Saumirah McWoodson

My last check-in was 8 days ago on May 1, 2022! So (even though I don’t feel like typing this post at all . . . ha!) I’m excited to document the growth and developments I’ve had to my business TikTok account in the past week.

First, I want to share my learnings from last week.

1. Posting 3 times per day seems perfect for my account. I think once between 5:00 am and 7:00 am and twice between 5:30 pm and 11:00 pm, with a PRIME TIME at 8:30 pm (specifically, with a video that is 6 to 8 seconds and uses a trending sound) is ideal for my account. However, I’ve noticed that the morning videos sometimes don’t do as well as the evening videos. I’m considering posting all 3 daily videos in the evening. BUT, I tried this for the first time last night, and the third video of the evening didn’t do so well, though I spaced all videos out by 2 to 3 hours. I am thinking that this is because I didn’t have anything to capture the audience’s attention in the first 3 seconds and I should’ve cut that beginning part out or added text. I also believe that I should’ve used a more trending song. I was considering trying this again, but the videos I post early in the morning usually have a few hundred views within a few hours, even if they don’t get over 1,000 views within a few hours or ever. The third video I posted last night (almost 12 hours ago now) still only has 9 plays TOTAL, though it has 3 likes. This seems abnormal, even taking into account the mistakes I made with the first 3 seconds and the not super trending audio. So I think I’ll be sticking with once in the early morning and twice in the evening after 5:00 pm for now. Also, posting 3 times per day is significantly easier for me to manage, with regard to recording content over 1-2 days per week.
2. I am still trying to figure out how hashtags work on TikTok, but I have seen that when I post 8 hashtags my videos seem to do well. This could be a coincidence though. Honestly, once someone has a big account following, it doesn’t seem that hashtags are really that essential on the app. Also, though I’ve seen so many people say not to use the “FYP” hashtag, and even though I personally don’t use it, I see a lot of larger accounts using it fairly regularly. I always wonder if it actually seems to work/make a difference for the reach of their content to them.
3. It still seems that my videos that are between 6 and 8 seconds or videos I post that are exactly 15 seconds do the best on my account. I keep making mental notes to post shorter videos, but it is difficult when I typically feel the need to finish the entire musical phrase of the song that I choose. It is nice when I happen to choose shorter sounds that are 6 to 8 seconds, but I’m not sure how easy this would be to do if I searched only for short sounds or intentionally cut all songs to only be 6 to 8 seconds. Perhaps I’ll try it for fun, but I’m not sure.

Second, I want to share my updated accounts stats.

Morning of Sunday, May 1:

• 6,545 followers
• Following 6,295 accounts
• 12.5k likes
• 329 videos posted (and I plan to post 3 more today)

Morning of Monday, May 9:

• 6,598 followers (I wish I was growing a bit faster, but steadily growing by approximately 50 likes per week isn’t terrible)
• Following 5,215 (still trying to follow accounts that I actually like/want to see every day and unfollow the rest; currently only unfollowing accounts that aren’t following back or that have been banned)
• 14.0 likes
• 354 videos posted (and I plan to post 3 more today)

Third, I want to briefly describe my top 3 videos from the past week.

• “Transfer of Weight”
  • 28.5 THOUSAND views and 354 likes so far (posted 4 days ago)
  • 6.24 seconds
  • 6 comments, including my replies to comments
  • Simple ballet combination
  • RELATABLE: “POV: Fantasizing about how life will feel after you nail that turn/leap/combo”
• “Dégagé Story”
  • 2,188 views and 77 likes so far (posted 2 days ago)
  • 6.08 seconds
  • 0 comments
  • Simple ballet exercise at the barre
  • RELATABLE: Talked about how my new ballet teacher noticed an error I was making that I noticed myself from watching my own TikTok videos
• “Summer plans”
  • 2,011 views and 55 likes so far (posted 6 days ago)
  • 6.36 seconds
  • 4 comments (including my replies)
  • Pointe exercise at the barre
  • ENGAGING: Shared, with text being quickly added to video, what I’ll be doing this summer and asked for audience to share their summer plans in a comment

Today’s another batch recording day! Happy monday! More later.