Everything There is to Know About TikTok

You’re looking to get started in social media promotion of your business, or you may already have, and it’s not budging beyond 200 views per video. If this is you, keep reading, and if you are already doing fairly well, you should also keep reading as you will find some things to try, I am sure of it. I’m 200 videos in to this little experiment. This article discusses all aspects of TikTok videos at 1 minute or less in length, and many apply to YouTube Shorts as well.

The road to getting followers

To give some background, the XecuteTheVision TikTok channel started a year ago. I morphed it from the original intent of business tips back in April to focus solely on spreadsheets. So in total, at the time of this article, the spreadsheet channel is 7 months old, has 150,700 followers, and has nearly 575,000 likes. I have 3 videos that crossed 1M views and several in the hundreds of thousands of views.

Three months in, I had a successful video of almost 5M views that really catapulted my account. I gained about 60,000 followers from that one, which sent a lot of traffic to my other videos. I’ve heard other people share similar stories. You have to post regularly, with a theme, and once you get one that hits, you start to get your audience.

If it’s not happening for you, try the suggestions in this article. The bottom line or golden rule is your videos have to be interesting. If they provide value to the viewer, they will be successful. End of story, but not the article so keep reading.

Length of videos

TikTok now allows up to ten-minute-long videos. I can’t speak on the success of this, as my videos are typically under one minute. The key to success is first getting the attention of the viewer and then of course, keeping it. The ideal length is more than 7 seconds and less than 1 minute.

The first 3 seconds of a TikTok video

You have to capture attention in the time it takes for your video to pop up as next, and the time it takes for the thumb to swipe up to the next one.

Things to do in the first 3 seconds:

Say something mysterious, entertaining, something that sparks controversy, or something that makes them intrigued to learn, or tell you how different their opinion or view is from you.
Show a visual right up front of the result when possible. If it’s an instructional video, you show the cool ending first, then go into instruction to teach them.
Use text overlay. Your viewers hear and see, and if you miss out on one of these, you miss an audience.
Make sure the cover shot is decent. Avoid your eyes being shut or some other part of the video that doesn’t make people want to click. Spend some time designing this. It is what shows up in your bio and when people search topics.
Use the tools to edit the dead time out of the beginning. Leaving just 2 extra seconds can cause a premature swipe.
Leave off the introduction of who you are. They can read your bio, and most likely, it’s not that interesting. Your repeat watchers don’t need to see you introduce yourself for every new video.

The end of the video

Similar to beginning of a video, your 'watched full video' metric will always be low if you leave too much time at the end.

Things to do at the end of a TikTok video

You want to show the result for up to 1 second. Taking Excel videos for example, flash the result so that they see it, and it allows your video watch time to completion to be optimal rather than every single person scrolling past because you let the answer sit there for 10 seconds. You may get further rewatches from this as well. Don't annoy people with it being too quick, but don't let it sit too long.
Ask for a like and follow with a text overlay. Many will recommend you do this throughout the video on YouTube, but I disagree. Don’t ask for something until you’ve given them something useful.

Time of day to post TikTok videos

The view count and engagement for xecutethevision is in line with the general recommendations out there. Any time on Tuesday has been a bust nearly every post. Otherwise, I have found if you have a useful topic, it’s going to keep going. I’ve tested this with nearly 200 videos, and I can’t say a particular time is better than another. Find your viewer information in analytics. This is what it looks like below. You can see for me follower activity really slow down every day at 2:00 am Eastern time and picks up again around 10:00 am. I try to avoid posting past 10:00 pm.

How often to post TikTok videos

I post approximately five videos per week. This seems to be enough to keep relevancy and not be too much about it. If I were posting funny videos, I would try to follow the general recommendation I've heard of 3 to 5 videos per day. I’m somewhat convinced you have more success after about 100 to 150 videos are on your account. That seems to show people this is a serious account about a particular topic, and it may impact the algorithm but can’t prove that. See image below for time of day followers are most active.

Face in the video vs. no face

I see several people being physically present in their videos and the views are higher than when they are not. However, maybe something is up with AI and my face, I have not found that to be a success. I do much better with view counts by doing a screen capture.

