A little backstory.

I never wanted to be on TikTok. But my homie Anela convinced me to do it.

“The growth potential of TikTok is crazy. I know you don’t want another thing to manage but I think this will be worth the effort.”

So begrudgingly, on November 27, 2020, I posted my first ever TikTok video. And boy did it suck ass.

My thinking at the time was as follows: since people use this app to dance and what not, I had to do the same thing. Honestly, the idea of spending my days willing this mid-30s, post athletic career body to execute the latest dance trends made my skin crawl. But at the time, that what I believed I had to do. Besides, I was a new kid (proverbially speaking) coming to a well established and thriving block. Who TF was I not to play ball?

“When in Rome…” or something like that, amirite?

So I posted my first video. It did NOT do numbers. AT ALL. Then I tried an unboxing video with my cute three year old nephew. Cute kids always move the needle on any social media platform, or so I thought! Shit, that video did WORSE that the first video! #FacePalm

I tried being funny (nope), I tried working with other people (nope), I even did a few “Here’s what I ate!” videos. Still no love. So after a few more failed attempts, I quit. I felt comfortable assuming that this just wasn’t the platform for me, which is fine. I didn’t want to be there in the first place. But during a phone conversation with Anela, she was telling me about the success she was having on the app. Small steps, yes. But noticeable enough that she would keep giving it a try. She suggested that I didn’t give up quite yet.

Obviously, I gave it another shot. Which, if I’m to be honest, was a good move on my part. My “second iteration” on the platform proved to be way more successful than the first. The specifics on why I believe that is the case is something I’ll cover right after I tell you why I continued to listen to Anela.

Anela was the ONLY food influencer, I personally knew, who was able to make a full-time living off of her Social Media presence. When we first became acquainted, I’m not gonna lie, I thought she was kinda militaristic in her approach. But when I learned that, unlike me, this was not just a fun little hobby but rather her career, I checked myself immediately. She was paying student loans and Washington DC level rent based on her online skill set. If there was anyone who had the right to give me social media advice, it was her. And once that sunk in, everything she told me went from my “I’ll consider it” pile to my “You still going to work everyday, so you better listen to this woman who could be charging you by the hour if she wanted” pile. And it wasn’t like she was just telling me stuff for the sake of talking, she was attempting to master the platform as well. Seeing as this is how she paid her bills, I knew she wouldn’t be wasting her time should this not be a benefit to her business and, therefor, her livelihood. With that planted firmly in my mind, I decided to give TikTok one more earnest try.

This time, my efforts were not in vain! People were liking, sharing, and commenting on my videos in outstanding numbers. Well, outstanding numbers compared to the engagement I was getting before I instituted the following points into my TikTok strategy. To be clear: I don’t profess to be one of the best or most knowledgable TikTokkers around. However, I do believe that I my insights could prove useful for those of you who find yourself frustrated but not quite ready to rage quit the app.

#1 - You don’t actually have to dance.

Do people become famous because of dancing on TikTok? Absolutely. Some of the highest earners on the app are dancers. But that doesn’t mean they are the only people who have found success on the app. Once I decided I didn’t need to keep up with all the latest dance moves, I was able to go about the business of making this app a cozy place for me: a Black, CIS gender, close to 40, self-identified nerd who (at the time) works as Student Concern Specialist at a creative arts elementary school. MY version of TikTok was always going to be different than my nieces who, because of their age, fall right into the TikTok demographic sweet spot. Once I realized (and accepted) that, things were pretty smooth sailing from then on. And by “things were pretty smooth sailing” I mean, it was easier for me to settle in on what kind of content I wanted to create.

#2 - People love to learn on TikTok.

This, more than realizing I don’t have to recreate children’s dance moves, was the most pleasant finding. I thought TikTok was only about the jokes, parodies, fashion clips, and complicated dance moves. And, yeah, there is plenty of that to go ‘round. But there was also a large population of people who want to learn something new. The main difference between people who binge Youtube videos and people who primarily go to places like Twitter and TikTok for their information, is time.

