Transcripts
1. Introduction : Tiktok is a platform where anyone can be seen even
with no followers. It democratizes the process
of creating online. You can create and sustain
your own personal brand that fosters community just by following a few easy steps. Hi, I'm Arnold. I'm a marketing director, educator, and content creator. I've been working as a
creative professional for over a decade now. Just as social
media was starting. I went from working at a big,
boring corporate office, creating advertisements with
a very rigid structure, to creating content with a more relaxed and
authentic field. Over the last year,
I've had the chance to grow my following
on Tiktok to over 20 K. And now I
make content more closely resonates with who I am through my personal brand. My mission with this class
is to show you how you can create an easy to fall system
to manage your own Tiktop, presence, and intuitive
personal brand. We'll start with
what is branding And how to find your community, and then reach them by being
intentional with your voice. We'll analyze case studies and real examples and best practices for creating your content. Throughout the process,
we'll cover how to determine your value
proposition and create content that drives in an audience the look and feel that will work best
with your branding. What styles are fit
for your content, How to optimize your videos for SEO to become more discoverable. And how to systemize your
content creation process. This class is for anyone
that wants to create their own personal brand and reach others with a
message to share. Whether you're creating
for the first time ever on Tiktok or if you're already have content but
are feeling stuck. I've even prepared a class
guidebook to help you on every step of the way for
your final class project. You'll create a video
that you can use as reference to guide your
content creation journey. By the end of this
class, you'll have a professional
looking system for your Tiktok and a workflow you can refer to whenever
you're feeling stuck. So if you're ready to
begin, let's get started.
2. Class Project : Welcome to the class project. So in this class we're going to be discussing making a kick talk video that you can
replicate over and over again, Essentially making
a structure of a video that you can refer
to whenever you need. So by the end of this class, you'll have created
one video that you can always come back to
that has a structure, a backbone that you can always refer to to make future videos. Now, one of the
biggest hurdles for someone starting is consistency. Consistency is tough to do because many times
you're stuck making a video and you don't
know what to do because you don't have a
structure to refer to. You don't have topics that
you want to talk about that you know for sure
you're going to talk about throughout the class. We're going to piece together many different elements that's going to make your
video stand out. We're going to work
on the branding of it so it can
help you establish credibility and look really good compared to the other
videos that are out there. We're also going to craft the essential message that
needs to be communicated. And it's actually very
approachable for anyone to do as long as you break
it down into a system. And the thing is, if you're working in a big brand
with consultants, creative consultants,
they're actually going to give you a system too. But in this course,
we're going to go through the exact same process. So what you need for this class is something to report on. It could be a phone,
it could be a camera, it could be a camcorder. And the Tiktok app. And then we'll run through how to edit in the app as well. We'll also be using a guidebook
throughout the course, so whenever you feel loss and
want to refer to something, there is a guidebook
for you to look at. Now, a tip for students is that you need to
keep an open mind. Because some of the
things you have to do include being comfortable
on the camera, listening to your own voice, watching yourself
over and over again, letting go of your ego, and then being brave enough to post that out in the public. So, are you ready to
start this journey? It's a process, but this class will guide you through
every step of the way. Now up next, the first
thing we're going to talk about is
what is branding?
