Tik Tok Strategy: Content Ideas for Small Business Owners & Influencers

1. Tik Tok Class Introduction: Hello and welcome everybody to tiktok content ideas for your business. My name is Ben, I'll be your teacher today. And truly I'm so excited to be here. I have been using Tiktok for about two years now, and it has blown my mind just the reach that you can get with your business on tiktok, the content that you're actually able to make really as fascinating. And today I'm here to teach you all about six categories of content that you can think about when you're looking to create new Tiktok content for your business. So I'm really excited to get started. And I thought it would be smart to first level set on who this class is formed. This class is primarily for small business owners. If you, I mean, honestly, if you're a Nike or Coca-Cola, you would benefit from this class as well. But I'm really targeting people who own a store, who have a side hustle, people who have themselves as their own brand. Flores cake makers, anybody who has their own business. This class is for you really being expansive on what it means to have a business. Because a person and you want to gain followers, chances are you have some kind of business that you're looking to promote on tiktok. And so this class is for you if any of that applies to you. It's also for creatives and artists. Maybe you don't have something that you're selling, but you do have something that you want people to engage in and also for non-profits and fundraisers. So if you are working toward a cause and you're looking to make Tiktok your main way of making content and sharing content than this class will really be beneficial to you. About me, my name is Ben. I am a business owner, primarily, my main business is photo booth rental company in New York City. So I go out to different companies and help people shoot pictures at their parties and at their weddings and anniversary parties, holiday parties. And it's a really fun business. I've been doing that for about four years now and found a lot of success in that. And I have to make content for that, which is really fun, really fun to do. I'm also a side hustle coach and so that's what I'm doing now. I hope people find, start and grow their very own side, hustles and small businesses. And that's a really fun thing that I do. And lastly, I am a Tiktok lover. I love catching up on all the trends. I love scrolling through Tik Tok and seeing what small businesses are doing to promote their business. And I really am head over heels in love with the app. So if you're not a big Tiktok lover, by the time you start this class, maybe you will be by the time you end this class. But I hope, I hope I can convey just how great Tiktok is for your business and for your reach throughout this class. Today we're going to talk a little bit about Tiktok in general, but we're going to not spend that much time on that because I really want this class to be about these six categories of content that you can make that will bring people in, share your story and help them feel more engaged in your brand. And so we're going to spend most of the time on number two here, the six categories of content. Then we're gonna do a conclusion. I'm gonna give you a project that you can work on. Posts with us in this Skillshare class. And from there you'll be on your way and you can take your next class or you can start getting to making TikToks tonight. So with that, let's get started. Click into the next video and I'll see you there. 2. The Benefits of Tik Tok: So first before we even get started, I'm not sure where you are in terms of your usage on tiktok. If you've downloaded tick tock before, if you haven't downloaded it, if you've made a 100 videos or you've already made two videos, I thought it would be really good to level set here and talk about the benefits of Tiktok. Because maybe you don't know that, maybe you're not sure if Tiktok is the right platform for you to be spending so much time on. I would say for any business in this world, Tiktok is the place you're going to want to be. The audience is growing quickly and more and more people every day are getting on tiktok because of that and because the way the algorithm works on Tiktok, there is a huge reach. In contrast to something like Instagram, a lot of people go to Instagram to make content and to post content about their business. And the thing about Instagram is the reach isn't very large, so you're really posting the people who are already following you. Whereas with Tiktok, you're posting to people who have never heard of you. And so there's a lot of opportunity to get people's attention on tiktok. It's also quick and can be easy. So depending on your level of comfort with making content on your phone, it can be a really easy app to use. And I oftentimes hear people thinking that they don't want to try it because they don't get it or they think it might be too difficult to make content, I would challenge you to spend two or three hours with it. By that time, I bet you'll get something. In terms of content. It's also really quick, both in the content creation platform and also in the reach. And so you can get, you can make something today, put it out there, and it doesn't take much time to edit it. And by the time you close the app, maybe ten or 20 people have seen it. It's a really great way to reach more people and it's really quick. One of the other benefits of it being quick is that you get instant feedback. And so oftentimes I will post something and people will comment right away and say what they think of my content or ask me questions that they have about my products. And oftentimes that's a really great way to get customer feedback and feedback about the market that you're serving. The other thing that's cool about it is that it creates a lot of great opportunities to interact with other brands. You'll see this happening with a lot of bigger brands like Wendy's and Nike and Duolingo. Then even like the Empire State Building, they will all comment on each other's content and try to get each other's followers to be into and like their content. The other thing is that there's an eager audience. So when someone opens up tick tock, they are excited to consume content. They're excited to learn. They're excited to learn more about you, about your business, about what you're offering. And so I think it's just a really important platform. And if you are a business owner and you're looking to make content on the Internet, Tiktok is 100% the place that you should be. I hope you believe me on that. I will try to prove this to you throughout the rest of the class. But if you have a business, I highly recommend getting up on tiktok. 