I gave TikTok a shot. I really did. I have a WIP poetry book, and frankly, poetry is coming out of my ears at this point. Why not see if TikTok could help me get some eyes on my work? A little poetic clout, perhaps? I have seen so many creators get a nice little audience boost from tik tok but that led me to ask a few questions: First off, how long does this take? Second, how luck based is it? And third, is it something I could even remotely pull off? The only sure-fire way to figure this out for myself was to try. For about 2 weeks. (Ok, ok, it’s not that long of a time frame but I just wanted to give it a quick little go, alright?)
TikTok is an interesting creature when it comes to promoting writing. It moves fast. I soon found out that it moved so fast that most users are like ships passing in the night. They’ll comment something like “Wow, love this!” and then vanish, never to be seen again. Which is nice in the moment, but also? Not super helpful when you’re trying to build a consistent audience.
It seems like the only way to really win at TikTok is to post every single day (consistently for more than two weeks), possibly even multiple times a day, for an extended period of time. And I don’t know about you, but I have a full-time job. I have a life. I have two cats who expect me to provide them with a high standard of living. I cannot be out here churning out viral poetry videos while also making sure I have clean laundry.
Oh, and the algorithm is super punishing if you miss a day or two. When I built what felt like momentum towards the middle of the first week, it was great. My videos were consistently getting around 600-900 views. Then I missed a day and it felt like I was starting on square one all over again.
By the end of the experiment, I ended up with around 49 followers and 1,421 likes. A little disappointing especially given my account had around 40 posts one it. So, I gained like a follower per post I guess? No wonder people have to post a lot to gain traction with that kind of math!
So, for now, my TikTok writing experiment is on pause. But maybe one day, when I have the time (or when my poetry royalties pay my rent—ha!), I’ll give it another go.
Until then, I’ll just be over here, writing poetry and thinking about posting it on TikTok. I hope you’ve found this post insightful and maybe even…helpful? Perhaps I have squelched your curiosity when it comes to sharing your writing on tik tok or at least answered a question or two.
By the Brooke 
Yikes, I’m exhausted just thinking about posting that much XD. Thanks so much for your insights, Brooke! I never got interested in Tik Tok, so it’s nice to know it really wouldn’t work for me anyway lol. I think I like blogging the best.
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I think I do too. So far blogging seems to be the best way to get honest-to-goodness people attracted to what you make plus they seem like they become not just an audience but a thriving blogging community where you support each other. Blogging is indeed the GOAT so good choice. Glad you found this helpful!
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Very true! And thanks again for this post 🙂
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You’re out here doing the Lord’s work, thank you 😂 It’s amazing to me the sheer volume of content required to get a tenuous foothold on social media. Like, where is that inspiration and creativity supposed to come from? I barely have enough for the stories and drawings I’m making!
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Right! Like I’m supposed to be double creative- create the writing content and then pump out a tik tok version of it that fits into a short form format? It’s wild.
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