I started off 2022 with an experiment: I set a goal to post on TikTok 3 times a day for 3 months and see what happened. It was challenging, fascinating, and fun! Afterwards, I kept posting twice a day on TikTok. That consistency has helped me continue to grow. I’ve gone from 1,500 followers in mid-April to 3,400 at the time of writing this post. It’s not monumental growth, but it’s steady! Today on the blog, I want to share reflections on some of my most popular TikToks (any that received 10k views or more) and what I’ve learned along the way.

10,000-25,000 views

I had 7 videos in the 10k-25k range in 2022. Here’s what they looked like and insights on each:

5 talking to the camera videos
- 2 on mental health topics – These require a greater investment of time and a high level of vulnerability. They’re often helpful to others and resonate with folks who have similar experiences.
- 2 on pop culture topics (more on these later)
- 1 storytime about a bizarre old diet – This one was relatively low effort; I simply read and reacted to the ‘cabbage soup diet’ that I’d found among some old books that belonged to my grandma. People were eager to share their experiences with how awful the diet was! This is a good reminder that anything can be content and something outside your niche may help attract new people to your account.
2 non-talking videos
- 1 text on screen video set to a trending audio – This one was my first video to go over 10,000 views! It was extremely simple. I filmed out my office window at my snowy backyard, added a trending audio, and added text about the despair we feel in mid-winter when you live in a place with an extremely long winter. This misery seemed to resonate with a lot of people!
- 1 slideshow of photos set to a trending audio – Another low-effort video. It took some time to dig up the photos, but setting them to music was simple and people enjoyed it!

25,000-99,000 views

I had 5 videos in the 25k-99k range. Here are some reflections on each:

1 talking on camera video
- This mental health video received 29,000 views and many comments from folks with similar experiences.
1 lip syncing to a trending audio
- This was my first video to go over 30,000 views! As of writing this post, it had 37,000 views. I lip synced to a sound that goes “you’re confused? I’m fuckin’ confused, bro!” and paired it with very vulnerable text. I was shocked that thousands of people related to the feeling I was going through!
1 text on screen with trending audio
- Another low effort video that performed well! This was a follow-up to the ‘“I’m fuckin’ confused, bro” audio–I had told my therapist how I was shocked so many people could relate to my experience and she basically said “I told you so,” (more kindly than that, of course). Folks found this anecdote funny and it received 37,000 views. Many therapists sent it to each other and tagged their therapist friends!
2 trending audios with me acting out a scene
- These were both on mental health topics. One involved acting out a one-two punch and the other involved a silly dance. The former received 36,000 views and the latter got 46,000 views!
- With the punch video, I had made another iteration of it earlier in the week, but I thought of a second idea and decided to make another video using the sound again. I worried that using the same audio twice was boring, but the second video performed far better than the first!
- For the dancing video, I had never danced on camera before or showed my full body in a TikTok–I’m usually just a talking head. I was a bit nervous, but I had fun and the goofy dancing amused people, so it was worth it!
- These videos were super short, which helped them gain more traction as people watched them multiple times to read the text on screen fully.

100,000-249,000 views

I had one video in this range and I was shook when it crossed 100,000 views. I took about 30 seconds to film the exterior and interior of a Barbie playhouse that belonged to my mom in the 1960s and then recorded a voice over that essentially just said “How cool is this?!” It received 111,000 views.

Thousands of people were delighted to see this playhouse from their childhoods again, leaving comments, saving the video to favorites, and sending it to friends and siblings. Something completely random, outside my niche, and that I put little effort into resonated with tons of people!

