8 minute read
Social Media with Melissa Maker
Time Is Tikking Tokking Away
by Michelle Hespe
We interview Melissa Maker from Clean My Space about short-form Reels on Instagram and TikTok, and why you should jump on this style of video bandwagon now.
Melissa started out in 2006 by launching a cleaning service called Clean My Space in Toronto. In 2011, she created a YouTube channel sharing simple cleaning tips. From there, her first YouTube video became madly popular and it threw her into the world of video marketing. Clean My Space now has a fan base spread across 165 countries, with 1.87 million subscribers on YouTube, 128,000 followers on Instagram and more than 240,000 followers on Facebook.
TikTok is her next platform to conquer, and she already has 14,300 followers and more than 40 million views of her videos.
Whether you are a wholesaler or retailer of products, or anyone wanting to sell anything really—Melissa firmly believes that you need to get into short-form video, and the time to start is now.
What’s the deal with Reels, and do we really need to TikTok?
Before you ask yourself if you have to start dancing with your product (and you may want to!), not all short-form content consists of this type of material, and you’d be amazed at what can be created in this format. Unlike a few years ago, simple posts of photos with text captions are not being consumed at the crazy rate that Instagram Reels and TikTok videos are. And a noticeable trend is that videos, no matter the platform, have recently become shorter.
Look at more traditional places where filmed advertising appears—such as television—and you’ll note that a typical advert is 30 seconds. It’s quite likely that some or most of your audience are not in front of televisions now and the majority might be staring at their phones, scrolling through thousands of videos. But first, let’s deal with the basics: Instagram Reels are short-form, vertical videos that until 2019 could be up to 15 seconds long. Instagram users record and edit together video and photo clips set to music and share them to their Feed, Stories and Reels pages.
In 2020, Tik Tok extended video time limits to 60 seconds when users started stitching four 15-second segments together. Reels videos could then be 15, 30 or 60 seconds long and in May 2022, reels were upped to 90 seconds.
For some background, TikTok came on to the scene in 2016, launched by the Chinese technology company ByteDance. Meta Platforms (formerly called Facebook) launched Reels on Instagram in 2020 and on Facebook in 2021 in response to how widely popular short-video apps on TikTok had become.
Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that Meta is adding creative tools like Remix to Facebook Reels along with the ability to create a Reel from an existing story.
“I told myself I had to do 100 TikTok videos to learn the platform and become proficient. It would help me find my edge and learn what my audience likes,” Melissa says. “It took me three days to learn the editing app and I just decided that it was part of my job. But as a retailer, if you don’t want to do it then get one of your staff to do it or hire someone. The more you do it and the sooner you start, the better you’ll become. It’s all trial and error.”
Fast forward to mid-2022 and a reel or a TikTok video might be as short as seven seconds. TikTok already prioritizes videos with trending audio and the amount of text is generally text that can be read in about seven seconds. “Seven seconds?! What can be done in that time?” you might be saying. Well, amazingly, a lot. Showing one small feature of a new product drop or a popular creator using a product in a unique way is enough to pique audience interest. They just need to see someone using something for a couple of seconds to want to learn more. Then, they may go to YouTube to find a longer review video about the product. And since so many short-form videos can be consumed in one viewing session, Reels and TikTok users are seeing more content per hour than before. In fact, Gen Z and Millennials are turning to Instagram and TikTok for search functions as opposed to traditional search engines.
Is our attention span becoming even shorter?
Melissa believes it is a combination of factors, which include boredom during the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, shorter attention spans and a hunger for continual streams of new content, often on new platforms.
“When Instagram stories and Snapchat came on the scene, a lot of people thought ‘what a waste of content. It disappears.’ But it proved really popular and is a dynamic experience,” she says.
The pandemic fuelled the thirst
“TikTok didn’t really blow up until the pandemic,” says Melissa. “People were stuck at home, kids and teens were not at school. Several of my creator friends became huge names on TikTok during this time because they were bored and had the time to create—and the audience had the time to watch. And when one new platform succeeds, the big players had to play catch-up. That’s when we saw YouTube release Shorts and Instagram release Reels.”
Melissa says this short-form movement is not a fad.
“Short-form content is here to stay due to consumer demand,” she says. “There is now an appetite for this type of content: punchy, different, meaningful, fun. As I always say, you need to show up where your customers are. It doesn’t matter who you think your audience is, if they are on a particular platform, then that’s where you need to reach them.”
“And you don’t have to be a polished professional. Just be yourself and promote your product or get the most dynamic person in your business to do it for you,” she adds.
“As a retailer you can search the trending hashtags for your location, products, demographics, etc., and create a video using that hashtag set or recreate trending videos that are top-performing in that hashtag set. What is already succeeding will tell you what people want to see. Whenever I make content, I think ‘what would someone want to watch? What would I stop and watch?’ Sometimes, I’ll even ask my girlfriends what cleaning challenges they’re having to generate ideas, or I’ll discover something new in my own home and think about how I can share it in an interesting way with my audience. It’s all about finding that edge and ultimately, it’s marketing. These platforms are new marketing tools for you and they are free.”
Practice makes (not-so) perfect
Melissa emphasizes that while you might not be good at it to start, you do not have to reinvent the wheel to gain followers. You don’t need perfect equipment or Oscar-worthy editing skills. The more basic and natural, the better. TikTok thrives on imperfection. “Just show up and be different,” she says. “While you have to search to see what’s popular on the platform, you then need to insert your own zing. You need to figure out how to ‘stop the scroll’ so people will watch and follow. If you’re a candle store in Nashville, perhaps you create one video explaining why your store is amazing but you do so by singing it in your best country music start voice. Then, next time, throw back to the singing voice (if it performed well in your analytics) as you talk about the newest fall candle collection. That’s your ‘thing’ now!”
Among other things, TikTok is being used to find products, to watch videos on how to use them or reviews on how good they are. “Remember that TikTok is a search engine. People go on TikTok for product reviews,” Melissa explains. “They look up hash tags. As a retailer you can use this as an opportunity. For instance, you could do a TikTok about the Microplane graters and cement yourself as the Microplane expert in your region. It’s free, so use the brand with your brand.” |•
Melissa has some other tips for retailers signing up:
Collaborate: Look into doing a duet – or a Stitch*
Connect with other brands
and creators: Stitch a piece of content with a celebrity using a product or even just use your face reacting to a product that is on the other side of the screen.
Invite influencers into your store and have them create content for you:
Influencers are all about beautiful experiences they can create and share content about, it gives them an edge. Give them some gift cards. Do a shopping spree in your store and give influencers ‘x’ amount of dollars and let them create the content and share it based on their experience. Just do it: The time to start is now. Secure your account and start creating. Show up where you need to show up for your audience— something Melissa wishes she had taken heed of years ago with short-form.
BEFORE IT CHANGED THE WAY WE HYDRATE...
IT WAS HERE.
Every now and then a product comes along that becomes iconic in the home + housewares industry. An innovation in functionality or design that captures the hearts and minds of consumers and becomes ubiquitous in households of all shapes and sizes.
But before it was in every consumer’s home, it was at the Show.
Over the years, the most game-changing home + housewares products have made their mark in Chicago in March. It was an idea—maybe a prototype— maybe from a company or inventor no one had ever heard of. But the buyers who recognized its potential early brought competitive differentiation and consumer loyalty back to their stores with them.
