Katie McManus shares mistakes she made managing TikTok accounts for business growth, emphasizing focused engagement to build a relevant audience. She offers practical coaching tips and personal anecdotes about her TikTok strategy and account management.
I royally fucked up my TikTok account and I'm sharing this with you so that you can avoid making the same mistake I did. Hi, I'm Katie, your practical business coach. And new business owners work with me so that they can leave their corporate 9 to 5 and replace their 6 figure salary by doing work they love that actually helps people. If you have a TikTok account that you're using to grow your business and you want to build a following, do not engage in stuff that has nothing to do with what you do or your ideal clients. It will keep you from growing and it will keep you from reaching your ideal clients. It will limit you so much, and all the work that you pour into this account to create content to reach your ideal clients will be absolutely wasted. And how do I know this? Well, I have been making this mistake for almost three years now, and I've just learned exactly how damaging this behavior on this app can be to your success. And how did I learn this? Well, let me explain. So I started this business account almost three years ago, and I'm barely at 3,000 followers. Okay, I've gotten a few clients from this TikTok account, but the return on investment really hasn't been high. Now, I have two other accounts that are focused on two very, very different things, and their growth has been explosive compared to my growth on here. So, first and foremost, I have my political account. Earlier this year, I decided to run for office in my small town, Massachusetts. And so I started a TikTok account for that campaign. Now, the election was in May, so we started in the beginning of March. The election was at the end of May, and now I'm turning around and helping other progressives with their digital strategy for their campaigns. Now. Now, that account that I started in the beginning of March, at the end of August, I was over 2000 followers. Do you know how long it took me to get to 2,000 followers in my business account doing all the mistakes that I've been making a really long time? The third account that I have is for the nonprofit that I started earlier this year. Okay? It's called the Gay Birthday Club. And we started the TikTok account in the beginning of June of 2025. I'm making this video in the beginning of September in 2025. That account that has maybe just over a dozen videos has almost 2,000 followers. And in both of these accounts, I only engage in content that has to do with the topic I'm talking about. So on my political account, I'm only engaging with political content in the gay birthday account. I'm only engaging with LGBTQIA creators with birthday content, with really joyful things. So if you are running a business and if you have a business TikTok, and if you actually want to build your business here and grow your audience and get clients and start making money from this app, then don't do the same mistake I made. Be very intentional with the content you engage with with the types of accounts you talk to. I'm currently going through the very painful, drawn out process of separating my personal TikTok from my professional TikTok. So I've created a fourth account for all of my like lazy doom scrolling. Um, I'm trying to train all my friends to send silly things to that account. I'm trying to do all of my engaging on the entertaining TikToks from that account and I'm currently going through this like awful process of like going into that account and going through all the accounts that I follow on my professional TikTok because it's all post personal stuff that I follow and follow them and it only lets you follow like 30 at a time before it's like, whoa, whoa, are you a bot? You, you can't follow anymore. So I'm going through several times a day and following a batch on my new personal account and then I have to go back into my professional account and I have to go and unfollow the same accounts. It is a. Okay, I don't recommend it. So again, if you are trying to use TikTok to grow your business, to grow your business following and to get clients, do not engage in stuff that you just like as a human being, only engage in stuff that has to do with your business. And also if you're a friend of mine or we've become friends through this app and you have nothing to do with building a business or coaching and I unfollow you, please know it's not personal. It's just I've been fucking up my own TikTok and I'm trying to fix it right now. But if you want to reconnect with me over on Katie, no longer. That's my new TikTok for my personal stuff. Like can we still be friends over there? I'm not breaking up with you, I promise. I just want to actually get a return on investment for all the work and time I put into this app.
