You may be asking yourself: “What can I possibly learn from TikTok?” Especially if you’ve never even spent time on the short-form video app and don’t plan to. The answer is a lot. TikTok has become one of the most popular apps for good reason.

It’s more than just dances and lip-syncing. The more you scroll through the never-ending collection of videos, the more funny, creative, clever, unique and bizarre videos you come across.

Whilst these videos belong on TikTok (and Reels a few weeks later) there’s a lot we can learn about making great video content. There are elements we can take from these popular videos and apply them to video content on other channels.

So here are 5 really simple lessons you can learn from TikTok which will definitely help you to create better video content.

You can fit a lot of information into 60 seconds

Whilst TikTok allows videos up to 10 minutes long, some of the most successfull TikToks are 60 seconds or less with many being under 30 seconds. If you watch a few TikToks, you’ll be amazed at just how much information you can fit into under a minute.

Everything is so tightly edited, there are no wasted seconds.

The more creative TikTokers can make you feel like you’ve watched five minutes worth of content in that time. People’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter (TikTok probably isn’t helping with that) and if you’re creating video content for other channels, just look to TikTok to see how much (in so little) is actually possible.

Music is really important

There’s more to TikToks than just short form video.

Music plays a huge part in making a lot of the TikTok’s go viral. Sometimes it’s about how the music complements the video, sometimes it’s just about the timing of the music or the lyrics. Multiple people will use the same song to partake in a meme and the music takes on a life of its own.

The music can tell a story or help communicate a particular emotion. There are lots of clever ways music is used on TikTok so think about how you can use music in your videos in interesting and creative ways. (Just make sure you have permission to use the music before you publish!)

Tell people what you’re planning on telling them

Remember when I said people had poor attention spans? (It was 30 seconds ago).

That poor attention span is what is going to make people scroll or click away from your video before you get to the good stuff. So you need to spoil the ending in the first ten seconds and tell people what you’re about to tell them.

I know it seems counterintuitive but if you start a video with Once upon a time…. you’ve already lost half your viewers. If you start your video with: Here’s the story of how I married the prince and defeated the evil witch, people will want to find out what that story is.

TikTokers have quickly learnt they need to do this to keep people watching their video (this informs the TikTok algorithm that this video is worth showing on other people’s feeds) It’s an effective tactic which works – try it for yourself and see!

Uninteresting topics can be made interesting

One thing that constantly amazes me when I spend time on TikTok is just how even the simplest or seemingly dullest topic can be made interesting.

People will watch someone clean a carpet, pack items into boxes or describe how they do a regular part of their day job. Some of these videos are getting millions of views.

This is how I know that the day to day parts of your organisation and the little boring details which don’t seem interesting to you will be interesting to someone else.

This doesn’t mean you should do a ten-minute video on YouTube about how you fill in paperwork. Instead, look for smaller moments that often get overlooked and the behind-the-scenes areas people don’t get to see and give them their fifteen seconds of fame.

You might be surprised just how many people watch!

Not every video has to be polished and perfect

A lot of money can be spent on perfectly polished and edited videos.

If you’re creating an advert for TV or even a YouTube video, that makes sense. But other channels are a lot more forgiving and people are much more used to rougher videos.

You don’t need a tripod and fancy camera when you have a camera in your phone and an arm to hold it steady. There doesn’t need to be professional lighting or sound either. As long as the content is good and as long as the person in front of the camera is charismatic, people don’t mind.

Rougher, unpolished styles can also feel more authentic and relatable.

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Let me know in the comments what other lessons you’ve learnt about video from TikTok

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