It is common knowledge that visual material performs well on social media. People will choose photos, gifs, or videos over written material any day if they can take a fast look or push the play button and watch an amusing 10-second video clip.
TikTok is one of the newest social networking video platforms available, as well as one of the most popular, with 800 million users worldwide. TikTok videos are only a minute long, but they captivate viewers’ attention because it is so simple to add special effects, music, voice-overs, and even “duets,” which are two videos running side by side.
TikTok’s appeal stems from its informal nature. There’s no need to be too fancy or spend too much money. Being amusing, engaging, and personable will help you establish an audience with little effort on your part. Simply be yourself.
In this article, we will discuss how to create a TikTok account and begin making TikTok videos that will keep people amused.
Table of Contents
Using TikTok for Brand Promotion
TikTok is a video-sharing platform where users may record and share 15 to 60-second video segments. It first appeared in China in 2016, but did not gain popularity in the United States until 2018. Despite its infancy, the app has over 30 million users in the United States alone. That’s over four times the amount of Snapchat users and one-and-a-half times the number of Instagram users. TikTok passed the 1.5 billion downloads mark in November 2019. Needless to say, those audience figures have piqued the interest of marketers.
TikTok has the youngest user base when compared to the other social networking platforms discussed in this book; roughly 70% are 16 to 24 year olds (Gen Z), with the remaining 30% being 25 and up. If the latter is your target market, don’t dismiss TikTok just yet. Younger generations acquire technology faster than older generations, but older users catch up eventually. Marketers would be prudent to strike while the iron is hot and establish a following as quickly as possible.
So, what’s the allure? Is there a sophisticated gizmo that allows users to produce mind-blowing video clips with special effects? Celebrities filming videos in exotic locations in droves? No, it does not. Neither of these statements is correct. What pulls consumers to TikTok is the polar opposite: the content displays ordinary individuals in ordinary settings doing ordinary things. Teenagers producing films in their kitchens and living rooms are the most popular TikTok influencers. They’re approachable.
Creating and Personalizing Your TikTok Account
Okay, so now that you’ve decided to give marketing on TikTok a try, let’s go ahead and get started!
Setting up your account
Follow these steps to set up a TikTok account:
Step 1: Locate the TikTok app on iTunes or Google Play and download it to your mobile device.
Step 2: Choose to register with your email address/phone number, Facebook account, Apple account, Google, or Twitter
Step 3: Do one of the following:
- For Facebook, Google, Twitter, or Apple accounts: Tap Continue and use that particular site’s credentials to create an account on TikTok.
- Email account or phone number: You will be prompted to enter your birthday on the following screen to ensure you’re over 13 years of age.
Step 4: Step Create a username.
Either choose the one TikTok suggests or create your own. I recommend creating one that reflects your brand’s name.
And that’s it! You’re now on your brand new profile page.
Note: If you used anything other than your email address or phone number to sign up for your new TikTok account, then that account information will automatically be brought over and used for TikTok. Depending on the information that you filled in, you may want to go back and change it, which we get into in the next section.
Completing your profile
It’s important that you have a completed profile before you start videos. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking like a spam account. Also, as we mentioned in the previous section if you utilized one of the sign-up methods other than an email address or phone number, whatever personal information you entered into that account was brought over. Chances are you’ll want to change some settings for your TikTok account.
To get started filling in the rest of your profile, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Tap the Edit Profile button in the center of the page.
Step 2: To update or add a new profile photo, tap the camera icon in the left circle at the top.
You have the option to take a new photo or upload an existing photo. If you’re replacing the existing profile photo, then you also have the option to view the existing one.
Instead of uploading a static photo, consider taking advantage of using a video as a profile image. To do so, tap the Change Video circle to the right of the photo circle, pick the video that you want from your existing library of videos, select a 6-second portion to feature (if the original video is longer than 6 seconds), and then tap Save in the top right corner.
Step 3: Tap on the Name area to change your name.
If you want to change the name that may have been imported when you created your account, now’s your chance. You have 30 characters to work with.
Step 4: Tap Save.
You’re back at the Edit Profile screen.
Step 5: (Optional) Tap on the space that says Username if you want to change it.
You just created your username, but if you change your mind and want to update it, here’s where you do it.
Step 6: (Optional) Tap on the section that says Bio to add your business’ bio and tap Done.
This is the most important part of your profile, so if you don’t want to fill it in now, make a note to return to it soon. You have only 80 characters to work with, so be creative — and brief!
Step 7: (Optional) Add your Instagram and/or YouTube profiles.
This is a great way to cross-promote your other social media accounts, so take advantage of it!
Touring the TikTok screens
Now let’s talk about the features you’ll be using when creating your videos. From the Profile screen, you see the following:
- New video button: This black square with the plus (+) sign is what you tap to record videos.
- Discover: Tap the magnifying glass to find new videos, accounts, trending hashtags, and so on. This is how you’ll go about finding new accounts to follow (which we go over in the following section).
- Inbox: This is where you’ll send and receive direct messages (DMs) from others on TikTok.
- Me: Takes you back to your profile page.
- Home: This is where all the videos from the accounts you follow show up, as well as videos from accounts that TikTok suggests based on your interests.
- Favorites: Tapping the icon that looks like a ribbon (next to the Edit profile button) takes you to a screen where you can see all the videos, hashtags, sounds, and effects that you’ve favorited.
- Your videos: When you start creating videos, they will show up on this main screen, which is represented by the three vertical, dashed lines.
- Liked: The heart icon next to the lines are the videos that you’ve liked. These are private by default, but you can change that in your Privacy settings.
