TikTok

Playbook
Set yourself up for success
on TikTok
Everyone We enable everyone to create
entertaining videos and
can discover the creativity of the
world. TikTok is the first
create on mobile-native, global video

TikTok. platform built around your

interests.

Success Discovery on TikTok is powered

by personalization and quality;
on TikTok our platform rewards content
comes via that is created by both popular
tastemakers as well as
creativity. emerging talent.

This Playbook Maybe you’re a TikTok power

is for users user looking to engage your
community, or maybe you’ve
ready to found success elsewhere and
take the next want to introduce your content
to an entirely new audience.
step.

1
Contents
01: Start 3
Establishing Your Identity
Create Your Account 4
Set up Your Account 6
Create a Video 8
Add Hashtags 12
Checklist: The Basics of Posting 14
Define a Content Strategy 15

02: Grow 21
Building Your Fandom
Engage Your Audience 22
Measure Success 26

03: Glossary 28

2
01:
Start
Establishing Your Identity
Your profile should clearly communicate
your identity as a creator while also
attracting first-time visitors.

3
Create
your
account
After you download TikTok and install
the app on your phone, you can
easily create an account.

How to do?
1. Click the icon in the 2. There are two ways to
bottom right corner of sign up: create a new
the home page. account or use third-
party sign-on systems.

4
3. If you choose to create 4. You can choose to sign
a new account, then you up with your phone
should select your number or email address.
birthday.

5. Then set your password

6. Now you have successfully created your new account.
7. You can also use third-party sign-on system, including
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google. 5
Set up
your
account
What to do?
1. Profile Name

Pick a name that is short,

memorable, and where possi-
ble, gives visitors an idea of
the videos you make or who
you are.

When you set up your profile,

keep your username
consistent with your other
social platforms.

Consistency across platforms is

important so your fans can easily
find you.

Consistency helps create your

brand.

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2. Update Description

Have a clear description that tells visitors what kind of

videos you make. Be sure to include a call to action.

EXAMPLES
“ Hi guys, I do extreme sports! Check out my videos
and leave a comment.”
“ Live, love...but mostly LAUGH at my skits! Comment
which of my videos you think is the funniest!”

3. Upload profile picture

To better showcase your personality and content, use

an existing photo from your camera roll!

4.Link Instagram and/or YouTube accounts

You will be required to sign in to your Instagram &

YouTube accounts to do this. This ensures that your
fans know that the TikTok account is actually yours.

Linking to Instagram allows you to share your videos

more easily, which will in turn fuel your growth.

Now
it’s time
to post!
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Create
a Video
1. Click the “+” button:

Tap the “+” button at the

bottom and then you can
choose a video from your
album to upload.

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2. Shoot:

Tap to shoot
Long press the red button to
shoot a video. You can make
the video into multiple
sections. 15s short videos are
strongly recommended!

Countdown
If you want to prepare yourself
better, you can tap the “Count-
down” button on the right and
then the shooting will start
after three-second count-
down.

Speed
You can set the speed of your
video by tapping this button.

Beauty
You can even smooth your
skin!

Filters
Choose a filter to make a cool
video.

Effects
There will be hundreds of
stickers waiting for you if you
tap the effects button on the
bottom. Enjoy these face
filters!

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Pick a sound

Option 1：Tap “pick a sound”

at the top, then you can pick
one or search more sounds.
Start shooting videos by tap-
ping the “Shoot with this
sound” button!

Option 2: If you want to use

the same sound with a video
on for you page, you can tap
the music circle icon button at
the bottom right corner, then
tap the shoot button so that
you can use the same sound
with this user.

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3.Edit your video Special Effects
You can select filter effects
You can cut sound, change or time effects and add
the volume, pick a new them to any frame of your
sound or change a filter on video.
this page.
Select cover
Select an attractive cover to
get more likes!

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Add
Hashtags
Why is this important?
Adding hashtags let viewers understand the content of your
video. Also, people for hashtags to find the content they are
interested in. Hashtags can help your videos be discovered
by more people. Be sure to join TikTok’s global challenges by
add the challenges’ hashtag – this will increase your discov-
erability and potential for more exposure to a bigger audi-
ence.

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2 steps to add hashtags
Click #hashtag to start Type in the hashtag’s name
and choose the hashtag.

13
Checklist:
The Basics
of Posting
Vertical Video
The best videos are full vertical videos shot in the TikTok
app. You can convert your videos in your library to vertical
videos using editing apps or software.

