Welcome to our Creator Coffee Chat: Presented By the TrendTok App where you get to learn about the very best tips, tricks and advice for growing your TikTok account from viral creators! We know that growing your TikTok account can feel overwhelming at times, so we’re breaking down the strategy that these creators used to help you through the process! Whether you’re a new creator on the platform that hasn’t chosen their username yet or a creator with a huge following behind you, we believe that this series will provide you with some new insights that you can apply to your TikTok strategy!
Today’s coffee chat is with Will Donnellon and Will Redmond (@willsworld69 )! Will Donnellon and Will Redmond are two best friends, roommates and students at Boston College who eat a lot of ham and cheese sandwiches and are above average Wii golfers. They've always enjoyed making people laugh, and TikTok has been an amazing outlet for them to get creative and share their humour with the world. They're a couple of college kids having fun and sharing their humor with the TikTok world!
This January they moved into the same apartment and became roommates for the first time. Being around one another every day really got their creative juices flowing. They made a podcast first, but quickly realized that TikTok was a much better outlet for their ideas and started uploading there. They never really planned on the account becoming what it has, but once a few videos blew up they were hooked.
We asked Will and Will to share advice, tips and thoughts with us that could help creators with their TikTok journey!
What is your TikTok handle and did you have a strategy behind choosing your handle username?
Our handle is @willsworld69. We’re both named Will, so it seemed obvious that our handle would need to incorporate that. We settled on Wills’ World (a nod to the classic film Wayne’s World), but unfortunately the handle @willsworld was already taken. So we totally randomly added 69 to the end.
What was the process behind creating your first video on the platform? How did it feel?
Will D had used the account casually for a while, but the first comedy skit we posted was one called “pickle breath”. It was an idea we had come up with and been talking about for a while, and we thought that TikTok would be a great place to share it. It was fun to make, and honestly we had no expectation of it doing very well.
How did your first video perform? What was your reaction to it’s performance?
The first video was a flop. However, we had a ton of fun making it. That was the turning point for the account – we realized that regardless of views or likes, we enjoyed having an outlet to share our humor.
How did you decide what kind of content you wanted to post on your platform or what audience you wanted to reach?
The beauty of Wills’ World is that we post whatever we think is funny without too much thought. We have been trying to keep being ourselves and not think about a specific audience or type of content.
What advice do you have for creators that are still trying to find their niche on TikTok?
Be authentic. Have fun. Some of your videos will perform poorly, and that is okay. The most important thing is that you are enjoying yourself. If you’re not having fun, it’s not worth doing.
How many videos did you post before you had your first “viral video”?
We had posted about 10 videos before the first one went “viral” (250k+ views).
What did it feel like when you realized your video was going viral?
Having a viral video is exhilarating. The feeling of so many people enjoying your content is hard to wrap your mind around. It also gave us hope that maybe TikTok could be more than just a hobby, and at that point we started to produce more videos and really try our hardest to make them the best that we could.
What happens when one of your videos does not perform how you expected? Do you ever recreate or repost the video?
It can be frustrating, especially when you have high expectations for a video and spend a lot of time creating it. That said, we’ve never felt the need to repost a video. Some things aren’t meant to be, and that is just part of being a creator. On the other hand, sometimes we have very low expectations for a video and it ends up exceeding expectations. It really goes both ways.
What advice do you have for creators on creating the TikTok videos? Any there any tools or softwares that you use?
We shoot everything on our phones, and our only editing is done through the TikTok app. This might be different for different kinds of creators, but we feel like part of our appeal is that the videos are authentic and don’t seem like too much of a production.
Do you ever get nervous posting on TikTok? If so, how do you deal with it?
There was one week where we had like 5 straight videos go extremely viral, and after that we started to feel a ton of pressure to keep it up. Another TikToker (a decidedly much more famous one) reached out to us that week and when we explained how we were starting to feel, he gave us the best advice we could have gotten – don’t ever let TikTok feel like a chore. We don’t owe anyone anything, and the best thing we can do is just continue to have fun and make the videos we want to make.
Are there any tricks/tips that you have used to boost your posts that you’d like to share with creators?
We try to focus on the content and not worry so much about anything else. In the past we have stressed about how often to post, when to post, etc., but at the end of the day if the video is good enough none of that should matter. We have found that live streaming on TikTok increases exposure to accounts - especially ones that are relatively small like ours.
How do you keep your community/followers engaged with you and your content on TikTok?
We try to post as much as we can. It can be a challenge between school and work, but consistency is key to building a following. We’ve also found live streaming through TikTok to be a great way to engage with and increase followers.
How do you handle the negative comments on the platform?
We ignore them. They’re always going to be there, so the quicker you can learn to not let them bother you, the better.
What’s one thing you wish you knew when you were first starting out on the platform?
We’re both college students, so this time of year is particularly busy and we’re not able to post as much as we would like. This summer we are really going to give it 110% and I’m excited to see what we come up with. We’ve also got some collaborations with other creators in the works that I think our followers will really enjoy.
Who are some of your favorite TikTokers or accounts to follow?
There are a ton, but some that come to mind are Jack Martin (@realjackmartin), Jakob Greer (greerzy), and @mud.consumer. All of those guys are hilarious and all have reached out to offer advice as we’ve started to gain traction. We can’t say enough about how helpful they have all been.
What is next for you on the platform, anything we should be on the lookout for?
I'm thrilled to introduce a book that I have written. It's called “Courage Behind The Mask A Story Of Live, Death And Surviving Covid-19”. It tells the story of how my mom beat the odds of COVID-19 and also shares a bit of my journey on this app. The book is out now on Amazon and at roberteblackmon.com. I've also paired with the health and performance brand Power Plate as the newest ambassador. I will be instructing people on the app how to gain better strength and help through vibration technology.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
We will just take this opportunity to again remind anyone who wants to create content to give it a shot. You never know what will work out, and as long as the priority is to have fun, it doesn’t really matter.
Where can our readers connect with you?
As of right now, we’re really only posting on tiktok (@willsworld69). So follow us there!
We loved chatting with Will and Will and if you enjoyed their coffee chat, make sure that you check them out on TikTok! And drop a comment on his video that you saw him here on the TrendTok Coffee Chat series!!
This series is presented by the TrendTok App, the platform for TikTok Analytics that helps creators go viral! Check it out here!