It’s no secret TikTok is one of the biggest social media platforms influencing billions of users and introducing news to younger generations.

But we’re all asking ourselves the same thing: How do we optimise a post so the algorithm can push our videos to those new, diverse, and young audiences?

Don’t worry — here are five steps to success.

1. Draw your audience in immediately

It’s time to take a step back and look at how you are approaching video content creation. Stop leaving the punchline to the middle or even the end of the story. Instead, push it to the front and then tell your story so it creates a seamless loop.

Picture this: Your audience is scrolling on their “For You” page, and they come across one of your videos. Think about the hook that is going to grab their attention instantly because those first three seconds of a clip are going to determine if the user wants to continue watching or if they’ll keep scrolling.

There are a few ways to do this:

1. Start your video with an action because movement naturally encourages your audience to follow along.
2. Have a personality narrate the video because authenticity and transparency are important for younger generations that look for influence from social media. The algorithm knows that, so it’s preferred.

2. Consider the time of day

Conduct experiments on which times of the day are the best times for your audience to see your content.

According to Buffer, the best times to post are Tuesdays at 4:00 p.m., Fridays at 8:00 a.m., or Sundays at 2:00 p.m. However, it really depends on your individual page. Look at your findings after posting for about a week or two at different times to see when the most engagement occurs. Once you’ve established those best posting times, stick to that schedule and post consistently every day.

3. Place text on the video

In addition to drawing in your audience within a three-second span, you should convey the most direct and conversational messaging or context for the video. Think of this as a headline; essentially, give your audience a heads-up on what to expect for the rest of the video.

Make sure you add keywords in your headline because this is a way for TikTok to identify and categorise your content. The search engine optimisation (SEO) will use those keywords and push your video to audiences that may have previously watched a video about that topic or expressed an interest in it already. This helps to expand your reach.

There are two ways to add text on a video:

1. While you are editing in-app, you can use the text feature to add your “headline.” There are several styles, fonts, and colours to choose from, and that can help you stay consistent with your own branding. You also have the option to determine the length of time you want that text to appear on the screen. If you want to use this feature to help TikTok categorise your content and draw in your audience, keep the text on for about three to 10 seconds.
2. Adding closed captions to your video is important if you have someone narrating the video. If keywords are mentioned here, this also helps TikTok identify and categorise your video.
3. Your caption should be a space where you add extra information about the video that wasn’t already disclosed. It is yet another opportunity to use keywords for SEO.

4. Add hashtags and the location

Hashtags are still an important, integral way of expanding your reach on social media, particularly on TikTok. The more an audience is engaging with a topic, the more they’ll be fed that information.

Here are a few tips on which hashtags to use:

1. Treat your hashtags as keywords. Use words that help identify your video. However, choose the hashtags that are used from thousands of accounts, not millions or billions and definitely not by a few hundred accounts. The reason is because if you use a highly searched term, it’s likely that the usage is oversaturated and your video won’t be seen. Or, alternatively, if you use a word that’s too specific and is only searched by a few hundred users, then it’s not looked at enough for your video to be seen on a larger scale.
2. Use geography hashtags because this helps TikTok geo-locate your video and pushes your content to users who likely live in that area or near it.

5. Learn from your previous posts and create a consistent library on your page

You’ll want to post at least once a day to build a library on your page. According to Medium, the more consistent you are with posting, the more TikTok will recognise your account over time.

With consistency, you’ll also be able to see what your audience engages with the most and least. From there, you can take those findings and continue to create more content on the topics that are getting more views, likes, comments, and shares. You can also see what your audience is commenting on the most and potentially create content on those topics as well.

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