TEDtalks make my insides tickle with glee. I’ll watch all 15 minutes of a MKBHD product review or the full hour and 13 minutes of a Tyler, the Creator interview. I understand that this isn’t the case for everyone and it certainly wasn’t the case for most TikTok users. It wasn’t until I took a hard look at the user make-up of this app, that I was able to gain a better understanding of my new audience. Doing some light research I found that the majority of users on TikTok are much younger than me. If the website Business of Apps is to be trusted, 28% of TikTok users are UNDER the age of 18 while 39% of users are between 19 and 29 years old. I’m at least 10 years older than the oldest person in TikTok’s largest band of users! And as someone who has worked in public education for a while, I understand more than most that kids have an attention span shorter than the life cycle of Mayflies (you’re probably gonna need to Google that later but, for the sake of this post, just know that they don’t live very long). The challenge for me was figuring out if I had anything I could “teach” this app’s largest demographics in a way that would be both entertaining and executed in under 60 seconds. Come to find out, I did.

I was looking for a way to share some of the Black food research I was coming across. At the time, I wasn’t dedicated to blogging nor was I sure that my Instagram followers would even rock with the concept of “Black food edu-tainment” so I make TikTok my testing ground. The first edu-tainment video I upload went OFF! Who knew that so many people would be interested in hearing my theory of why Black people have such a strong connection with Hennessy?!

#3 - Create a format.

Some of the most successful TikTok accounts have a go-to format for all of their videos. It could be in how they start them or how they end them. Maybe it’s about where or how they film their respective brand of videos. Regardless, I noticed that a lot of the educational videos I was watching on TikTok, followed a self-prescribed format. So that’s what I decided to do. To be honest, there wasn’t a lot of thought put into what this format would be. I just knew it had to be something both distinctive, not embarrassing, and something I could easily remember. Eventually, I stumbled across this format: I’ll say “Black Food Fact” + smile + give a thumbs up. And wouldn’t you know, it worked!

The “Black Food Fact” exclamation is easy to explain. I wanted people to understand exactly what they were getting themselves into. If you pushed play on these videos, you were going to hear a fact related to Black people and food. Full stop.

I decided to smile because, as we say in the South, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Some of the information I planned on sharing would be tough pills for certain (White) people to swallow, the least I could do is smile before giving them yet another reminder of how White Supremacy is all up and through Black American food history. It might have not been needed but it felt right.

As for the thumbs up…I don’t know why I decided to that but I did. Maybe it had something to do with how my thumbnails would look but I can’t say for sure that played any part in my “thumbs up” decision. All I know is that when combined with that smile and “Black Food Fact” declaration, it seemed to work.

The Results.

Since adopting these methods, my account kinda took off. I was written about on Mic.com, and TodayShow.com! My account went from, like, 10 followers to 100K in less than three months. It was all pretty exciting. But then I got bored so I decided to take a break. At least, that’s what I told myself, “You’ve done well, you deserve a break.” I had done well, and I could take a break if I wanted, it’s not like I was an employee of TikTok.

The truth is, I got worried.

I worried about whether or not I could keep up that rapid pace. I was cranking out hella videos I was concerned that there wasn’t enough Black food history to share. It all became kinda overwhelming so I just stopped.

But now? I have a clear understanding of what I want Black Food Fridays to be known for and what I’d like to accomplish in 2022. Knowing that provides me with the confidence to keep producing content on TikTok. There will be more Black Food Facts, of course, but I will also create content that operates at the intersection of my online passion (BFF) and my real life work as a community organizer. There are a lot of overlapping aspects on both sides and 2022 is the year I bring my whole self to the platform. My “teaching” doesn’t have to be limited to just Black Food Trivia, I can talk about whatever I want to so that’s what I’m gonna do.

Whatever you decide to do, just make sure it’s 100% something you’ll be comfortable being recognized for. I was shocked when my students (I worked at an elementary school at the time) found my videos and would have been mortified had I spent a bunch of effort trying to present something that isn’t me. And they would have let me have it, believe me. Kids can be brutal with their dispensing of truth.

If you follow me on IG, then you see that I’ve been spending the last week uploading some of my old TikTok vids (sans the TikTok watermark) to the account. I’ll do that until that old content runs out then I’ll start uploading some of the new stuff. I’ve already written 5 scripts for this new set of videos and I look forward to seeing if I can regain the magic I lost by taking such a long hiatus.

Follow me on TikTok to see if I still got it but, trust, I’ll be posting them on IG as well. I hope these three insights help anyone who may be looking for an outside opinion on how they should conduct themselves on TikTok. Like I said, I’m not an expert on the platform but I know enough to help at least one person get right.

Peace, y’all,

KJ.