How To Be A Creator On TikTok – with Lil Cully

Everyone and their mother is scrambling to find out how to be a creator on TikTok. Since its launch in 2016, TikTok has exploded to become the hottest social media platform. Five years later, there were 800 million active users on the platform. 

One of those users is a rising TikTok celebrity in his own right. Cullan Andrews, aka Lil Cully, jumped on TikTok in January 2020 to see what was up. Since then, he has blown up in his native South Africa as a TikTok comedian and has eyes on America. 

If you want to learn how to be a creator on TikTok, you may want to hear his advice. 

Consistently Post High-Quality Content

Just like any social media platform, posting high-quality content consistently is critical to building a follower base. Ideally, you’d want to post at least once a day every day. This continuity will catch more eyes and thus more followers. 

But you can’t just post for giggles. It needs to be quality content otherwise you’re going to be dismissed. You have to develop a creative process. Whatever that may be is up to you. Lil Cully has his own creative process. Yes, there are wardrobe changes and props involved. 

Lil Cully isn’t kidding around. Professionally speaking. 

“I think of the script in my head. Example, POV – driving in South Africa, pick up a pamphlet on the side of the road. 

“The script comes to me as I’m recording. As I’m going, ‘oof-that sounds better,’ or ‘oof-I’ll say it this way.’ I usually nail it on the first or second try.

“Because I don’t have a script, I like to record off TikTok.” 

“The thing is that people who are watching a TikTok – their attention spans are short. You have to catch their attention in three seconds or they scroll. They’re gone.”

Find Your Niche

Beyond regularly creating content, you need to identify and embrace your niche. Your niche could be fashion, dance, comedy, cooking, or any number of things. People scrolling through TikTok want to find things they identify with or that entertain them. 

Like many have said in the past about entertaining: give ‘em what they want. 

Lil Cully found his niche fairly quickly:

“There was a lot of trial and error. I had three choices – dance, transitions, and comedy. Eventually, I just did comedy and it blew me up. Because I had the following, my other choices got more views.”

“When I started going out – after blowing up – going out was different. People started approaching me. More and more people- shopping centers, petrol stations, random places. They were always between the ages 16-24. Okay, that’s my audience.” 

Embrace Who You Are

Nobody likes a phony. People gravitate towards people who are unapologetically themselves and stand out from the crowd. Take a piece of you that you like and show it off proudly. If you’re funny, tell jokes. Can you cook a world-class meal? Show the world. If you know how to dress well, get into fashion. 

The more you stand out, the better. 

“I do think being gay gives me an advantage on TikTok. Straight TikTok is all the trends, basic dances, eating stuff. Gay TikTok is more fun, funny people, people who use humor to cope with problems. Being gay, especially in South Africa, is niche.”

Spot the Trends and Join In

Now, to directly contradict the above advice, it’s important that you keep your ear to the ground about what’s trending. This is an opportunity to join in on the fun and expand your audience. People scrolling TikTok typically find trends on the Discover page. The more likelihood you can join that page, the better for your brand. 

Lil Cully, however, has his own method:

“I do not pay attention [the Discover page] hashtags. I use my own hashtags, my own unique hashtags. When I scroll through, and I hear a sound a lot, I’ll check when it started and how many views it has, ‘oh this has potential, it’s actually a thing.’ That’s the trend I’ll do.” 

“[Discover] is where all the 12-year-olds do it. That’s where the basic stuff is.” 

“Trends, for me, I’ll follow if they’re on my For You page, not from Discover.”

Lil Cully essentially takes a current trend, flips it on its head, and makes it his own. That is a clever way to stay current with the masses by staying true to yourself and your brand. 

Accept That You Won’t Always Have a Hit

Sometimes you’re going to produce a dud. That’s okay. Everyone in the creative field does it once in a while. As long as you accept that reality, you’ll be okay. 

“As a creator and an artist, I need constructive criticism because that’s how you listen to the people.

“The more effort I put, the better it will be.”

Network and Collaborate with TikTokers

As with any industry, you need to make friends. Follow and engage with other TikTokers, develop a relationship and find a way to collaborate. Teamwork makes the dream work, amirite? 

“Because I’ve made it to the South African For You page, a lot of verified creators follow me. I’ve done campaigns with them, video shoots, stuff like that. If you’re in touch with verified people then you collab with them and people see you like them.

“Like when Billie Eilish met Justin Bieber.” 

When you reach a certain point, brands will start to reach out to you. 

“You can’t say yes to every brand. Some of them want to give you free stuff to promote. Some of them actually want to pay you for your video. Those are who you want to go for. Because they will pay your rent.”

Final Words of Advice

Lil Cully may be new to taking content creation seriously, but he’s learned a lot of valuable lessons in the short time he’s risen to TikTok stardom.

“Have thick skin. Be authentic. Have patience.

“You will get hate. Even if it’s your first video. People will say whatever they want from behind a keyboard.” 

“Always be yourself. People like the energy you give off when you’re being yourself.”

“There are thousands of us that want to be content creators. [We want] to make it so we don’t have a boss and make money doing what we love. You’re not going to be there with the millions yet. It takes time. 

“Just chill, enjoy where you’re at.”

It’ll take time for you to learn how to be a creator on TikTok. Anything worth pursuing takes time. You’ll never know if you don’t try. 
Be sure to check out Lil Cully on TikTok. He’s also on Instagram but he believes that his insta-game is “weak.” His words.