TikTok 101: How to Go Viral
June 13th, 2021
Back in my day, Tik Tok was a Ke$ha song! (Imagine me saying this while brandishing my cane wildly).
Adding TikTok to your marketing strategy can be difficult. Most people over the age of 30 still haven’t heard of the app or are highly unfamiliar with it. If you’re over the age of 30 and reading this article, kudos! It’s a great place to start to learn about the app.
TikTok is the most talked-about, newer social media platform. Any content can succeed on the app, making it an excellent platform to add to your viral marketing strategy. In 2020, TikTok received 850 million downloads, making it the most downloaded app in the world. While it has captured the attention of teens and tweens everywhere, brands have been relatively slow to react, making the app less crowded relative to Instagram or Snapchat.
Millions of teens use the app, making it a prime channel for driving sales, products, advertisements, and brand exposure. And lately, consumers that are well past their teen years are hopping on the app as well.
The Deets on TikTok
TikTok is a relatively easy platform to get started on. It will take you about 15 minutes to get your profile up and running, and then you are off to the races! Once you have created a profile, take some time to scroll through the “For You” page to get an idea of the content out there as well as inspiration for content templates.
Once you are more familiar with the “For You” page, follow a few accounts, specifically those similar to yours. This will give you a constant stream of videos for inspiration.
At first glance, the user interface may seem tricky and complicated but don’t get scared! Once you master the format of how to go about making a TikTok, it can actually be easier and quicker than creating content for other social media platforms.
TikTok videos can be between 15 seconds long and a minute. Most videos lean towards the shorter side, between nine and 15 seconds.
TikTok Tips and Tricks
Keep it short – Marvel movies don’t, but you can
TikTok videos are fast-paced and typically only nine to 15 seconds long; it’s best to keep this length because you’re likely to catch more people’s attention. Also, make sure to have an eye-catching opening; people scroll quite fast through their “For You” feed, so you are going to want a striking visual and opening line that grabs interest. Make it pop!
Don’t worry about explaining everything in a video, leave unanswered questions, and encourage people to watch your other content to find out what they need to know. Find the balance between moving fast, so people will want to rewatch your video to catch everything, and moving too fast in which people will miss most of the content and just scroll past.
Trending Music or Sounds – Stay hip
As you become more familiar with the app, you will see that there will be trending music or sounds attached to many different videos. A great example of this would be using the song “Into the Thick of It” by the Backyardigans. People have been using this song for the past couple of weeks, and it’s blown up; honestly, somehow, I know all the words to a kid’s show song now.
Check out this video that has over 4 million likes.
Using these sounds will allow your videos to pop up in more people’s feeds, especially if they often like videos using the sound.
Keep up with what is trending; there is nothing that indicates you are out of touch more than being six months late on a trend. (Don’t be THAT guy).
Lastly, don’t just randomly use trending music and sounds solely because they are trending. Make sure you find a way to incorporate them into your brand content and be creative.
Hashtags and Hashtag Challenges will lead to #success
Hashtag challenges constitute a significant component of TikTok content. It is a critical element to improving your TikTok SEO.
Remember, along with the other social apps, using too many hashtags actually decreases engagement. Luckily, TikTok actually makes this a challenging rule to break as captions are limited to 100 characters. The app itself actually has a feature to help you find the best captions for your brand. Just search for a keyword, and the app will suggest related hashtags.
When using hashtags, stay away from generic #fyp #foryou. Use hashtags to describe your video’s content and target your specific audience to make sure it gets in front of the right eyes.
The real opportunity, however, lies in hashtag challenges. You have an option of creating your own challenge or participating in an existing challenge.
The challenge page remains live for 60 days.
Strong Call to Action – Rally the Troops
Give the people an idea of what you are looking for, ask them to like, comment, follow, and share your posts. The more engagement you receive, the more people will be shown your video.
Examples:
- Like for Part 2
- Comment below – Tell us what you think
- Use our hashtag _______, and we will share your post!
- Follow and like our last post for a chance to win ____
Follow up on any engagement, especially when you are starting out, try to respond to as many comments as you can and comment on other popular accounts. Rewarding engagement will keep your viewers coming back for more.
Consistency – Commit to the bit
Post often! You want people to regularly check back in with your account or be a frequent addition to their “For You” feed. This tip is valid across all social media platforms, but particularly with Instagram and TikTok. The more you post, the higher your chances of going viral. The algorithm on TikTok favors consistent posters over inconsistent ones.
Pro accounts – Analytics are the way to any CFO’s heart
Pro accounts on Tik Tok give you access to an extensive range of analytics that would otherwise be unavailable to you. Using a pro account will make it easier to see how your video is performing. You will be able to track trending videos, your views over time, along with traffic source type and audience reach.
We know as marketers, data is key to getting efficient ROI and establishing clear and achievable KPIs.
For you, for your business, for marketing success
Hey, listen, we all know that viral marketing is not an easy task. With multiple social media platforms to choose from and then to create content for, it may seem overwhelming. When your business feels ready to go viral and needs the assist, contact us here at Nowadays.
We are bold, we love to blow shit up, and honestly, we got it going on. Our proprietary software, Social Scripting, means that we can control the social conversation and make sure that your content reaches the right people at the right time. It is so memorable people won’t be able to get your brand out of their heads.
Sounds kind of great, right? We think so.
Sources:
Most Popular Apps (2020) | Business of Apps