3. What is Branding : In this lecture,
we're going to talk about branding and how it plays a big part in how your page is going to be displayed
and how it's a core, integral part of
your whole account. We're going to cover the
aspects of branding and the different things that go
into it, the benefits of it. And the goal of this lesson
is for you to start thinking about how you want to represent yourself online with this page. Because that's going to be
the future of your page. The whole branding is going
to be determined by you. Now, the goal of this
lesson is for you to start the thinking process of
how you want your branding to look for your page. Because branding itself
is the process of creating a unique
identity and reputation. In a way, it's an art of how you represent yourself
in the online world. A strong personal
brand can really help differentiate yourself
from everybody else and attract
the right audience. And this leads to
opportunities and relationships that will help you further on down the line. Now, a misconception about branding is it's only
a visual element, but it's really about creating an entire unique persona and personality and
reputation for somebody. And there are many benefits to controlling and putting
effort into branding, because ultimately this
really helps you build trust, credibility, and loyalty
within your audience. A certain type of brand commands a respectful type of reception, whereas a certain other brand might be just an
entertainment page and doesn't command as much credible,
valuable information. So depending on the
two, some people might look at one
page and be like, okay, this is just an
entertainment page, whereas they look at this
other page and be like, this is a credible source
of information for me to learn and educate
myself from. And it also really communicates to your audience
your unique value, your credibility,
and your purpose. Because as they are watching all your different content
and how you present yourself, how you hold yourself, all of this goes
into their mind, whether it's consciously
or subconsciously, on how they should perceive the content that
they are consuming from you. So branding really encompasses
a lot of different things. It goes deep from the intrinsic
value of who you are, all the way out to the
outward facing side, like your look and
how your page feels and to how you represent
yourself with your imagery, your words and the way that your whole page
looks, the vibe of it. Let's take for
example, this creator, her name is Alyn Part and
if you just look at it, it might seem like a food page, but she's not just a food page. In fact, if you look into the different elements from
the rest of your page, it's really about connecting Korean culture to
Western culture in a way that's understandable to someone that's on a totally
different side of the world. She's making it in a
way that somebody from the West who has no idea
of Korean traditions, culture, and food and culinary
delights of the East, see all of this in a way that is understandable, where they
can see it and feel like, oh, I get it. And that's the beauty of this
page is that she's able to communicate this entire message all behind simple food videos. And that's what branding is. There is a deep element in branding that communicates
to your audience, so many different
levels of complexity. So we're just
getting started and branding is the first
stop on your journey. You need to consider
more than just how your visual elements look as
you're creating your page. Think about what you're
trying to communicate. Think about what your
brand represents. If someone were to write
a Wikipedia article about you, what would it be for summarize, some of the key takeaways from this lecture are, branding is the
process of creating a unique identity and reputation for a product,
service, or individual. It can help you differentiate yourself and attract
the right crowds. And branding defines
and communicates to your audience your unique
identity, value, and purpose. Now in the next lecture, we're going to talk about your unique place in
the Tiktok ecosystem. There's so many different
communities out there. You need to figure out which community you'll
thrive and you'll belong in.
4. Finding Your Tribe : There's this saying
that your vibe attracts your tribe and a core
part of building your audience is
finding people that vibes with the energy
that you're bringing. And that means, especially the
people who understand you. So for example,
imagine you're in the crypto space, the NFT space. And a lot of these people
in the space use a lot of jargon that is only understood by somebody
that is in the space. So that is actually a way for someone to represent
that they are part of this community
and is able to share things that everyone else in
the community understands. For example, there are
luxury communities as well where people are
wearing Rolex watches. And what these watches, if somebody is in the know, they're going to understand the different parts,
different models, how much certain models go for what reference numbers mean. And then they can understand
that this person who knows all that stuff is part
of this watch community. So you want to find your tribe, meaning the people that will appreciate the content
that you put out. And as you're building
your channel, you want content
that specifically targets these people versus
the more general content. Now, general content is good if you're expanding
your reach out there, but as people are following you, you're going to want
to filter out a lot of the general audience and then
get to the core audience. And this audience is the people that are
going to be your tribe. And a common
misconception is that having the more
followers, the better. But actually what
you really want is having those 1,000 true and core followers that care and
listen to everything that you say and is actively in the
space that you are providing. Because you can benefit
so much more from having an audience that
understands you and supports you. Because outside of
just social media, you might network with them in your career or whatever
your niche is. And these are actually
the relationships that are going to matter versus the general audience
that you have that just wash your stuff and
don't really care about it, they're just there to follow. Those are the people
that sure will get your views and your
subscriber count up, but it's not going to
be very beneficial in the long run because they're not completely
there for you. They're not there for the
brand that you're building. Now to find your tribe, you need to create
more targeted content. And the way to do
that is to create content that gives people
a reason to be there. And the reason generally, is a benefit to your
viewer in some ways. So if you are someone that's
there to entertain them, you create entertaining content. Or maybe you're someone
that's there to educate them. You're creating content
that teaches and informs and educate somebody
on a certain topic. Or maybe you're a
web developer and you're creating
these very in depth lectures on how to program certain websites and add all these different
scripts into it. So your targeted
valuable content is stuff that teaches all these
people that want to learn what you're teaching to
come back and continue consuming this really valuable content that you're
making for them. And ultimately,
because you speak to people's values,
beliefs and behaviors, and you're addressing
their pain points, this provides a lot of value
and helps you stand out. So now a practice would be
consider where your tribe is. Picture how it would look. If you already had
10,000 followers, 100,000 followers, what would
your content look like? What would these people
be complimenting you for? What would they show up
to your channel for? What type of interest?
