TikTok - Engaging Your Audience

You're now looking at tiktok-dot-com and TikTok is primarily a visual social media platform. If you scroll through the feed from your web browser on a desktop, you will be able to see the kind of videos that TikTok displays as representative of its platform. You'll notice on the left-hand side, that there are individuals that you are suggested to follow. You'll typically notice on the right-hand side, that there are going to be two links available to you.

You can get a desktop application, which will work apart from your browser. You can also get a mobile application, which is most relevant to TikTok, because as you can see, most of the videos are recorded with a mobile device and they're recorded in a format conducive to mobile. It's possible that you will see a video that has two mobile videos side by side, but in most cases you will see a single mobile video display.

In order to create an account, you can click the login button from the desktop area and you can then click to sign up. You can then either use your Facebook, Twitter, Google, or your email and phone in order to sign up. So we are going to click the login button we're then going to click the signup link.

We're then going to sign up with an email. When you do that you'll get to this screen. You can then click sign up with an email. And what you're going to do is you're going to write in your birthday. You're going to write in an email and then you're going to enter a six digit code that you will need to remember. What you'll then need to do is to go to your email box in order to check for an email from TikTok. You'll then see your verification code. You're going to copy that code, and you're going to head back to TikTok. You're going to paste in your code and then click next you're then going to create your username. Once you create it, you're then going to click sign up your profile will then be available on TikTok, and you are now ready to get the mobile application as well as any other desktop applications.

We're now going to go to the right hand corner and click on getting the desktop application from the web browser, using a Windows10 computer we're, then going to click install. The desktop application will then be available and we can now use the desktop application in lieu of the web browser, which you're then going to see in the bottom right hand corner is an area where you can get the mobile application, which you'll see is that the mobile application is available in the iOS app store.

The Google play store, as well as the Amazon app store. And you can either go to your app store to download the application, or you can point the QR code scanner from your mobile device to the QR code on your screen. What you're going to do is to grab your QR code scanner. And we're then going to open the app in the app store.

You're then going to get the application you're then going to install the application you're then going to log in to your application. You'll then need to undertake the verification process. Once you do that, then the application will open for you and your mobile application will then be installed on your mobile device. You'll then be able to choose whether you want to have push notifications sent to you or not. And now that your app is installed, you were now ready to begin using TikTok.

We are now going to open up TikTok and what you'll notice in the bottom right hand corner. There's an icon that as me, you're going to tap on that icon. And what you're going to notice is that you have a profile available to you. In addition to a bio we're now going to click edit profile. And one of the first things that you can do is you can change your photo.

And so we're going to tap on the change photo and we're going to upload a photo to our profile. We're then going to add our photo we're then going to click done. And our photo is then added you'll then adjust the cropping and you'll then click save.

Once you do that, you'll note that you have a choice between adding a photo or a video, or for the sake of this video. We are going to add a photo to our profile. You'll notice here that you can add a bio to your name. What you do here is you can click add a bio to your profile.

Now you may find it easier to do your typing from the desktop application now, because this is primarily a mobile application, you will not be able to edit your profile from the desktop application. You will need to use your mobile application. So we're going to add in verbiage to our bio, and we're now going to tap, save, and you have now added your bio to your profile.

If you are a nonprofit or you work with a nonprofit and you're fundraising for charity, you want to edit that here in this area, But you can also do is to remove nonprofit altogether. When you can also do, is to add in your Instagram account. And so all you'll need to do is to tap on the link, which we'll then need to do is to log in with your Instagram account.

Once you've logged in with Instagram, you'll then connect your account. You can then add YouTube to your profile and you'll need your Google account in order to do it. You'll then need to choose the YouTube account that you want associated with your TikTok account. You'll then allow TikTok to view your account. You'll then open the link in TikTok and your YouTube channel will then be added. And we have now completed the basics of setting up our profile.

