TikTok Tips Tuesday
TikTok tips and tricks with the foundational tactics you need to set yourself up for success. When you follow these eight tips for TikTok, you’ll be ready to create content worthy of your audience’s For You Pages:
1. Know your target audience
To create content that makes an impact, you need to know who the end user is. You might already have a target audience in mind for your business, so you need to translate that audience to TikTok.
The platform is full of specific niches — TikTok is known for how targeted the For You Page gets. Determine which niches most closely align with your target audience and business. What types of content does this TikTok niche like to see?
The more you tailor your content to the right niche, the better success you’ll see.
2. Familiarize yourself with trends
Perhaps more than any other social platform, TikTok relies on trends. When a sound, dance, or filter gains popularity, you’ll see creators across the platform using it and putting their spin on it.
One of the most vital keys to TikTok success is knowing the trends and getting creative with them.
But the trends are also excellent sources of TikTok content ideas for beginners. Instead of starting from scratch, you have a framework to inspire your content. You can even use trends to inspire any TikTok ads you might run!
The only catch? You must use the platform regularly to familiarize yourself with these trends and discover them before they fade. Spend time interacting with users in your niche (which is another tip on this list!) and consuming content to understand the types of trending audios, videos, and more.
3. Research the best hashtags to use
Most social platforms use hashtags to contextualize content and help users find posts they might enjoy. On TikTok, you’ll want to research the right hashtags to use for your niche to let the TikTok algorithm know when to show your videos to people.
To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of trending TikTok hashtags. You’ll also want to get involved in your niche. The more you see relevant content, the better you’ll understand the types of hashtags successful creators use.
Another way to find relevant hashtags is through the Discover page. To find hashtags this way:
On your Home page, tap the magnifying glass in the top right corner.
TikTok will give you a list of suggested topics to browse. Tap on one.
You’ll see a page with suggested videos, users, sounds, and hashtags about that topic. To research potential hashtags, go to the Hashtags tab.
Here, you’ll find the hashtags’ popularity, and you can tap a hashtag to browse videos that use it.
4. Post consistently and frequently
To succeed on any social media platform, you must post consistently. On TikTok, the most active accounts post daily, often multiple times. Find a posting schedule that aligns with users’ expectations and works for your team’s capabilities.
It’s better to stick to posting once a day and staying consistent than to try posting a few times a day but running out of content halfway through the week.
Bonus tip: Determine the best times to post based on when your audience uses the platform.
Not sure where to begin with creating and editing TikTok videos? Check out our beginner-friendly post on how to edit TikTok videos!
5. Interact with other creators
Scroll through TikTok for a few minutes, and you’re bound to find a mix of wholly original content and creators posting videos in response to other users. TikTok thrives off interactivity, so ensure you spend time watching others’ videos, commenting, and responding.
To learn how to create reaction or response videos, jump to the TikTok tricks section of this post!
6. Add closed captions
Closed captions are vital to ensure everyone can enjoy your content. When you include closed captions on your videos, you make your content accessible to disabled people and people who have their sound off.
This accessibility also affects your views — closed captions can lead to 56% more impressions on your videos.
If you speak in your videos, you can have TikTok auto-generate captions by tapping the “Captions” button in the video editing menu on the right.
This option won’t work for music, so to add closed captions for non-voice audio, follow these steps:
In the main video editor, tap the “Text” button at the bottom of your screen.
Write your closed captions and select the font type, color, and alignment. When you’re finished, tap “Done” in the top right corner.
You’ll see your captions overlayed on the video. You can move them where you’d like.
To align your captions with certain parts of your video, tap the text and select “Set duration.”
Drag the duration bar to the section of the video you want this caption to appear.
Repeat these steps for additional captions you want to include.
Pro tip: If you include other types of on-screen text alongside your closed captions, consider labeling the closed captions with “CC” so users can easily distinguish between them.7. Measure your results
To know what performs well and how you can improve, measure your results! As you begin marketing on TikTok, set measurable goals for the platform. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Drive engagement?
Your goals determine the most strategic metrics to track, but a great starting point is engagement metrics such as:
Views
Likes
Comments
Shares
Follows
Watch time
Social media is for engagement, and these metrics provide insight into how users interact with your content. Plus, the more users engage with your posts, the more likely the TikTok algorithm will be to show them to more people.
8. Optimize your content with TikTok features
No list of tips for TikTok would be complete without mentioning the platform’s many creative features.
TikTok’s video creation and editing features allow you to elevate your content and make it more engaging for your followers. For best results, familiarize yourself with these features, and incorporate them into your posting strategy.
