How to get started on TikTok?

‘Just make content and see what works’

IN a field of fools, conspiracists, polemicists and snake-oil "influencers", how does a serious journalist go about attracting half a million followers on TikTok and a quarter of a million more on Instagram? This question and more were put to multi-award-winning Sophia Smith Galer, London Freelance Branch's "vertical" star guest at its February meeting.

Sophia participated in the meeting via Zoom, as many of our members regularly do, but watched here by those taking advantage of the sandwiches at our in-person venue.

Image © Hazel Dunlop

Starting out at the BBC, Sophia reported for the World Service, Radio Four and BBC World News, before moving to Vice News, where she covered everything from gender violence in tech to the climate crisis and Europe's Christian hard right. She is now freelance with a head brimming with new projects while still putting new material online, not just regularly but frequently.

"How does she manage it all without getting burnt out?" wondered aloud LFB's social media guru Nika Talbot during her introduction. It might, she said, be due to Sophia "resisting the urge to niche down", instead choosing the diverse topics that interest her and keep her happy and productive.

Sophia herself explained that maintaining a strong online presence was partly a matter of routine. "Whatever I publish, whether it's a radio documentary with the World Service or a text piece I file for BBC Future or Vice News, I also have the consideration: do I make a TikTok or Instagram reel out of it? I've been making vertical video alongside my journalism for over four years.

"Generally it's about an hour extra work a day. But it's also because I'm a trained video journalist." (Sophia graduated with a masters in Broadcast Journalism at City University.)

And with that, she invited LFB members ‐ both on Zoom and in-person in the hybrid meeting room at NUJ London head office ‐ to fire away with their questions.

Q: What was your most-viewed TikTok video?

SSG: "I made a TikTok for Vice News that broke the app for a day because it got well over 20 million views within a couple of days. I speak Spanish and I was the first English-language reporter to report on a story I'd seen in Spanish-language news media."

Q: Why did you go freelance?

SSG: "Obviously there are loads of benefits to being in a staff journalism role, namely job security. But that was the decision I came to in terms of the most flexible work I could do, and frankly the most lucrative: I could make far better income as a freelance than I can as a staff journalist. Both at the BBC and Vice there's this endless rhetoric of jobs being cut or layoffs or resources being depleted, and that hasn't been a pleasant environment to be in. I feel more secure being freelance than I did as staff."

Q: What are ‘verticals’?

SSG: "Vertical video simply means video that would be viewed on your smartphone in the shape of your smartphone ‐ as opposed to traditional television, Netflix, BBC iPlayer or YouTube that's horizontal. The two main platforms I use are TikTok and Instagram and they are both platforms currently amplifying vertical video as the most engaging and interactive product. That's what I specialise in."

Q: How does a journalist start on TikTok? It only accepts a few minutes of video.

SSG: "All of my videos are about 90 seconds, 270 words. On-the-hour BBC radio and television regularly demands that you make content in smaller amounts of time than that. So time is not an issue. I can pack a lot more in a minute and a half on TikTok that I could in a traditional television package. In terms of getting started, I know it's easier said than done but you can only get started by making content and seeing what works and what doesn't work."

Q: When you make a radio programme for the World Service, for example, do you upload that or make a separate version to go on your TikTok?

SSG: "Here's an example of what I've probably done the most of. I spent two years as a senior news reporter at Vice News and my main role there was to file text copy for the website. I would make a TikTok about the article for their account. But I can also make my own TikToks with a different cut on my own platform. I pick and choose. I don't do it out of every piece of content I do."

Q: They don't mind that you're doing this?

SSG: "No, not at all. If anything, they really like it because it gets the story a lot more reach. I have a totally different audience."

Q: How do you generate revenue from these videos?

SSG: "It can generate revenue in what I would describe as direct and indirect ways. An example of direct would be that, if you reach a certain threshold on TikTok, same with YouTube, you can access a kind of 'creator fund' where you can get money from the platform, per view. An example of indirect income would be me making a video and then getting emailed by an editor saying 'I love that video. Can you write a piece on it?' Or I might be asked to speak in public because people have seen me on TikTok.

"Also, since I went freelance, I have been able to take advantage of brand collaborations. I'm very, very picky with the brand collaborations I take. At the minute I've only taken them from language-learning apps because my audience love language learning. It's one of the key content areas I do. I will receive money as a content partner for making a video and I secure a deal or a discount for my followers."

Q: How do you manage the ethics of being perceived as an influencer while working as a journalist?

SSG: "I talk about that with my audience so I'm very transparent with them about it. Beyond that, when I've had to report on technology and content creation so much, it's to my advantage that I know both the worlds rather than to my detriment."

Q: If I put TikTok on my phone, will everything that I do become accessible to the Chinese Communist Party?

SSG: "I would say: if you are an investigative journalist and you have source details on your device that you really care about, I would use a different device. That's because of a story we had from the Financial Times a couple of years ago... If not, then... I'm not worried about stuff that's on my phone."

Q: How are you experimenting with AI?

SSG: "I've made a Skillshare class for how to do factual storytelling on TikTok and Instagram with the vertical videos that I've described. That's going to be available soon. And I've been building a lot of assets around this course. One of them is going to be a motion template that includes how I content-create and plan everything that I do ‐ it's kind of my brain on virtual paper.

"I've also been creating an AI chatbot. I call her 'Sophina' ‐ little Sophia ‐ and she uses Chat GPT 4's language learning model based on the private data of over 100 TikTok transcripts that I wrote which led to viral video. It's the only chatbot in the world that exists like this and is built on my method. I've been building Sophina in my spare time and it's been loads of fun. I've been using a no-code platform that's been a big but interesting learning curve for me. Sophina will be ready soon for everyone to use."

Q: How do you have any spare time?

SSG: "I don't."

Sophia's first book, Losing It: Sex Education for the 21st Century, is currently on sale.

© Alistair Dabbs

• The full recording of Sophia Smith Galer answering questions at the London Freelance Branch meeting can be watched below, complete with closed captions if you wish. If the embed below doesn't work in your browser, click on this link to watch it on the LFB YouTube channel [which will set cookies galore].