When the gospel meets social media
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With 57.7K Instagram followers and thousands more on TikTok and YouTube, Tautai Fano, known online as “Elder TikTok,” shared his experiences as a known influencer whose topic revolves around his faith. Fano said, “I love Tiktok and I love the gospel, so I combined these two.”
How Elder Tiktok was created
Fano, a Utah-based content creator of Samoan, Hawaiian and Mexican descent, appeared as a guest on Ke Alaka‘i: The Podcast, hosted by Myco Marcaida, Pim Hootini and Valerie Lucillo. He said he originally called himself The Mormon TikToker. “I rebranded as “Elder TikTok” after I received my mission call in 2018,” he said.
Fano said he served in the Marshall Islands Kiribati Mission, but he was sent home due to COVID-19, later completing his service in Seattle. Despite the challenges, Fano said, “Both missions helped me grow and inspired my online outreach.”
Fano said his content blends three themes: Utah culture, Polynesian culture and Latter-day Saint faith. He said, “I’m proud to be mixed because I don’t only represent one culture, but I represent multiple.”
When asked how others responded to his rise online, Fano said he lost some friends over disagreements, but shared he focuses on support from his family, true friends and loyal followers. “I’m not doing it to please everybody. I do it for the people who feel seen by my content,” he said.
Though Fano said he once hated school, but visiting BYU-Hawaii opened his mind. “There’s something special here. I don’t know if it’s the cultural diversity or the spirit. It’s different,” he said.
Discovered through the feed
Daniel Hootini, a senior computer science major from Tahiti, said he discovered Elder TikTok when one of Fano's gospel-themed videos appeared on his Instagram feed and immediately felt connected to Fano's message. “He presents the gospel in a way that’s funny and relatable,” he said.
Hootini said he followed Elder TikTok’s faith-based content for his humor and authenticity. He said, “I follow a couple of influencers who share the gospel online, but Elder TikTok is different. He can make complicated topics easy to understand.”
After seeing on Instagram that Elder TikTok would be visiting BYUH, Hootini said he quickly shared the news with his wife, a host on Ke Alaka‘i: The Podcast. “I told my wife, and she sent him a direct message to ask if he’d join their podcast,” he said.
To his surprise, he said Elder TikTok responded right away and agreed to be a guest on the show. “I didn’t think he would agree to be on her podcast, let alone respond to her message,” he said.
As a fellow Polynesian and church member, Hootini said Elder TikTok’s content feels personal and familiar. “Seeing videos of a church member who’s also Polynesian, I can relate with him a lot. Tahitian and Samoan cultures are similar,” he said.
First impression of Elder Tiktok
Valerie Lucillo, a junior majoring in communications and peacebuilding from the Philippines, said meeting Elder Tiktok challenged her assumptions that influencers are distant or intimidating. “I thought he’d be unapproachable because he’s a big content creator, but he was actually really warm,” she said.
She said having him on the podcast helped her grow as a host. “It made me feel more confident interviewing people who are ‘big’ in terms of being content creators,” Lucillo said.
What made Elder TikTok stand out, she said, was his ability to tie culture and faith together. “He taps into his Polynesian roots and connects it to the gospel in a way that really resonates,” she said.