LOCKDOWN LED TO STARDOM ON SOCIAL MEDIA
BEFORE the pandemic, Marc Jones was happily making his living renovating houses and running his business. But a chance illness meant the 35-year-old spent some time in the early months of lockdown at home.
Already a keen YouTuber, Marc decided to join TikTok, an app that was quickly gathering pace as one of the most popular video sharing platforms in the world.
Fast forward 18 months, and Marc’s hilarious videos reviewing often-impractical “hack” guides are gathering audiences of millions.
His account, @the_mj_way, has more than 2.5 million followers and Marc has been able to take his main income from the platform.
Marc, from Merthyr, said TikTok was recommended to him by a friend and he quickly became a well-known creator on the app.
“I thought all right, I’ll give it a go, and it just kind of skyrocketed unexpectedly,” he said. “I never anticipated that I would get into the millions, that is silly to me.
“It went mental last Christmas, I probably gained 1.5 million followers in about two months.
“People love the atmosphere of Christmas and the stuff I was doing was Christmas orientated. I think that helped establish an audience.”
Although Marc now has TikTok as a source of income, he said he started out on the app because he enjoyed making the videos.
“I just make a video every day and have fun but it is crazy the amount of support I have had.
“I really enjoyed the hack stuff, when you do something you really enjoy it feels more organic, and then an audience can get behind it more.”
Creating the videos also helped Marc get through lockdown.
“It was hard, I was a bit sick as well. I needed something to keep me going,” he said. “This is fun, people are enjoying it so it was a great pick-me-up that I needed.”
Marc isn’t shy about the fact that at 35 he is one of the older creators on the app.
“I’ve always been the older person on this stuff and I am not afraid to point that out. I use it to have fun – so as long as people are having fun with me it works out.”
Family and friends are very supportive of his success, including his partner.
“It does take a long time for parents to understand it but they all support, they are all behind me.”
With a strong Valleys accent, Marc has many viewers who love the fact they have found a Welsh creator.
“I think that has helped me, I think there are a lot of people overseas who haven’t heard the accent so it’s something different for them.” Marc has fans across the world. “It is just me sitting in this room, making silly videos, and all of a sudden I’ll have people from New York, Canada, all across Asia – it is unbelievable that doing something here can have such a far reach.
“I know I am lucky to have such a reach and, hopefully, I can do some positive things with it.”