What Is TikTok Mainly Used For?

What Is Tiktok For Creators And Entrepreneurs

Tiktok is one of the most popular social media apps on the planet allowing users to upload up to 60 seconds or more videos that they can share with the world. It is a short-form video platform that allows users to make videos to music and film and do some very creative things.

Originally, the app was called Musical.ly, which had over 100 million users who are streaming videos of themselves mining the system. They built a popular following with some creators rising from engagement.

Tiktok became a popular place to share clips that began to then build popularity in August 2018. It was taken over by the Chinese company Bytedance. All of the content accounts that were previously on Musical.ly can be transferred to the new TikTok.

Tiktok has become the most downloaded video app on the planet. There’s increased geographical expansion for it as well.

One of the best things about Tiktok when it first started getting super popular during the 2020 Pandemic is that it was easy to share its watermark on other platforms. I wouldn’t recommend sharing their videos that way now because other algorithms will not extend their organic reach when they see a Tiktok watermark.

Another thing that worked was localized content. It often runs local contests and captures local trends through localized hashtags. To run contests across several countries separate engagement tests into the theme to create videos on the top ones.

Tiktok also sends personalized recommendations to users which ensure that it is always updated on the latest trending videos and localization on a global scale. They also make the creation of content and sharing it fascinating as well.

Trends on this platform include lip-synching to an archive of popular songs, dancing, and collaborations allowing the user to duet with someone by replying to their video, etc.

Download the app like you would any other platform and then create a username like on Facebook or any other social media app. Once you’re logged in you can instantly start watching videos.

There are so many videos on Tiktok. Once you open up the app on your phone, a video will start playing and you can scroll down to the next one. The video content will just live on the profile page of that creator.

The more time you spend on the app, the more you will tap into the algorithm so it will start to show you videos that are related to previous videos that you’ve liked and engaged with.

What Are They Really Doing On Tiktok

There are some really creative people that dance like it’s a really random thing. So as a consumer there’s plenty of content to sit back and watch but as a creator, you should be thinking about what kind of videos can you upload to Tiktok.

They make it incredibly easy to use its core features within the app. The green screen and other effects along with music selection that you can add make it easier as a content creator.

It’s very possible for you to upload a 15-second video on your phone and get 50,000 views. Getting that amount of views is actually really difficult on a longer-form YouTube video.

But you might only get 500 views on a longer form video of like 3 minutes and well over 80,000 views on the next but then you can create a video from your phone.

You can use trending hashtags on Tik Tok with minimal effort and get maximum results if you’re looking to get eyes on your content and to grow a following quickly which is one of the easiest ways to do so.

How To Use Tiktok

Tiktok has had a lot of updates so I thought it’s a good time to show you how to use it as a beginner. Now, if you’re not really sure what it is, is a social media app just like Facebook and Instagram, but it’s all in video format during short vertical video format and it’s been around since 2016.

Tiktok has over a billion and a half users worldwide and it’s available on your mobile device along with the desktop version for Mac and PC, but it’s far easier and better to use it on your phone.

If you go to the App Store on your phone again, you can download it here and go ahead and open it up.

You do have to sign up for a Tiktok account using your email address and have to be at least 12 years old to create your Tiktok account. Also, your phone number, choosing a username and password which has to be unique but you can change it later.

How to use Tiktok for creators or small businesses

If your username is taken, it’s going to say pick one of the suggested usernames. Once you land on Tiktok there will be videos that are going to show on the homepage.

Slide up to see more and slide down if you want to see the one you just pass.

Next, you will see two options that you will use a lot “for you” and “following just like a social media platform. You could follow different accounts or different people here and you’ll see them under the following tab.

“For you” basically means this is what Tiktok thinks you’ll want to watch. Based on your previous activity right now. It doesn’t know what you want to watch because it’s a brand-new account. So it will show you random things.

If you stay on a video long enough, TikTok is going to show me more videos on their following right now. You’re not going to see anything, but it’s going to show you trending creators to follow.

Next just press follow to follow an account or person. Once you follow people, they’ll show up on your following tab. It’s a little easier to see videos from people you follow.

It’s going to show you random videos to start really depending on if you follow someone or not. So that’s kind of the difference between these two pages and you’ll spend a lot of time between the two.

Now on each video page, you can slide and will see this page which is called a profile page. You could follow people from here and then it will show you suggested accounts.

So if I want to follow Dwayne Johnson, for example, I could go ahead and follow by clicking and following from their profile page.

Let’s Explain The Profile Page More In Detail

When you land on a person’s profile you’ll see their username and their name on top.
So that’s two different places you could add a name you’ll also see how many people are following them.

How many likes and how many people they are following as well could also message them. You’re gonna see some related things here.

You could go ahead and follow more people here. And on the bottom, you’re gonna see all their videos.

On the homepage, you just see one video at a time but you can click on any one of these videos and scroll through that person’s video. I could again go all the way back to this page and keep scrolling around.

Now with every video that you see on TikTok, you can press the heart option to say you liked the video. You could press the comment section to view the comments.

And you can press share if you want to send the video to someone else.

What Does The Future Look Like?

Tiktok is a new social media giant and has ads to generate revenue in place but not on the same scale as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and others.

Tiktok will have to keep innovating and find new ways to engage as well as make it more marketing friendly.

One issue is the audience’s age is very young. That’s might be great for some because they know where their audience is but some businesses are probably afraid they can’t get their message out on the platform because the demographics may not be there.

The one thing it does have is Asia. The other platforms are global but Asia has other social media options and the growth potential there is huge.

Just like every other social media platform, it will evolve because the users and the in house analytics will dictate the change.