TikTok is a visual platform, so obviously, the video is the most important element in your entire post.
In this lesson, we’re going to dive deeper into video, how exactly to use video, even if you’re brand new and you haven’t spent a lot of time on TikTok.
We’re going to describe how to take advantage of the video form and how to adapt and make it work for your particular business. You do not have to post dance videos to be successful on TikTok.
We will also discuss the interface, how to use effects that are popular on the platform, and how to take advantage of trends and challenges.
There are several different types of videos that you can create.
Trends and Challenges
First, there are trends and challenges that are very important and one of the quickest ways to get started and grow your account. So, for example, if you see on your For You page, a certain video effect or a dance, or even a sound at least three or four times in one day, chances are that it is a trend. This type of videos makes it very easy to post content without being very creative or wasting too much time finding an original idea and it is a great way to start if you are a beginner on the platform.
Original Content
If trends or challenges are not really the things you can post on your business page, you can create and post your own videos.
Let’s say that your business is in the marketing niche, then you might want to create educational videos to provide a lot of value to your followers. You don’t have to create dancing videos to grow your account just for the sake of growth. You need to also think about the audience you want to attract. If your business is to provide marketing services, then educational videos about marketing tips will attract people that are interested in marketing and might benefit from your services.
What you need to know before creating videos is that TikTok is a very dynamic platform like no other social media platform before. You can catch people’s attention very fast, but you can also lose it just as fast. If they are not interested in the first two seconds they will just keep scrolling and you don’t get another chance.
People are familiar with trends or challenges and they are willing to wait a bit longer for those, but if you post original content you need to get people’s attention right away. The attention span is getting shorter and shorter and you really don’t have much time to communicate the value right upfront. But if you catch their attention in the first few seconds you can go into more details in the actual video.
Video Lighting
Before you start recording videos the most important thing you need to remember is to make sure that your lighting is very good. One of the most common mistakes people does when they start posting and TikTok is their lighting is not very good. We will discuss professional gear like lighting in a different lesson, but in reality, you don’t need anything else than a phone to record and a window to let good natural light in.
If you are outdoors, then you’ll have plenty of light. But if you are filming indoors you need to make sure you are facing the window when recording, so that the sunlight comes directly onto your face. This will increase the quality of your video.
How to record a video on TikTok
Now let’s talk about how to use the camera and the elements of an actual TikTok video.
Before that, you should know that you have the option to record your video outside TikTok, using your phone camera and other editing apps. You can then import your videos into TikTok and add sounds and effects. This strategy can help you if you want to record several videos in one day and publish them at different times, or if you want to have the original video without the TikTok watermark to either edit it and test different versions of it on TikTok or to publish it on other social media platforms.
Step 1 – Record your video
Let’s start with an overview of the TikTok interface. From the For You page you click the plus button on the bottom of the screen, and it will open the camera. Here you will see several options:
On the right side, you’ll see
- at the very top the icon for Flip so you can flip the camera and record either with your phone’s front-facing camera or the back one.
- Next icon is for Speed – this allows you to record videos at higher speed or slow motion
- The next icon we have is Beauty mode – this uses A.I. algorithms to clear the skin.
- Then we have the filters. These are similar to the filters we’re used on Instagram, but unlike IG on TikTok they’re not used that much
- And finally, we have the Timer and the Flash. The Timer is pretty simple to use: you can set the timer on your phone and then it will start recording in three seconds. If you record without the timer, you can edit the videos in the app afterward.
On the very bottom of the screen, you’ll see 3 options:
- the default one is 15 seconds. This means that you will be recording a 15-second video. You also have the option to record for 60 seconds. Most of the videos that we see on the For You page and most of the videos are getting a lot of attention is at least 10 seconds long, sometimes even 20 seconds in length.
- You will also notice the Template option. This allows you to import pictures and make a video with them. However, on TikTok, this doesn’t work very well. TikTok is a video native platform and you’ll rarely see any pictures uploaded this way.
Next to the record button, we have two options:
- On the left side we have the Effects, but we’ll talk about the effects in a separate lesson because there are very important for TikTok
- And on the right, you have the Upload option, so you can upload a video you already recorded outside TikTok. You can record videos using your phone’s camera and just upload it here so you can do the editing inside the app.
Step 2 – Edit your video
So, after you’re done recording your clip, you click on the red checkmark on the bottom of the screen, and then we can go to the next step of the process, which is the editing.
On the right side of the editing screen you can see the following options:
- Filters – you can add filters in the editing mode also
- Adjust clips – so you can adjust the length of the clip
- Voice effects – you can download voice effects and use them if it makes sense for your video
- Voiceover – in case you want to add your own voice over an imported video or maybe a video you recorded outside, and you want to talk over it
- Trim sound – you can trim the audio if you added a song to your clip, but you can’t trim the audio that’s in there by default
- Volume – here you can increase and decrease the volume of the original sound
Now, on the bottom left of the editing screen we have the following options:
- Sounds – you can add songs over here too, but we will discuss sounds in a different lesson because they are very important
- Effects – this is another place where you can add effects to your video
- Text – you can also add text if you want to add more details or explain a concept
- Stickers – these are very similar to the ones on other social media platforms, like Instagram or Snapchat for example. Basically, stickers are elements that you can add to your videos. You can add questions with a Yes or No answer so that people can engage with your video.
Step 3 – Publish
When you finished the editing, click Next so you can post the video on your TikTok profile. After adding a description and hashtags, you have several options to decide if you want to keep, like allowing comments and duets and saving the video on the device. Comments are a great way to increase your video’s watch time – because while people are typing a comment the video will keep running in the background multiple times. So, you should keep the “Allow Comments” on.
On the very bottom of the screen you have two options: you can either post your video or you can save a draft.
If you batch produce your content in advance for an entire week or at least a few days ahead, you can save them all as drafts and then post them throughout the week on the fly.
