Transcripts
1. Welcome!: If your TikTok account feels
stagnant because you aren't posting consistently
or you are posting, but your videos don't seem to be attracting
the right audience, it's time to shake things up and find your people with
a 30 day series. Hi, my name is Amy Plant. I'm a multi passionate
creative with a focus on sustainable design and a
personal love of crafting. Oh, yeah, and I hate marketing. But if you're a creative looking to grow your online audience, you know that it's
necessary evil. Luckily, I found a way to showcase my skills and
actually enjoy it. In October of 2024, I started a TikTok
series with the goal of growing my account
to 1,000 followers. The premise was simple, 31
Halloween crafts and 31 days. Started this month
long series with 300 followers and finished with nearly 10,000
by the end of it. In this course, I'll be sharing with you everything
I did to make that happen and help you plan a roadmap for your own
successful 30 day series. In addition to my wins, I also made some
mistakes along the way, and I'll be sharing
those with you, too so you can avoid them. You're like me, phrases
like growth strategies or niche targeting make you want to run in
the other direction. So I won't be using marketing
speak in this course. This is a
straightforward, creative friendly technique that
worked really well for me, and now I want to
share it with you. We'll also discuss how to
brainstorm topic ideas, avoiding burnout,
and how to go viral. The end of this
course, you'll have a full plan of action
that's tailored to your specific skills and will be the launchpad to your
own 30 day series. So grab a pen and paper
and come Create with me.
2. Your Action Plan: Your action plan.
Accompanying this course is a free downloadable template. This will become the action
plan for your 30 day series. You're more than welcome to
draw your plan on your own, but I'll be moving
through the sections of this template
throughout the course, so you may find it
helpful to follow along. By the end of this
course, this template will become your roadmap
for your 30 day series. I encourage you to
upload your plan to the project gallery to help
keep yourself accountable. If there was a
certain section you had trouble coming
up with ideas for, let us, your community know. Me and your fellow
students will help you brainstorm to complete
your action plan. You want to dive deeper, I've created a more
comprehensive workbook on this subject that is available to purchase as an add
on to this class. In addition to taking you
through the process of creating a 30 day series and a
detailed step by step guide, there are calendar templates,
motivational tips, and dozens of video ideas all organized by different
creative categories. You can find a
link to this bonus product in the
class description. Now that you're prep to plan, it's time to choose a theme
for your 30 day series.
3. Pick Your Theme: Pick your theme. In order for your series
to be successful, you need to have an overarching theme that will give viewers continuity and put each video in the context of a collective. The idea of a series is really
well suited to Tik Tok and other social media platforms because it creates
reliability for your content and the eyes of the algorithm and your
potential audience. If you let them know up front, you're watching day one
of a 30 day series. They know that tomorrow they
can come back for day two. And if they find your series for the first time on day 12, they know they can go
back to your profile and watch the other 11 videos
that you've already posted. So how do you choose
theme for your series? My advice is to not overthink
it and keep it simple. Keep these three points in mind as you decide
on your theme. One, think about who you're trying to reach and what
would appeal to them. For me, as the art witch, I wanted to attract other
creative witchy type people. For people like us, we love
autumn and we love Halloween. So I decided to have my series be Halloween craft projects. Two, choose a theme that
complements your usual offering. You want the audience
you attract to be the right audience for
what you do on the daily. If you usually post
pottery videos, and then you attract a bunch of followers with a series
on home renovation, going to be pretty
disappointed when you go back to posting
about ceramics. Keep the theme consistent
with what you usually share. Three, pick a theme that
inspires and motivates you. It is so important
to love your theme. You're going to be
creating 30 days worth of videos with
this central topic. And if you don't feel
passionate about it, those 30 days will
feel grueling. This is my first time
doing a 30 day series, but I knew I was safe
working in the topic of Halloween crafts because I love the spooky season
and I love DIY. If your theme inspires you, it will inspire others. Once you have your
theme, phrase it in a snappy way to form the
title of your series. It will probably be something
like 30 blank in 30 days. If you're teaching someone a
particular skill in a month, it might be something like
learn how to knit in 30 days. Keep it simple and direct. If you're stuck on
picking a theme, leave a post in the
discussion section. Let us know what kind of
creative work you do, what kind of audience
you're looking to attract, and your fellow students and I will help you come
up with a theme. Once you have your
theme, it's time to pick your perfect month
to share your series.
