How Your Brand Can Create Viral UGC for Tiktok

 

Tiktok has 18 months left of underpriced attention.

This means that now (not in 1 year) is the time to jump onto the platform and take advantage of the attention arbitrage that is Tiktok as it stands today.

Why We Believe this:

Tiktok is currently reminiscent of 2018 Instagram. Back in 2018, growth on Instagram wasn’t necessarily easy but it was definitely possible with strategy & good content. It was certainly “easy” 2 years prior in 2016.

Back then, there was tons of content consumption from users but few creators to supply the growing user base with outfit pics & film photos.

Brands who ignored Instagram during the easy days came to Extra Hours in 2020, asking “how can we grow? How can we get better engagement?” My response should have been “Start posting 24 months ago”.

The window to grow on Tiktok is closing, fast. As the supply of content goes up on Tiktok, the demand goes down, making attention difficult to get. In Q3 of 2021, the platform passed 1 billion users – a milestone that Instagram also reached back in June of 2018. The parallels are clear.

“Brands who ignored Instagram during the easy days came to Extra Hours in 2020, asking “how can we grow? My response should have been “Start posting 24 months ago”.”

Here’s the playbook on how brands can create Tiktok content.

Step 1.) Get familiar with your industry on Tiktok.

“Food Tiktok”, “Sustainable Tiktok”, “Fashion Tiktok”, “Design Tiktok”, and many more. On the platform these are called different “sides” of Tiktok. Every side represents niche communities of people with shared psychographics & demographics – having different aesthetic preferences, hobbies, age groups, cultural backgrounds, etc. I highly recommend spending 10 hours in total poking around.

Your audience exists on Tiktok –– take @californiaistoocasual for example.

There is something for everyone on the platform.

Step 2.) Master the Art of Finding Underpriced Creators

Don't be fooled by big numbers. The key is finding influencers who have talent in video editing and storytelling. Look for creators/influencers who are:

• Disproportionately good at editing their videos

• Only months away from blowing up

This is talent scouting.

The value is in the talented artists who haven't popped yet but have the potential to create compelling video content for your brand.

Step 3.) Generate Video Ideas & Briefs

Once you've done your research from Step 1, it's time to generate ideas for the videos & communicate them to creators. Here are a few tips:

  • Tip #1.) Look to related brands + creators and save the videos with substantially more views than the rest. These are the videos whose hooks you’ll want to recycle and tweak for your brand.

 
Tiktok Creative Studio and Agency producing UGC
 

  • Tip #2.) Next, you can look to the Facebook Ad Library to see what competitors are actively running as paid media.

 
Facebook Meta ad library example for a Tiktok UGC strategy
 

  • Tip #3.) Communicate your ideas thoroughly

The more specific you are with descriptions and the more examples you provide, the less edits you will need to request once the video is created.

Here’s an example of one of our creative briefs so you can get a sense of what to pass off:

 
Extra Hours Agency Tiktok Studio UGC Creator Brief Sample
 

Step 4.) Offer the Talented Creators a Monthly Retainer to Make Videos.

X amount of videos per month for X dollars.

Most creators would love to earn a side income by making videos on the topics they already love.

Simple.

Thanks for reading!

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways Extra Hours can help you:

We have 3 sweet spots: Organic + paid social strategy, influencer marketing, & social-native content creation.

If you’re looking for an organic social strategy partner, drop us a line to chat about your goals and hear where we can help your brand grow.

 
Frankie Hildebrand