What you can now do is to use the icon at the very top left, in order to add in contacts that you have. What you're going to do here is you can click that icon and you can invite friends directly by clicking the invite, but, and you will be adding these individuals by their mobile device number.

If your Instagram account is connected, what you can do is you can use the link in TikTok in order to find your Facebook friends on TikTok. And if you have the Facebook mobile application on your mobile device, you can then sign it. We're now going to click open. You can then save your login information. You will then click continue with your profile.

You'll then allow Facebook to open TikTok you'll then tap on find your Facebook friends, and what you can then do is to begin to follow your contacts on TikTok, based on those that you have in Facebook, what you've completed this process, you can then go back to your profile and you will have just connected with your first participants on TikTok.

When you log in to TikTok, what you will see are two tabs. You'll see a following tab and it for you tab, if you tap on the following tab, you will then see videos of the individuals that you are following, and you will see several tools available to you. If you first tap on the circle at the very top, you'll now see the profile of the TikToker, whose video you are watching. You will have the ability to like the video that you are seeing. And so to do that, what you'll do is to tap on the heart button. If you tap on the message button, you will be able to add a comment to the video and your comment will then be available.

You will then be able to share the video that you are seeing, and you'll be able to share the video on any of the social platforms that you have available on your mobile device. You will also see a control on the bottom right-hand corner, and this control will give you access to the sound that is playing. And what you can do is you can use this sound in a video that you are going to shoot.

If you have messages that others have sent you, you will be able to find them in your inbox. And it's here also that TikTok will give you suggested accounts that you can follow. You will also see the discover tab, and this is where you will see videos associated with specific hashtags. You can search those hashtags in the search box in this discover area. What we're going to do is stop the video here, and we're going to pick it up from looking at the discover portal.

When you use a keyword in the search area, what you're going to see is that there are five tabs that you can press in order to explore your keyword. You're going to see the top video for your search term. And typically you are going to see that the term is going to be in the hashtag or in some cases it's going to be in the title of the video that has been shot or uploaded.

You will also see the top profiles for the term that you are using. And what you can do is you can choose to follow the account for your top search term. You can also sort for users for your search term. And in this case, you are going to see all of the profiles that TikTok thinks is relevant for your search term. And what you can do again, is you can access the profile and you can choose to follow the individual that is the owner of the profile. You can look at specific videos for your search term. And in this case, we're going to look at specific videos. And once again, you're going to find that these videos may seem to overlap the top terms as TikTok is discovering these videos by its algorithm.

And as the case with the top tab, you're going to see that the term is going to appear in some cases, in a hashtag. In other cases, it's going to appear in the title of the video. You can also listen to specific sounds to add to your video. And again, you're going to see these sounds sorted according to your keyword.

And once more, you can sort for specific hashtags that are relevant to your search term, by tapping on one of the hashtags, you can add that hashtag to your favorites. The camera icon at the bottom just means that you are ready to shoot a specific video. So you can explore specific niche based terms inside of TikTok. And you can sort for the top Results users, videos sounds and hashtags.

TikTok does give you controls in order for you to record your videos inside of the application and edit those videos. Also insight of the application, and most of the videos on TikTok are going to be live action videos that you're going to be shooting with your mobile device within the application, that you can shoot your video separately and edit them and re upload them.

But assuming that you're going to use your mobile device to shoot the video, you're going to start by clicking the button at the bottom. You're then going to give Tik TOK access to your camera and to your microphone. You're going to first give access to your camera and you're going to allow it. Once you allow access to the camera, you're then going to need to allow access to the microphone and you're going to click.

Basically you were then going to be ready to begin recording. TikTok live videos can last as long as 60 seconds. So you can start with a video that you are going to shoot for 15 seconds. And to do that, all you're going to do is to press the button, which is the red record button. And then you will be recording using TikTok and you can shoot the video with your mobile device when you've completed your video, you can click the red button.