4. Choose Your Month: Choose your month.
You might have a successful series by picking
a random month to launch, but if you pick your
timing strategically, you'll have a much
better chance of going viral by tapping into
a trending topic. Since I picked Halloween
crafts as my theme, I obviously wanted to post my series in the
month of October. This is a season
when witchy types like myself really thrive, so there's a high
probability that this is the time of year when this kind of audience will
be active online. Think about what month or season your ideal audience will
be seeking your offerings. Here are a few examples.
If you're a floral artist, spring and summer months are going to be year time to shine. Maybe theme your series
around a holiday like Mother's Day or a
topic like weddings. If you knit, the fall and winter months are
going to be great for you. Create a cozy atmosphere in your videos and inspire people
to pick up their needles. If your creative
category isn't seasonal, you can let your theme
guide your timing. Say you're a polymer
clay artist and your craft doesn't have
a particular season. Your theme could be
30 DIY clay gifts. In which case,
you'd want to time your series for popular
gift making months, like November or December. Okay if your theme
is seasonless, but it does increase
your chances of success if you can leverage a topic that people will already be searching
social media for. Also keep in mind what time
of year it's reasonable for you to devote a small chunk of time every day to this. You can easily film and
edit everything in advance, but you will need a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes
every day to post, respond to comments, and
interact with your community. Okay, so you've
chosen your month. Now, how on earth are you going
to fill it with 30 ideas? That's exactly what we'll
do in the next lesson.
5. Topic Brainstorming: 30 Ideas for 30 Days: Topic brainstorming,
30 Ideas for 30 days. Committing yourself
to coming up with 30 ideas for a series can
feel really overwhelming. But as long as you give yourself plenty of time to plan ahead, it can be fun and inspiring. This process will largely
depend on what style of theme you choose and which of these
categories it falls under. One type of theme you may
have is daily projects. Will be something like drawing
30 vegetables in 30 days. My theme of 31 Halloween crafts would fall into this
category as well. A daily project's
theme type requires you to come up with 30
unique project ideas. For this type of theme,
I recommend you start brainstorming well in advance of the start of your series. I don't know about you, but I
often come up with ideas at the most random times like walking to the store or
chatting with a friend. So I like to give myself
plenty of time for these spontaneous
moments of inspiration. You want to hunker
down and brainstorm, a great method for
idea generation is to create a mind map with
your theme in the middle, branching out with words or projects you associate
with that theme. If you're a crafter, I
recommend looking at old traditional crafts that
you can put a modern spin on. I found a Victorian
era Christmas craft for my candy cones in one of my books and gave it a Halloween twist for
one of my projects. Other type of theme you
could have is step by step. This would be any theme
where each day you're making incremental steps
to a larger goal over the course of 30 days. Some examples of this
would be sew a jacket in 30 days or become a
photography pro in 30 days. If you have trouble
generating ideas, you may find this theme
easier because you can take a process you're
already familiar with and break it down
into small steps. Remember that each video will probably be
about a minute long. The step should be able to be communicated within
that time limit. One more type of theme you
may have is tips on tips. This is when you are
communicating lots of helpful information broken down into individual useful tips. Something like 30
crochet tips in 30 days or 30 photoshop hacks would fall into this category. Like the daily projects theme, this theme requires
30 unique ideas. However, each tip is just a
little part of the process. So it might be easier to think of them as standalone projects. When you're coming up with
ideas for this theme, consider where you were
as a very beginner and the tips and tricks that help to get you where you are today. Hopefully, those categories give you some help with
brainstorming. There are a few more tips
for idea generation. You don't need to reinvent
the wheel each day. Building off a
previous day's idea gives your viewer a reason to look at your other videos and look forward
to the next ones. For example, even
though each one of my Halloween crafts could
stand alone as a project, a couple of times I made use of a craft I made previously for the following day's
project like making a Jack OanternPom pom and then using it for a
chandelier the next day. Keep things fresh
by coming up with a few categories to fit
each project or topic into. Rotate your idea categories to prevent the series from
feeling repetitive. In my case, I categorize my projects broadly as
easy or intermediate, and then more
specifically as recipes, paper projects,
wearables and decor. Sometimes it helps with
brainstorming if you create more specific
parameters for yourself. Being overly broad can make
the process overwhelming. About what would interest
your particular audience. Each video should be captivating enough to hook your viewer
and stand on its own. Don't make filler content just to take a day off the calendar. You'll notice that the
template I gave you has more than 30 lines
for your ideas list. I find it helpful to come
up with more ideas than I need in case a particular
project falls through. That way, I don't need
to panic because I've already done the work of
coming up with backup ideas. That was a lot of information.