Hashtags & Descriptions

Including relevant hashtags and descriptions (metadata)
allows TikTok to better surface your content to the right au-
dience.

Thumbnail
After you have shot or uploaded your video, give the TikTok
community a reason to watch your video by selecting the
most captivating and intriguing thumbnail.

Sharing
After you post your video, be sure to share it to your ac-
counts on other social networks and encourage your audi-
ence to follow you on TikTok.

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Define
a Content
Strategy

Why is this important?

Your content plan will guide you in deciding what
content to post and when to post it. These are some
good steps to take to build out your content strategy
and pipeline on TikTok:

3 steps to create your TikTok content strategy:

Step 1: Step 2: Step 3:

Find your main Upload unique Use native
creative focus “slice of life” TikTok formats
content to engage with
fans

SUGGESTED SUGGESTED SUGGESTED

FREQUENCY: FREQUENCY: FREQUENCY:
At least 3 per At least once a No set schedule
week week

15
Find your main
creative focus

Interest:
Define your “interest area”:
pick a content topic or area
that is unique, meaningful
to you, has a group of
people who would be
interested in it, and where
you can add your own
flavor.

Stay away from “general”

interest areas. The more you
focus, the more likely you are to
find a community of enthusiastic
and passionate fans.

Weak interest area: sports

Strong interest area: trick shots
/ extreme biking / fitness
training
Weak interest area: beauty
Strong interest area: recreating TIP:
famous looks / 15-second Having an interest area is
makeup tips / hair styling tricks critical for standing out. 16
 Entertain:
Give people a reason to follow your page and watch
more of your videos. Create content that makes
people feel something and want to share with their
friends. You might incorporate one of the below
elements to your videos:

AWE SURPRISE HUMOR

Show viewers some- Surprises and delights The age-old phrase is

thing they haven’t seen throughout your videos true— people “come for
before and would want will keep viewers en- your content but stay
to share with friends. gaged and increase for your personality”.
watch time.

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 Upload unique
“slice of life”
content
These are not the everyday, “video diary” moments, but
rather the select, funny, organic moments you capture - and
these can get real attention on TikTok. This type of content,
with the right description and hashtags, can help drive
discovery of your profile, and engage and entertain your fans.

EXAMPLES
Epic street performers Unique cute animals Jaw-dropping scenery
Use native TikTok
formats to engage
with fans
Your fans love to see your personality, and TikTok’s
fun native formats allow you to connect and engage
with your fans even deeper.

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These formats are great for TIP
engaging with your existing We do recommend, however,
fans and friends. While they that you post this type of con-
do not receive as much dis- tent no more frequently than
tribution for reaching new creative focus point #1 above.
fans (although if it’s really So, for example, if you are
special sometimes it can!), it posting 2 videos per week
is always important to focus based on your creative focus,
on both Growth and En- then we would recommend no
gagement. These formats fall more than 2 videos per week
more in the engagement for these fan engagement
bucket and can be used now formats as well. (Of course, if
and then to keep your fans dancing is your creative focus
engaged. and talent, then of course, you
would do those more often).
Use some of the tools / for-
mats described below when-
ever you’re inspired to do so:
•Duet: You can pick a lucky
fan and duet to one of their
videos. They’ll feel special
and become a part of your
fandom. More on building
your fandom in the next sec-
tion.

Another way to engage with

your fans is to post fun lip
sync videos. For example,
you can pick a funny comedy
sound, lip sync to it, choose a
filter, and post to your pro-
file.
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02:
Grow
Building Your Fandom

Promoting your videos on social media

and collaborating with other creatives
are two tools to growing your
community.

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Engage
Your Audience

Why is this
important?
While you continue to work
on producing great videos
on TikTok, it’s equally im-
portant to focus on how to
grow your audience.

Having a solid audience de-

velopment strategy allows
you to benefit from the
power of our social network.

