In this blog post I explain why every YouTuber should be on TikTok. I hope this content is useful for all YouTubers and brands who are interested in developing a presence on TikTok.
Misconceptions About You TikTok
Let’s first talk about some common misconceptions about TikTok. It is really sad that those misconceptions are circulating the internet and are deterring people from joining TikTok, even thought TikTok is an amazing platform with lots of opportunity for everyone.
TikTok is just a lip-syncing app
The most common misconception about TikTok is that TikTok is a lip-syncing app. This is totally not true today. It is really annoying that so many people still believe that TikTok is a lip-syncing app. I think this misconception originates from the fact that TikTok started as a lip-syncing app a few years ago and then it was known as Musical.ly.
However, ByteDance bought Musical.ly. and turned it into TikTok in 2017. In recent years TikTok has grown to become much more than a lip-syncing app. If you log-in TikTok and use it for a few minutes you will realize that there is a wide variety of content on the platform. The lip-syncing videos are definitely not the majority of videos on TikTok today.
TikTok is not a serious platform
Another common misconception about TikTok is that TikTok is not a serious platform. Some people say that all TikTok videos are just jokes or teenagers fooling around. While many videos on TikTok are funny and light-hearted, there are also many serious creators and serious brands who are doing very well on the platform with serious content.
On example is Dr. Julie Smith, she is a psychologist and mental health expert. So, obviously she creates very serious content. She has over 700k followers!
Another example is the account of PD Marketing. They are a marketing agency that creates videos about marketing on Tiktok. They have over 400k followers!
Therefore, if you are a serious brand or a serious content creator you should dismiss TikTok as a joke.
TikTok is just for kids
Another common misconception about TikTok is that TikTok is only for kids. It is true that the audience on TikTok is a little bit younger than the audience on other popular social media platforms. However it is not just kids on TikTok! Based on data released directly from TikTok, about 26% of the users on the platform are between the ages of 25-44. This doesn’t sound too young to me! There is almost a billion people on TikTok and many of them are in their 30s or 40s.
TikTok will eventually shut-down like Vine
And the last thing that I want to mention in this blog post is not really a misconception but a rumor. There is a rumor that has been circulating online that TikTok might eventually shut down. Some people think that TikTok will disappear similarly to how Vine disappeared. This makes some content creators and brands doubt whether they should join TikTok. Why go through the trouble of creating good content for TikTok if it is going to disappear in a couple of years? However, I completely disagree with that attitude!
First of all, we do not know for sure if TikTok will disappear in near future. I personally do not think it will disappear. Even if it does disappear, it is not a waste of time to join TikTok today. It is worth making an effort to create an audience on TikTok because you can move that audience to YouTube or other social media platforms.
Why Every YouTuber Should Be on TikTok
I understand that every content creator and every brand wants to have presence on multiple social media platforms. Successful YouTubers want to develop a presence on other platforms and they normally choose Instagram as their secondary platform. I am really surprised by this. Why Instagram? TikTok should be the secondary platform for YouTubers not Instagram!
TikTok and YouTube are both video platforms
I have watched many videos of business coaches on YouTube. Most of them have very helpful business channels on YouTube. Towards the end of their videos they ask you to follow them on Instagram. Then you visit their profile on Instagram and you see the business coach on the beach playing volleyball and drinking Piña-Coladas. That doesn’t make sense!
People should have a consistent presence across all social media platforms! If you are a business coach on YouTube, your profile on Instagram should also be professional. But, this is hard to achieve for YouTubers on Instagram because Instagram is a platform that is focused on pictures, not videos.
Therefore, the first reason why every YouTubers should be on TikTok is because TikTok and YouTube are the only two major social media platforms that are focused on video. That means that you can use your YouTube content and re-purpose it for TikTok! This is a lot easier to do than creating new pictures for Instagram. I re-purpose my YouTuber videos for TikTok all the time and it takes me only a few minutes per day to do this. Therefore, I think that TikTok is the easiest secondary platform to develop a presence on if you are a YouTuber.
It is easier to grow an audience on TikTok
Another reason why I think every YouTuber should be on TikTok is because I think it is a lot easier to develop an audience on TikTok than YouTube. TikTok is a new platform, it is not as saturated. Therefore, you can develop your audience on TikTok and then hopefully some of your followers on TikTok will also subscribe to your channel on YouTube.
In my example, I uploaded my first YouTube video on March 10th and I started my TikTok account on the April 8th. Therefore I started YouTube and then after a month I started TikTok. Today is the 24th of May and by today I have 133 subscribers on YouTube and 530 followers on TikTok. So, for me TikTok grew 3-4 times faster than YouTube!
How I Use TikTok
I started my YouTube channel earlier this year because I wanted to share my experience in digital marketing with other entrepreneurs, marketers and online personalities out there. But, my channel didn’t really grow much in the first month. Then, in early April I decided to join TikTok. By that point I already had many videos that I had recorded for YouTube that I could share on TikTok too and I saw TikTok as a good secondary platform to help me grow my YouTube channel.
I use the same footage for TikTok and YouTube. I record videos with the primary intention to share them on YouTube, therefore I need to make few adjustments to them before I can publish them on TikTok.
Shorter duration
The first adjustment that I need to make is to shorten the videos because on TikTok each video can be up to 59 seconds long. I one video weekly video for YouTube and each video is about 10 minutes long. I take that weekly YouTube video and cut out 7 one minute segments to post on TikTok that week. Then I post one short video on TikTok each day.
Horizontal orientation
The second adjustment that I need to worry about when I post YouTube videos on TikTok is the fact that on YouTube the videos are horizontal and on TikTok the videos are vertical. That means that when you take a YouTube video and publish it on TikTok you will get a big black box on top of the video and below the video. You need to put something in those black boxes in order to make the video look better on TikTok.
In the top black box I normally put the title of the video. While in the bottom black box I normally add a sticker. However, the bottom black box is not that much of a problem because all the hashtags and the captions that you use for the videos on TikTok will appear in the bottom black box. Therefore, half of the bottom black box will be covered by those items.
Music
The last adjustment that I make to my videos in order to make them more fun and interesting for people on TikTok is to add music to them. TikTok has a very large music library, but I there are a few ambient songs that I like and use a lot for my TikTok videos.
Thank you for reading this blog post about why every YouTuber should be on TikTok! I have also created a video on this topic. Click here to watch the video on YouTube. Watch the video for more detail about this topic. If you are completely new to TikTok and would like to learn more about this platform click here.
