TikTok has quickly become one of the most popular social media apps in the world. Launched in 2016, it has almost 700 million active users each month with that number continuing to grow. It’s not uncommon to hear creators going from 0 to 20K followers in a matter of 30 days if they’re posting the right content and consistently. I’m sharing how to be a successful content creator on TikTok, and the tips and tricks I learned directly from a TikTok team member at the LTK Conference.

For more best practices and strategies in the blogging industry, head to this part of the blog HERE.

How to Be a Successful Content Creator on TikTok

TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps because of its short-form video content. Each video is anywhere from 15 to 60 seconds, making it easy-to-digest information and entertainment in a short amount of time.

This social media app is a great way to share your personality, creativity and promote your brand to a global audience. However, there is a science to creating TikTok content. It requires planning and the right strategies to make your TikTok videos stand out from the sea of other creative videos.

How Much Do Content Creators Make on TikTok

The amount of money content creators earn on TikTok, depends on many different things. I know that’s an arbitrary answer, but it’s also the honest answer.

According to BusinessInsider.com, successful TikTok creators can make upwards of $20,000 per sponsored post. For micro-influencers, a sponsored post can range anywhere from $20 to $150 per post. But sponsored content is not the only way content creators can be earning money on the app.

Affiliate Income

Aside from sponsored content, content creators can earn money through affiliate income. For example, if someone is discussing a certain product or brand in a TikTok video and the creator gives a discount code for the TikTok viewer to use on their next purchase, then that TikTok creator could potentially earn a commission for anyone who uses that code.

On the other hand, they can make affiliate income through affiliate links. These are tracking codes in a links. With affiliate links, the person sharing is getting credit, either by referral credits to a site or by making a commission from a product or service. You can include your affiliate link within your TikTok bio and in the caption of your videos. I go into more detail on how affiliate links work in this post.

TikTok Creator Marketplace

The TikTok Creator Marketplace is an exclusive program on TikTok. You can either apply or be invited by TikTok to be a part of the program as a creator. There are some qualifications that you have to meet in order to be considered for the program like having over 100K followers and posting three videos in the last 28 days.

It’s essentially a place where brands go to search for creators to promote their brand. Many brands are shifting their digital marketing tactics away from traditional advertising and moving some of those marketing dollars to social media advertising.

Although this is a great way to establish relationships with brands, this marketplace isn’t the only way to garner brand deals. You can most definitely pitch yourself to brands organically or through an influencer management company as well.

TikTok Creator Program

For most content creators, this couldn’t be your sole source of income because it doesn’t generate that much money unless you have many millions of followers and views. Even then, it still might not be worth it. But nevertheless, this is another stream of income you can have from TikTok.

TikTok understands the value of their creators and that the app would be nothing without the creators that produce content every day. So they implemented a program called the TikTok Creator Program that pays creators based on several factors like views and engagement. But it’s not specifically known how TikTok determines how much they pay creators.

TikTok Best Practices

Create High-Quality Videos

Before you start creating TikTok video content, you need to start with the basics. This includes the lighting and sound of your TikTok videos. You don’t need to invest in expensive lighting or sound equipment – at least when you’re first starting out.

For lighting, it’s best to film in natural light such as in front of a window. There are also apps that you can utilize that help control lighting, like Focus Live. You can use easily use an iPhone to film all your content too.

Your sound quality matters too. You want to make sure there are no echos in your videos or loud background noises such as the air conditioner, construction outside or sounds from your cell phone going off while filming.

Be An Active User and Creator

Like with other social platforms, it’s best to be both a user and creator. Though you’re a content creator on TikTok, you also want to be a user and engage with other content besides your own on the app.

This doesn’t mean you need to spend hours engaging on the platform. But watching other videos and engaging with other creators’ content helps your account stay relevant too.

Aside from being an active user, what’s most important is being consistent with your content. It’s best to post 3 to 5 times a week to keep your content circulating the app. We will get into how the algorithm works on TikTok later. But posting consistently is key to the success of your TikTok account.

Stay Up-to-Date with the Trends

The next best TikTok practice is to stay up-to-date with the trends within the app. What are other popular videos featuring within their videos? If you notice a trend or format is gaining popularity within TikTok, then that could be included in your content planning. Try it out and give your own personal twist to the trend.

When creating content, you want to work smarter and not harder. Because as we all know, content creation is very time consuming. So content repurposing is a great way to add legs to your content and spread it out across a variety of platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, email marketing and blog posts.

My advice would be to look at the trends on TikTok, and recreate those trends. Then, start sharing that content to other platforms. The reason for this is because TikTok is typically one to three weeks ahead of the rest of the social platforms like Instagram. So what’s trending on Instagram, probably was already a trend on TikTok. Just something to keep in mind when you’re planning your TikTok ideas.

Create Videos with More Context

Some TikTok users can’t listen with the sound on. Whether they’re watching at work or somewhere else where sound could be distracting, TikTok videos with text do best.

Add descriptions to your video and either describe what you’re saying or doing within the video. That way, if a user can’t listen with sound, they still have the opportunity to understand what your video is saying.

