Top TikTok Growth Hacks From Mark Setlock of @FinanceUnfolded

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The digital landscape is evolving and changing daily. You may think you are caught up on what’s happening online. But by the time you open TikTok or Instagram, everyone has moved on to the next trend or headline. So how do you stay up-to-date on what’s going viral and increasing engagement?

Welcome to Trade Secrets by Bullish Studio: A new guide for creators and brands looking to get an edge in what they do best. 

With over 100 campaigns under our belt and an influential creator network reaching over 35 million followers, we've learned a thing or two about growing on socials, making content, monetizing, capitalizing on trending topics, establishing best practices, and beyond. There’s no gatekeeping here — we’re revealing the secret sauce to stay ahead and stand out from your mutuals. 

Trade Secrets sat down with Mark, the creative mind behind Finance Unfolded, to discuss his hacks, TikTok content, and social media growth. 

How to Find TikTok Success with Some Help from Full-Time Creator @FinancialUnfolded

Finance Unfolded’s Mark Setlock has found the hack to social media success. Amassing over 1 million followers on TikTok and hundreds of thousands of followers across platforms like YouTube and Instagram, Mark’s content exposes everyday hacks, cracks the code on finance tips, and helps people learn about money and side hustles. 

Mark was first introduced to finance and investing through none other than the Rockstar Games’ video game Grand Theft Auto 5. And who said that video games only rot your brain? 

At the same time, he said he kept seeing the term “passive income” while playing the game. Unsure of what passive income was, Mark turned to YouTube to research and watch videos on how to make more passive income. There, he stumbled upon a whole world of investing, stocks, real estate, and finance. He taught himself the ins-and-outs of investing, buying his first stock in another video game company, Activision Blizzard. 

Fast-forward, Mark took what he learned from his online research, as a finance and accounting college student, and in his time interning at various financial firms and turned it into the source of his TikTok content – posting daily videos that have racked up over 21 million likes. 

You may think there is a whole team behind-the-scenes to handle Mark’s whole workload: An individual script writer, videographer, video editor and social media manager. Nope. This whole process, which can range from a quick three or five hours of work per video, is just Mark and his filming/editing equipment. 

So aspiring creators – take notes! This multi-hyphenate content creator is sharing his top hacks for creating consistently viral content on TikTok as well as social media growth.

1. There Is No Such Thing As “Too Much"

Every week, Mark scrolls for video inspiration online from TikTok, to YouTube, to random sites, and more. He then begins to pull together a list of ideas, trends, and hacks to develop 50 to 100 video ideas. Yes, you read that correctly: 50 to 100 ideas for potential videos. From there, he picks the best seven ideas that he believes will perform well and begins scripting the video. Mark noted that the majority of his focus is on the first five seconds of any video – the “hook.” It needs to be solid and attention-grabbing to make people stop and watch the rest of the video. After the script is complete, he films B-roll, making sure to get three clips of each shot to get a full 15 second video, then he edits the clips, does the video over, captions it and posts it. Easy, right?

2. TikTok is an Even Playing Field for New Creators

TikTok provides a window of opportunity and a substantial platform for a creator’s growth potential. Unlike YouTube or Instagram, TikTok’s FYP is an endless stream of videos that have the chance of going viral for any creator, whether they’re new or seasoned. While finding success on TikTok may feel like being in the online version of the Hunger Games, every creator still has a chance every single day to have any of their videos blow up. Mark said one thing to note is that as more and more creators join TikTok, the competition will intensify and niches may begin to feel claustrophobic. Your sole focus should be to create content that differentiates yourself and is hard for people to copy — then you’ll begin to find your audience and become their go-to creator.

3. Find a Content Niche that You Enjoy

A major factor in Mark’s success and longevity is his genuine enjoyment for the content he creates. He said he genuinely enjoys the finance niche — that’s why he created and continues to create finance content. So if you're someone who really enjoys sports or movies, don’t stake your claim in posting investing content. Mark said it's important to make content about a topic you are passionate about and build a community around what you love rather than trying to make content you think will attract the largest following. That just leads to an unhappy, inauthentic, and burnout creator.

4. The Biggest Inspiration Comes from Other Creators

Mark suggested finding three or four accounts that have really good engagement and a large following, and investigating their journey to see what takeaways there are and what can be replicated. Don’t copy their content, but learn from what they’re doing. For Mark, YouTubers like Financial Wolf, are the accounts that he is inspired by and that really resonate with him. Learning from your mutuals is important, but TikTok and social media is a competitive space just like real-world businesses at the end of the day. Therefore, content creators need to differentiate themselves from others and make content that is unique to them to grow their community.

5. Be Patient and Don’t Stress 

While posting countless videos to get his account to 1,200,000 followers, Mark learned a lot about social media, content creation, and channel growth. He said his biggest takeaway from his social media journey is to not let one video stress you out or discourage you. Even if it is a smashing success right out of the gate, there is a lesson to be learned. It is more beneficial to post frequently, like one to two videos per day, to get what Mark describes as a “compound interest effect of learning.”

For example, Mark said he started his channel by posting four videos per day, then looking into the analytics to see which one performed best. Learning which one was most successful allowed him to create a new batch of four videos, the next replicating that success. Make a lot of content and see what is working and what isn’t. Success and massive growth will be slow to come since accounts take a decent amount of time to grow. But be patient and don’t get discouraged if a couple videos don’t perform as well as expected.

6. Transparency and Trust Are Key in Forming Partnerships for Monetization

Every creator hopes for the day their accounts are influential and established enough to be monetized. For Mark, he said this happened once he hit around 40,000 followers. Who you choose to partner with is crucial because it has to be authentic, genuine, and with brands you truly support. Reach out to people and companies that have the same feel as your content and consider who will be the right fit for your message.

Mark said one of his more notable partnerships had a personal connection, in which he made a video for a stock-market themed restaurant where he is based. The video for the restaurant, Detroit Beer Exchange, ended up going viral across platforms. Now, Mark and the owner have a good relationship and the restaurant feels like home. Establishing a close relationship with a local business and helping them reach new customers was not something Mark said he anticipated in his career, but definitely is something that he is proud to be a part of.

Another positive partnership experience brewed between Bullish Studio and Finance Unfolded. Transparency is the core feature both Mark and Bullish share, making their two pieces fit together perfectly for a partnership. He praised Bullish for peeling back the curtain to show people there are strategies and methods to becoming a creator yourself – it’s not just luck that makes some people successful on social media.

Finance Unfolded knows the struggles that an up-and-coming creator goes through. From trying to figure out their niche, building partnerships, filming, and even trying to create a viral moment to explode onto the scene. Using the lessons and tips he learned along the way, Mark creates content that deciphers the unknowns of content creation and solves the answer to finding social media success.

For more hacks and money tip content follow Finance Unfolded on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram!

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