3. Overarching Tik Tok Tip: Now, before we get into the sixth content categories, I really want to start with this overarching tip, which is essentially to look at trends and sounds that you can use that will help you reach more people and try to incorporate these six tips that I have for you, these six categories into trends and into sounds. Let me break down those two words. So trends are things that happen on tiktok that multiple people are doing it and they build quickly. So one person will do something than three or more people will do that same thing than a 100 people will do that same thing than a million people. And if you can follow those trends, oftentimes that's one way that you can get more views. And then also, if you use sounds and you can add a sound like a song to tiktok. And if you can add the right sound at the right time, That's one way you can get a lot of followers and a lot of likes and views. As I'm talking about these six categories, I didn't want to say it within each idea because I just want to be able to talk about how, what kind of content you should be creating and what kind of content you can be sharing. But I think it's important that you're trying to work these trends into your content because that's one way that you can get a lot more reach. So with that, let's get into the six categories of content. This is something that I've built an adopted over the last two or three years. And it's something that I'm really passionate about. I hope that you will stick with me and take this class and let's do it. 4. Category 1: Tell Your Story: The first category is my favorite category here is telling your story. So a lot of times when people go on tiktok, they're looking to connect with people. They're looking to connect with other people's stories. If you're just getting on tiktok and you're just learning how to use it and how to post content. One of the first videos that you can do is talk about the story of who you are and why you started your business. If you can tell your story, tell the history of your business, tallow more about who you are. That can be a great way for people to connect with you. You can also tell people how you spend your time. Maybe if you're gonna make a video telling people what you do on your off time or what you do with your time at work or in your business. So really telling people how you spend your time can be a good way for them to get to know you. And the third one here is showing them your why. Why did you start the business? Tell them in a video, Why did you create this product? Tell them in a video on tiktok. And it's a really great way to connect with people to tell them more about why you started the business, why you did what you did, and why you're here. Another good idea is to tell them why you joined Tiktok. It can be a really great kind of almost like a journal prompt to ask yourself a question that starts with the word why? So why did I make this decision? Why did I joined in Tiktok? All of those questions can make really good problems for videos. And honestly with Tiktok, you can just take your camera and film yourself talking and post it. And it can be really quick, it can be really simple. A lot of the most successful people don't have super high production or they don't have super good editing. They're just getting on the camera and talking to the camera. And that can be a really great way to share more about your business. Some people don't want to be on camera as the entrepreneur or as the person who is running the business. If you would rather stay anonymous and just highlight the business. That's something we can talk about in this class as well. Let's move on. 5. Category 2: Share Business Updates: Okay, So category number two is another really great one which has shared business updates. What I mean by this is if you have something coming out or if you have something that you accomplished, you can get on tiktok and share that story. Again, you can get on camera and talk about it, or you can make a video of something outside and put text over it. There's a lot of ways that you can share business updates, but sharing business updates makes people feel included. It makes people feel excited about your business and it's ultimately going to lead to them following you or potentially engaging in your content. And so one of the ideas here is to talk about why you made a new product. I'm a business update about a new product can be something that's really, really valuable. And so sharing a story about why you made the new product can be really powerful. The next one is give a preview of what you're working on. If you're a writer, sharing a brief update about what you're writing, or if you are a painter, sharing a brief update about what you're painting or if you work in a factory, giving a preview of what you're making can be a really great way to create some content. The thing about content on tiktok is that you want to be creating one or more videos per day. So all of these ideas can be really great, but I don't want you to think about them as like week long project to make one story, you should be able to kind of get on tiktok for 1020 minutes and make a TikTok and post it. And it should be one of those things that you're able to do pretty rather quickly. So don't put too much effort into the production or the writing. It can be something as quick as just shooting video of your business. Maybe you have a storefront and you want to just show, maybe you run jumbo juice and you want to show how we make a smoothie. And Pope's text over it to say what the steps are for making a smoothie. Or maybe you have a new smoothie coming out and you want to share it. Share people drinking the smoothie and saying that they really, really love it. There's a lot of different ideas for how you can create content on Tik Tok with your business. The other thing is sharing exciting data about your business. If you can share data about your business like we just hit five years. As a business. We just sold over $100 thousand of revenue. We just released our 100th product. We just shipped our 500th box. Things like that can be really exciting for TikTok content. And so the more you can do that, the better if you can just make a video about that, talking about it. Or like I said, filming something, something like your, if you're gonna say your 500th box, maybe you film a little vlog of you sending off the 500th box and then you do a voice-over telling the story of why that's important to you. And sharing business updates can be a very powerful way to connect with your audience. 