Carlos Melendez directly addresses camera:  To stay busy during the beginning of the pandemic, I fell down the TikTok rabbit hole. I started posting short fun videos about my morning Cafecito routine and funny videos about real estate. Then something magical happened. I went from zero to over 2000 followers in a month.
I'm Carlos Melendez, a broker associate with Florida Premiere Realty in Boynton Beach. Let's take five minutes to talk about some of the lessons that I've learned. Launching what's become a successful TikTok program. When I saw the engagement and followers I was getting on TikTok, I decided to experiment.
I wanted to keep it fun, but also wanted to generate business. A boring walkthrough of a house just wasn't going to cut it, so I stopped posting coffee videos and posting funny real estate content. The agent can relate to.
But after a while, people stopped engaging as much as well. So it was back to the drawing board. At the time, I was in Puerto Rico for the holidays. We were celebrating Three Kings Day and I posted videos about my culture and amazing Puerto Rican foods.
The videos went viral. I'm talking hundreds of thousands of views and hundreds of comments. That was my aha moment. While I love real estate, I realize real estate videos alone just weren't engaging enough. People wanted to know more about me.
I figured out at that moment, a formula that works 80% of my videos touched on my culture. Traveling funny things and, of course, food. The other 20% included funny videos about real estate walkthroughs and multimillion dollar homes and things other agents could relate to.
Now I have about 60,000 followers. I've generated multiple buyers and sellers and have sent out over 150 referrals through TikTok alone. If you're interested in using TikTok for marketing, my first tip is to experiment and find your niche.
Some real estate agents have seen success, posting only real estate content, but to be honest, they are engaging and entertaining videos. One trend that works well is comparing what 300,000 could buy you in one state versus another.
It's all about trial and error to see what works for you. It honestly took me a few tries to figure out what worked for me. Next, collaborate with other industry professionals like mortgage professionals or inspectors and some of your videos.

If you work on a team, take advantage of that. Post funny videos of things that happen daily with your team members, then tag each other in your video in order to expand your exposure. Also, make sure to brand yourself.
That's super important. In every TikTok video that I post, I wear a branded polo shirt or a hat with my company's name and logo on it. That way, even when I'm not talking about real estate, people know what I do.
Check your messages and respond to them quickly. I receive messages that ask me questions about the market or whether I even cover a particular area, but I make sure to respond right away. And if that's a question that I get asked a lot, I do a TicTok reply video answering it and I'll go a step ahead
and tag the person who asked the question. Next, don't get canceled. Stay away from controversial topics. I know some people who have built their entire following by being controversial, but honestly, I do not recommend this approach. I don't want to be that person who ends up on TMZ, a gossip site or anything like that just because of
a viral video on TikTok that might have offended somebody and then ends up getting you canceled. Plus, you may run into a potential code of ethics violation, so you definitely want to avoid that. And like all other social media?
Be consistent. TikTok's algorithm will penalize you for not being consistent one video a week. That's good. one VIDEO A day. It's even better, but three videos a day. Now that's Tik Tok sweet spot. Capitalize on trends. Use trending music and trending hashtags to help boost your presence on the site.
The key is to be authentic. Find your niche and have fun with it. Unlike other social media platforms, it only takes one video to go viral on TikTok and boost your followers. And I guarantee you, once you do that, you'll fall into the TikTok rabbit hole as well.