250,000+ views

I’m still shocked that one of my videos received over 250,000 views. When I made this video, I guessed that it had a chance of going viral, but I never guessed it would be so widely shared and enjoyed. So what was it about? When the Try Guys broke the news that Ned Fulmer was no longer with the company, the internet devolved into obsessively analyzing Ned’s affair. For those out of the loop: Ned Fulmer, a ‘wife guy’ whose whole personality was loving his wife, cheated on her with an employee who was his subordinate at the company he co-owned. The intrigue inspired me to check Ned and his wife’s cookbook out of my local library. It was easy to spot red flags given what we know now. I made a multi-part series on TikTok sharing the cringiest moments from Ned’s cookbook. The result? 261,000 views, 31,000 likes, 969 saves, 280 shares, and 215 comments.

It’s genuinely hard to believe that so many people have seen me talking about a random guy’s cookbook. I feel lucky that I received only a handful of negative comments (some folks believed that since the couple asked for privacy during this difficult time, it was unfair of me to talk about their cookbook). For the most part, people seemed to enjoy indulging in this deeper-than-necessary dive, eagerly watching, commenting their reactions, and sending it to friends. It’s interesting to note how much viewership declined across the 3-part series: the second video hit 16k and the third received 13k. Nowhere near everyone came over from the first part to watch the rest, only those who were extremely invested.

What I’ve Learned

Joining pop culture conversations can help get your content in front of more people.

This won’t always work for every brand or business, but it’s clear that participating in the pop culture conversation can bring new eyeballs to your page. You have to be thoughtful in how you approach this. For me, I often review books on my account, so sharing about a cookbook wasn’t too far outside the realm of my usual content. A business hopping in on the conversation just for the sake of a moment of cultural relevance might be cringier. If there’s a logical way you can hop on the cultural conversation at a given moment, go for it! Just be thoughtful and not gross.

Text on a screen + trending audio is a solid strategy to keep in the rotation. Especially if it takes someone longer to read the text than it takes for the video to play.

This has been a reliable way for me to make content when I’m low on ideas or don’t feel like showing my own face. I share at least one or two videos like this each week, and many of them take off, albeit on a smaller scale. I’ve had several get 1,500-3,000 views.

The key here is that you record a short video (5-7 seconds) and add a trending audio of the same length, then write so much text that there’s no way an average human can read it in 5-7 seconds. That means the video loops over and over til they’ve read it in full, driving up your view count. TikTok sees that and boosts you in the algorithm.

Showing your face is great! People enjoy watching others talk on camera–especially if they’re passionate, kind, or entertaining.

No, you can’t do all text on screen videos. Sometimes you do have to show your face and talk! If you have stories or knowledge to share, it’s well worth recording plain old talking to the camera videos. Most of mine are a full 3 minutes and folks do watch them all the way through if they’re invested in the topic. I try to make some that are 60 seconds or less as well for folks with shorter attention spans–I know when I’m on TikTok I can rarely make it all the way through a 3-minute video!

Don’t be afraid to get silly.

Some of my silliest videos performed way better than I would have guessed! Dancing on camera or acting out a punch is not within my comfort zone typically, but it can be a lot of fun. People can tell if you’re having fun in your videos, and it makes it more enjoyable to watch!

Never worry that a video is too random or low effort–the results may surprise you.

I’ve never had a super-specific niche on TikTok, but I mostly focus on books, dogs, and mental health content. That being said, it’s okay to step outside your niche! The Barbie house video was my second best performing video of the year, and I never would’ve guessed that at the time I filmed it.

It’s okay to participate in trends multiple times.

Most people who follow you won’t see every video you post, or even see your videos in the order you post them, so there’s no need to worry that doing a trend multiple times is a faux pas. If you have multiple ideas for a trend, go for it!

Content that resonates is often: funny, relatable, or vulnerable.

This is probably my biggest takeaway of 2022. Why did people enjoy my content this year? Because it was either funny, relatable, vulnerable, or some combination of the 3. I told stories that were funny. I shared about my mental health and life experiences from a vulnerable, honest place. The cabbage soup diet was relatable for many. Ned’s cookbook cringe was funny to thousands of people. In 2023, I’ll be leaning into content that is vulnerable, funny, and human. But I won’t try too hard either–I just want to keep having fun.

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