Promotion of TikTok videos

3rd party video promotion

I tried socialboosting.com in the beginning and bought followers. I found that within a couple weeks, the followers started to get banned and they show up as 'TikToker' in names. I went through and deleted them all because apparently, it can further lower your engagement to have followers who are not watching your videos. It goes back to the golden rule that if your videos are of interest and value, people will watch and want to follow you. Depends on your goals, but I would stay away from fake followers.

TikTok promotion

I’ve also tried the actual TikTok video promotion. This can get expensive. I paid something like $20 for up to 8,000 views one time. It does work though, you get real likes and followers because it’s actually pushing your video further. If you are selling a product, I can see the usefulness of this. But remember, what is the golden rule? If it’s of interest and value…

Duets and Stitches

This is another type of promotion you could try. This is taking someone else's video that has these permissions set to on and recording your opinion of it or using 5 seconds of their video in yours. You may find other creators to work with this way. It highlights both of you and should drive traffic. I’ve tried this a few times. When people use my videos, I make sure to comment and like them in appreciation.

Tipping

I’m eligible for tips, it shows on my bio, and no one tips. I’ve seen my competition also eligible and also no tips. If you have figured out how to get tips, send me a message.

TikTok hashtags

This is a debate. Some people will say it makes you look desperate to put a ton of hashtags on a video. I say to them, yes, I am desperate. That aside, I choose to use 15 or so per video because when people search for a hashtag, I hope to show up. I was the number 4 video on #excel for a while, and I had high traffic, so I continue to use hashtags.

Choosing TikTok hashtags

I recommend a combination of high volume like billion-view hashtags and million-view hashtags. The reason is, you’re unlikely to be found in the billions, but if you hit it big, you may, and you are likely to be found in the millions or thousands with a decent video, so change it up and make sure the topic is relevant. #excel has almost 5 billion views right now, and that is more of a challenge than it would be to be found in #msexceltraining at 5 million views.

Random hashtags

Sometimes I add some random hashtags on videos. For example, my videos do not apply to #blackfriday, but I added it this holiday as one hashtag in hopes of getting to a new audience. In the first 24 hours, that video crossed 60,000 views. It was a useful topic, so it’s tough to say that was a contributing factor, but worth a try if it's relevant to the day or topic in some way.

Branded hashtags

Additionally, I use my own hashtag of #xecutethevision. I do it to track views as from what I see, you can only go back 60 days in analytics. Otherwise, people can click your bio to see all your videos. I do think it’s useful for Google search results, as I’ve seen Google show a carousel for my hashtag. So I would throw that one on each video too.

Business vs. personal account

I am not currently being paid for services or selling anything, so I kept a personal account. I have tried a business account where I work. I’m not convinced these are treated the same in the algorithm. Sometimes I think it may be more beneficial to have advocate-type accounts set up to promote your business product or service rather than people seeing the branded account pushing product.

Example: You are selling makeup. Are you more likely to get views from someone who advocates for your product or as a business saying this is the best makeup ever? Is it just a matter of the golden rule here?

I’ve seen a lot of companies with videos, and the name on the account is not the brand.

The other thing is you are limited to commercial sounds with a business account. Of course, you want to play by the rules, but just something to think about. I’m still testing this.

TikTok descriptions

This could be considered a title as it is what people see when scrolling, and it is an opportunity to describe the video in more length. The length on these has recently been opened up to 2,200 characters. I’ve witnessed my successful competitors tanking in video views lately, and I’m convinced it’s because they haven’t realized the importance of SEO. They provide a witty comment rather than what the video is about, and it’s not working all that well. I try to provide keywords that relate to how people would ask the inquiry just like you do for blogs or Google searches.

Good Example: Start it off with “How to make a progress chart in Excel…”

Bad Example: “Coworker will love you.”

The viewer may type how to into Google to get an answer, and you want your video to show up as the answer. My progress charts are not going to make my coworker love me. I mean, maybe, but that’s not what they are searching for.

