How to Make Good TikToks Without Dancing
It’s easy to see TikTok as the “Gen Z dancing app” when thinking about how to use it as a marketing tool for your brand. But thanks to its robust and highly accurate algorithm, it’s truly so much more. While it’s hard to predict what might “go viral” on the app as trending audios and memes change nearly every few days, there is a way to make “good TikToks without resorting to dancing. We’ll teach you exactly how in this blog post.
What is TikTok?
In short, TikTok is a video-sharing social media app launched in 2018 and owned by Chinese corporation ByteDance. Perhaps you might be familiar with Musical.ly, the lip-syncing app launched in 2014, TikTok’s precursor app which it eventually merged with thanks to ByteDance’s acquisition of it.
The user-generated TikTok content of today is only slightly similar to that of its Musical.ly origin. Videos anywhere in length from 15 seconds to ten minutes can be uploaded, and yes, while dancing videos are among them, the “genres” of TikTok videos are broad.
There is truly a niche for everything: gaming, makeup tutorials, book recommendations, movie and TV show edits, and even short-form video essays.
Many people have called the app the spiritual successor to the ill-fated, beloved six-second video-sharing app Vine. Just scroll through a few videos on the app and you’ll see that creativity is in no short supply.
However, there’s one thing almost everyone looking to “go big” on TikTok – including brands – wants to understand and utilize: the algorithm.
How does the TikTok algorithm work?
Like many other social media platforms, TikTok delivers content to you via an algorithm. It’s known for being highly personalized and tailored to you once you’ve been using the app for some time.
TikTok is unique in that anything you post has the potential to be shown to people who don’t follow you via the “For You Page” (FYP) – therefore anything has the potential to go viral, whether you want it to or not. But when using TikTok as a marketing tool, is there a way you can increase the chances of your content showing up on the FYP?
There are a few things that TikTok values when showing video content to other users, including hashtags, how far people watch into your videos/video length, the time of upload, and keywords in your caption. Checking TikTok’s built-in analytics page for your account will help you to better understand where your current audience is coming from.
What’s trending on TikTok right now?
It’s hard to keep track of the latest trends, especially as a social media manager. Here’s what’s trending on TikTok right now and is anticipated to have some staying power within the next few months.
- “That girl” – we all know that girl. She’s someone who works out daily, has a perfect skin care routine, and drinks a green smoothie each morning. It seems like she manifests perfection into her life almost effortlessly. Tutorials on how to become “that girl” - or other variations of her - have consistently been featured on people’s FYPs. Health, fitness, and wellness seems to be trending topics for all social media platforms as of late, so we expect “that girl” to stick around.
- “They’re a 10, but…” – this comedic game involves you describing a potential romantic partner to a friend as “a 10”, but they have some other trait that could potentially lower their numeric score. This is definitely likely to become a staple TikTik phrase, as we’ve already seen the meme copied and pasted to other social media sites.
TikTok ideas for brands (sans dancing)
While we can’t promise you these ‘Tok ideas will get you on the FYP, here’s some suggestions on how to make your content on the app better – without needing a rhythmic bone in your body.
- Don’t just stand there and point at text on the screen – although it’s super easy to just superimpose yourself on a screenshot of an article or a Tweet with TikTok’s built-in green screen effect while making dramatic faces in reaction, it’s seen as low-effort and a little scammy. There are so many other creative ways you can use the green screen effect!
- Use outside editing apps to enhance your videos – while TikTok features basic editing tools within the app, you can use other free video editing apps on your phone to add effects and text. One with an easy learning curve we suggest is Capcut!
- Reply to comments with a video reply – TikTok allows you to respond to comments left on your previous videos with another video! This a great, underrated way to foster trust and engagement with your audience by allowing you to expand on your answer to their question more deeply than you ever could in a comment with a character limit.
- Participate in audio trends, but make them your own – as previously mentioned, there’s a new song or original audio that takes over TikTok almost every week. You can participate in them too as a brand! Just try to interpret the trend in a way that fits better with what you’re going for as a brand.
Make better TikToks with Power Move Marketing
Ready to make even better TikToks for your brand? Power Move Marketing can help – we nail the brand every time. Request a quote today or check out the services we offer to see what’s right for you.
Author: Louise Irpino