The live action video that you have just completed your physical shoot for we'll loop while you were in the editing process. And you'll notice that TikTok gives you plenty of controls in order for you to enhance the video and make it ready for final publishing. Now, one of the controls that you're going to see at the bottom left hand corner is going to be for you to add sound to your video.

So for example, you can tap on the sound button and you can choose one of the sounds that TikTok makes available to you to add to your video. What we're going to do is to tap on top of the sound. What we're then going to do is we're going to tap on, add its sound. And once we've tapped on the added sound,

We can adjust the volume. So we're going to tap on volume and what we can do is we can control the volume of the sound and then arrange it so that it is consistent with the sound that we want. Given the video that we have already recorded. Once we have the sound, the way we want it, we can then tap the screen and then we have completed our sound.

You also have an effects tab for your live video. And so what you can do is you can tap on the effects on your mobile device, and you have a range of effects that you can add to your video, and you can see those effects at the very bottom of the tab, and you can scroll through them in order to use them.

You have visual, you have effects, you have transitions, you have splits, and then you have time warp effects. So for example, we can use the instructions for this particular effect. And this particular effect says that we can drag these specific effect to any part of the video. And we can do all of that on our mobile device. So we're going to do is we're going to drag our cursor to a specific part of the video.

And then we're going to add on the effect by tapping on the effect. Once we've added that effect, we can then click save. We can add other effects. We can click the effects button and we can drag the cursor. And then we can add in our effect, Okay. Once we have it, the way we want it, we can then click save.

So you can add different effects to your timeline in order to enhance your video.

If you reopen the TikTok app, you're going to notice that your video is still looping while you edit it until you publish what we're now going to look to is the text tab. And if we type on that tab, you're going to notice that you can type in any kind of text and you can type in several different formats.

As you can see, you can use classic typewriter, handwriting, and various spots available for you to place. On top of your video, you can use different kinds of justification. As you can see, you can left justify, right justify or center justify, And you can style your texts in different ways by tapping on the letter a on the left-hand side.

So In order to add text to your video, you're going to decide on the, And Then you're going to type in the text And then you can decide on how you want to justify the text. If you want to change the font, you can do that. If you want to change the color background, you Can do that. And then if you want to change the style of the text, you can do that. Once you have your text in the way that you want, you can then click. You'll then see your texts appear on your video.

Now you can add in stickers to your video and you're going to see the sticker tab at the very bottom, all the way to the right hand side, we are going to tap on the sticker tab, and basically you're going to see stickers available that you can add to your video, and you can search through the stickers in the top search bar.

And once you see the effect that you want to add, you can then tap on that effect and effect will then be added to your video. You can adjust the effect by sliding it with your finger on the mobile device, and you can adjust the other effect so that you can make it more visible. You can also add in emojis and you will see your emojis within the tab.

And what you can do is you can add in the emoji that you want, and you can then make that emoji visible, where you want it to be. So you can add different elements to your videos by adding them from the sticker screen, deciding whether you want to have stickers emojis or both TikTok has a number of stock stickers. Any emojis that it recommends that you use, or that are popular among the users. Once you have completed adding your stickers and emojis, you can tap the screen. The sticker tab goes away and you are ready then to go to the next step in the editing process.

You can also add a voiceover to your video. One of the things you want to know about the voiceover is that when you tap on the voiceover button, what you're going to be able to do is you're going to be able to either keep the original sound or get rid of the original sound. And basically what you're going to do is you're going to hold the button down for as long as you want to record your new comments.

For the sake of this video, we are not going to keep the original sound. What we're going to do is we're going to record over this part of the video.

So we're going to hold the button down, we're then going to record our comments and we're going to allow them to run as long as we want them to be on this video, we're going to release the button and then that will be our comments. Then our new comments will be available. What you can do is you can go to the sound area. You can go to the volume, which you'll notice there is that the original sound is now great out because we are now using the voiceover for this video. And then we are back to the home screen where we can work with the next effect.

