Wollongong's newest social media stars are not who you might expect.
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Husband and wife business duo, Kyle and Simon Morrisey, have received millions of views on social media app TikTok, for their videos of paper being cut.
The couple, who started their own Keira Street printing and signage business in March, are coming to terms with being overnight TikTok sensations after they started using the medium as a way to reach new customers during COVID-19.
They tried out different social media platforms, but when the first TikTok post of them filming new signage being installed at the front of their shop attracted thousands of views, they decided to learn more and develop the idea of regularly posting unique print production videos.
Kylie and Simon Morrisey now have more than 116,000 likes on their TikTok page and four of their videos have had between eight and 10 million views.
Mrs Morrisey said the most popular video was of a guillotine cutting paper, which you can watch above.
"People love watching that being used," she said.
"It has hundreds of thousands of likes as well. And a lot of people have been commenting about how interesting it is and asking questions."
Illawarra Print and Signage has developed a cult following with its daily posts.
Mrs Morrisey admitted to knowing nothing about TikTok when she started but quickly learnt what works. She also knows consistency of her oddly satisfying content is the key.
Viewers know what to expect and when to expect it.
"It is exciting for us. It is something we really never looked into doing before but it has been quite enjoyable," she said.
"We are getting great feedback. It has been a fun way of showing people what we do behind the scenes. A lot of people see our products and don't realise what goes into making them.
"People particularly love videos of large quantities of paper being cut, machines being fixed or intricate folding designs taking place right before their eyes.
"The whole process of creating the videos, editing them, finding what is trending and what music to add is all a new experience for us. It is has been such a fun ride. You almost never see a printer on social media and since we do 90 per cent of our work in-house I thought we could make some good content."
Mrs Morrisey watched other TikTok videos to learn more and goes into the workshop every Friday to film enough content on her mobile phone to post new videos at the same time each day.
"Because we normally use five to six pieces of machinery a day I just go around and film the staff using them," she said.
"We have the added bonus of having a lot of really cool machinery. I just said to my husband lets start filming it and putting together little videos.
"I started to notice we were having up to 5000 people watching them. So I just kept going and the number of viewers started to increase. Then all of a sudden we just got a huge influx. Some of our videos are getting up to 10 million people watching them."
And what advice would Mrs Morrisey give others thinking about building an audience on TikTok.
"No one is too old to use TikTok. And I think you just need to be creating videos that you would like to watch yourself."
The Illawarra Mercury news app is now officially live on both iOS and Android devices. It is available for download in the Apple Store and Google Play.
Greg Ellis
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