6. Category 3: Reflect On Your Industry: The next one is reflecting on your industry. This is something that I think is extra, especially good for entrepreneurs and people who are building a brand about themselves as well. So whenever Tiktok is a place where people are sharing a lot of news, they're sharing a lot of pop culture stories. They're sharing a lot of industry news. And so if you are in a particular industry, it can be good for you to comment on that industry, on tiktok. People will go to the right, it'll go to the right audience. And if people agree with you or they disagree with you, they will comment and they will engage with your content that way. And the more people engage via comments and likes and shares, and the more time people spend watching your video, the more the more engagement you'll get in, the ultimately, the more Reach you'll get and the more views that you'll get. A couple of ideas here are, number one, responding to other visceral to what other businesses are saying. If you notice Elon Musk saying something that you agree with or disagree with, It's totally okay to do a duet or do a stitch, which are ways that you can engage in somebody else's comments, are engaged in somebody else's content, and be able to let your audience know if you agree with them or you disagree with them. Lookup, duet and stitch in the settings on a video because that can be a great way for you to share what you think about what they said. So if you are an athletic wear brand and you see that the CEO of Lululemon said something that you disagree with, maybe hop on there on a stitch and tell the people what you agree with or disagree with. That can be a great way to get people to engage in your content. Another one which is the opposite of disagreeing with a bigger business is to promote a smaller business that you love and to share information about a complimentary business to your business. If this is just a pretty interesting example, but if you are a bread company may be sharing information about a peanut butter company that you really love and that you want to partner with. Sharing information about another business can be really powerful. Or if you are a Pilates studio in New York City and you know of a Pilates studio in Milwaukee. Maybe you can share that and say, hey, if you're in Milwaukee, take my friends class, that can be a great way to just make some content for your audience. The last one is to call out a system or a rule that you disagree with. A lot of times in our businesses or working with regulations, were working with taxes, were working with shipping companies. We're working with website companies. And oftentimes, if you're trying to become kind of a business industry expert, one of the ways that you can do that is to call out systems that you disagree with. So if you disagree with the fact that USPS doesn't deliver on Sundays, maybe it would be an engaging video to make a video about your solution to that problem. That can be an interesting way to connect with your audience. Moving on. 7. Category 4: Educate Your Audience: So the next one is really an interesting one and something that I really love, which is to educate your audience. This can be educating them in general, educating them about a certain topic, educating them about your products. If you can educate your audience on something and have them have that feeling of, Hey, this person said this and I didn't know that before. That can be a really powerful thing. So if you are a coffee company, maybe you can do some content around educating your audience on what kinds of coffee are good, what kinds of coffee are the most helpful? What are the downfalls of coffee? What time of day should you drink coffee? There's a lot of different ideas on how you can create educational, educational content around the idea of coffee. That works for any type of business. If you are a shoe company, maybe it's important that you talked about the lifespan of shoes and how often people replace their shoes and maybe, you know, more information about how many shoes are in landfills in America. There's plenty of ways that you can educate people about something that's relevant to your business. And if you can just get on camera and talk about that for 60 seconds, That's a great way to make some content. So the first idea here is to post about something that is really interesting to you that you learned recently. Maybe you went to an industry meeting or a conference and you extracted some learning and you want to share that with the general public. Or maybe you had a one-on-one with a customer and you learned that maybe your product help them get through a sickness or an illness. And you wanted to share that as well and talk about how there's a lot of ways that you can share information that you learned recently as a video, as a story that can help connect with your audience. Another one is share a lesson you wish you learned earlier in life. So this is really popular for people who are experts in their field. So if you are a business owner and you want to highlight yourself being a business owner, what are some lessons that you wish you knew when you were younger? What are some lessons that you wish you knew before you started opening up your business? What are some lessons that somebody taught you when you were young? You totally missed out on, and now you're realizing they were right all along. There are plenty of ways that you can do that. Then the last one is to recommend a relevant account book, podcast or article for your readers or your, your viewers to consume. And so if you are the expert and you know a lot about maybe you're a baker and you know, everything there is to know about chocolate chip cookies. Maybe, you know, your audience would be interested in knowing where chocolate comes from. So you might recommend an article or a, another Tik Tok account that specifically makes chocolate on their account every day. And maybe they're a chocolate factory and they show the process and the ends and outs of how chocolate is made. Maybe you can share that with your audience and tell them about why that information is useful for, useful to them. Educating them on something they might not have considered looking at before or helping them expand their worldview on certain topics can be a great way to connect. Moving