SPI 587: Keenya Kelly update on TikTok for Business

SPI 587: Keenya Kelly update on TikTok for Business

[00:00:00] Keenya:
Instead of us doing these 30 minute “lives” on Facebook and Instagram, you’re taking small pieces of content on TikTok, and you’re teaching it in 15 seconds, 30 seconds, sometimes one minute directly to your audience about whatever it is you want to serve them.

We all know, as business people, you serve, serve, serve, then sell. The more you’re serving with your content, you can then drive people to whatever you want to drive them to.

[00:00:45] Pat:
Today we’re talking with Keenya Kelly about short-form video platforms, specifically things like TikTok, but also Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, and how one can use it specifically to grow their business, and how you can use it even if you don’t dance. I think most of us know that you don’t have to dance in order to become successful on a platform like TikTok.

The last time we had Keenya on to give us an update on the environment of short-form video it was very much, “Hey, isn’t this a platform for dancing and stuff?” And yes, although dancing and trends still exist, many people—especially since TikTok took over YouTube as the most visited website on the internet—many businesses are using it to get more leads, and to make more business.

I asked very specific questions to Keenya today about how we can use these platforms—even if you’re just starting from scratch, even if you have zero subscribers—to get in front of new audiences. This is the new form of organic reach, and Keenya’s here to break it down. You can find her at KeenyaKelly.com.

I just recently saw her speak at an event, and there were hordes of people around her after her talk because she was not just energetic, but she just knows what’s going on.

So, this is the episode for you, whether you were already on these platforms, or you’re thinking about it, or you want to do a little micro test. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Keenya’s here to bring the goods. Let’s get right to it.

Keenya, welcome back to Smart Passive Income. So excited to chat with you today.

Thanks for coming back.

[00:02:13] Keenya:
I’m so excited to be here.

[00:02:14] Pat:
I just saw you rock the stage at Social Media Marketing World. Afterwards you had this hoard of people around you to ask you questions, and I don’t know how long you were there, but you were there for a while.

I love when I see speakers do that, to talk to the audience afterwards. I also think it’s partly because your expertise is blowing up right now in terms of what people are interested in. If you were to describe what you do and what you teach, now in 2022 to people, how would you describe that?

[00:02:40] Keenya:
I would say I teach course creators how to use TikTok to make more money. That’s the short version of it.

[00:02:48] Pat:
That’s so good because it’s very specific. It’s also curious, because I think a lot of us know that the short-form video stuff, TikTok, and that could be Instagram Reels or Shorts as well, or maybe not. I’d love to also consider what are the differences and why TikTok specifically, versus the others.

Maybe we can start there and just a minute, but I think more and more people are now getting privy to that. We can use these platforms, not just to build an audience, but to actually mobilize them, to bring them somewhere, to teach them further. I think at the beginning it was just a. Let me build a huge audience and hopefully make money on that platform.

But you’re saying that many people are now able to take that audience as being built there and monetize elsewhere.

[00:03:28] Keenya:
For sure. Absolutely. Like, I mean, it just started out as music and dancing and all that, and, but now people are going, wait a minute. This is a huge organic traffic source for our businesses.

[00:03:39] Pat:
And organic, traffic’s been getting harder and harder, as far as the traditional means, right? Like blogging and SEO. Even if you go to Google now and you search for something, what do you see? You see all of these. You see, Google’s their own version of the answer. And then you scroll down and see everybody like the number one result.

And it’s like below the fold and that’s just terrible. And everybody has seen lower numbers as a result of that. We’ve had podcast conversations about that already, but TikTok and Reels and in Shorts are sort of the new organic. And so can you help a person? Who’s like, okay, like I get this short-form video. Cool. But I am not good on camera. I am not going to dance up there. Give us some examples of kinds of content that is working to bring people over, to buy more courses that just is still for many people. Sounds a little bit disconnected.

[00:04:24] Keenya:
For sure. So I always tell people that TikTok is similar to Facebook, but, but let me explain. So when we first got onto Facebook many years ago, you know, we were there with our families, our friends college and all that type of stuff. And then we started seeing the little ads on the right hand. Screen the skyscraper.

