learnings from last week:

1. I’ve realized that I’m going to start using a new hashtag (in addition to the branded hashtags I already use), because it SEEMS like when I use this hashtag and when the content is related, my videos perform better. (For granted, the videos are typically dance education-focused, clearly demonstrating a movement, or with related, helpful text. Also, the videos are often between 6 and 9 seconds. But still, I feel like the hashtag maybe works. *shrug*)
2. It feels weird/inauthentic/I never really tried to intentionally do this anyway to ALWAYS make 6 to 9 second videos, so I’ll likely never do that. (When I search for trending songs, I don’t usually take note of how long they are. I think this would add an additional layer to creating content, which could be fun for someone, but it’s not a thing that I want to do right now.)
3. I would like to think of ways that feel natural to me and keep me in my “zone of genius” that allow me to create content that is MORE educational or involves more talking, perhaps? But, so far, what I’m envisioning (sitting or standing and talking to a screen to explain a movement or a concept in dance) doesn’t appeal to me. There must be something else out there that will allow me to share my knowledge in a way that feels better to me and that would be more helpful to others. I would love to find that.

How I am feeling with posting 3-4 times per day:

I feel COMPLETELY fine at this point creating content 1-2 days per week and posting 3 TikToks per day. I think that I could honestly do more, BUT 3 videos per day feels comfortable to me now, and I don’t want to push it for results that aren’t guaranteed. I would actually prefer to batch record videos only on ONE day per week, but I feel that the energy I use for recording ballet videos, pointe videos, voice overs, and trending dances (like actually learning then performing the dances to the trending song), and tap videos – is all VERY different. Tap is the most challenging because I have to record myself outside of the app for the sound then add the videos in later. Another example of a step that I have no desire to take, but it is the only way I know of to get tap sounds on TikTok videos along with their trending audio. I plan to continue posting 3 TikToks per day until it no longer feels doable or “worth it” or I’m no longer having fun doing it. But, for now, it is fun for me, I enjoy the challenge, and it does guarantee a bit of growth. I haven’t discovered the “science of virality,” but I do definitely see a positive correlation with posting every day (or, in my case, multiple times per day) and increased followers/likes/views, with a guaranteed increase of a steady flow of new followers each week, it seems.

On, Monday, April 18, 2022, the Dance Daze Dance Boards TikTok account has/is:

• 6,356 followers
• is following 7,785 accounts
• 10.8k likes
• 287 videos posted (and I plan to post another one this evening)

Today, on May 24, 2022, the account has/is:

• 6,677 followers (growth of about 60 followers per week)
• is following 4,395 accounts (I unfollowed a lot who were either deleted accounts or not following back; I’d like to do more of this, but it starts to get time-consuming when you’re actually trying to weigh whether or not a specific account brings you joy rather than just unfollowing whoever doesn’t have a picture – usually means a deleted or spam account – and whoever doesn’t follow back)
• 15.7k likes (growth of about one thousand likes per week – this is lower than I’d like but still decent and still, obviously, growth)
• 393 videos posted (which means I’ve posted about 106 videos in 5 weeks — an average of 3.04 videos posted per day — and I intend to post 15 to 18 more to finish out my 6th week of this little project/experiment)

My most highly viewed video over the past 5 weeks (which I know without needing to scroll through my videos, because it was significantly higher than the rest, is this video. It’s absolutely NOT my favorite that I’ve posted over the past 5 weeks, it’s not something that I over-thought, and I’m honestly not sure why this video went semi-viral (by my standards, for my own accounts). I mean, don’t get my wrong: I’ll take one of my videos going viral or semi-viral any day if it means getting more people’s eyes on my products and on my business, but this simply wasn’t one of my favorite videos. (Maybe I’ll actually do a future post about my favorite videos from the past week or some of my favorite TikToks that I’ve made of all time, but I’m getting tired!) My most “viral” video of the past 5 weeks had 33k views and 377 likes.

So this may be the last post I share with this title, in this format, in this way, but I’ll be sure to come back with more about social media posting and TikTok growth soon!