TikTok 101

What is special about TikTok?

TikTok is experiencing a growth right now — which means there’s a huge audience ready to be tapped into by fast-thinking brands.

As a media platform, we produce tons of original content daily. We can re-work them and introduce to a new audience with little resources. Let’s rock TikTok!

What do we want to achieve on TikTok?

We have 3 main goals on TikTok:

1. Increase brand awareness among the young audience

2. Build community

3. Connect with the celebrities and influencers

What to publish?

Now it’s time to experiment! During the next 3 months, we will try different styles and strategies to find our own niche.

Own video content

Let’s start with the easiest rubric - our own videos. Our video team daily shares with us video content for IG and Facebook.

• Short videos example: https://www.tiktok.com/@privamind/video/7094006800688860462?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=6907524674252375557

Recently TikTok allowed publishing of up to 10-min videos, so we can trim videos in 2 or 3 parts and upload longer pieces.

• Video in parts example: https://www.tiktok.com/@mr_kb101/video/7129913133820284165?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=6907524674252375557

Trending news (major events in the country)

• Quick summary of the news based on our website story: https://www.tiktok.com/@pulsenigeria247/video/7107221968440560901?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

https://www.tiktok.com/@news.com.au/video/7132709198994967809?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=6907524674252375557

As students return to colleges across the country in the coming weeks, universities are making sure their campuses are ready for potential monkeypox outbreaks. #monkeypox #news #college

Celebrity/influencers news

• Major news about big celebs based on our own articles: Our friends: can we give you a hug? Us: No. or How do you spell G.O.A.T? Serena Williams. 🏆

• Compare influencers' videos: Energy 🔥 😍Who nailed it? A, B, C, or D? Dc: @Joy🦋 #pulsecompares #pulsenigeria #tiktoknigeria #spongebobsquarepants #dance

• Show celebs' outfits from fashion events: @ ♬ -

• Congratulations on b-days: Happy birthday to Imade 😍😊 #imadeadeleke #pulseviral #pulsenigeria #pulsecelebs #30bganthem #davido

Ocasional trends videos

• You can follow TikTok trends and make your teammates shoot the videos with you. Look how the Washington Post did it: We’re back! Plus one! #HopeTheIntern #vroomvroom #lipgloss

• Also, you can recreate popular memes or take audio from popular memes, but use your own footage.

Who would have thought? 🤩🤩 #temsbaby #tems #pulsenigeria #pulsecelebs #throwback #pulseviral

How to publish?

Storyboard Your Concept

Before you press record, always have a plan and scenario. Write it down on in a notebook. You should understand what will make your audience click “like” or share this video with their friends.

Your TikTok plan should include:

• The story you want to tell

• The audio you’ll use

• The clips or images you’ll need

• The location you’ll record from

• Any effects or transitions you'll include

Shoot or Upload Video 

You can either shoot content directly in TikTok, or upload form your camera roll.

To shoot directly within TikTok, press and hold the large red button on the creation tab.

Open

When creating content directly within TikTok, you can take advantage of the app's built-in features:

• Add Sound: Browse through TikTok’s extensive music library.

• Enhance: An automatic filter you can apply to your face when filming.

• Filters: Choose from hundreds of video and photo filters. 

• Timer: Set a 3 or 10 second timer. You can drag to set a recording limit.

• Reply: Search through TikTok comments and create a video reply.

• Effects: Browse and apply any of the hundreds of TikTok effects.

Alternatively, you can upload clips directly from your camera roll. This is great for when you have footage that you want to use across multiple platforms.

To add clips from your camera roll, tap the "Upload" button on the right-hand side of the screen:

Open

Edit Your Video

With all of your clips in the editor, it’s time to add the finishing touches like text, captions, voice effects, and more.

Here’s a rundown of TikTok’s video editor tools:

• Text: Here is where you can add and customize on-screen text. Choose from a number of colors, fonts, alignments, weights, and shadows. You can also set the text duration and on-screen placement. 

  Tap on the text and select “Set duration” and then drag the bar across to where you want to place the text.
  
  

   

   

  You can also select the voice icon to apply the “Text-to-speech” feature. Here you can choose from a number of creative voices like cat, flute, vibrato, and more.

• Stickers: Choose from an array of engagement stickers like polls, reply stickers, and question boxes, GIFs, and emojis. 

• Effects: Add a pop of fun and include an effect. You can choose from visual, motion, transition, and split effects.

• Filters: Choose from hundreds of video and photo filters. 

• Adjust Clips: Here is where you can adjust all of your video clips. Tap each clip to edit individually and long press on a clip to reorder.
  
  

   

• Voice Effects: If you include audio, you can voice effects to change the way it sounds. 

• Captions: TikTok automatically generates captions for you. Once TikTok has pulled through the closed captions, review the text to ensure there aren’t any errors. You can edit the text right in the captions editor.

• Voiceover: Record a voiceover to accompany your clips. Tap or long press the record button to start.

• Enhance: Press to apply an enhancement filter to your video. 

• Noise Reducer: Use this tool to edit and reduce background noises. 

Best Video Editing Mobile Apps

To nail a perfect TikTok video, sometimes you’ll need easy and free to use apps. So check them below:

CapCut

CapCut offers built-in filters, effects, templates and fonts you can use.

Check what you can do with just 10 photos: Dalia Bohn | Swiss Photographer 🇨🇭 on Instagram: "Since you all asked for another tutorial - here it finally is ☺️ 📱App: CapCut ✨ Effect: Plendulum1 #photovideo #capcut #capcuttutorial #reeltutorial #tutorial #reelphotography #naturephotos #getinspired"

VideoLeap

Create or rethink viral memes with VideoLeap. You can easily add an additional layer (say, png text) to your existing footage. From there you can move the added layer to where you want, trim, and start or stop through VideoLeap's nifty tracking feature. Here is how to do it: An easy step by step tutorial to make videos with moving text (or emojis!). More tips in the comments 👉 #socialmediatips #contentcreationtips

Publish Your TikTok 

Once you’re happy with the video, it’s time for finishing touches.

The first step is to select a cover photo. Drag over the video to select a cover image. Then, select a cover design and add text.

Next, pop in a video caption and hashtags. 

Then, go ahead and customize the video settings like duet, stitch, comment, and who can see the video. 

Once you’re ready, hit Post — and that’s it! 

How to communicate with the audience?

As you can imagine, the TikTok algorithm is relying on user activity a lot. Just as on Facebook we want to get more comments, likes and shares. How to get them?

• Ask questions

• Reply to comments

• Mention comments in the next videos to show that we value our audience

Algorithm hacks

How get featured on the For You page (FYP) to get as many views as possible?

• Use relevant keywords or hashtags in your captions

• Be consistent in your niche

• Use trending audio

• Post at optimal times

• Engage your audience!

By regularly engaging with other user’s in your niche, you’ll gradually build a support network for your brand.

This can lead to more likes, comments, and shares for your own TikTok videos — which is the best way to boost your profile with the algorithm and secure more view for your content.

Analytics on TikTok

To see the analytics on TikTok, you have to switch to Business account:

Tracking your analytics will give you a thorough understanding of how the content you're creating is performing.

Weekly check 5 top-performing videos and 5 worst-performing videos. This will help us polish our strategy and understand what our audience wants.