And then, you know, all the things that transpired with Facebook. And so Facebook was in our eyes, just displaced place to socialize, but it was always a place for businesses. They just didn’t tell us that on the front end, we learned that later. And so when I look at TikTok, I’m like, okay, TikTok on our eyes.

It was, oh, it was just a place for social media, dancing and music. But anytime anyone starts any kind of social media, They have an end goal in mind. And we typically just don’t know what that is. And one of the things that we all know is that when Snapchat came out, you had millions of people watching snippets. When you look at what happened with Instagram and Instagram stories, specifically millions and millions of people use stories on a regular basis to connect with their audiences, sell their products and things of that nature. So when I look at what TikTok is, it’s, it’s the same thing, except it’s, a lot.

Faster. And it’s a lot more creative. So when you’re going on the platform, you’re seeing all this creativity, all this funny things. And so you’re there for your entertainment, but those of us business people were going, wait a minute. There’s like over a billion people here that are searching and watching content the same way they did on Facebook.

And the difference is that it’s video and it’s short video. So when you’re putting out. Short pieces of bite-sized content people. They didn’t know they wanted this from you, but then you serve it to. them. You had mentioned about someone who’s not great on camera or how are we doing that as it pertains to our business?

Well, instead of us doing these 30 minute lives on Facebook and Instagram, those still work that you’re taking small, really tiny pieces of content on TikTok. And you’re just teaching it in, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, sometimes one minute to speak directly to your audience about whatever it is you want to serve them.

And we all know as business people you serve, serve, serve, then sell. And the more you’re serving with your content, you can then drive people to whatever You want to drive them to.

[00:06:40] Pat:
So let’s say, for example, for me, for example, you know, I have a podcasting course, right. I would love to bring more students in there.

What would be a way for me to utilize TikTok, to get more podcasts, specific sales, podcasts, core, specific sales. What am I like? What are my videos? Like? What would a strategy be?

What are my videos?

[00:06:58] Keenya:
For sure. So, okay. You have a, let’s just say that your target customer is a female between the ages of 30 and 45 and she has a course and she wants to start a podcast. Well, one of the things you’re going to talk to her about is w what’s the benefit of podcasting. And so you could talk about that for days and days and days and days creatively.

On TikTok, whether that is you directly to camera teaching a podcast tip, or that you’re doing some type of skit, someone being scared of podcasting. And then the other part of this kit is the person learning how to use the mic or what have you. and that’s just kind of one way that you could do It on a. But also another thing you could be doing is talking about the benefits of podcasting. and that could be where you’re talking about numbers, of what you’ve been able to get downloads or revenue generated. Just things that it’s like, the little things that we do talk about on a regular basis on the show.

In your emails and in your course, but turn it into these really small pieces where it feels like it feels natural. It feels native, but you know, it’s a commercial. And the whole goal is to identify with this female or whomever. It is, this is what our struggle is. This is what she’s needing help with. And now you’ve got the solution, so you can directly sell on TikTok for sure.

But you also are able to kind of do a commercial the way the commercials do on.

[00:08:18] Pat:
Right, right. Okay. So. And maybe it’s teaching and because it’s so short, maybe it’s like one point per video or one story per video. I don’t have to go top 10 things to do. I mean, maybe I could, but how, like, where is the transition from a person watching me and just kind of getting entertained to then getting interested to go and work further with me?

How am I bringing them out of TikTok and into my course

[00:08:41] Keenya:
For sure.

So there’s a couple of different things that are happening on TikTok. So number one, I always tell people that if you know, your end goal is lead generation and conversion, then you’ve got to set up your bio too, to do that. So I always tell people in your bio, you want to say I help female.

Podcasters, yada, yada, yada, whatever.

And so then when that person lands on your account, they see, oh, this is what this person is about. And then of course you have that link in your bio that allows people to either grab something for free or something next level. So that’s, what’s happening in your body.

But in your videos, whether that is a video or it’s a live stream video, like oftentimes in my video, whether it’s a skit or direct to camera, I will sometimes either say it or it’s on screen. And it will say click the link in my profile for our course, or click the link in my profile for my analysts at Lincoln bile, because the AI is picking that up, you know?

