I attended a Knoxville American Marketing Association luncheon a few months ago and the speaker was Abbi McCollum. I was very excited to see her presentation about social media trends in 2022. I personally feel she is one of the best in the business when it comes to effective social media, and she should be. Abbi is the Vice President of Digital Social Media for HGTV. Her presentation was quite insightful. Many of the trends she discussed, I too have seen and experienced. In my previous blog, i talked about Instagram and the importance of Reels. So, let’s dive into TikTok and see how we can embrace social media trends in 2022.
TikTok
TikTok is the newest of the social platforms, but it is probably one of the most popular. Trends on this channel change daily, which makes it the hardest to get into. Find your groove, your niche and go with it. If you need to change it up a little, that is ok! If you are a plumber, talk about different jobs and give tips and tricks about plumbing. Maybe you are a lawyer. Discuss misconceptions about the law and give insight to current topics. As a photographer, I tend to post behind the scenes videos from shoots. Showing people different perspectives is always a crowd pleaser. On my to-do list for TikTok is to start tutorials for up and coming photographers. These would give editing tips, camera angles, insights to better lighting, etc. I predict that these videos will do even better than the behind the scenes videos Ive posted.
For You Page
The For You Page (FYP) is the trending page. In the image, you can see the “For You” at the top is bold. These are videos TikTok selects for you based on popularity. To the left of it is the “Following” area. You can click that to just see people you follow on TikTok. So, when creating your own content, think about what you like to consume from the FYP page and go from there. Give lessons, talk about cool experiences and life stories. Tagging your videos helps your visibility. When using tags, you will see ones that have a blue thumbs up. These are current trending hashtags and will increase your views. But choose your tags wisely. TikTok limits the number of characters in a description. On the bottom right side of a video, you will see a heart, text bubble, and an arrow. The heart is to LIKE the video, content bubble is the COMMENT on the video, and the arrow is to SHARE the video with others. All of these things increase your visibility in TikTok. Be sure to like and comment on other’s videos. The more you are present on the platform, the more you are seen. That is the same for all social media.
Everyone desires to connect with something or someone. The FYP is an area for people to connect with you. Give them a reason to! You never know what the TikTok algorithm is going to pull out of its hat and cause to go viral.
Going Live
Going live is a great way to grow. It’s nice because people don’t have to follow you in order to see your live stream. When they arrive to your stream, they have the opportunity to follow you by clicking the “Follow” button in the upper left hand corner. When they follow you, they get notified when you go live. There are some who’s sole desire on TikTok is to help others grow. They are called Grow Hosts. They create rooms where people go and follow one another, follow for follow. It can be a good way to build your audience. During live streams, people comment rapidly and it can sometimes be very difficult to keep up. You can send gifts (seen in the bottom right of the image) to hosts to appreciate them or tip them. These gifts do cost money and it is how hosts make money on TikTok. There are many who have created full time jobs for themselves by hosting live sessions on TikTok.
Once you gain 1,000 followers, you are able to go live yourself. Just like with anything virtual, you want to make sure you have an atmosphere that supports your brand. If you are giving a tutorial, you do not want a lot of background noise distracting from what you are doing. Going live increases exposure and grows your following. But, just like your videos, your live stream needs to be engaging and have purpose. It gives you the opportunity to interact with your following, get to know them, and get a sense of what content your followers consume.
Experiment. That is the best way to learn TikTok. If what you post isn’t received well, don’t see it as a sign to stop, but rather, an opportunity to redirect. One of the great things about social media (on most platforms) is that you can delete a post. The bottom line is to have fun with your content. If it feels too much like work, maybe you need to reevaluate what and how you are posting. The purpose of social media, the reason for its creation, is to connect people. We all long for belonging and connection. TikTok is just another way we can do that.
Jeff Fyke 