TikTok… we all know the name, we have all spent hours scrolling through the app and yet some people still deny the power it has. Love my Cape Town city sat down with TikTok influencer Keegan Willis to discuss his journey on the app, the opportunities that have come from it and the future of this platform.
TikTok Influencer Keegan Willis’ journey…
Keegan is a 21-year-old content creator in Gqeberha who is currently studying a BA in Psych and English, while balancing his life as a South African influencer. As seen on his TikTok and Instagram he is passionate about comedy, fitness and spreading the Word of God.
Keegan has over 180k followers on TikTok , over 14k followers on Instagram and has recently launched his YouTube career.
LMCTC: What got you into TikTok?
“Boredom at the start of Lockdown, I didn’t know what to do and my sister always told me about TikTok and said I must start and I didn’t want to start until I realised in March 2020 how effective it was and how cool it actually is. My motivation was to make as many videos as I can and to make people laugh, as I have always had a funny side to me and wanted to showcase that on TikTok.”
LMCTC: Did you ever expect to grow in followers the way you did?
“Absolutely not, I thought I was going to grow way slower than I anticipated. The growth was so nice to see and to see the numbers go up was so surreal because I never thought that people would know my name in the country like they do, not that EVERYONE knows my name, but I never thought that my name would be one that people would be speaking about, which is quite cool.”
LMCTC: How is the community surrounding TikTok, have you gained a lot of support and friends from the platform?
“A lot of my friends that I have met have been through TikTok, and I have had a lot of connections with many people through TikTok. The community is going strong, the south African community on TikTok is very cool.”
LMCTC: You’ve grown a lot in other platforms, like Instagram & YouTube, since you started TikTok, would you say that TikTok is a booster platform for an influencer and would be a good platform to get started on?
“100%! TikTok is definitely a booster platform for growth on social media because one video could just go exponentially viral and you may not have even put a lot of effort into that video. I definitely think that there is so much growth on TikTok mainly because there’s a fyp and there is endless amounts of content on there that can be pushed out to so many people.”
LMCTC: Brands have started to use TikTok influencers lately in their ad campaigns, such as Mr. Delivery & Netflix, do you think more brands should be open to this idea and why?
“Yes, because brands need to understand that TikTok is a place where their brand could go either viral or stay the same, but could never diminish, so I think that brands need to be more aware of the power TikTok has because TikTok is the future of branding. People have seen it in the past, they will see it in the future and they are seeing it now, that TikTok is a place of growth, not only for influencers but for businesses too.”
LMCTC: You’ve travelled to Cape Town quite a bit in the last 2 years, what is your favourite thing about Cape Town?
“The fact that Cape Town is so diverse and everyone is different there. Cape Town is very big with a lot of opportunities, a lot of things to see and just an all-rounded city that I just love.”
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