But I will say click the link in my bio for my course, or for our free guy. And when I’m on last dream last year has everything on TikTok. Right now you’re able to have such high conversion on TikTok because you know, the numbers are just through the roof for some reason at this point.

[00:09:51] Pat:
Live on TikTok. Interesting. Okay.

So you had mentioned like a lead magnet of sorts and bringing people there through some sort of link that again is on a bio. There’s no way to link within a description or inside of like a video currently, right? Unless you like pay for ads, right?

[00:10:05] Keenya:
Correct? Not right now, unless you pay for.

[00:10:07] Pat:
Our ads on TikTok, a thing that’s worth checking out or, or it’s organic still.

I mean, organic is obviously best because it’s free, but our ads, like a thing that people are getting involved with now,

[00:10:17] Keenya:
So ads are humongous on Tik TOK now. So when I go on TikTok, I can scroll, I think it’s five or six videos, and then it’s going to be an ad that is trying to get me to opt into something. So it’s not to the point where it’s kind of like Facebook, where it just feels so saturated, but people are running ads on TikTok, like, like crazy.

And because of the, I don’t know the lingo, but it costs a lot less to run an ad on TikTok right now or per.

[00:10:44] Pat:
Nice. Okay. Well, that’s a good sign. I mean, we’re always looking for new platforms and I know Facebook has been a lot more expensive lately as Facebook has been controlling a lot of things, and it’s just getting harder to reach people. And again, with the amount of reach that TikTok has, it’s pretty interesting targeting people on TikTok that are your perfect audience.

How do we do that? Because. I know on Facebook, for example, like we spend time like bringing people into our ecosystem and like, Hey, you know, you go to a group and you say, Hey, anybody who’s here, who’s interested follow me or whatever.

Or you might have the ability with ads to say, I want this video to be shown to this group of this age, with this demographic, et cetera, when you’re just creating like an entertaining video, or, or, an educational video on TikTok.

Is there any of that targeting or is that part of the magic of the algorithm? They just like happened to find those people for you. Tell us a little bit about how that magic works.

[00:11:33] Keenya:
So it’s two fold the algorithm once you’re posting content on a regular basis, and they can tell who would be interested in your content. That is the magic Yeah. I mean, it’s like, it always amazes me how TikTok and just serve it up to all the right people. But at the same time, I also use hashtags and it’s not, it’s not a perfect system,

But if I’m trying to reach a female course creator or a female consultant in my video that I will type the word, of course, female consultant in my description and, or I’ll say it, or I’ll type it on screen, but I’ll also use the hashtag. Female business owner, female business owner, female coach, and my comments will be filled with those people. So I think both of them will, all of them gives you the best of both worlds organically.

[00:12:18] Pat:
How do we maximize our reach with our videos? I know I’ve posted on TikTok before and just like YouTube. Sometimes it goes well and it just goes gangbusters. And other times I spend all this time on a video and it goes to nowhere. How do we ensure that we get the maximum reach for our video?

[00:12:35] Keenya:
For sure. So one of the things that we all have experienced on Tik TOK is there’s always that one video you’re like, why did that video go viral? That makes no sense to me. I just shot it in my hand, in my car. And some it’s like what I think about, I remember Shaleen Johnson said something years ago where she was recording for a course and she like rolled on her bed and like, and then had her phone in her hand.

Why does she do that? It, it, it got our attention. So sometimes it’s the background or it’s like the D it’s like the disruption of what you normally would do or what a person would normally see in the feed that then causes people to stop and watch a particular video.

Now, sometimes it is, is the content is the sound that these are the things.

But one of the things about TikTok is that oftentimes when you spend a lot of time on a video, that is typically the one that doesn’t do as well, but the one that you spend the least amount of time on just, it just, it goes gangbusters. And I think one of the potential reasons is because is such a. fast paced. It’s like on the fly. It’s not like

[00:13:41] Pat:
Not like highly produced.

[00:13:42] Keenya:
Yes, the highly produced or polished. It’s just, it, just feels really organic. And so I think that’s one of the reasons now I will say this, that a lot of times our videos will quote unquote flop the first week or two weeks. But you look back in six months and you’re like, you’ll see your notifications of videos going crazy that you thought were a flop, but it just didn’t get, you know, initially when TikTok push it on the, for you feed it, didn’t get the initial. I know response from people, but TikTok kept pushing me out.