on. 8. Category 4: Share Behind The Scenes: Category five is something that I think is really Tiktok friendly and something that fulfill really native on tiktok. And that is showing behind the scenes. If you are somebody who is working a lot and you're somebody who is traveling a lot, or you're somebody who is creating a lot. This can be a really, really good category for you. And you can create all kinds of content here. Showing the behind the scenes, showing how you do your work, showing us sneak peek of something that they haven't seen before. It can be a really, really great way to help elevate your Tiktok content. The first idea here is to show behind the scenes video in your workspace. So maybe you're an author and you just stay home and work all day and you're on your computer and you have a really nice office that you stay in. And you have a golden retriever and you have a cup of coffee that you have every morning while showing a video of your workspace and making some type of comment on it can be a really great way to let your audience in on how you are going about writing your book or writing your articles. Another example would be if you are a T-shirt printing company, if so many people don't know about the process of printing t-shirts, if you can show them that they will be super interested. And if you can even show them why your t-shirts are so much higher quality than other people while you're printing is so much better by showing them the behind the scenes of how you're actually doing it. And maybe you do it as a tour style. So you have someone film you giving a tour of the studio that you're working in, that can be a really great way to make some content. Another thing is talking about making a post about what you do during your breaks or your commute. Maybe you have a 30-minute commute to your office or your studio or your factory. You want to show people what you do on your commute. So maybe you have a favorite song that you listened to and sing out loud in the car, or maybe every day you stop at Dunkin Donuts and get your signature order and you want to share with people what that order is. What what do you do on your commute and then also what do you do on your brakes? Do you have a walk Hugo on that you can share with people? Do you have a break room that you always spend your time and do you have a store that you go shopping at? Sharing that inside peek into what you do with your time could be something that's really valuable for your customers and four-year followers. The other thing is posting about a tool website resource that helps you run your business. For me, I am somebody who uses square for invoicing on my photo booth business. And maybe it would be interesting for my followers to know why I use square, what it looks like to charge an invoice, and how I actually go about it and what are my internal thoughts when I'm charging an invoice? Maybe it is a couple of videos of my computer screen when I make an invoice. But there's an internal monologue going on about how excited I am to make a sale. There's a lot of different ideas here on how you can show the behind the scenes of your business, of your accompany, of your products that can be really, really powerful. And this one I would say, is especially good for product. Maybe not as helpful for services, but really, really good for products. Because if you are showing how a product is made, oftentimes that can be something that sells your product a lot, a lot better. So it is good for services. Maybe you are a mental health expert and you help people with their mental health. And you want to show people your commute. You want to show people what you do on your brakes. You want to show people your mindset around when you get a new client, things like that can be really, really powerful. But for products, it's really important that you show how your product is made, or at least how it's boxed up, or at least how it's shipped, or at least showing them behind the scenes. You inventing the product or even if you can swing it and getting behind the scenes of a client receiving the product in the mail. That can be something that would be really cool as well. Moving on to number six, and then we'll get you out of here. 9. Category 6: Highlight Your Community: Idea number six, category number six is to highlight your community. This one I would say is extremely important, especially on tiktok, because it's really important that you're engaging the people who are following with you. If you have, let's say 1000 followers, those thousand people are going to be extremely excited if you include them in your content. This is category number six, highlighting your community. It's a really great way to share other people's stories, to talk about reviews and what other people think about your business. To respond to people who have bought your products, to respond to people who have opinions about your products. And really just to think about not me as the entrepreneur, not me as my products, but who are the people that I'm engaging with? That can be a really powerful way to engage with your audience. So the first idea here is to share a great customer interaction. And this can be something that you do on your own. It can be something that you do with the customer. But somehow sharing a story of a great customer can be really a good way to interact with people. And this is an idea where I would say finding a trend that is already happening on tiktok and weaving your customer's story into that trend can be a really, really great way to find more people on tiktok and to make more people aware of your brand. The next one is to do at a client and shout them out. If you have a client or if you have a customer who also makes TikToks and maybe they talked about your business, then you can do at them like I talked about, which if you just go to the Share button and there's a button that says duet oftentimes. And you can make your own video responding to what they said about your company or your business. That can be a really great way to help someone feel included. Help them feel way more engaged with your content and with us, the entrepreneur. The next one is something that I really loved to do anytime I get a splurge of followers. But filming a welcome message to the new people who have followed jail. A lot of times people follow you because of one video or they follow you just because they thought you were interesting, but they don't have the full picture of why your story is important or why you're a products are important. And