I just threw at you. So here are five important
tips I want you to remember. One, give yourself plenty
of time to plan ahead. Two, don't reinvent the wheel, put your own twist
on a classic idea. Three, build off a
previous day's idea to inspire the next
day's content. Four, put your topics into categories to help focus
your brainstorming. Five, make each idea interesting enough to stand
on its own as a video. Once you've come up
with your video ideas, it's time to plan your schedule.
6. Plan Your Schedule: Plan your schedule.
In order to have a successful series and make the process as smooth as
possible for yourself, you'll want to plan your
schedule ahead of time. This includes which
days to post what, but it will also likely include when you are
filming in advance. I only gave myself a
two week head start for filming before my series
started October 1, and I really regret not giving
myself more wiggle room. I ended up starting the series with about a five
day head start, which started to dwindle
to a two day head start and then came to
a screeching halt when I had a family emergency. Life happens, and luckily I had two days of videos to t me
over and keep my series going. But it would have been so much easier to have had everything
filmed in advance. I highly recommend scheduling
your time to at least film. Ideally, both film and
edit your content before your series starts to avoid the stress of doing
everything the day of. Along with the
creation schedule, you'll also want to make
a posting schedule. This should look
like a calendar with which video post on what day and what time
of day you'll post. First, let's talk about how to plan the order of your videos. If your series is a
step by step theme, it should be pretty easy for you to plan your
posting schedule. Your series is
project or tip based, you may find it helpful
to categorize your ideas, as I mentioned in
the previous lesson. Rotate the categories as
the week goes by and keep similar ideas apart on the calendar so things
don't get too repetitive. I personally find that weekends are harder for me to get views, so I avoided putting my favorite
projects on those days, although you may find the
opposite is true for you. So what time should
you be posting? I'm not going to pretend to
have the secret sauce of when is the exact best time
to hit the Post button, but I will share with
you what I did and why. For my series, I chose between 4:30 and 5:00 P.M. To
post my videos because, one, this is consistently when I have some
downtime in my day. Two, it gave me the whole day to record and edit a
video if I needed to, which I ended up having
to do frequently. And three, it's a
time of day that I've seen success with my
existing audience. So I felt it was a
good place to start. When you're planning out
your posting schedule, I recommend you keep these
three factors in mind, particularly the
first one, because the algorithm loves consistency. One, when is it easy and
convenient for you to post? Two, does this give you enough time for last
minute recording? Three, what posting times have worked well for
you in the past? Generally speaking,
good posting times are thought to break down into
morning, noon, and night. But obviously, these
will change depending on what time zone
your audience is in. My advice is to take some time before your series starts to experiment with
different posting times and see what works for you. The biggest thing I want
you to take away from this lesson is that once
your series starts, consistency will be key. Pick a schedule that is
realistic for you to stick to, and your reliability will be rewarded by your audience
and the algorithm.
