A Beginner’s Guide to Building TikToks That People Will Really Watch

In case you missed something, the TikTok revolution has already arrived. What started in 2016 as a seemingly commonplace Chinese music and dance platform for kids has grown to become one of the fastest growing social media platforms in the world. It was the most downloaded app in 2020 with an estimated 1.1 billion monthly active users as of early 2021.

Whether you are a large brand or a small business owner; educator, doctor, artist, motivational speaker – or the next Chris Rock – if you have something to sell (or just say), TikTok is where you need to be.

But what if you have no idea how to use TikTok? Making videos can be intimidating for aspiring creators or those whose advertising efforts in the past have relied heavily on text and photography. To get started, we’ve put together a few basic tips for making TikTok videos.

Note: While some people prefer to create videos outside of the app and download them, this article will only cover tips for creating videos in TikTok itself.

Must: first, spend some time on the page “For you”

One great thing about TikTok is that you don’t have to follow anyone to see a wide variety of content. The moment you open the app, the For You page will show the most popular streaming videos, even if you don’t lift your finger (except for creating an account). You will have an easy bird’s-eye view that is trending now with creators, dances, pranks, challenges and sounds. Use them to create your own content ideas.

Once you start interacting with the content (like and comment), the algorithm will curate your page for you, showing you more of what you like and less of what you dislike.

Don’t: TikTok often shares questionable content. But don’t copy the ideas of someone else’s content without giving it credit. Unless it’s a widespread dance trend that you can’t trace back to one person, always use the abbreviations “IC” (merit of idea) or “IB” (inspired) followed by a tag to the original creator in your signature.

How To: Identify and Use Popular Sounds and Effects

The TikTok algorithm rewards videos using popular sounds and effects, promoting them to more people. To see what’s going on in trends, browse the Discover page (by clicking the magnifying glass at the bottom of the For You page) or click +> Add Sound> TikTok Viral, indicated by the flame icon.

Also search the hashtags #trendalert or #tiktokmarketing to find videos from marketing experts explaining current trends. When you find a sound you like, click on the rotating recording icon at the bottom right of the video to add it to your favorites.

With all the legitimate professional dancers in the app, trying to tackle a dance trend on your own can be daunting. But you don’t have to be Shakira, promise. Unlike the carefully filtered, well-groomed worlds of Instagram and Pinterest, TikTok is all about showcasing your unique personality, including flaws. Your attitude towards dance trends may be silly, awkward, or – with your child or older family member – cute. However, if you’d rather disintegrate than rush into the camera, you can lip sync with the trending audio clip to convey information or tell a joke.

Not: worry about how to look perfect in TikTok – this app is not for this. It’s all about relativity. Many popular authors regularly showcase their silly, vulnerable, and even insecure sides.

Do: check how others are using the sound / effect (and how recently)

Before using sound, click the spinning sound icon in the lower right corner to see how others are using it. Be sure to check when the videos were posted. You don’t want to be the guy who joins TikTok and uses outdated audio that kept repeating when the pandemic started.

This helps to get into trending sounds early when they have less than 30,000-50,000 videos. (If the sound contains less than 10,000 videos and attracts the attention of the authors, consider yourself one of the favorites – and make statistics for your version.)

Using trending effects (located in the lower left corner of the screen with a “+” sign), such as Slow Zoom or Autumn Aesthetics, can also increase the reach of your videos.

Don’t: Use exact words from other videos (you’ve seen them before). Always ask: How can I make this trend unique to me ?

Do: Shoot (some) videos with your voice.

On the other hand, using your own voice can boost your relativity factor (especially if your account is educational, inspirational, or comedy, to name a few examples). People who lip-sync and repeat jokes from other creators become boring – not to mention the fact that popular sounds can be deleted at any time using TikTok, making your once entertaining video soundless. Experiment with the mix of videos; some use viral sounds and some use just your voice to see what works best.

You can even pair audio with your own voice. Click “+” and first write down what you want to say. Then tap the red checkmark, tap sounds at the bottom of the screen and select the sound you want to play in the background.

Don’t do this: let the added sound drown out your own voice. In sounds, press volume, toggle the original sound above 100% and the added sound down to 15% or lower.

Do: keep the video short (no more than 15 seconds).

TikTok allows you to create videos with a time limit of 15, 60, or 3 minutes. It automatically sets itself to 15 seconds for some reason: short videos above all else. While there are times when longer videos will be useful (and do well) for you, when you’re just starting out, you’re much more likely to grab people’s attention – and go viral – with videos that are 15 seconds or less.

Why? One of the key metrics used by the TikTok algorithm is “watch time”. If people don’t watch to the end, your views will be lower than if they watched the video to the end. Social media blogger Dan Slee conducted an informal study in which he looked at the top 100 best performing TikTok videos of 2019 and found an average duration of 15.6 seconds, with 80% of the top 100 videos taking less than 20 seconds.

(Caveat: Some creators are so fun that they can shoot longer videos right from the start and be successful. But this is a risk for new creators. Start short and experiment with longer videos as your audience grows.)

Don’t: Give viewers a reason to scroll. Make every second viewable.

What you need: grab attention with text and signatures

To grab viewers’ attention as early as possible, use the text editor in your video to add a title (for example, “3 Tips for Extra Energy” or “Living with a Baby”). Play with the fonts and colors of the fonts, as well as the placement and length of the text. Text can let viewers know what your video is about, make it more intense, tell a more complex story, or make a joke. Hell, they’re so effective that even Taylor Swift uses them .

Text and captions also make your content more accessible to deaf or hard of hearing people (as well as people who want to watch in bed without disturbing their partner). Adding captions by typing them in and setting their duration yourself (takes more time) or using auto caption generation (faster, but usually full of typos) can help your content reach a wider audience.

Don’t: Make the beginner mistake by placing text so low that it will be obscured by hashtags (or so far to the left or right of the screen that it will be clipped).

Do: Place the video subject in the center of the frame.

It sounds obvious, but the video viewing screen on TikTok is cluttered and placing what you are shooting in the frame is of utmost importance. Not only does it say Live, Subscribe, and For You on the top edge of the screen, there are at least five buttons on the right side of the screen (your profile picture, Like button, Comment tooltip, Share ”and rotating audio icon).

The bottom third of the screen is occupied by your username, title and hashtags, plus the Home button, Discover button, + button, and inbox and profile icons. What remains? Only the top two-thirds (left side) of the screen are unobstructed! Take this into account and frame your subject correctly before shooting.

Don’t: Use landscape orientation for your video. TikTok is optimized for vertical videos and almost everyone is looking at their smartphone. A portrait is what you need.

Should: use hashtags (but not too many)

Think of TikTok’s algorithm as the Wizard of Oz; many people claim to know its inner workings, but very few actually know what is going on behind the scenes. While the prevailing opinion is that a small handful of hashtags pertaining to your niche are good and necessary to help your content reach the right audience, several TikTok marketing creators warn against overusing them, and some even suggest periodically not to use them at all .

A common best practice for making your content more discoverable is to use three to five hashtags that are specific to your niche (for example: #comedy, #momtok, #inspiration, #climatechange). Whether to use trending hashtags is a separate long post for another day. (In short: they can increase your video’s reach. But their lifespan and relevance are short, they can be oversaturated, and they don’t necessarily put you in front of your specific target audience.)

Don’t: Use too many hashtags. Especially hashtags like #FYP, #foryoupage or #foryou that don’t make sense and take up valuable real estate at the bottom of your video.

First of all, have fun. If Facebook is your grandfather; TikTok is your wild cousin who comes for the weekend. Get rid of some of the trends before they go away.