That’s like just last week I had a video I shot two years ago, two years back on the, for you fee. And it’s going crazy on TikTok right now because TikTok says our content does not die. If it did well then, or has potential to do well today, we’re going to keep pushing it out. And everybody right now is watching all these old videos resurface.

Cause that’s just what TikTok done.

[00:14:35] Pat:
That’s amazing as far as a content strategy. So let’s say, okay, I’m dedicated to experimenting with TikTok For awhile and, and, you know, giving it some, some love for a while to see if it works for me or not. How often should I be posting? And like, what’s the cadence of creation for, for a platform like TikTok that will give us the maximum results.

I mean, obviously, I mean, I, I know some people who post a like on YouTube, like eight Shorts a day and I’m like, does that work? I don’t know what, what, what, like what works on TikTok and what’s manageable for most people

[00:15:07] Keenya:
For sure. So if a person is brand new to take talk, I always tell them let’s focus on one a week, especially if you’re not posting at all.

[00:15:15] Pat:
When a week. Okay.

[00:15:17] Keenya:
If they just, you know what if they’re saying, okay, I’m actually going to give this a real go, then I say, okay, well, let’s get to one video a day.

Now, batch record your videos. I feel like you have to record every single day, but get to at least one video a day.

Now, if someone says I want to grow and I want to grow really, really fast organically, then most of us that are trying to go really fast. Organically are posting between three to five videos per day.

They’re like short videos, but we are we’re on trends. We’re teaching, we’re being very creative, three to five. If you’re really trying to grow really fast with producing.

[00:15:53] Pat:
Okay. And then how do we, like, what are the analytics like?

I know we see how many plays we get for each video, but is there anything else we can understand from previously shot videos to help us further, just do better with, with the new videos.

[00:16:08] Keenya:
For sure. So if you look back on your analytics, I think you can go all the way to 60 days, maybe longer at the check that, but I would encourage you to go onto your analytics and look at your content, not just the content that’s out there right now in terms of like this week or this month, but go back and look and see what content did well over the last 30 days.

Because once you can see what people are. Bonding to on your account, then it’s gonna really show you, this is the type of content that I should be putting out. Now, sometimes you’ll post something random that has nothing to do with your business. And it doesn’t mean that just because that video did well, that you have to do more of that.

That’s just giving you an indication that, oh, people really liked it when I was in a different location or they liked it when my cat was in the background, like I have a video and everybody kept commenting on my cat and all my cat did. And I was like, okay. So people like to see things they normally don’t see in videos.

[00:17:03] Pat:
Gotcha.

Okay. That’s really helpful. As far as hours that might be required per week for a person, again, a course creator. They want to see some results from this. How many hours per week might they need to spend to start to see some results on this? And then how long should they go for until they start to see results?

Like what’s the expectation there.

[00:17:24] Keenya:
For sure. So I try to encourage people to play the long game, because it’s like when I started on TikTok and when I started on YouTube Shorts, I’d mentally told myself six months. If I gave Facebook all these years, I’m going to give it six months. But that means I’m going to. Every single day, I’m going to show up every day, I’m going to engage. I’m going to learn the culture and I’m going to create content.

And so I gave it a go for 60 days now within I think it was, I think it was 30 days. No, not 30, but 90 days is when I had my first video go viral on Shorts and on TikTok. But I tell people that you gotta play the long game because sometimes people come on TikTok and they hear about these viral videos and they’re going, I’m going to go viral.

My business is going to go viral, but as. Viral is okay, but we really want customers. They really want those that are interested in what we have to offer, whether that be whether the video goes viral or not. I would tell a person that minimum you want to spend at least 30 minutes a day on the platform, just like watching what’s happening, engaging with some content. Also looking at some of your competitors. If you’re brand new to TikTok, it’s really important to see. The culture of it all, but also see the culture in business. Because if you’re only following cats and dogs, you always see in cats and dogs, you’ve got to learn. What’s the culture around creating content that is converting for, for businesses.