so telling them about it just in a video talking about how excited you are to have them on your page and what they can expect in the future out of your page can be something that would be a really great piece of content. The next one is publicly answering a question that you commonly get from customers. There is a feature in tiktok where you can put a question that somebody asked in your comments above you and then just speak to the answer to the question. And so if you get a lot of questions that are common and you notice there's a kind of an FAQ building up, then you can take some of those comments and answer them in your tech talk. If you don't know how to use that feature, that's also okay. You can just start the video by saying, a lot of people ask me x, y, and z, and I'm here to answer. So here's the answer. And that can be a really great way to connect with your audience, to highlight your community, and to share more about what people are asking. The last thing here is in Tiktok, there's, there's comments. I would say it's a really important thing for you as a small business to reply to all your comments. So if somebody comments and says, Hey, this candle is pretty cool, then you should reply and say thank you and maybe give them more information about the candle. Lot of times people leave their comments and they don't comment back. But I would say it's something that's really important for especially smaller businesses to do. If you have a comment and you're interested in the person, you think they might be a buyer one day engaging with them on that comment and even just saying thank you for your comment. I'm so happy to have you here can be a really, really great strategy to connect with your audience a little bit more. This category number six, I think is a really good one. Something that even if you don't do the other ones, which of course you will because you've taken this class and now you know, but highlighting your community is a great way to connect with your audience, to promote your business, to share more about what other people think about your business, and to also be a part of your own community online. Let's move on to the final conclusion. 10. Ideas and Next Steps: Okay, so now that we have gone through this course and we've learned about the six categories. I just wanted to do a quick sweep and talk a little bit more about each of the categories just so you have them all in one place. And if you're taking notes and you miss something, then we can we can kind of go over them again here. But the first one is telling your story. And that is really all about how to share who you are and why you're doing what you're doing. The next one is sharing business updates. And sharing business updates can be a great way to get people excited about your business. If you have a new product, if you have a new employee, sharing business updates can be a great way to to connect with people. Reflecting on your industry as idea number three. And idea number three is reflecting on your, reflecting on other people, other companies, other opinions, other experts. And it can be a really great way to level up your own credibility as an expert. And so reflecting on your industry can be a really great way to connect with your audience. The fourth idea is to educate your audience. And so if there's something that your audience didn't know before, but you want them to know. That can be really great content. You can film a video saying what you want them to know. The fifth idea is behind the scenes. So showing behind the scene, It's showing your commune, showing your brakes, showing your studio, showing how you make your products can all be really, really great ideas for content. And the last idea is highlighting your community, which is what we just talked about, and how to engage the people who are following you and share the stories of your customers. When you are going to make new content on tiktok, what I would love is for you to write down these six categories and refer back to them when you're ready to make some content on tiktok. Because if you can refer back and if you can look at this list of six ideas on how to make content, you'll be quicker to come up with content and it'll ultimately save you time. So in your project, in Skillshare, what I would love for you to do, and I hope you enjoyed this class. What I would love for you to do is to take, take these six categories and brainstorm for new content on tiktok. Take out a piece of paper or open up your notes app however you want to write it down, write down these six categories, and make some lists of ideas of what kind of content you would want to make. Once you've done that. Share with us your favorite idea in the comments below in the project area. And share with us what you're planning to do and what you're hoping to get out of it in terms of experience, in terms of results. What do you think is gonna happen as a result? What is your goal? And how do you account? How do you plan to accomplish it? Take the six categories, write out a list of ideas, and then tell us your favorite idea and what you hope to accomplish out of it. And from there I think we'll get a good list going of content that we think will work for our businesses. With that, I do want to thank you for taking this class. I love making these Skillshare classes. Like I said, my name is Ben. I am a side hustle coach. I am a business owner and I am a iraq lover. You can find me online. I make a lot of different content, but I do make videos about how to find, start and grow your side, hustle or small business. I specifically also talked about Etsy and small business strategy. And so if you're interested in that, find me over on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok at hustle with then I would love to chat with you. Specifically, if you have ideas for tiktok, you can DM me on TikTok or Instagram. And I would be happy to collaborate with you and to give you feedback on your ideas. Just give me a following, send me a message and I'll be happy to connect with you there. From that, I hope you had a good time in this class. I had fun making it and I hope you continue to take my other classes. I do teach other classes on Skillshare, on social media, on Etsy, on small business strategy. And so I would love if you follow me and take my other classes because they're now are about ten other classes that you can take of Mine and they're all pretty good. If I don't say myself. With that, I hope you have a great day and even better week and good luck.