New Media
Event

On 7 April 2023, my classmates and I from New Media Studies (batch UKT January 2023) were proud to have social media influencer Aniq Aqil, known as @ohkylo on TikTok to share his journey in utilising TikTok to fulfil his dreams. Aniq is passionate about his dream of performing and appearing on billboards. He saw the light when TikTok started to bloom during the pandemic and took on the opportunity to start creating content every day. His content is mainly one-person shows and fun skits presented in Malay about students growing up in Malaysia, attracting many locals to relate to his content.

As digital technology becomes more prominent in every facet of life, I've observed how new media are making an impact in communicating messages to audiences. Especially during the pandemic, the social media platform TikTok had an insane growth of at least 180% users worldwide. As the pandemic is keeping people at home, they turned to TikTok to fill their free time with a plethora of content for everyone, where anyone can create content from anywhere and anytime.

In Malaysia, TikTok opens up opportunities for people as the platform allows them to showcase their creativity and talents to a global audience. Now, small local businesses or influencers are opting for the platform to market themselves and bring them to reach a bigger audience.

I was impressed when I heard that Aniq Aqil managed to schedule his time to balance his time for his work as a model, content creator, as well as working at a law firm. When asked about advice for other aspiring content creators, he emphasised the importance of posting daily and keeping consistent. Consistent with his content makes the algorithm push the content more and helps him gain more loyal followers. Aniq shared that even when he feels under the weather or not in the mood, he will still push himself to record the content and post it on his account.

I agree very much with the key point he mentioned in content creation: CONSISTENCY. When managing my online business on Instagram, I noticed that customer engagement and sales increase when posts are made regularly. Nevertheless, consistency doesn’t mean posting daily; it can be posting once every two days or once every week, depending on the type of content being published. Posting on a fixed schedule lets audiences know when to expect content which builds trust and loyalty along the way.

The sharing session was truly inspiring as I feel motivated to try out the platform by creating a TikTok account and just start to post anything from my daily life. All the while, I'm always waiting for myself to improve my content creation and editing skills, but I didn't realise that trying and actually making mistakes is the best way to improve. Remember, you don't have to be great to start, you just have to start to be great!