7. Filming + Editing Tips: Filming and editing tips. A quick scroll through Tik Tok will prove that you don't have to be a filming expert to make videos that
resonate with people. But when it comes
to making a series, there are a few tips I can give you to help your
content stand out. Your biggest challenge
as a creator is getting people to not
scroll past your video. One way you can do that is to be consistent with the look of your videos as a visual to your series viewers
to stop scrolling. If you're talking a camera, this could be keeping your
background the same. Me, I always started
my videos with a moving or action shot
of the finished product, followed by a roving shot
of the materials I used. I opened every video
with my voiceover of welcome to day one of 31
days of Halloween Crafts. I also use the same filter on every video to keep the
color palette similar. You'll find that creating with
consistency will also make the production process
a lot smoother because you get into a rhythm
for filming and editing. Often, you'll only have
one to 3 seconds to grab your viewers attention,
so make them count. Have some sort of motion
in your opening shot. I like the filming rule that
if your subject is moving, your camera is still, and if your subject is still,
your camera is moving. If your series is project based, have the very first shot
be the finished project. As a viewer, I really
don't like when I've been given no indication what
the final result will be. Why should I invest
my time into watching this video if I don't know
if there will be a payoff? Press your viewer with
the finished project, then show them how it's done. Take advantage of the
title's function on TikTok to announce what your video will be about right away. Not only does this help to
grab the viewers attention, it helps the
algorithm understand who to show your video to. This is the same reason you
should be using captions for your audio and hashtags
in your description. Relevant, consistent
keywords tell TikTok how to categorize
your content. Keep in mind that not
everyone will be watching your videos in the ideal
way you want them to. Some people will
have the sound off. Some people will have their phone brightness
all the way down. Met people where they're at with closed captions of your
voiceover and well lit video. Use bright, natural light whenever possible.
Nothing beats it. You don't need to be a filming expert to
implement these tips, and you certainly
don't have to make a stunning video
to find success, but don't be afraid to push
yourself a little bit. Try creating with a
more professional eye, and you'll notice a big
difference in your content. Next, let's talk
about what everyone wants to know how to go viral.
8. So You Want to Go Viral?: So you want to go
viral? All right, let's talk about the
elephant in the room. How do you go viral? I'm not going to pretend
to be an expert. I'm just going to share
my experience with my most successful video
and why I think it worked. This video right
here is the one that really propelled my series
and made it a success. It was day nine of my series, a simple craft of how to make moths with dried autumn leaves. I like the project, but I honestly didn't
think much about it. However, even on the first day, I could see that
this was going to be an important video for me. Two days later, it exploded, and I had what felt like a constant stream
of new followers. So let's break it down and
talk about what worked. First, let's start
with the opening shot. Wanted these moths to look real, so I post them on my hand in the way I've seen people
do with real moths, and I really lucked
out with having beautiful sunlight streaming
through the window. It's an attention grabbing shot. If people have to do a double take with your opening shot, they're much more likely
to stop scrolling, and you have a better chance
of going viral because everyone wants to get in the comments and say the same thing. In my case, OMG, I thought they were real moths. The other detail about this
video that created a lot of engagement actually
not something I put in, but
something I left out. One of the materials for this craft is a type of
grass called Bunny tails. In the video, I don't specify
that it's dried grass. I just call it Bnnytails. Now, when I wrote the voiceover, I did wonder if I should
explain what this plant is, but I decided against
it because I was really trying to keep these
videos under a minute. And I thought, surely, people will see that it's
grass in the video. Boy, was I wrong? So many
people in the comments told me that they
thought I meant real tales from real bunnies. A couple people even accused
me of harming animals, but luckily, other viewers reassured them
that it was grass. So what's the lesson you
should take from this? Don't provide all the
answers in your videos. Give people a reason to take to the comments and ask questions. This gives you the opportunity to answer them and
create more engagement. And also create video replies
to their comments to create more content on a
subject that has already proven to be
popular with your audience. Once you have a certain
number of comments, you'll find that
the section kind of becomes its own ecosystem with viewers replying to other viewers and
increasing engagement. And the algorithm