Up from the voiceover tab, there is a voice effects tab that we can tap on. And what you'll see is that there's going to be a menu that opens up to you. And what you can do is you can scroll through the different effects that you can add to your voice in your video. And as you can see, you can use any one of them on your timeline in order to either make your video different or to enhance what it is that you are doing.

So what we will do now is walk through some of the voice effects and how they affect the actual video. In some cases, it may be a little difficult to hear the actual voice effect and the voice. And of course, what we would do in this case is we would adjust the volume of the music as well as the voice effect in order to make sure that when we upload the final video, we would have what we want.

So what we'll do now is to begin to listen to some of the voice of X To hold the button, hold the button down. You've now seen how the voice effect tab works. And when you have completed, all you'll need to do is to tap on the screen. And that'll bring you back to the home screen where you were editing your video.

In the upper right hand corner. In the second icon down, there is an adjust clips tab. You can tap on that area. So TikTok will then give you a warning that you are going to be adjusting your clips and that adjusting these clips will discard any new edits that you have. We're going to do now is you're then going to click continue.

And what you're going to see is that the clip will loop and play. What we're going to do is we're going to take our finger and we're going to adjust the size of the video, Okay. To about eight seconds. And as you know, the video started at 15 seconds. Now, when we start to suggest my process, you will no longer hear or see any of the voice effects or anything that we have done.

And if you go back to the beginning, what you'll notice is if we tap on sounds and we tap on volume, your original sound is going to be back in a way that you can then adjust the original sound to be exactly what it was. So by adjusting the clips, you will get rid of your effects. You will get rid of your text and you will get rid of your stickers for your final video.

So it is a good idea that if you're going to work with those features that you started by adjusting your clip first, before you do them. So we're going to do now is you're going to tap on adjust clips. We're going to slide the clip back and we're going to leave it at that point. We're then going to do is to tap the save button.

And basically now our video is going to be half the size because we adjusted the size of the clip. What we can do now is to go back through and work with our sound. We can then work with our effects, our texts, our speakers, and our voice over to fit the new video.

TikTok will give you filters in order to enhance the appearance of your video. And you're going to find the filters in the top, right? And you can tap on the filters tab and you're going to see portrait filters, landscape filters, food filters, and then what is called a vibe filter section. And so what you can do is you can tap on the different levels of portrait filters.

And then when you find one that you like, you can then implement that filter. What you can do is you can use the controls to then adjust the filter and slide it back. You can also use landscape filters, you can adjust the filter and then adjusted back. And the same thing is going to be true for each one of the filters.

And you'll be able to determine how it's going to look when you've completed your work with that particular filter. Once you've worked with the filter, all you'll need to do then is tap on the window for your video. And then you will have made all of the adjustments that you can make with the tools that you have been given with your video. What you can do now is you can then click on the next button. You were now ready to post your video.

Now that you have completed your video, you are now ready to post it. And so what you're going to do is you're going to write in a description for your video, and you're going to tap in from your mobile device. Now it's here that you are encouraged to use hashtags in order to make your video more find-able. So we're going to do here is we're going to press the hashtags button and we'll see some that are already there.

You can click hashtags again, and you can continue to write in the relevant hashtags. Once you've written in your hashtags, you can also tag friends that are associated with your video. So if you have particular friend that you want to tag, you can tag that friend in the video.

Once you've done that, what you can do is you can determine the privacy level of your video, and you're going to tap on the arrow and that's going to bring up this screen and you can determine how you want the video to be displayed. You have a choice between everyone, the friends, which are the followers that follow you back, and then you can make your video visible only to you. So we're going to start by making this video visible all way to us.

We can then also allow comments or disallow comments. You can allow a duet figure on your video. And when you do this, you're allowing someone else to create a video right beside yours. And to do a reaction video to your video, you can allow your video to be stitched. And basically what you're doing is you're allowing someone to use five seconds of your video at their request.