TikTok titles

Always include a title unless your video is so over-the-top funny or appealing that when someone searches your bio or hashtag they will click on the video. See the image below. The titles are in yellow. If you don’t use these, people will have no reason to click your video over another because may not be clear what it’s about. TikTok provides the option so I say do it so you are using their tools and therefore hopefully getting pushed further in the algorithm since you use all the tools.

What really keeps your video moving in the algorithm?

Shares are king, comments are second, watch time is 3rd, likes are fourth, and rewatches are somewhere in there. You need to design videos to gain a combination of these. I’ve witnessed videos have 7%+ engagement rate, (likes divided by total views) and die at 15,000 views or much less. However, when the watch till end time is 25% or higher, there are several shares and comments, they keep going. Going back to the above in regards to what to include in the first 3 seconds, this is a real example I had.

Example: My best video, nearly 5M views, had a spelling error, and it just made people go nuts and start commenting about it. It was also a topic that compelled people to tell me about other software options that should be used for the problem rather than Excel. They talked to me like they were so much smarter than me. I compelled them to take the time to say, “Look at how smart I am.” So the combination propelled it due to that engagement.

The magic combination

If you make a video that is 95%+ useful or entertaining, and up to 5% controversial or engaging enough to make someone say look at how smart I am or look how wrong you are, you have a win. That will be enough to capture the shares from the people who find it useful, and enough comments to propel it. A funny video may sidestep all of these things, but it's a general guideline to follow.

What does it pay to be monetized on TikTok?

You need 10,000 followers, 100,000 views, and no strikes within 30 days to become monetized. They also state other rules, the primary being you can’t have fake views and followers. I am monetized and can confirm, I make $.02 per 1000 views. You can do the math on that, but it’s not even worth the time. The real cash opportunity I see on TikTok is when you have a product you sell. You promote it and get your brand out there; there is no better way to do that.

So your video got flagged and taken down

Oh, I was so mad. My first video crossed 1,000,000 views, and 13 days in, it got removed for something about privacy. I had Excel fields related to names and phone numbers, so I believe this is the reason. However, I appealed it, and it was reinstated a couple of days later. It’s bound to happen on accident here and there, but use the appeal process and try to avoid breaking the community rules. When a video is removed, you lose the views.

Similarity to other videos

I’ve seen people try to copy my videos. So much so that even the main Excel project names I used as a sample were the same. However, their views were like 1% of what my successful video was. I recommend taking a successful video and figuring out how you can make it better. Do not try to copy others; the algorithm seems highly successful in recognizing copies.

Fun Features

It's easy to make a video on TikTok and they have all kinds of fun effects and features. I've tried several and the biggest benefit I would say is that it makes the video more interesting to watch. So try some of the transitions out and other tools and that can increase watch time.

Reposting previous videos

I’ve witnessed successful channels doing this, as I have tried it as well.

Example: My 4.8M video was reposted 90 days later and ended up with 230,000 views and another 1,000 subscribers.

This can be frowned on in YouTube, so you aren’t competing with yourself. However, I am not convinced this is a negative in this fast-moving onto the next thing type of platform. You have to be in people’s faces, so I would say it’s a yes to doing this as long as it’s a reasonable time frame between post and repost. I’ve also noticed that successful videos tend to die too at about 30 days. So that may be a guide for when to repost.

Another thing to consider in reposting is keyword choice. Try different hashtags and keywords in the title or description. It’s possible you will then have a wider net captured in the search terms.

If you want to reuse your video elsewhere, Snaptik removes the watermark for you in about 5 seconds. I've used this several times. YouTube doesn't seem to favor or unfavor the watermark, but according to word on the street, Instagram will suppress your videos if that's on there.

Recap

In summary, this is a recap of my 7-month TikTok journey to 150,000 followers making Excel and Google Sheets instructional videos. This is by no means the only set of rules or advice to follow. However, I hope you picked up a thing or two to try or consider. If you can get the magic combination to work with the golden rule, there is no better way to promote your product or service.

Written by Nicole Hullihen, November 26th, 2022