Officially TikTokking

Well, I finally went and did it. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was considering starting a TikTok account as an author, and I decided to follow through on it. Yesterday I put up my first two posts. (I’m @bmoorebooks, in case you want to follow me over there.) This is kind of backward from the way I’d usually approach social media. I like to have a good feel for a platform before I really do anything with it, just to make sure I don’t do or say something that makes me look foolish, since it might be a no-no most people are aware of.

I finally decided I often look foolish anyway, so why put it off any longer?

Already, I’m seeing it might be difficult for me to actually post content. Not because I can’t think of content to post, but rather because I had to do like 1,000 takes of that lousy first video to try and get it right, and in the end I just gave up and posted what I had and moved on. I still feel like it’s pretty drab, and I say “uh” way too many times, but oh well. I’ll survive.

That first intro video has had 791 views, which judging from other TikTok videos I’ve seen, isn’t all that many, but when you compare it to other metrics I see on Facebook or my blog, is a ton. This leads me to believe TikTok is very generous with “views.” Or is it really that there are that many people actively using the platform? (Things on Facebook, meanwhile, feel like they’re getting quieter and quieter.) My “I have no clue what I’m doing” post has had 276 views, but it actually got two comments, so . . . I have no idea. Whatever.

I plan to post short reviews of books and movies, along with discussions of how, what, where, when, and why I write. So the goal is to keep it pretty author-centric. We’ll see how that goes. I really enjoyed putting the Grumpy Old Men TikTok together, so I might do more of that as well. I often think in terms of movie quotes, so it shouldn’t be that hard.

Anyway. That’s all I’ve got for now. Let me know if you see me really sticking my foot in my mouth.