At VidCon, three creators came together at a sponsored TikTok panel titled “The TikTok Blueprint” to answer a variety of strategy-related questions: How do they choose content topics and source ideas? How do you measure your content’s success and make it into a repeatable formula? How do you schedule and manage your time?
Creator panelists included Owen Han, a sandwich chef creator with a signature fast-paced, ASMR style; Kristine Thompson, aka TrendyCurvy, a successful fashion and lifestyle blogger; and Kyne, aka OnlineKyne, a drag queen who teaches math and history on TikTok.
Melissa Tecson, the panel moderator and growth strategy lead at TikTok, defined a “blueprint” strategy as an outline on planning, creating, and delivering content—something ever-evolving and deeply personal to each creator. Creators described building a conscious strategy, not immediately, but over time after finding online communities.
“I found my tribe, I started to find people that were like-minded within the app, and then you start to experiment with different content and figure out what works for you. The cadence, the intros,” creator Thompson described at the panel.
As trends come in and out rapidly on TikTok, creators describe sticking to the heart of what they are personally most interested in and what their audience knows them for. While analytics—like watch time, engagement, and views—played a role in how creators listen to and respond to their audiences, they prioritized their qualitative knowledge of their fanbase.
“I’m more just driven by what I think is interesting, and maybe what has the views will make me lean towards those directions,” TikToker Kyne described.
“A lot of my recipes that resonate and do the best are those that come from other cultures…Knowing these videos get the most engagement, I keep that in mind when researching recipes,” Han shared.
When discussing analytics, blogger Thompson pointed out that although numbers matter, especially in terms of business and brand deals, the most notable thing to her is comments—which she sees as a more valuable kind of engagement.
“Views are the most noticeable part of TikTok, it’s what you see when you go on your profile, but for me, comments are where I find the most personal success with videos. Someone can view your video, they may just be bored and watch the whole thing, but when they comment and take time to engage with you that for me is a better level of success,” Thompson described.
The panel discussed how they love TikTok’s reply-to-comment feature, and Kyne shared how she uses the feature to crowdsource ideas.
“I really did look to the comments section for suggestions,” Kyne said. “The comments section is really where the community is built, and if people feel that they can comment on your videos and expect that you might read them or even respond to them, that really builds the community.”
Although sometimes content ideas flop, creators said they don’t usually take down videos that don’t do well. Kristine said it reminds up-and-coming creators that even successful creators don’t always do well. In response, Tecson reminded creators in the crowd that content still is pushed out for up to 90 days after posting.
“The lifestyle of your video getting pushed and reaching new audiences is much longer than I think most people realize,” Tecson said.
When it came to scheduling posts, creators seemed to agree that it doesn’t really matter what time of day you post as long as you remain consistent.
“There are theories out there on when to post, what days, and all those things…but every piece of content is different. There’s really no way to measure exactly what the right time or day to post,” Thompson said.
“The piece of advice I always give is just be consistent,” TikToker Han said. “Once you find that one thing that clicks and works, you just run with it.”
Source: https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/tiktok-strategy-panel-vidcon/