My Blog Went Viral on TikTok. It Made Me Realize Something HUGE For Content Creators...

Last week, I got a nudge from one of my TikTok friends in Aotearoa. "Have you seen this?" The message had a video attached. I didn't recognize the creator, so (anxiously) I clicked through. I was expecting a blood bath or some kind of bash session - but I was pleasantly surprised.

The creator, Dani Quinn, was breaking down an article I wrote earlier this year outlining the major problems with Boomer-generation parents. Far from creating a TikTok slam piece, what I found were hundreds of thousands of people in the comments discussing my piece, agreeing with it, or finding validation in the viewpoints I had taken.

The video became a 2-part series with millions of views. At the time of writing this article, it has hundreds of thousands of likes and hundreds of thousands of shares and saves off of TikTok on platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

I couldn't believe it. My Medium article went viral on TikTok. Before I had time to shake my head or shrug my shoulders, I was enjoying a wave of new followers, a wider audience, and a host of other benefits that made me realize: we all need to be sharing our writing on TikTok.

Why going viral on TikTok is such a big deal.

People who don't understand TikTok always roll their eyes when they hear that someone has "gone viral" or seen something interesting on Tiktok. Those people are stuck inside the 2016 version of their imaginations. There, TikTok is still an app full of dancing teens. They can't imagine it being an engine for education and change. Those who are writers can't imagine how it can boost their craft and visibility.

The truth is that going viral on TikTok - especially for something that you've written - is a pretty big deal. Poets, fiction legends, and memoirists alike have used the platform to create huge followings for themselves and their stories. It's an invaluable form of marketing, building community, and sharing ideas as a person and a professional.

Finding the right eyes

For the skeptics in the room, it's time for a major reality check. Billions of people log onto TikTok every day. No, these billions of people from around the world aren't just teenagers making up silly dances. Everyone is on TikTok, including the people who matter most to writers - readers, publishers, other authors, agents, editors, cover designers, and everyone in between.

The entire professional community is on TikTok, making comments and building communities that are helping writers grow as artists and pros. Agents create videos giving querying authors tips. Non-fiction writers tell their viewers how to go from concept to bestselling memoirs. Some of your favorite authors (and soon-to-be writing celebrities) are making their waves on TikTok right now.

More than any of the other social media platforms we're utilizing as writers, this platform has the power to get you and your writing in front of the right eyes. It doesn't matter what your ultimate goal is, traditional publishing, indie publishing, building an audience, creating ARC and sensitivity groups, it's all there. Your audience, as a writer, and the team you want to build are on TikTok right now. Where are you?

Best value marketing

If you're not a writer who is concerned about working professionally or making money, skip this section and read on. It's not for you. For all the other writers in the room who think they have what it takes, this next segment is going to be particularly important to you.

Becoming a professional writer in 2023 is no small thing. You basically only have a couple of routes to doing that (excluding self-publishing).

The first is becoming a content creator, producing articles and think pieces for (mostly) online platforms like Medium, YourTango, NewsBreak, Vocal, and more. You spend a lot of time creating your own content, promoting it, and pitching content to bigger publications. It's a day-in and day-out swim across The Channel. It's tough and not everyone has the personality to build that path.

The second route, and it's far more rare these days, is becoming a traditionally published writer. We were told it worked like this: you write something or build a pitch, and then you approach an agent. Once you have an agent, your book gets pitched to publishers. But that's not how reality plays out in traditional publishing anymore.

Now, it works more like this: you do all the work of creating an author career for yourself and an agent may take you on. Does that seem too hard? You could always become an influencer, celebrity, or tabloid scandal for a quicker, more direct route to a traditional publishing contract.

The single similarity between these 2 paths is the amount of marketing that has to be done. Whether you're going to be a content writer or a top-shelf, Barnes & Noble feature, you're going to have to do the biggest part of your marketing yourself. When it comes to that, there is no better-value marketing in the world right now than TikTok.

It costs nothing but your time and creativity to build a huge audience for your work and to go viral. Take it from me, who has now gone viral half a dozen times in as many months.

You don't have to buy into TikTok marketing with money like Facebook and Instagram (though you can). TikTok has gotten the game right. They know they benefit from your creativity, so it benefits them to incentivize your creativity instead of repelling you by scraping your pockets dry. Other platforms could take note of the value-reward marketing system TikTok employs.

Creating community support

Let's all be honest with each other for a second. Being a writer is brutal and it is scary. Every single day, you have to battle your own doubts and imposter syndrome. You're creating something from nothing, sitting down with nothing but the neurons and synapses in your brain to create some kind of world people can see themselves in. That creates so much doubt in the mind. Now combine that with critics and you have a perfect storm of "what the f*ck".

TikTok helps writers weather that storm by finding their "tribes". There, writers can really niche down and find supportive bands of people who want to lift them up in truly productive ways. No, it's not just about building an echo chamber or a fan group. You can get kind and compassionate support that truly helps you grow when you commit to finding those people on the platform.

Boosting professional credit

Believe it or not, having a large following on TikTok can boost your professional credentials, even those outside of writing. My own platform remains a great example of that. Because of the visibility that Tiktok has given my content, I have been able to receive greater notoriety and respect for my professional points of view, which are validated by other professionals in the same niche.

I've received endorsements from other published authors, Ph.D. psychologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, doctors, and so many more. I'm followed by celebrities and my videos consistently receive attention from reps of mainstream media outlets.