You can make it so that your video will be saved to your device. When you click a post, if you have this tip, you can then untick it. If you don't want that setting, which you're going to see at the bottom is you have sharing tags. And so basically in order to share these videos, we're going to have to change the privacy settings so that we can share the videos.

And we click the share tag. You're going to then be able to share your video by SMS. You can also share your video into Instagram and you can do this automatically. And what we're going to do is we're going to post the video to TikTok privately. And one thing you can do is to click the drafts button and you can save your video entirely to your device, whether you choose to use the save to device feature or not, we're going to do now is click post. And when you come to your profile, if you click the right-hand side, you'll be able to see your post.

One thing that you can do is to upload a video from your mobile device that you have already created. You can upload a video that you shot with your camera, or you can even upload a video that you screen record it. So what you can do is to go to the plus button and you will then click the upload button.

What you'll see, there are the videos that you have created and are on your mobile device. We are going to select the video that we're going to be uploading to TikTok we're then going to click next. Now you'll then see the video as it is going to play. And if you want to make changes to that video, you can then make changes to it.

For example, if we tap on the first button on the right, we can speed up the video or we can slow down the video. Okay. And you'll see the timing has slowed down. We can tap on the clock and then it will go away. Can also tap on the other video and you'll see that the video will then be rotated. We can turn the rotation off or rotate it back to where it is going to be.

You can shorten the video clip or you can go back, okay. And then re-select the video. If you don't like the selection that you made, what you can then do is once you have made the changes you want to make is to tap on next. You can then work with the effects available to you. The sounds, the effects, the text, the filters, and then the voiceover. Once you work with the video, you can then click next and your video is then ready to post using all of the items that you use for the other video.

It's possible that you may want to create a video that is not a live action video of something from your camera, whether it is you or something that you are shooting, you may want to actually record your screen and then upload that video to tape. Talk to do that. You're going to need a screen recorder for your mobile device.

You're looking at an iOS or Apple device. However, the same steps that we're about to take can be taken in an Android device. What you're going to do is to go to your app store. Once you get to the app store, you're going to search for green recorder. We're going to tap search, and we're going to type in screen recorder.

Now you'll have a number of choices available to you, and you'll want to take the one. That's going to be the best for your brand, as well as the best for your device. Now, for purposes of this video, the application that we're using has already been downloaded onto the device. Once again, you'll want to choose the one that's going to be best for your device, as well as, for your brand. We're going to open the recorder and to regain recording on your mobile device. What you'll need to do is you'll need to tap the recorder and to tap the record button. You'll be recording everything that will be on your screen. If you want to have your microphone on, you can turn it on. Otherwise you can just record the screen and you can go back and edit your video later.

TikTok does have settings that you can control in your profile. So we're going to tap on our profile and we're going to go to the ellipsis in the right hand corner. And you're then going to see that you have controls available to you. For example, you can manage your entire account. That means then that you can control the information that you're going to have in here.

You can actually switch to what's called a pro account in TikTok and you can delete your entire account. You can also manage your privacy settings and you can actually make it so that your account does not get suggested to others for connecting. And you can control all the other aspects of your account, including your data, as well as blocked accounts, you can control all of your logins and passwords from this area.

Now the balance area is where you control your TikTok currency. So if you want to send gifts to individuals based on the content they create, you can recharge your account by making purchases of coins that you can send to others. And when you purchase these coins, typically they're going to be made through your app store account. Once you have 1000 followers or over, you can receive those gifts when you are doing a live stream on TikTok, and as you begin to accumulate coins, which then become diamonds, you will then be able to turn those diamonds into wheel currency that you can withdraw from TikTok. You also have your tick code and the tick code is your unique code that you can allow people to scan in order to follow you on TikTok, by just using their QR code scanner. And so that you can get access to the code. All you'll need to do is click save to device. Your code will then be saved to your photos, and you will see the tick code in your photos in order to follow someone and you have their tick code.