So, definitely 30 minutes a day, engaging and learning the culture. But if you’re going to be creating content on TikTok, I would say an hour, a day minimum. So that comes to about seven hours a week. Well, if you’re doing like what Bob, the five days a week is five hours. Most people will spend way more hours than that because they get hooked into that algorithm.

But I would say at minimum, an hour, a day,

[00:19:07] Pat:
Do you recommend creating a boundary around how many hours as well? Because it can get very addicting. I know some people who they get that first viral video and it’s like all in TikTok and then like other parts of their business start kind of like getting lost or left behind. Like, do you see that as being very common on the platform?

[00:19:23] Keenya:
Oh, yes, that happened to me. I remember one day I think I shot like 20 something TikTok and I looked up and was like, oh my God, it’s six clock. I haven’t done any work today. It was totally bad during 2020. But I think it’s kind of like excused because it was 2020, but I have taught some of the people that we work with, like, okay, you already know how you are, you know, that you can get sucked in, you know, how the algorithm is.

I encourage you to set. Right. Especially if you really want to hold yourself accountable, you can set an alarm on your phone. You can set alarm on your computer that tells you to stop. I think iPhone has a, has a tool now where you can kind of do that, but I don’t know how to do that. I literally will just set an alarm on my phone or my computer, and I tell my clients to do so.

Otherwise, nothing will trigger you to stop if you don’t have an external trigger.

[00:20:07] Pat:
That’s really, really good advice. I love that. Thank you. let’s talk about conversions again into our programs, our courses, our coaching, whatever it might be. Is there a specific.

Way that we need to approach the organic TikTok user as far as how we promote our products, because the behavior of a TikTok user is, you know, fast paced it’s, you know, that kind of situation versus, you know, somebody who finds us through search, who is like looking for something specifically, And we can nurture them in, in a kind of a different way.

What’s the best way to nurture and convert a TikTok using.

[00:20:41] Keenya:
For sure. So of course we all believe in the serve service or then sale. So if I know that I am in a process selling a TikTok course or something like that, then what I’m going to be doing is I’m going to lay out my own content strategy using trends. and then sometimes of me just actually teaching and I make start like a series. three ways to some something.

And part one. And so I’ll, I’ll they’ll know that I’m going to be teaching on these five things or these three tips or whatever.

And then at the end of those videos, I’m not, necessarily selling anything initially or what have you. Right. But then sometimes I will do a series. And then at the end of the video, I’ll say, if you want more of this, I have a course called

And the link is in my profile. Right? Most times on TikTok, I am not. Selling the product, I’m getting them on my email list so I can convert them because you know, the average person in general, whether it’s on TikTok or not, they don’t typically just buy right off of a video, especially a course. They want to investigate the person.

They want to learn more about the person. So my number one focus on that platform is I’m going viral or I’ve got 10,000 views on this. How do I get all these people join my email list? also oftentimes in that If I know, I’m trying to get conversions in some way, form Or fashion, I will teach, but also ask a question, What are you struggling with?

How can I help you? What does your business need? And then what happens in the comment section? You get all these different people commenting and asking questions, or what have you, but by the time they come to comment, I have already commented in the post that says, Or help or free health free guide, something like that.

Click the link in my profile. So I write that in the comments and then I will pin that comment to the top. And I, you know, I watched somebody do this, who was, I was consulting with and she was like, I’m going by? Or what do I do? And I said, well, create a common. Tell them where to go tell them what to do. And then I want you to create a separate video. So like this video is going viral on the right. And I said, now create another video that is driving them to your paid course, your paid, whatever, and pin that actual video. So the top of your profile. So what do I mean by that? So, video a is going viral and people are watching, watching, watching, but as soon as they land on your page, if they go and look at your profile, the first video they’re going to see is that. video of you trying to convert them into your email list or to your program, because you pinned it to the top. I had her do that and she made a hundred thousand.

[00:23:13] Pat:
A hundred thousand.

[00:23:15] Keenya:
A hundred thousand dollars, because she had a hot ticket program, she had a webinar and it was just it, she was going viral. And so it’s like, well, that’s happening on the right. Then positioning yourself to capture all that. Now that hasn’t happened for me, but it was an opportunity for her.

She, she converted him so fast cause she had all her stuff set up when they opted into her.

