Tiktok is better than Instagram and this will only become more true as Instagram tries to be more like Tiktok with it’s full throttle push towards being a ‘reels only’ platform.
I think if you want to keep up with what works on social media and maybe try and stay one step then it’s probably time to get yourself on Tiktok if you’ve been avoiding it.
It’s really not people dancing and pointing any more. It’s sophisticated and brilliant and in my opinion its algorithms are infinitely better than Instagram for showing people stuff they’re actually interested in right now.
I get football stuff, creativity related motivational stuff, and funny stuff mainly. Instagram just shows me wedding photography content.
But before you start just uploading your slideshows there (or on reels) and hoping that works, spend some time on the app and see how it works and what works for you as a content consumer. I don’t think you can make compelling content for a platform you don’t like and don’t use. You need to experience it as a consumer first.
Remember these are primarily entertainment platforms now. Nothing social about it really any more.
When we all got into Facebook for business, we were all Facebook users/consumers so we understood it and made stuff as users of it. Same goes for Instagram BR (before Reels).
As stills photographers this reels and tiktok revolution is the first time we’re actively rebelling against a ‘push towards video only content’ and away from there being any photo-sharing apps that people actually use.
There’s no point rebelling. Lean in, learn and adapt or find other ways to market yourself – because there is a world away from Insta and Tiktok too probably full of brides and grooms who hate social media just as much as you do!
Tiktok isn’t new by the way. Nor is it up and coming. Tiktok is 6 years old, well established, and has around a BILLION users PER DAY.
We don’t need a billion people to see our work. As I’ve always said we need about 20-60 people a year to find us and love what we do enough to book us for their weddings.
Tiktok isn’t new by the way. Nor is it up and coming. Tiktok is 6 years old, well established, and has around a BILLION users PER DAY.
We don’t need a billion people to see our work. As I’ve always said we need about 20-60 people a year to find us and love what we do enough to book us for their weddings.
So the biggest peeve I heard after my Sunday email was that Tiktok didn’t feel relevant. One person even said it made them feel sick!
Chill, the app doesn’t know you yet.
You need to let it learn what you do and don’t want to see. That’s going to mean using it for a bit. Short term pain for sure.
I think of Tiktok as a half way house between Instagram and Youtube. But probably more like YouTube than Instagram.
So you have to search it for stuff you like – your favourite music, bands, artists, authors, movies, poetry, DIY, comedy… whatever. The kind of stuff you’d go to Youtube for. Then watch that stuff. But you’ll also have to ‘cleanse’ your for-you-page #fyp.
See something you like? Press the heart.
See something you love? Heart it and follow the creator.
See something you don’t like? Scroll on by.
See something you don’t like and really don’t want to see again? Press and hold and then press ‘not interested’ – this is, I’ve found, a key ingredient of getting your for you page to feel like it’s actually for you.
Do this for a few days and it’ll feel much less like an OnlyFans promotion feed. Or was that just me?!
I think, for a whole avalanche of reasons, the biggest mistake we all made with instagram (and facebook before it) was following each other and creating this massive echo chamber bubble.
I said last week that Instagram only shows me wedding photography related stuff, and Tiktok shows me stuff I’m actually interested in.
I’m pretty sure that’s because most of my followers and most of the people and hashtags I’m following on Instagram are wedding photography related.
I know why we do this – we want to get ideas off each other… if someone else is doing something cool then we don’t want to miss it, because we probably want to imitate it or as some prefer to say “be inspired by it” 😉
But I have a suggestion. Don’t do this with Tiktok. Don’t follow your peers and create another one-dimensional echo chamber.
Get your inspiration from new-school content creators from other genres who are making content about stuff that actually interests you on a personal level away from photography and wedding photography. Notice when something piques your interest, or evokes some kind of positive reaction from you. Let that inspire your future content.
Then… your tiktok and reels content will stand out to the people that really matter to your business – the ones who are out there looking for someone to pay for their wedding photography.
And bonus… next time someone references a current tiktok trending meme that would’ve previously sailed straight over your head, you’ll get it!
You don’t have to do Tiktok. Businesses thrive without having embraced social media. Businesses can and will thrive without Tiktok.
I’m absolutely not saying you must make Tiktoks or you’ll go out of business. If you’ve seen my Tiktok profile, I have about 6 on there. I’m hardly a prolific Tiktoker.
As I’ve said before it’s just something I’m actively thinking about so I’m talking about it, in the hope that you might find it helpful.
There are plenty of other channels and methods of getting your work out into the world. As an industry we all act like there’s only ever one.
For a while when I started it was wedding dress shops and venues. Then most people abandoned those because Facebook erupted. Then most of us declared that as ‘dead’ when Instagram proved itself. Others like ello, vero, clubhouse, cherrydeck, and many others have floated in on a wave of hype only to crash and burn on the rocks of ‘nobody cares’.
SEO has always bubbled away in the background but as a previous SEO maximalist I’m not sure it has the power it once did.
Tiktok is here to stay. I’m just predicting it becomes the number one channel for marketing reach in the near future, if you consider the average demographics of people getting married and compare them to the average demographics of the users of different media channels.
But guess what. Some clever people didn’t follow the herd away from the dress shops and venues, and they’re probably still running very healthy businesses while the rest of us try and embrace yet another new thing.
I’ve said it many times on my podcast and I’ve said it before in these newsletters… I care about this stuff because I think as creatives the number one thing we can do to keep ourselves in a creative life and business is to ensure a constant stream of our work makes its way out in the world where people might just see it.
Tiktok is just another way to do that.
It’s not THE ONLY way to do that.
It’s just ONE new way.
And lots of ones add up.
Thanks for reading!
Adam
PS – I’m rubbish at putting new work out into the world these days, and I know I need to change that. I’m trying to inspire myself with these emails too!
