Creative best practices

- Whether you plan to share inspirational content, show your daily routine, or tease a new product on TikTok, there are some important creative rules of the road you should know about. Let's start by understanding the right video orientation for TikTok. The last thing you want to do is capture an incredible video only to realize it's the wrong viewing format for TikTok, right? TikTok users aren't expecting to have to rotate their screen to watch their next video. So the simple rule of thumb here is to capture your videos vertically. That allows you to take maximum advantage of TikTok's full screen experience. One tip that makes this even easier is to buy a basic tripod that allows your phone to be positioned in a hands free vertical position. Now let's make sure your video resolution is set ideally. Quality matters here. You don't want to let grainy videos stop your message from getting through. According to TikTok, the overwhelming majority of top performing TikToks, 83.2% to be specific, have a video resolution of 720p or higher. So take a moment now to set your phone's default video resolution accordingly. Great, now let's consider audio. TikTok is a sound-on platform by default. We know from TikTok data that including sound, whether it's a voiceover, you speaking to the camera, a music track, or a combination, causes a significant lift in impressions, compared to videos without audio. To get even more specific, more than 93% of top performing videos use audio. So be sure to include this important sensory experience by either drawing from TikTok's library of sounds or with your own talking points, or maybe even your singing voice. All right, let's talk about video length for a minute. Did you know that keeping it short and sweet works to your advantage on TikTok? While the app now allows for videos of up to 10 minutes, TikTok reports that shorter videos perform better. In fact, one in four top performing videos have a duration between 21 and 34 seconds. And last, let's review why you should include captions in your TikToks. Captioning your videos matters because it makes your videos more accessible and inclusive to your audience. That means individuals who cannot hear or are unable to watch with sound can still get value from your message. TikTok makes this really easy by offering auto captions on your videos. If using auto captions for the first time you can turn the feature on by opting in and selecting auto captions in the editing page after you've uploaded or recorded a video. By getting these TikTok basics down pat, you can do more of the fun and exciting work of creating. Of making your business known and testing new ideas. In the words of Maya Angelou, "You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."