Email.

[00:23:36] Pat:
Did she convert people from that video directly to the program? Or did she bring them into like an email sequence?

[00:23:42] Keenya:
She did a couple of different things. One, she saw some of them directly, hundred percent, a $100 dollars, but a lot of them, she converted directly from that video, others. She brought them into a webinar that she was going to teach and then she’s upsold on the webinar. And then some of the others just join her email list.

And then the email sequence actually converted them into.

[00:24:02] Pat:
Got it. Okay.

[00:24:04] Keenya:
Thinking about everything before you do it, because oftentimes he would just post the content, but we’re like, no, what are we really, really trying to accomplish? Well, let’s make sure we have all these little things in place because anything could happen. You know, I always tell people before you post fix it, clean it, up, like get everything together because you never know if this is going to be that right.

One, not that vitality is everything, but it could have.

[00:24:29] Pat:
And you don’t need a single subscriber in order to make this work.

[00:24:32] Keenya:
No.

[00:24:33] Pat:
I think that’s the cool thing about this, right?

[00:24:35] Keenya:
Yes. I think she had 10,000 followers at that time. I think 10,000 and her video was just, I mean, it was like, it hit a million so fast. I was very impressed and she’s a course creator. She’s a consultant.

[00:24:49] Pat:
Trying really hard not to go down like this new Path that you’re exciting me about because I’ve already had a strategy in mind for my next course launch, but you know, it actually, I love the idea of like, Hey, we have a course launch coming up. Cool. Let’s just use TikTok for it. And let’s create a video series that way I’m sort of teaching up front and can lead people from one to the next to the next I’m teach, teach, teach, serve, serve, serve, and then.

You know, might as well try to push them somewhere. And it makes sense to put them into a webinar because they’ve gotten to know you a little bit.

And the only thing you’d be losing is time, but there’s a big opportunity there for sure. are you taking those same videos that you’re putting on TikTok and then also putting them on to Instagram Reels and then maybe even YouTube Shorts.

Tell me how you feel about like those three competing.

[00:25:33] Keenya:
For sure. So I made a lot of money from Instagram before I ever got on TikTok so I have a very high value for Instagram And I love Instagram. and because Instagram is pushing our Reels like crazy. I said I wouldn’t be smart to just put all my eggs as a TikTok cause like I built my business elsewhere.

So I do take the TikTok that makes sense for reals because sometimes in the TikTok culture, it makes no sense for Instagram really. And so those that make sense, I will remove the watermark and upload them to Reels, or I will go to Reels and recreate the video because I know that Instagram really wants you to creating content that’s native to the platform,

But anything I create intake, talk, anything, a creating Reels. I automatically put them on Facebook Reels, no matter what it is And I put them on YouTube Shorts and we create thumbnails subscriptions.

[00:26:21] Pat:
Are you seeing any of those other platforms outside of TikTok performing pretty well too. And are you approaching them in kind of the same way? Just a repurposing thing or is there a different strategy there?

[00:26:30] Keenya:
So we are seeing success with Instagram Reels, sort of, and the downside of what we’re experiencing right now is that because I say TikTok a lot, I think that AI is like ah, ah, and so we’re watching a decline

[00:26:46] Pat:
That’s funny.

I mean, not funny, I’m sorry that’s happening. But that, that makes sense. You know, how are you getting the watermarks off of your TikTok? If you like, are you creating these videos, like, and then editing them and then uploading them? Or are you just using the app? and then if like, how are you getting the the watermark off.

[00:27:02] Keenya:
So two things. One, when I create my TikTok videos, I screen record them. So like when you create a TikTok and you get to the final screen where you’re writing the description and you are putting your hashtags, well, the video is in the upper right hand.

If you click on the video, of course, it’s going to come into the full screen, But in the upper right-hand corner of that video, on that screen, there’s these little brackets. and if you click on the little brackets, it removes all the stuff around. So then I just screen record the video

I’ve got the full thing

[00:27:35] Pat:
So you’re just playing it back with without like anything shown

[00:27:38] Keenya:
Yup.

[00:27:39] Pat:
And then you can kind of then like edit the front and back part off of that, and then you use it

[00:27:43] Keenya:
Yep.

