There are many social networks and platforms with which you can connect with your customers, but one that is taking a lot of popularity is TikTok, the Chinese short video platform that has been downloaded approximately 80 million times in the United States and 800 million in all the world, according to Sensor Tower.
In fact, in 2018, the Bytedance firm of China (TikTok’s father) surpassed Uber as the most valuable startup in the world thanks to a financing round of 3 billion dollars.
Brands such as the famous newspaper The Washington Post use this app to refresh their image and connect with their millennial audience and the increasingly participatory Generation Z.
Do you want to use TikTok to connect with your audience? We leave you a very quick guide to start using it.
Step 1. Download the app
The first thing you should do is download the application (available for free for iOS and Android). To create a profile enter an email or through your session on Facebook, Google or Twitter. Once you complete your date of birth and provide a phone number or email, they will send you a security code per message that you must validate.
Step 2. Create a profile
Start with your username and choose a pseudonym; If you wish, you can change your profile picture with a photo or video. Finally, click on the upper right of the screen, where it says “Burn” in red. Now you can see and publish videos of magic tricks, imitations, challenges or jokes.
Step 3. Explore the TikTok community
To do this, click on the bottom of the screen, in the small magnifying glass icon. At the top, you can directly search for a keyword, such as “dance,” then press enter and under the search bar select the hashtags. You can also search by music; To do this write the name of a song, for example, “Old town road” by Lil Nas, and select “Sounds.” With the magnifying glass, you can find your friends, writing their username directly, using an “@”; You can also subscribe to hashtags or popular challenges by clicking on them and selecting “Add to favorites”.
Step 4. Browse safe
The app recently added a couple of options to offer a more positive space for the TikTok community:
You can manage your session easily. To log out of TikTok on another device you can go to “Manage devices”, then “Manage my account”, where you find the “Manage Devices” section, which lists from where you have connected, by date, time, location and type of device. You can choose the sessions you want to end and then close and delete them.
The “Privacy and security” settings also have some options such as who can follow or send you comments, filter comments to predefine the keywords you would like to filter out of unwanted phrases in your comments, or set your account private.
Step 5. Find your friends
To find your friends you can search for them by their username or scan their QR codes. To do this go to the magnifying glass tab, click on the icon to the right of the “Search” space, where you can place your friend’s QR code, which will take you to his profile. To find your code or yours, click on “My TikCode”.
Step 6. Comment and interact
Once you know how to view the contents you can start interacting with the creator who published it. For this, a series of buttons is shown: 1 refers to the profile that uploaded it and allows you to follow it if you wish; 2 is to “like” it; 3 to comment (everyone can see your comment); 4 to share it, send it in a private message to a friend, another social network or put it in your favorites; Finally, 5 is for videos that contain the most used music.
Step 7. Create and share a video
To create your video, click on the small “+” at the bottom of the screen, where the options appear. To record, press and hold the red button. The bar above allows you to adjust the speed. The 2x or 3x provides an accelerated effect, which is very popular. To the right and left of the button, you will find access to your gallery of videos and stickers, while the top bar shows you the weather. You can record fragments by pausing between each one.
The “Add a sound” button allows you to play background music. For this, it is necessary to click on this option before starting to record. To the right of the screen, you can change the camera used by the app, enable or disable the speed setting, activate or not the “Embellishment” mode with the magic wand (which blurs your skin), add filters or set a timer to schedule the start.
Once the video is ready, a pink “V” icon appears at the bottom right of the screen. Click on it. Then you can adjust the volume or other music options in the upper right. In the lower-left, you can add effects, a filter or an emoji. Then click on “Next” to add hashtags, tag friends, select who can watch your videos, disable comments, watch video responses (DuoReaction), share on other social networks, download it or save it to your drafts.
