How to Use TikTok for Business - A Beginner's Guide + Marketing Strategy

Can you build your brand, generate leads, and grow your business on TikTok?

The answer is yes! TikTok is the hottest Social Media platform right now. And if you think it’s just for kids – think again. Almost 50% of its users are over the age of 35!

What’s awesome about TikTok is how people with no online authority can have massive success in a matter of weeks! We’ve been in the industry for almost two decades and we gotta tell you – there hasn’t been a Social Media platform like this before!

Seriously, it’s the only platform where you can create an account, have zero followers, upload a video, and almost immediately go viral.

Let’s point this out, too: the timing to join TikTok is SO GOOD right now because most marketers are still not on the platform! As Gary Vee says, “You better be the best or be the FIRST.” And if you’re the first, you’ll probably soon become the best!

So let’s dive deeper into how you can get started with TikTok, create engaging content, edit your videos, and grow your business!

How to Use TikTok for Business <A Beginner’s Guide + Marketing Strategy>

Disclaimer #1: Since the time of this recording, TikTok has made changes to its interface but the strategic thinking we are showing still remains.

Disclaimer #2: Our goal is to give you evergreen principles. If you’d like to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, follow us on TikTok at https://mylifestyleacademy.com/tiktok.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a Social Media video app that allows you to create and share short clips of you doing funny sketches, lip-syncing, or providing value in an interesting way.

It’s basically a really neat way to create videos with their incredible built-in editing software! You can speed your videos up, slow them down, and chop them up with ease! No need for complicated programs like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker!

All in all, TikTok is a great way to build your brand and create some really unique videos that you can later repurpose for Instagram and Facebook, for example.

Before we proceed, let’s look at some numbers. If you’re anything like us, you love to get on board with the facts. So check these out:

There are 850 million active users
Users spent an average of 52 min per day on TikTok (compared to only 38 min on Facebook)
The platform is run by AI (artificial intelligence) and AI is programmed to populate the newsfeed of users who have an interest in your content
Chances of your video going VIRAL is the highest on TikTok!
Worst case scenario: you learn the app so you can create short 15 to 60-second unique videos that you can use in your marketing on Facebook and Instagram

Cool, huh?! Now, let’s dive deeper into how you can become a master at TikTok!

How to Master TikTok?

Step #1: Download the App

Simply, go to the App Store on your phone and get the app — it’s completely free. You can do that here:

Apple Store >>> Download here!
Google Play >>> Download here!

Step #2: Practice Every Day for at Least 30 Days in a Row

That’s exactly how we figured it out! Budget about 15-20 minutes a day for 30 days to master the platform. Follow 5-10 people, see the content they’re putting out to get inspiration, and then model popular videos. Don’t over-think it!

Step #3: Hire Your Kids (or Grandkids)

Do you have a pre-teen or a teenager? They already speak this language! So leverage it! We hired our kids as our TikTok managers.

So if you’re a parent, this is a great way to spend more time with your children. It’s a win-win!

PRO Tip #1: The more you show up, the more ideas you will have.

PRO Tip #2: In the beginning, focus on the process, not the results. Have the mindset that you need to figure this out and the only way to do that is to consistently show up and test the features out.

How to Use TikTok?

Profile

In the bottom right corner, you will see a button that says “Me”. When you click on it, you can edit your profile and:

Add a photo – we highly recommend that you use the same profile photo that you used on your other social media platforms so people can easily find you.
Edit your username – your username should be your name because that’s what’s going to show up everywhere.
Create a short bio – spend a few minutes to create something catchy

Account

It’s best that you switch your account from a Personal one to a Pro account. And you can do that from the three dots in the top right corner -> “Manage Account”.

Why?

Because now you’re going to have an option to link to a website. And it’s going to become a clickable link that you can direct people to in your videos.

The Pro account has two different versions:

business
creator

Unless you have a huge business, you want to choose a Creator Pro account. Because then, you can see your analytics.

Analytics

Now, that you have a Creator Pro account, go to the three dots in the top right corner -> “Creator” -> “Analytics”.

It might take a few days for data to start showing up but once it does, you can easily see what you’re working with. For example, for us, we know that 70% of our following as is female so we should target that market.

Home

This is your newsfeed, if you will. Go to the “For you” page. There you will find the videos that TikTok is saying are for you. And they might be from people you follow or don’t follow.

Pro Tip #1: When you swipe left on a person’s video, you can go to their profile.

Pro Tip #2: When you tap and hold, it’s easier to share the video.

Favorites

Whenever you like a video, a sound, etc. and you either want to use it or model it later, you can simply add it to “Favorites”.

Where do you find everything you’ve saved?

Go back to “Me“ and right next to the Instagram icon, you will notice a flag. When you click on the flag, you’ll see all of your saved videos. We love to save videos that we can model and put our own twist on them.

In “Favorites”, you have 4 categories:

Videos — add here the videos that you like and the ones you can use as inspiration for your own content.
Hashtags — this is the perfect way to optimize your content creation process. Just add here 3-5 hashtags like #foryoupage #fyp #foryou (videos you’re modeling: notice what hashtag is attached to that trend and use it too)
Sounds — if you see a video that you don’t like so much, but you like the sound, save it here. You can go to a video that has a song and in the bottom right corner, you will notice a disk. When you click on that, you can either add it to “Favorites” or immediately use the sound to create your very own TikTok!
Effects — when you notice a cool effect you’d like to use, add it here!

Discover

The “Discover” page is where you can see what is trending right now. Hashtags, themed videos, songs, dances.

