Tiktok Worth the Effort? My review as a creator

Here is my short impressions and thoughts of trying out Tiktok to make content work for me and showing my projects.

AI Art trend

I started doing AI Art for Tikok as a way to flex and practice my content creation muscles. I was thinking last to give it a try and grow an account and see what it can do to market art and other things.

The process was simple look for interesting trends and make ai art in midjourney with a photoshop touch-up. I wanted to use AI Art as a test to see if ai can make videos that gain views, since it was trending.

I discovered that as of this post time slideshows seem to gain more views. I am not sure why.

I managed to go semi-viral for one of my AI Art pieces, which was titled Gun Maid it was not my favorite piece, as I did not edit it much. I am also not sure why it did. And I cannot replicate it reach success.

So I kept trying to make more content around AI. But as I got more into it, I felt that I am slowly being pulled into a rat race to the bottom to make the most outrage and spicy content.

Link: https://youtu.be/IGd8kE6Zn1o

I dont mind making this kind of content, but it makes me feel that I am just becoming just another content producer and it does not set me apart from someone else who has time and tutorials to install stable diffusion to auto generate even more content. It felt like a race to the bottom.

Remixes of remixes

The more as I got into Tiktok I found some other AI Accounts started doing a specific style such as studio ghibli. Which becomes a meme remix in itself.

Source: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSLA2wVwo/

I was surprised the amount of similar videos there are on tiktok its just trends remixes. In thr end with no real meaning everyone is just jumping on trends. I suspect everyone attention just last 5 seconds before swiping right or down to see the next eye grabbing content.

And there is no gurantee that by doing trends you get views or link clicks.

It takes time to research for trends sounds and other hastags and you have to constantly keep up.

I decided to see if there are other content creators online who felt the same, like this artists online saying Tiktok is a waste of time and instead you should get going on your art and craft. It takes a toil to build a following. You need to focus and spend your energy and time wisely. Some of the art you want to make such as a game needs more solitude and deep work unlike the quick short form content churn out by vlog phone cam creators.

Source: https://youtu.be/r7Z4DTynpn4

Viral Analytics tell me nothing

Then there is the double edge sword of going viral.

I was very excited when one of my videos went viral. But it made me think again about what I am trying to make, do I keep making the same content? Or do I go experimental and try other things. I felt slowly force into make what went viral or similar but in the first place even though I dont know why it went viral.

I felt it was hampering me the desire to try new things, as a creative person, as I felt locked in a certain way to make stuff.

The analytics were quite sparse it just gives you basic info on how may hits you get but I felt there was no real insights into the content. I think its a feedback loop to get you high on Likes and Comments and keep churning out more content.

Organic upside or not

Right now on Tiktok there is a lot of organic reach potential even though some say it is slowing down, others say you need more storytelling. The algorithm seems to keep sending the pooular video One thing I see is other  creators using TikTok to promote awareness to their game but I am not sure if I will continue this strategy for myself due to the time suck nature of the platform.

Its already hard to go viral unless you are a full time content creator consistently putting out the same content over and over again or just happen to make the right content at the right time.

Tiktok is just an entertainment platform

My impressions of Tiktok now it is really a time suck. its really just an entertainment platform and every other old web2 platform is trying to replicate it.

I see its not really social and to get people to visit your site you might have to mention it.

Eveything Tiktok does is to keep you entertain and they are very good at it. I doubt anyone there can get link clicks to your product page unless you have a massive following.

Tiktok drain creativity

While chasing the AI Trend I felt that it was not that great just to keep running on the treadmill of content creation and not get anything from it.

Yes I felt some great feelins for a while but it fades.

Some days I feel that my time spent to make these content distract me from doing the real creative works.

Some possible potentials of TikTok

One experiment I have not tried is to use the ad feature of tiktok and see if it oerforms well? There have been ads I clicked on but I am not sure of the conversion rate.

Some games creators are very lucky to have their content go viral and they are leveraging the views to get steam wishlists. I am not sure if this translated to email signups which if they get, can be beneficial.

I think I rather try to get my game or project in front of an audience such as Steam Festival or at an event like Gamescom or build a following through a blog, podcast and  email list here.

I came across in my emails newsletters that mention Tiktok has potential to market a game but I am not sure if that is past now with all the organic reach going down or keeping changing.

Getting back to blogging and creating a newsletter

I have decided to get back to writing a blog and newsletter. It might be better now to try it again and not rely on social. I am trying out Ghost to see how much I can create for my own website instead.