Creative Coffee Chat with @mingweirocks

14 March 2022

TikTok For Business

CulturePerspectives

We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with TikTok star,@mingweirocks, to discuss his journey on TikTok and learn tried-and-tested tips from the pro himself. With a combined following of over 30 million and 10 billion video views across his social media accounts, Ming Wei is one of the most followed TikTok creators in Southeast Asia. In 2020, Ming Wei founded Boom Digital Media to help others achieve their social media goals and pursue what he loves.

A strong hook is crucial to immediately engage your audience at the start of your video. You need an effective hook within the first 3 seconds of your video, especially as audiences these days are quick to move on if they’re not immediately interested/captivated.

Some ways to create a strong hook include:

- Ask a question
- Build an emotional connection
- Showcase the unexpected
- Start with a climactic event
- Include attractive movements and bright colours

Think about what steps you want your audience to take after viewing your video, and include a clear call-to-action in it.

It is always helpful to use text on screen to illustrate your point. Try to present your information concisely by using different bits of short texts, instead of having your text in a single dense chunk, which isn’t reader-friendly.

For Ming Wei, two of TikTok’s central features are key in inspiring him to come up with fresh content ideas.

The ‘For You’ feed is highly personalised to a user’s interests, which gives creators and businesses opportunities to engage the right audience while also reaching new ones.

When you notice a number of creators on your ‘For You’ feed doing the same video concept, such as using the same sound or replicating certain gestures or movements, you have most likely found a trend. A trend isn’t limited to just popular dance challenges - it can come in the form of trending music, filters or hashtags.

Once you’ve found a trend, you can start to think of how you want to participate in it.

Another way to find out what is currently trending is by checking out the ‘Discover’ page on the TikTok app, which tells you what the latest trending hashtags, sounds and effects are in your region. This enables you to explore a broad, diverse range of content that can be helpful when it comes to content ideation and creation.

With that being said, you shouldn’t just replicate the trends you find on the ‘Discover’ page without considering whether or not they match your brand’s style and image. Instead, you should be selective about participating in trends and try to put your own spin on things. 

Here’san exampleof Ming Wei demonstrating this in a partnership with food chain Nando’s Singapore:

In his work with Nando’s Singapore, Ming Wei and team identified and jumped on the ‘A bunch of brand accounts should comment on this for no reason’ trend within 24 hours, commenting on the TikTok video. Their comment saw high organic engagement, with over 39.7k likes and 140 comment replies. This earned Nando’s Singapore a feature inMarketing Interactive,a leading industry publication.

Buoyed by the success of this, the team participated in trendjacking twice more, this time with two comments on the ‘I told my students I’ll cancel our last test if a pro sports team comments’ trend that was also promoted via livestream. The comments helped reinforce Nando’s Singapore’s cheeky brand identity, with the first comment receiving over 63.2k likes.

So aside from creating content, brands can also jump on these sorts of trends by leaving a comment to drive awareness and engagement. 

Working with creators offers businesses a great way to amplify their reach, as they’reTwo ways brands can collaborate with creators are through TikTok Campaigns or TikTok LIVE.

Ina campaign he did with bottled water brand Ice Mountain,Ming Wei put his own twist on a comedic viral challenge by incorporating his Taekwondo skills in TikTok video that featured an Ice Mountain product:

For Ming Wei, it was important that the brand gave him creative freedom to lead the content direction, as it enabled him to find a personal, unique way to authentically promote the brand by making use of his Taekwondo skills.

From his experience collaborating with numerous brands and organisations, Ming Wei’s advice for businesses looking to collaborate with creators is to give creators creative freedom when working with them, so that they can add their own personality and twist to it, which will in turn help drive the best results for your campaign.

Another way brands can collaborate with creators is by hosting a TikTok LIVE and tapping on the creators’ community to participate in it. TikTok LIVE streams are pushed out to users on the ‘For You’ feed, making it another way brands can engage with their target audience.

Here are some ideas of what you can do on a livestream:

- Q&A sessions
- Interviews
- A look behind the scenes
- Product tutorials
- Interactive games

Ming Wei’s number one advice is to be consistent in creating content, and not give up after only a few videos. After all, it takes time to hone your video creation style, for the algorithm to work its magic and for your target audience to discover you, so don’t give up!

Want to watch the webinar in full?Click here!