Explore the platform and have fun. Of course, be careful not to spend hours just watching videos.

But this will really get your inspiration going. Just play with the different modalities. Sometimes you’re dancing, sometimes you’re singing, sometimes you’re lip-syncing. One time your video’s 10 seconds long, other times – it’s one minute.

Play with it and test out different ways of showing up on that platform.

Inbox

In the top right corner, you will see a little arrow. That’s your inbox. There you can see all of your activity. And what we like about it is that you can sort it out by your likes, comments, mentions, followers from TikTok.

This is also the place where you’ll be getting your direct messages.

Pro Tip: People who don’t follow you can send you message requests and vice versa. However, this feature hasn’t been rolled out to everyone, so if you still don’t have it, here’s what you can do: ask people to message you. If you want that to happen, go to your “Settings” (the three dots in the top right corner) -> “Privacy” -> “Who can send you direct messages” -> “Everyone”.

How to Create a Video?

When you click on the “+” at the bottom of the screen, your camera will open up.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the features that are located on the right side of your screen.

Flip — you can flip the camera from front to back.
Speed — you can speed up or slow down your videos. It’s really fun and it’s different!
Filter — you can add many different filters. We usually stick with the natural one but you can play with it.
Timer — you can use this feature to record for a specific amount of time. This is the secret to creating those videos with awesome transitions and transformations. It looks really cool and eye-catchy!

The length of a TikTok video is 15 or 60 sec and then it loops.

Pro Tip #1: You can upload a video if you already have one on your phone that’s ready to go.

Pro Tip #2: Once you hit 1,000 followers, you can go Live!

Batch Create Content

What’s really cool about TikTok is you can record a sentence, stop it, record another sentence, stop it and just have this whole video of just chopped up three to four sentences so you can really think through how to be concise and get the most out of a short video.

The other cool thing is that once you click the checkmark and go to “Next”, you can save your videos in Drafts.

Isn’t that awesome? You can batch create your content.

At any point, you can go back to Drafts and actually edit the clip or start over.

Add Sound

How can you add sounds?

If you have favorite sounds, click on “More”. Then click under the playlist -> “TikTok viral”. It’s going to show you what sounds are viral right now on TikTok.

Once you’ve selected your sound, click on “Volume”. Here you want to be mindful. If you’re going to add a music clip to a conversation, always bring it down to a two or three, because you don’t want people to struggle to hear your genius because the music is too loud.

And what’s more, this is actually a really good strategy to help your videos pick up virality. Why? Because if you do your own value video but you play the music in the background, it’s going to be promoted if the song is viral at the moment.

Voiceover and Text

Click on the button that says “Voiceover” and you can actually record over the video you’ve just created.

That’s really cool for tutorials and value proposition videos.

You can also add text and play with the formatting. And when you tap and hold your text, you can also set how long the text will be visible in the video. And of course, you can just tap and drag around to make sure that the text is going to show up where you want it to be.

Bonus Tip: Put your words in the middle or top of your video. Why? Because at the bottom, you’re going to have your hashtags, followers, etc.

Optimize Your Videos

Once you’re done recording your video, here are a few things you want to do to really optimize the visibility of that video.

#1: Cover

It’s really important for the cover to be something eye-catching. Something that will make them want to click on the video like a funny face or a really good text over the video.

The great thing is that once you click on the video, the words disappear.

#2: Description

You have a very limited amount of space. That’s why we like to use a CTA (call to action) because you’re going to put the value proposition of the video on the cover.

#3: Hashtags

You want to go for the hashtags that have anywhere between 1 to 5 million videos. Why? Because if you go for the more common hashtags, your videos will get lost in all of that content.

So be really niche with them. Think about your ideal client – what kind of hashtags would they follow? And what would they search for?

Also, think about where you want to show up.

Repurpose Your Videos

This is again, going back to the video editing aspect of TikTok. You could make super cool videos and even if they don’t do well on TikTok, who cares? Use them for other purposes.

Repurpose your best TikTok videos for Instagram Reels, for Twitter, for Facebook, anywhere else.

*Want to repurpose your TikToks for Instagram Reels? >>> Click here to find out how!

BONUS: What Kind of Content to Create

Think through it like you would on any other platform – 80-90% of the time you should show up with value. If you’re not interesting, why would people be interested?

So you can do something entertaining, educational, empowering.

Just start coming up with ideas based on what other people are doing on TikTok. It’s the one platform where you’re supposed to copy others!

And … that’s it!

Did you find value in this training? And did it get your creative juices flowing? Let us know in the comments below! And remember to share this with your teammates — they’ll love you extra!

Additional TikTok Tutorials to Help You Crush it:

Additional Resources to Help You Build Your Business:

Want to Know What Tools we Use to Build Our Business and Our Brand?

Resources – we often get asked what tools we use and recommend, so we put together one page with all our favorite resources. Enjoy!

Feel free to share this with anyone who might enjoy it and also comment below on your favorite tip or your biggest takeaway. We can’t wait to see your comments!

Email: support@mylifestyleacademy.com

We help Network Marketers and Entrepreneurs create a profitable online business around their personal brand.

PS: Get ready to seriously crush it online! Click here to download our brand-new Social Media Recruiting Guide and get our inside secrets to Social Media Prospecting and peek behind the curtain at the exact scripts we’ve used to recruit thousands.

If you enjoyed the video How to Use TikTok for Business <A Beginner’s Guide + Marketing Strategy>, be sure to like, share or comment below! Let’s crush it!

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How to Use TikTok for Business – A Beginner’s Guide + Marketing Strategy