You also want to make sure your video uploads as a full-screen video. Videos that only take up part of the screen don’t perform as well because they’re likely too small for the viewer.

Use the Right Format for Videos

There is a right and wrong way to format your TikTok videos. The most highly converting videos start with a hook. You know, the kind that make people not keep scrolling?

The first three seconds are the most important. You want to be sure you’re speaking in those first three seconds, or at the very least, showing enticing text in those first three seconds to hook the viewer.

TikTok videos with personal stories also tend to do well. So after you hook them, share a personal story about the information you’re sharing. Now this doesn’t have to be a sentimental or monumental personal story about your childhood. It’s basically just sharing that you have experienced success with this information you’re sharing and the viewer can also achieve this.

For instance, you can say, “This is what happened after I did this…” Generally, saying things like “I’m an expert and going to show you…” doesn’t work well. People want to know how you did something and the end result of something – not “Oh I’m so good at this, this and this.” They don’t care.

Then, you want to finish your video with a call-to-action or educational piece. For a call-to-action, you can say “head to my link in bio for x,y,z.” Or ask them to comment what outfit they liked best in the video.

If you’re doing an educational piece, you can share a tiny bit of information. But don’t give it all away in one video. Multiple-part series do really well on TikTok because they make the user come back for more. So you could do a multiple part series on one subject matter.

Incorporate Different Features TikTok Offers into Your Strategy

When you’re planning your TikTok marketing strategy for your brand, you want to utilize different features of TikTok.

Oftentimes, there are trending songs and sounds that are being used within the app. Be sure to include those in some of your videos.

TikTok also offers TikTok Lives. A TikTok Live is an awesome opportunity for any content creator because when you go live TikTok notifies your followers of that. Look at your analytics and find out what time your users are most active. Then go Live at that time. It doesn’t matter if a handful of people showup, who cares!

The beauty of going Live is that you can repurpose that content to other places and create a static post on your TikTok account too.

Another feature that TikTok offers are reactions. You can record your reaction to another TikTok user’s video. Then, post it to your account.

There are many more features you can use in the app, and these are just a few examples. When you’re maximizing what the app offers, this helps boost your videos within the algorithm.

Know the Algorithm of TikTok

The TikTok algorithm works to the advantage of content creators because it’s not about the number of followers, likes and comments you have on your videos. It’s more about the user watching your videos all the way through and/ or multiple times.

Because TikTok makes their money through ad sales, their goal is to keep users on their platform for as long as possible. So if TikTok notices that users are watching your videos all the way through or binge watching your videos, TikTok will then show your video to more people.

So for instance, if a video has 100,000 views and only 1,000 likes, but another video has 25,000 views and 2,000 likes, the video with 100K views is going to be rewarded more from the algorithm more so than the 25K-viewed video.

Put Your LTK Link in the Caption

This goes back to making money within the app. But if you’re a content creator on LTK, it’s best to put your LTK link within the caption or as a comment. That way if someone likes what you’re showing, they can copy and paste that link into their browser. Then, hopefully click the affiliate link to make the purchase of the item you’re showing in that TikTok video.

Incorporate Hashtags

Your content within your hashtags and captions should include what type of audience you want to target – not necessarily what the content of the video is about. It’s not like Instagram where you have to be following people. It’s showing you content based on the other videos you like to watch or are searching for.

For instance if you’re a fashion blogger posting a TikTok video with Thanksgiving outfit ideas, you don’t want to put hashtag #fashionblogger. You’re better off putting things like #Thankgivinglooks, #casualThanksgivingoutfit etc. That way, you’re targeting the audience that is actually looking for outfit ideas for Thanksgiving, and who are more likely to click your links to purchase through LTK.

Use Agitation Topics

Agitation topics do well on TikTok because they raise the FOMO alarm bells for most people. Topics that include things of “what not to do” really pique people’s interest. The reason is because they want to make sure they’re not doing that “thing.”

For example, I recently posted a video on “Ways Not to Look Cheap.” And I think it did well because people don’t want to look cheap. Or another topic might be “5 Things Holding You Back from X,Y,Z.” Depending on what niche your in, it’s finding a problem that someone might have, and then solving it for them.

TikTok Content Ideas

As we talked about above, it’s important to be strategic with the types of TikTok video ideas you create on TikTok and the content that’s included in them. Here is a list of content ideas that perform the best on the social media platform:

• Day in the life
• A controversial topic that has to do with your niche
• Bold statement videos, leading with the outcome
• Dance videos
• Part 1 or day 1/2/3 series
• What I ordered vs. what I got
• Trying viral recipes
• Recreating TikTok challenges
• Educational videos sharing bite-sized info
• Use popular sound clips or song clips to create videos
• Behind the scenes of something you’re working on
• Dialogue reenactments
• Testing out viral hacks
• Transition videos

If you loved this information, then you’ll love the The Profitable Influencer. I launched the program in 2020 specifically to help aspiring influencers who want to turn their side-hustle into a full-time or profitable side gig.

Do you have a TikTok account? What are your best tips for content creation on the app? Let me know!

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