TikTok Strategies and How to Succeed: Guest Post!

On a recent episode of the Digital Wrap-Up, we spoke with a very interesting content creator about his strategy for several different social media platforms, including TikTok. Creating short form video content for TikTok and other platforms like YouTube Shorts can be difficult to get in to, trust us.

We struggle with it, which is why we don’t have a presence on the platforms… yet. So if it’s hard for Harden Digital as a social media consulting agency, we know it can be even harder for the average small business. Luckily, there are tons of resources out there that can help you get started on the right foot.

One such resource is a recent article on LinkedIn from Meagan Hook, who is the Manager of Social Media and Digital Marketing at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Meagan started the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis’ TikTok page back in July of 2020 and has found a lot of success ever since. Their account now has more than 170k followers and 3.4M likes.

Meagan understands how difficult it can be to find success and go “viral” on TikTok, because she’s started an account from scratch and grown. In her article below, she shares valuable strategies on how to get noticed on one of the fastest growing apps out.

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To TikTok or not to TikTok

Guest article by Meagan Hook

TikTok virality doesn’t just “happen”. It may seem like one 6-second video went crazy out of nowhere, but there’s actually a lot more behind the scenes that you may not be aware of. Here are some of the strategies I learned along the way…

Comment, comment, comment. 

Your followers want to hear from you, why else would they engage? A simple like on a comment can go further than you might think. Comment back with something funny, witty or sincere showing that you hear them. Use it as a customer service platform if they have questions about your brand/service but also see it as an opportunity for others who may not know of you to learn more about you just by reading your responses. Followers can tell which accounts are genuine and which brands are on there just because their CEO said to make an account. 

Respond with videos.

The character limit of replies is short (basically you can write more than 2 sentences) and you can say so much more by replying with an entire video. Whether it be a talking head explanation video or a video of what they are asking to see, this shows your followers that you actually care that they are commenting about. This shows the brand has a person behind it and that you specifically are going above and beyond acknowledging with a like to their comment. 

Post consistently.

TikTok is set in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). So when looking at your account’s analytics and it says that 9 a.m. is the best time to share your videos, do the conversion to your time zone to be sure that you are posting at the right time in CT, EST, or other. Try some A/B testing of similar types of videos to see if the analytics are aligning with your highest engagement. Posting daily will help you see which type of content is succeeding and which days to push out more content or to maybe avoid. In the first few months try out using a greenscreen feature, sounds, songs, captions, hashtags – trial and error.

Listen to what your followers are saying.

Are they asking for certain types of content? Do they like it when you show the office dog/friendly greeter/use a certain sound or song? Take in what they are commenting or asking for to heart – people don’t comment just to comment (besides occasional trolls). This platform should be treated differently than your Facebook or Instagram strategies because it’s vastly different in abilities and audience. Cross posting will get you nowhere. 

Be aware of the “cut off zones.” 

There are certain areas of a video that get blocked when viewing, so if you have a crucial part of your video in those spots you’ll lose viewership. Examples are the icons on the bottom right of the screen that are the “Follow, Comment and Share”. Another is depending on how long your caption is the bottom half of your screen could be taken over with text. This is a bigger issue when captioning/adding text boxes that are unable to be seen, especially if you don’t do the “voice text” feature. A way around having your captions be seen is to raise them up to the top of the video rather than let them play out at the bottom.

Go Live.

Now granted, this feature is only available for accounts with 1K+ followers, but this should be a big goal to strive for if you’re not there yet. Going LIVE allows you direct access to your fans. Having a consistent schedule also helps in building rapport and anticipation for your brand. Host a Q&A session, take a tour of your facility, do a demonstration. Be sure when you go LIVE that you do have a few accounts that you trust to become moderators to keep your comment section clean and away from spambots.

Happy TikToking!

p.s. if you’re so inclined to see some of my work: https://www.tiktok.com/@childrensmuseum

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What awesome advice to get started creating on TikTok! Be sure to go check out the work Meagan does on the Children’s Museum’s TikTok if you’re looking for some inspiration.

If you have any questions or want to talk about any social media platforms like TikTok, please contact us or leave a comment below.

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Catch up on past posts at the Harden Digital Blog!