Beat the Scroll - The Content Marketing Podcast · Wander

How to Grow TikTok for Your Business: Grow Your Following From Nothing with Phil Teasdale

March 1, 2023·59 min·5 clips

The one TikTok insight that changes everything: think like the platform, not like a creator

Chloe Clover kicks things off with a friendly, loose welcome and brings Phil Teasdale into a conversation about TikTok and content marketing. The sharpest point lands early: TikTok, like any platform, is a business, and its job is to keep people inside the app. That idea shapes the rest of the chat. Phil uses it to explain why links that send people away matter so little to the platform itself. He also makes the practical case that businesses should not act as if followers are owned assets just because they came through TikTok. The real value, as he frames it, is in using that attention to build a marketing list you control. That opens into a broader note about staying in your own lane instead of chasing every dance, trend, or gimmick. If your content is not built for that style, the advice is to keep making the thing you already know how to make. The algorithm, he says, will get it to the people who want to see it. The conversation stays grounded in that business-first logic rather than drifting into creator mythology. A cautionary story about his book The Blue Whale Plan makes the ownership point feel real, because a TikTok post surfaced the title's uncomfortable overlap with a disturbing online reference. Phil describes checking with his publisher after messages started coming in. They also touch on going live on TikTok and why that format can work when the message is clear. The host and guest drift through a few side stories, including a beach filming moment and a couple of live stories, which keeps the pace informal. Nothing here feels over-scripted. That looseness helps the episode breathe. The episode keeps circling back to the same practical truth: platforms can help you find an audience, but they should not be the place where all your value lives. By the close, the message is less about chasing virality and more about building something you can carry off-platform.

As heard by us

A blunt reminder that TikTok reach matters most when it leads to something owned.

This episode frames TikTok as a business channel rather than a content gimmick, with Phil Teasdale making the point that the platform is built to keep people inside it.

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Why you'd press play

You want TikTok advice that starts with ownership, not vibes.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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