Business TikTok: How to Easily Get Started
Whether you are completely new to the TikTok App or you haven’t started an account yet for your Business TikTok profile then this blog post is for you!
In either situation you’re most likely feeling lost and overwhelmed with all the buttons and fancy features. Don’t worry, I felt exactly the same way when I first joined TikTok and even spent over 2 months consuming content and trying to just understand it all.
I promise you, it does get easier with time and to save you even more time I’m here to help you get started, so you can start leveraging TikTok for business and growth.
Below are my 5 most important steps you can immediately take to set-up your TikTok for success!
Step 1:
Firstly, you’ll want to download the app! Skip this if you have already done that. After downloading, set up your account with a username, upload a profile photo of your beautiful face and start crafting your bio. It’s only 80 characters, so make sure to keep it short and sweet. If you need help determining which account type to choose. Read this blog!
Step 2:
Start your research! This step is often overlooked when businesses join the app. This part is especially important to help you understand the culture of TikTok. Making short form videos is not the same as other social media platforms. To start your research go to the magnify glass in top right corner on the FYP or following pages. You may also see the search bar at the top of videos. Then type in some words related to your niche or industry that you might use on other platforms. From there you can start watching videos from other creators to get inspiration and the creative juices flowing.
Step 3:
Take notes! Here is a list of questions you want to consider.
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How is the person in the video getting attention in the first 3 seconds? What in particular are they doing?
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How is the person communicating information? Is it educational or is it more for entertainment?
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Are they invoking a particular emotion? What is that emotion?
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What effects, music, hashtags are they using?
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How are they getting engagement? What are people saying in the comments?
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How long are the videos?
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What do you like and dislike about it?
What you are doing with this exercise is studying other content on the app. This will really help give you an idea of what works and what doesn’t work, so that you can start to create a vision for yourself as a content creator.
Step 4:
Come up with a game-plan! Every video should have a goal and purpose. Get out your notebook, google docs, Notion, Trello or whatever tools you use to content plan and start to brain dump all your ideas. Then take each idea and think of creative ways to communicate your message. Thinking about how to incorporate the features of the app and culture. Bonus tips - if you are active on instagram think about how you can repurpose that content. I do this with my clients. We go through their grid and take any written captions and take that same information and turn it into a video. Once you have a list of videos with the structure planned it’s time to start creating!
Step 5:
Start creating your first videos. I know it can be scary and intimidating at first and it may not be a masterpiece but done is better than perfect. Just start and stay consistent. That’s the number one key to success on TikTok. Make a few videos, edit, add text, effects, etc and then you can save them into your drafts so they are ready to post. I promise with practice it will get easier and faster. You are not going for an A+ on the first try. Progress over perfection!