- Private: The lock icon next to the heart is where the videos that you’ve marked private are kept.
- Following, Followers, Likes: Pretty self-explanatory, the numbers underneath your username at the top show you the number of accounts you’re following, the number of people that follow you, and the total number of likes you’ve received.
- Add friends: On the top left of the screen is a silhouette with a plus (+) sign. Tap that to invite friends using the contacts on your phone, as well as the options to invite via text and other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
- Settings and Privacy: Tapping the icon that looks like three dots in the top right takes you to the Settings and Privacy screen that is essentially the nuts and bolts of your account. You can adjust things like the notifications you receive, the language your account displays in, and privacy and safety features like who can send you DMs and whether or not your videos can be downloaded.
Following (and getting followers) on TikTok
Now’s where we go looking for accounts to follow! The idea is that when you follow similar accounts, you’ll see the types of content they share and how they engage with their audience. This is especially important when you’re first starting out on TikTok because you’re still learning the etiquette that comes along with this unique platform.
To get started, tap on the Discover icon at the bottom of the screen. Now, in the search box at the top of the Discover page, type a search term associated with your business.
Figure 1 shows the results when you type the word cupcakes. At the top the results are categorized into Top (what’s trending), Users, Videos, Sounds, and Hashtags.
Scroll through all the content, watch different videos from various users, and listen to the different sounds for ideas on short sound bites you can incorporate into your own videos. When a video catches your eye, tap on it to open it and you’ll see the options shown in Figure 2.
Here are the different parts of the video screen:
- Follow: On the right side of the screen is the user’s profile photo with a white plus (+) sign in a pink circle. Tap the button to follow this account.
- Liked: The heart icon underneath the Follow icon shows the number of likes this video has received. Tap on the heart to like the video.
- Comments: The conversation bubble icon represents the comments the video has. Tap on it to read the comments and add one of your own.
- Send: The right-pointing arrow icon lets you share this video with someone else via TikTok message, text message, through Snapchat, Instagram, and a number of other options. You also see options to report the video, save it, add it to favorites, convert it to a live photo, send it as a gif, or create a “duet” with it, which puts this video side by side with one you’ve created.
- Music: The spinning icon on the bottom right is the specific music clip that accompanies the video. Tap on it to get the details of the sound and save it to your favorites if you’d like to utilize it in your own videos.
Tip The music is all free to use, so take advantage of the wide variety!
Sharing videos
Note: There are so many different combinations and features that go into creating TikTok content that we can’t cover them all here. But play around with the different options and see how creative you can get!
Now it’s time to create your first TikTok video! All you have to do is follow these steps:
Step 1: Open the app on your mobile device and select the new video button (square with a plus sign). You see the fresh canvas like the one shown in Figure 3.
You may have to give the app access to your camera and microphone first.
Step 2: Select either 60s or 15s for video length in seconds.
Alternatively, you can tap Templates and utilize one of the premade video templates with all the effects built right in.
Step 3: (Optional) Tap on Effects to select a fancy effect to have on your video.
You can choose from multiple categories of effects including Trending, Interactive, Beauty, Funny, and Animal.
Although every video of yours shouldn’t have an effect, definitely use them sometimes to give your content some pizazz.
Step 4: (Optional) Utilize the options on the top right of the screen:
- Flip the camera to film out
- Speed to record at a faster speed
- Beauty to smooth out skin texture
- Filters to add a colored filter over the video (nothing silly, just changes in lighting and so on)
- Timer to set a 3- or 10-second countdown before the recording starts
Step 5: (Optional) Tap Sounds at the top of the screen to select music to add.
Step 6: Tap the red record button (large red circle) and get creative!
Tap the button again to pause and once you’re finished, tap the red circle with the check mark to finish the recording and play back your masterpiece!
Tip The fun doesn’t have to stop there! After you’re done recording you can add voice effects, text, stickers, additional sounds, and more!
Step 7: Tap the red Next button.
Add a description of your video, include hashtags to help others find your video, and decide if you want to keep it public or make it private, allow comments on it, and allow people to make it into a duet, as well as whether or not people can save your video to their devices.
Once you’ve changed all the settings to your liking, tap the red Post button to post it immediately to your account or Draft if you want to return to work on it later.
Congratulations! You’ve made your first TikTok video! That was fun, wasn’t it?
Determining What Videos You Should Create
You may be wondering what kind of fun and interesting videos you can make for your brand. The good news is, as long as it’s … er … fun and interesting, it doesn’t have to directly showcase your brand. Just something related to your brand.
Here are some examples of how to showcase your brand’s personality on TikTok.
- Trending content: Take advantage of trending content like hashtags or dances. Are you or someone on your team a great dancer (or at least a good sport)? Throw on a branded t-shirt and try to re-create one of the trending dances. You’ll have a lot of fun and your audience will as well!
- Test kitchens: Who doesn’t love to see how products are made or served to the public? If you have a bakery, give a behind-the-scenes peek at decorating a fancy cake set to some grand music.
- Kids and pets: Kids and pets are the two top draws on TikTok. After all, the audience does tend to be younger generations. Enlist the help of your adorable bouncing puppy to get some likes.
- Challenges: Take part in a trending challenge. Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge where people tossed buckets of ice water over each other’s heads to raise money for ALS? There are always a number of challenges going on throughout TikTok. Pick one and get creating!
- User-generated content: Run a contest and ask fans and followers on your other social networks to put together TikTok videos representing your brand, post them, and ask people to vote for the winner.
- The only limit is your imagination! Try out a few different ideas and see what your audience responds to the best.