TIP
The most important way to
grow your audience is to
keep the quality high and
make your video fun as well
as shareable. High quality
content leads to better en-
gagement, which in turn
leads to wider distribution of
those videos. ＊ Participate in Trending Hashtags

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What to do?
There are a few easy steps
to grow your audience.
1.Understand your Audience 2.Collaborate with Other Cre
Base ators

Questions You Should Be Identify them

Asking: There are tons of creators on
Who are my followers? TikTok. Many creators collabo-
Who are my most faithful fans? rate with others in order to
Who are my top commenters? reach current and new fanbas-
What do they want to see from es. It’s important to take a look
me? and see who you are similar to.
Some factors to keep your eye
Where You Can Find These An- on when looking for good col-
swers: laborators:
Looking at the fans through your
profile page Similar categories or genres
Reading through your fans’ Similar video formats
comments Similar audience sizes
Replying and liking comments
that speak to you Create with them
Once you’ve had a chance to
connect with other creators, get
talking about what you want to
create! Many creators use the
following tools or tricks on our
platform already:

Duet functionality
Appearances or cameos in
each other’s content
Tagging each other in the cap-
tion

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Connect with them
There are many different ways
you can reach out to other
creators in the community:

Following each other / Com-

menting and engaging on
their content / In-person at
conferences or other cre-
ator-focused events

TIP
The duet feature stitches to-
gether two distinct videos
into a single video, either as
a montage (which flips be-
tween the two videos every 2
seconds) or as a
side-by-side (in which each
video plays simultaneously).
Duet functionality is not de-
pendent on using music. In
fact, we’ve seen many duet
videos that have not used
music as their audio.

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3.Participate in Trending TIP
Hashtag Challenges Do not abuse hashtags (for
example, don’t place cap-
If you need some inspiration, tions on videos with specific
trending hashtags are a creative hashtags that aren’t relevant
way to find new topics that will to the content). The most rel-
get your content exposed to a evant tagged videos will be
new viewer base. Participating in favored for discovery.
challenges helps you as a creator
join— and lead— the community. TIP
Use many different engage-
4.Encourage Viewers to Watch ment features such as live
More streaming and Q&A in order
to reach your fanbase.
Many of the top creators encour-
age viewership through a variety
of ways, including:
•Posting on other social media
accounts mentioning that you’re
on TikTok.
•Linking out your TikTok videos to
your other social media.
•Reacting to comments from fans

5. Build a Sense of Community

•Call your fan club a specific

name (for example, @fifthhar-
mony fan club’s name is “Harmo-
nizers” and @NextTownDown fan
club’s name is “Townies”)
•Encourage mutual following

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Measure
Success

Why is this important?

It is important to look at your key metrics in order to see what
is performing best. Engagement metrics are the most import-
ant (hearts and comments) in terms of the content itself. Fol-
lower growth of course is key to growing your overall audi-
ence. We will continue to update this section as more metrics
get released!

TIP
Track your metrics daily to best understand what works for
you. Each creator is different!

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What to do?
1. Metrics to Monitor TIP
Follows across TikTok and other
TikTok.: platforms, especially when you
Hearts / Comments / Fans link your Instagram or YouTube
handles to your profile

2. Being Patient

Do not get discouraged if your Hearts or Fans are not as high

as others.

Some people may have been on the platform for much

longer or may be connected to other people they are using
for cross-promotion. There are many factors at play here.

It can take some people a while to get distribution beyond

their initial friends and fans, as much as a year or more. Their
key is to keep producing high quality content you love and
that you would love to watch yourself. Over time, new people
start to get more distribution in our recommendation algo-
rithm the more high-quality content they create - which in-
cludes many data points beyond just Hearts and Comments
that we collect behind the scenes. So be patient, keep at it,
and keep checking this Playbook as we will always update it
with new versions as the platform updates

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03:
Glossary

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Categories:
types of content genres (for example, “comedy” or
“sports”); creators have the ability to self-tag the
category for each video they upload

Diamonds: monetary rewards for viewers to share

with broadcasters during their livestream; users
purchase coins to give to creators during livestream
sessions

Direct Message: in-app message functionality be-

tween users

Duet: a stitching together of two videos into one

video; the format of a duet can be either montage
(flips back and forth between videos every 2 sec-
onds) or split-screen (videos play simultaneously
side by side)

Feature/Featured Feed: videos that get pushed to

more than just a creator’s followers; featured videos
appear on the Featured tab of the homepage and
are distributed to users across the globe

Follow: subscription to another user’s content;

videos from creators you’ve followed will show up on
your Follow feed

“For You”: tailored feed of videos that incorporate a

user’s interests; these videos appear on the Discover
Page

Hashtags: trends that happen on TikTok; hashtags

are searchable and display on the Discover Page,
and are a great way to find inspiration for new con-
tent (to participate in hashtags, write them in your
video caption)

Hearts: fan-love for a Ti kTok video

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