"In a month I have collected a million people in my account": stories of people who became stars on TikTok

If you don't know what TikTok is, this is at least strange. Short funny videos have already flooded the entire Internet and are gaining millions of views in just a few hours. We talked with Russian-speaking bloggers who managed to catch a wave of popularity on the social network, and found out how millions of subscribers change their lives, what tricks to use to get more views, and why none of the new stars are planning to return to Instagram.

I was amazed when the first video was watched a million times in a day

I used to work as a top manager in a large company and I felt great, but at the end of 2013 I burned out. I realized that I no longer want to sit in the office, and decided to change my life. I spent about a year looking for myself: watching motivating films, reading books, meditating. So I realized that there was an artist in my soul. In my youth, I did not follow in the footsteps of my parents and entered the law school, and by the age of 40 I suddenly realized that it was time to return to art.

I started painting and got carried away with miniature painting: I made images on pumpkin seeds and matchboxes. Later I found out that there is a genre of miniature sculpture, when various figures are created from wood or nutshell. I noticed from someone that you can use graphite to make shapes on the tip of a pencil. The material is very unusual and under a microscope it looks quite different from the naked eye. In addition, graphite is easily recognized by children and young people. They are very surprised that a work of art can be created from a pencil.

I started making shapes and uploading them to social networks: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Gradually, the audience's interest began to fade, and I became bored, so I asked my twelve-year-old daughter what TikTok is - I constantly saw an advertisement for this social network on YouTube. She showed it to me on her phone and said that I could upload my videos there. I decided to give it a try.

I am just pleased that so many people subscribed to me, put likes, comment, they like my work. The number of orders did not increase, because the audience will become solvent in five years. For now, she is only ready to like and scroll the feed with her thumb. However, over time, the platform in Russia will begin to monetize and promising authors will be able to earn money. For example, in the American TikTok, some guys already put active links in their publications.

TikTok is gaining popularity so quickly because the developers have taken into account points that were not thought of on other social networks. The platform is based on the Musical.ly service with a huge database of licensed tracks that you can insert into your videos. Instagram will ban you if you put Billie Eilish on the background, but here you can use popular music and create content with it: dance, sing along, cut figures out of graphite. This is a fantastic opportunity.

TikTok is a time bomb. Now the adult generation does not take him seriously and thinks that there is only pampering and antics on the platform. However, over time, everything will change. I think in a year TikTok will overtake other social networks in terms of the number of users. And if someday this platform also disappears into oblivion, something else will definitely come to replace it.

It's easy to make money on TikTok now

Gemini Verzakova TikTok profile - @ twins.verz, 3.6 million subscribers.

We learned about TikTok when it was called Musical.ly. There were ads on YouTube and Instagram all the time and we thought, “What the hell? Some kind of aggressive marketing and an incomprehensible application for children. Then they stopped advertising the platform so actively, and gradually everyone forgot about it.

In January 2017, my brother and I started a business: we burned portraits to order. Previously, we promoted our services on VKontakte and everything was fine, but then our method began to get worse and we thought about working through bloggers. True, most of them have very expensive advertising, so they decided to become popular on their own.

At first, they went to Instagram, but quickly realized that they could not develop there without a large advertising budget. I don't know how we remembered TikTok, but we decided to try to advance there: the social network was just gaining popularity. We created an account on June 26 and immediately uploaded the first video - some kind of challenge. In a few minutes, it received only 10 views. We got upset and thought it was some kind of bullshit. And in the evening about 3 thousand people subscribed to us.

To get promoted on TikTok, you just need to feel free to be yourself and show your charisma. It is important to come up with something that will distinguish you from the rest. Our highlight is that I am a youth grandfather, and I like it. Recently we organized a meeting of subscribers in St. Petersburg, many children came. People support me, ask for autographs, take pictures - there is practically no negative.

I am now watched by 500 thousand people, and views often exceed a million. Where there are subscribers, there is also earnings. Periodically, we are approached by musicians who want to advertise their songs. They ask to shoot a video for a specific track and are willing to pay for it. Most often, advertisers do not try to influence the content - the main thing is that there is a certain song in the background. However, a couple of times we were thrown off ready-made scripts. If the plot is normal, we agree.

Our goal is to gain a million subscribers, and then we will see. We haven't thought of making TikTok the main source of income yet - we post videos for fun. Once the grandson said: "Let's take pictures, and then you will see yourself on TV." This was not said seriously, but as a result, I really saw myself on TV and thanks to TikTok I have an increase in my pension.