But also there’s an app. There’s lots of TikTok downloaded apps, but one of them that we all mainly use right now is called snap tick, which is S and a P a I K. And you just post the TikTok link in there and they removed the watermark. I guarantee you it’s going to break because it’s not take talks, but right now it’s been working for like a year.

[00:28:03] Pat:
Hm. Okay. That’s pretty interesting.

Are there any other tips as far as like, like what happens if you are posting consistently and then you stop? Does that hurt anything? Like, are there any, are there any sort of algorithmic best practices that, that you could offer? Because I know in YouTube, which I’m baking right now, there are certain things that like, You know, watch time is really important and your title and thumbnail, and like all these little, not tricks, but strategies to make sure YouTube does its best to push it out there.

What are some other things we could do on, on TikTok to to maximize the reach and, like what are some things that we have to look out for perhaps?

[00:28:40] Keenya:
For sure. So I will say, you mentioned about if you go away from the platform, you kind of get penalized. Well, what I have experienced is that sometimes that when I go away and I’m at there for a while and I get back to posting, sometimes one or two things will happen. One they’ll make my next video go gangbusters.

And I think that’s because they’re trying to hook me back into the platform. So I don’t go anywhere anytime soon. but sometimes I will see a decline. And So when I see the decline, I go, okay, I got this. So then I’ll post four videos a day, four on it for a whole week and then Kaboom. Then they that I’m back in, take toxic graces.

So it really just depends on what TikTok wants to do with it. when you come back to the platform, but some of my tips for like, you know, getting the best reach of your videos is I’m very intentional about the description. Like, you know, I hate to use the word clickbait, but it’s like the hook, right?

So in my description, I would typically write something that is the first thing that they see is a description I wanted to draw. The first frame, like I’m usually pretty expressive in my first frame, you know? Cause I’m like, if I want to, you know, get them in because of it’s me or it’s my background or whatever, I try to make that first frame be the thing that’s going to capture them.

I also made sure that I put text on screen and that first line of texts is something that is, that’s the hook It usually is not the same as a description, but sometimes it is. but lastly, what I also do is I use the there’s a cover feature. So we talked about earlier, when you’re on that screen, when you write your description and the videos in the right-hand corner, well, just like Instagram Reels, you can put a cover on your TikTok videos, except they’re kind of small and rectangle, but all of my videos have a hook on them, all of them.

So sometimes I talk about going through divorce and had I made a million dollars. After I left my ex-husband, that’s a whole nother story. And so oftentimes I’ll put the $1 million divorce on top of the cover. Now I didn’t get a million dollars from him. I built a business, you know, but that hook draws people in and then I’m teaching women, Hey, you can bounce back too.

[00:30:45] Pat:
Right.

[00:30:45] Keenya:
Little things is typically what I do every I post a video or I try to

[00:30:50] Pat:
That’s awesome. It’s like a version of a YouTube thumbnail. It has to bring in Treegrille. So you’re not going to help anybody. Right. As long as you approach it in the right way, and you, you, fulfill the promises of whatever curiosity you’re at, you’re you’re bringing, awesome. I don’t know. Do you know people that take talking, are you like roped into that, community and, and and if so, do you have any insight on like what we could look out for in the future and what might be coming up?

[00:31:14] Keenya:
For sure. So I recently got picked up by a program on Tik TOK is called black tick tock. Tick tock had some problems. The internal things. And so they created some programs for different people of color, like, you know, Hispanic, Asian, and all that. And so I’m in a program called black TikTok. And so we have like monthly calls or they’re giving us the inside scoop of where they’re helping us understand what the current features are. sometimes they give us a little hint about what’s coming, but I think legally, they probably can’t do that. but whatever feature is out, they will typically explain to us how to use it, the best practices for. When the three-minute video came out, we had a call and they explained to us the way to maximize the three-minute videos.

And now that it has stories in 10 minutes, they’re bringing us on a call to teach us about, about all those things. Now, stories is, it just rolled out, but everybody doesn’t have it, but they are they’re at the fact that. I’m trying to do an Instagram takeover, with having a TikTok stories, but also the messenger feature that take time doesn’t currently have they’re rolling out all these things, to you know, mess with mark Zuckerberg.