Sharing yourself authentically on TikTok, with the intention of helping and connecting, can lead to all kinds of professional credit boosts you can't imagine. Stay on the platform long enough - creating high-quality educational content consistently enough - and you'll inevitably find yourself mingling with people who will help you grow as a writer and a person.

Discovering new pathways

Creativity is the backbone of TikTok. The company knows what it is doing. The more creative their users are, the more users they will gain. That equals money, without all of the heavy advertising that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter rely on. There are a couple of big benefits here, but the biggest one is the creativity that is inspired by the approach to creativity that TikTok uses.

To be actively engaged on TikTok as a writer is to be continually inspired. If you're doing your job right, your time on the short-form platform will give you new ways to create, interact, promote, and incorporate your writing into everything you do there.

Perhaps you start a series from the POV of your novel's main character. You answer questions as they would. Provide borderline comical advice on relationships that mirror your viewer's real-life chaos. Or, you could start a faceless account, sharing atmospheric background against quotes from your upcoming memoir or think piece.

There are so many ways to market yourself as a writer, a novelist, a poet, an author, whatever space you want to cut out for yourself. The only thing that limits your creativity is the limits of your imagination. For writers, it's time to accept that it's a new age with new ways that writing is shared and ingested by readers.

Becoming a big deal

While the scoffers roll their eyes into obscurity, the plugged-in writers know that going viral on TikTok can help to turn you into a sensation overnight. This applies to all writers, including poets. A brilliant example of which can be seen in the poem, "Ten Legs, Eight Broken".

This poem, coined by poet I, e, is given from the perspective of a spider, killed by the humans who hate him simply for being what he is. One particular quote from this poem grabbed TikTok by the throat and ended up shared by users more than 6 million times. The line read,

'If I'm killed for simply being alive, let death be a kinder man.'

This one single line evangelized a new generation of poetry fans. Not only did it touch them with its simplicity and power, users began posting videos of themselves changing their behaviors and their relationships with creatures like mice, moths, and spiders.

That's the power of being a writer (of any caliber) on TikTok. Overnight, you can gain the recognition you've been working so hard to achieve. You can go from being an obscure and starving artist to someone whose characters are worshipped, whose words are stamped on t-shirts. TikTok, more than any other social media platform at the moment, has the power to make you a big deal as a writer.

You should be making shareable content.

A lot of people out there have one-dimensional views of what writers are and how they build their careers. Totally coincidentally, there are a lot of writers whose work never sees the light of day. They never break out of that one-dimensional view to reach their dreams. Much of this attitude comes down to fear and misunderstanding. To be a writer in 2023 means you have to employ 2023 tactics and styles to both your writing and your trajectory for success (if that's your goal).

How is that done? A big part of it is learning how to craft (at the minimum) widely shareable content that helps you build an audience and awareness of your books, articles, advice, or story. You should be emotionally motivating your readers to share your words with the people they love.

If you think you're doing that by only producing content that's only of interest to Medium readers on Medium - you're doing it wrong.

You should be making widely shareable content that helps your audience build a connection with you and your craft. How can you do that? Take it from a writer with *millions* of views and followers generated off this platform. Follow this 4-step process:

1. Identify the big issues: People want to live good lives. That incorporates a lot of different things. They want love, comfort, and entertainment. If you want to build a real audience you can grow with, you have to identify the issues that are preventing that good life and help them resolve those issues in some significant way.
2. Make it relate where it's needed: Before you start pushing your content all over the web, you need to make sure you know where it's needed. Who is your ideal reader? Your ideal viewer? Who are your words going to resonate most with? Make what you write relate to that person and their experiences.
3. Get better at crafting good titles: There's no shareable content without catchy, shareable titles. It's not about creating a shock factor, however. Good titles do what they say on the tin while making people think, laugh, or feel curious. Bonus: your title image should do the same.
4. Put some real heart into it: If you don't care about what you're writing, they're not going to care about what you're writing. Think back to any article, book, or poem that last enveloped you, swallowed you up. Do you think the writer felt nothing when they stitched those words together? You're wrong.

None of this is about manipulating people or tricking them into liking you or what you have to say as a writer. It's about connecting on a human level and giving those people something (and someone) to root for. All of that can be done in fun, entertaining, captivating, and informative ways…but it takes some practice to get it right in your voice for your audience.

The only way to figure out that formula is to show up every day. Do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Keep yourself authentic and your writing focused on the story you need to tell. Make showing up a part of the process and finding a home for your writing becomes inevitable.

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If you're a writer who is serious about reaching a larger audience, then you should be using TikTok. It really is that simple. It's the ultimate example of working smarter, not harder. You can share your fiction, your poetry, your memoirs, your military tomes. Anything you write, there is an audience for it out there, but only you can find them (it doesn't work the other way around).

Believe in your work. Put yourself out there. Use your creativity to open an entirely new frontier for yourself.

We are entering a new age of what it means to be successful; we're entering a new time in what it means to be a writer. Instead of looking down the barrel of pessimism and defeatism, make a bet on yourself. Try something new and stop hiding your work and limiting your potential as a writer and an artist. Want to learn how to do it? You know where to follow me.

© E.B. Johnson 2023

E.B. Johnson is a writer, NLP coach, and podcaster who helps people cognitively reframe their experiences for greater life satisfaction. Get your free workbook and weekly coaching emails directly to your inbox when you join The Growth Digest, a self-recovery newsletter.