For years, Vancouver, Canada-based Giona Hardwood Floors co-owner Ignacio Lebrija had been making short tutorial videos of his sanding and refinishing process to help clients understand the work being done in their homes. In 2021, Lebrija’s daughter saw the rise of businesses on TikTok and suggested Lebrija make an account. The natural move for Lebrija was to put the videos he was already making onto TikTok. “I know what the customers want to see,” he says. “Tutorial videos help them understand what we’re doing.” To Lebrija’s surprise, the first video he posted to TikTok got over 2 million views, and the success snowballed from there. To date, Giona Hardwood Floors (@gionahardwood) has gathered over 7 million likes and more than 400,000 followers on TikTok. But Lebrija says he hasn’t cracked the code to make videos go viral on the platform, as some get many views and others don’t. Lebrija says most of his views come from outside Canada, so his videos aren’t necessarily reaching prospective customers, but the platform is a convenient place to share videos of his work with clients. Lebrija suggests pros don’t reinvent the wheel when posting on TikTok: Upload videos you might already have for clients, and if the internet enjoys them, that’s a bonus. Plus, Lebrija says, clients love it when videos of their floors go viral.