[00:32:21] Pat:
Yeah. Wow. I mean, long form, 10 minute videos on TikTok, like, how do you feel about that personally? Because TikTok, I’ve always known as short-form and that’s kind of the attention span that people have on just videos overall now. And they’re going the opposite direction. Like, what are your thoughts?

[00:32:36] Keenya:
So initially my thought was like, nobody’s ever going to watch a 10 minute video, but then I started listening and watching different things. and I said, oh wait, wait, TikTok had this in mind before they ever rolled this out. They had the intention of being a video marketing platform. And so who should they be? YouTube, you know, and so yes, people are creating short pieces of content, but they also know that, you know, they just had the Google indexing thing happened with TikTok where you can search and you’ll find TikTok videos. it’s their way of trying to also. Takeover quote unquote, the YouTube experience. and a lot of is do leave and go start creating YouTube channels and they’re trying to drive people to YouTube. So I think it’s going to take a little while before people really, really appreciate a longer videos because even now, if I go over one minute, people are just like, get up, get to the point of it,

[00:33:26] Pat:
Right, right.

[00:33:28] Keenya:
But I think we will get there.

[00:33:29] Pat:
Yeah. I, I watched some videos where it’s like, let me tell you a story. And it draws me in, right. And they’re telling me a story. It’s like, come on, it’s been two and a half minutes already. And then I can just like fast forward on TikTok and you know, all that kind of stuff. But anyway, he knew this has been really amazing, a great crash course in TikTok in 2022.

And I’m excited to see how people utilize this, especially when it comes to not just capturing attention and, getting attention, which you can get on TikTok, relatively easily. But then what do we do with it? How do we move people over to our business and in our courses? So I appreciate you for that.

Where can people go to find your stuff? I know you have a book, you have courses, you have your brand, where should people go to start working with you?

[00:34:07] Keenya:
Yeah, for sure. So definitely go to KeenyaKelly.com, K E E N Y A K E L L Y.com. That’s where you can find everything, and of course the same name on Instagram and on TikTok.

[00:34:17] Pat:
Awesome. Thank you, Keenya. You’re amazing. Thank you for your energy, and I look forward to catching up again with you soon.

[00:34:22] Keenya:
Thank you.

[00:34:24] Pat:
Alright. I hope you enjoyed that energy and that information from Keenya Kelly. Again, you can find her at KeenyaKelly.com K E E N Y A K E L L Y.com. And of course we always have the show notes linked at the website, SmartPassiveIncome.com/session587. Again, SmartPassiveIncome.com/session587.

So what do you think? Are you going to check it out? Are you gonna give it a shot? I definitely am, especially with some upcoming campaigns and stuff. I hope you at least have an open mind about this. And again, if you want to check out more, head over to KeenyaKelly.com.

I’m so grateful she lives in San Diego now near me. Hopefully, once things get back to normal, I mean it feels like we’re almost there at the time of this recording, but more hangouts because she’s just such a ball of energy, and I love her, and I just absorb so much happiness when I’m with her. Definitely check her out. Again, KeenyaKelly.com.

If you would like to join other entrepreneurs just like Keenya and other people who are also using this platform, and several other platforms, and we’re sharing information, we’re sharing wins. We’re asking questions. We’re getting involved with each other’s stuff. Head on over to SPIPro.com. You can apply there. Once a quarter we let a new enrollment group in, and you can be there with your class and your students. It’s a membership community platform for entrepreneurs.

We also have a learner community available, as well, for those of you who may not qualify, or you’re still at the very beginning journeys of your entrepreneurial journey. That’s available too. You can check it out, just head on over to SPI Pro, you apply there. If it’s not a good fit we’ll tell you exactly where to go from there.

So again, thank you so much to Keenya and to you to listening all the way through.

I look forward to serving you this Friday in a followup episode. And of course, next week, when we talk with a really good friend of mine who’s been on the show before, but his life has been changed massively because of something that just happened. I cannot wait to tell you how this affected his life, and how it’s also challenging him. So stick around for that.

Make sure you hit subscribe so you don’t miss it. Take care, peace out, and as always, Team Flynn for the win.