All you need to do is to press the code in the bottom right hand corner that says scan, nor did you share your entire profile with individuals to platforms on your mobile device. You can click this, share a platform. You can then send your profile to individuals on specific platforms. You can control the push notifications, which are off by default. You can control the language and look of your TikTok application with dark mode and your app language. You have content preferences, and you can determine which languages you prefer in terms of the videos that you are going to interact with. And finally, you have more logistical items such as clearing your cash support with TikTok, and then all of the policies related to operating on TikTok. If you want to add an account that will allow you to switch back and forth between those accounts, you can add that account here.

It's likely that you're going to be using TikTok for more than just personal connection. And if that's the case, you are going to want a pro account, so that you'll have access to the analytics tools. So you can discern more about your audience as you begin to get more active. And so to do that, you're going to go to your top right settings.

You're then going to go to manage your account. You are then going to click on switch to pro account, and you're then going to select an account type. You want to decide on how you primarily want to be known. If you were basically marketing a product or service that you have, or if you were looking to create content and to build a brand for the sake of this video, we are going to tap on business you're then I'm going to want to choose a specific category for your book business. Once you do that, you'll then click next you'll then be able to edit your profile. You will then add in your website. If you need to change your email, you can add that email in. You can then add in your email.

You can then decide whether to add non-profit to your profile or to remove it. And your business based profile will then be ready to use. When you go back in your settings, you're going to see a business section and you're then going to be able to tap on analytics. Were you able to get statistics on your videos as well as your interactions with individuals, with the content that you create.

We are going to do a duet video. In most cases, you'll need to find out if the video is available to do a duet because not all videos are designated as those that you can do a duet video with. We are going to, for the sake of this video, use our own video to do a duet so that you'll understand the process of finding out if a video is available for a duet and then how to do what.

So we're going to select our own video from our own library. And what we're going to do is we're going to click on the ellipsis. When we see the ellipsis, we can tell whether the video is available for creating a duet when the duet button is available and not grayed out. So we're going to click on duet. That's going to give us a video side-by-side with our video.

And of course, once we complete the video, we will be able to enter effects on that video in order to enhance it. But what we're going to be able to do here is we're going to be able to react to the video by clicking the record button. If you look at the very top, right, you'll see that we can flip the camera around so that you can record yourself.

We acting to the video it's once you have the cameras set, the way you want, you're going to hit the record button and you're then going to start recording your reaction to the video as it plays. What you're then going to do when you have completed is to click the stop button, and then you can enter any effects that you want to have in the video to give it some enhancement.

Once you've completed the video, you'll then click the complete button. You can then enter additional enhancements and then click next, And then you can post the video as you would any other video with the settings available to you in TikTok.

You can imagine some aspects of your account as well as upload videos from your desktop application. And we are now in the desktop application in order to upload a video, we would go to this icon. It says, upload video. That's going to take you to a specific dialogue and screen. Once you get to this dialog box, you're going to write in your caption and then you are going to upload your video and you'll need to make sure that it meets these specifications.

In many cases, you may upload a video that may be widescreen for your personal computer. That's going to appear differently when an individual is using a mobile device. And you'll see, now that this video has now been uploaded. What we're going to do is we're going to make this a private video. And what we're going to do is post the video and the video is going to upload to TikTok.

What we can do then is we can go to our profile and we can wait for the video to appear. Now, if we click on top of the video, we're going to see how it's going to appear on the desktop version. And you're going to see your wide screen video. Now, when you see the same video on the mobile device, you are going to notice then that the video is going to have the white screen yet at the same time, it's also going to have two black strips, one at the top and one at the bottom. And that's going to represent the fact that the video is not truly a mobile style video, even though it is viewable, as you had it on your personal computer or from your desktop, you can manage your notifications. You can also use your analytics.