loves engagement. So let's talk about engagement. I don't believe there's
anything you can do to guarantee a video goes viral, but you can improve
your chances by being an active part of
your own engagement. Responding to viewer
comments on your video, especially in the early hours
and days of it going live, signals to the algorithm
that your video is engaging and should
be shown to more people. But don't just focus
on your own content. Interact with videos by other creators working in
the same space as you. If your series is
about oil painting, use the search tool to look for other oil painters and watch, like, save and comment
on their videos. Click on your own hash tags and see who else is
creating under them. Oh, and don't just
leave a quick emoji. Leave a meaningful comment. Not only does this ingratiate
you in the community, it also signals to
the algorithm that your videos are relevant
to these categories, and it will push your videos
out to the right people. Now, it's nice to go viral, but our real goal here
is to grow our audience. So how do you convert
viewers to followers? This is the special magic of
creating within a series. Right off the bat in the video, I told the viewer that this was part nine of a 31 day series. The implication being that
if you love this craft, not only do I have
22 more to come, but I also have eight that
you might not have seen. So you should probably hit follow so you don't
miss anymore. FOMO can be a great tool in encouraging people
to follow you. One last thing I'm going viral, and it's a bit of black magic. Don't be afraid
to make mistakes. In fact, embrace
the idea of making a mistake because the truth is people love to correct you, and that means lots of
comments and more video views. I'm not saying you
should deliberately make a mistake to go viral, but let go of the idea of
perfectionism for your videos. Relatability is your secret weapon to building an audience. At this point, you may be
feeling a bit overwhelmed. So let's talk about
how to avoid burnout.
9. Avoiding Burnout: Avoiding burnout. I'm not
going to sugarcoat it for you. Creating a 30 day series
is a lot of work, but it doesn't have
to cause burnout. If you've been following
along with this class in the free template or
the bonus workbook, you've already done most of
the planning for your series. Some of you may
feel energized by getting a lot done in a
short amount of time, but I encourage you
to think of this as a long term project done over the span of
two months or more. You plan your series in a calm, cool and collected headspace, you'll find you can actually enjoy it once you start posting. Take advantage of Tik
Tok features like drafts to edit and save
your videos ahead of time. Use their download
feature to repurpose your content across
your other platforms. If I could have done my
series all over again, I would have filmed all of
the content before the series began because I did feel burnt
out towards the end of it. But I'm incredibly proud of
my accomplishment designing, creating, filming and posting 31 unique crafts in a month. Know that achieving
that feat means I can achieve any other creative
project I can dream up, and it's been an incredible
confidence boost. Beyond that, I know that
doing a 30 day series was instrumental in
growing my audience in such a short span of time, and I'm so glad I made
the commitment to do it. In short, don't fear this
mountain you're about to climb. You've got all the tools
to get to the top.
10. Post-Series Success: Post series success. Congratulations on
completing this class. By now, you should
have completed an action plan for
your 30 day series. I encourage you to
share your plan in the project gallery to hold yourself accountable
and inspire others. If you had trouble brainstorming for any of the sections
in the template, let us know so we can help
you come up with ideas. If you want a more in depth template to guide you in
your series creation, remember to check out the class description for the link to a bonus workbook
that also includes dozens of video ideas for
different creative fields. So what happens after you post your series? Where do
you go from there? Keep the momentum going by staying connected
to your audience. Post a video or slide show introducing yourself
to your new followers. Mine your series for
content ideas by creating video replies to comments
on popular videos. Maybe even make videos on your experience doing
a 30 day series. Continue to provide
value to your audience, and they will stick
around for more. After you wrap up your series, it's a great idea to write down everything that
worked and didn't so you can draw upon
your own experience for your next series and
future non series videos. Things like what days of the
week got better engagement, what video links seemed
to work the best, and what topics sparked
the most interest are all valuable pieces of information that you can use going forward. I'm so excited for
your 30 day series. Please stay in touch with
me here or on TikTok and Instagram at art doth underscore
so I can cheer you on. One last thing. If you
found value in this class, I would love for you to take a second and leave me a review. I read them all, and it's so helpful to your
fellow students. Thank you so much for
taking this class. As always, keep in touch
and happy creating.
Amy Plante, Multi-Passionate Creative