Describe them. Now in the next few lectures, we're going to go really
in depth and really figure out your core
offerings so that you can provide something
that's very valuable to people
through your brand. So answer these questions
and make sure you post them in the project gallery
for feedback along the way. Now here's some key takeaways. Building a core audience is finding the people
that understand you. Making targeted content
builds a loyal following. A loyal following keeps you accountable and helps
you build a structure. Having a tribe that understands your vibe helps
create the brand. Up next we're going to learn
about finding your voice.
5. Finding Your Voice : Finding your voice?
Finding your voice is determining what stance you
have on a certain subject. Are you an entertainer, an educator, a commenter. It's essentially
determining what type of person that you're trying to be for a certain
group of people. Now, a common misconception is that you have
to be everything. But in fact, you don't
have to be everything. So imagine the news reporter. You go to them and you
don't expect them to know every certain thing about the
subjects that they cover, because their job is to update
you with what's happening. And then they might bring
on board people like expert researchers
or scientists, or university professors. Where those people
come in and then they'll talk to these
reporters about what is actually going on and give a more detailed
explanation. Now the reporter's
job is just to be there to present all of
this information to you. So that makes you consider
how to find your voice, which is essentially how you want to approach
your audience. Now let's say for
example my channels, when I am presenting
information, I don't present it as I am an expert that's been through years of
research in the field. I represent the information as if it's something that I have learned throughout
my journey and I'm sharing it with
my audience as well. So when they see
this information, they're okay with like
adapting this to their life. Because I am someone that's
also adapted it to my life. And so they can take that
part of it and be like, okay, Arnold's done it so I can try it out and see how this
applies to my life. Now there's also people
that I've worked with who are the expert
in a certain field. So I have a friend who is a cybersecurity teacher a
lecture at a university, and his role is to be
the expert at the field. So when he goes and makes
social media videos, he's taking from real life
experience and teaching these students or
whoever's watching and consuming his
content, the information. As if he is somebody that knows everything
about the industry. And he does because he is a
professional in the field. So the question you need
to ask yourself is, what type of content
and person do you consider yourself as
you're creating your content? And then you find your
place in this space, this niche that you're in, and you determine
how you provide value through the content
that you are contributing. So the key takeaways
for this lecture are, one, to find your
place in the space, figure out where you belong, and then to decide what type of value that you want to
contribute to these people. Up next, we'll be talking about finding your
target audience.
6. How to Target Your Audience : So this section,
we're going to talk about how to go in depth, find your audience and
target them correctly. Now we're going to go down
and break down your Tiktok. And understand all the
core components on how to find the right niche so that you can target them and get
your content to them, because there's a lot
of noise on Tiktok. And what you want to
do is split yourself through the noise and finally make it to your core audience. So a common
misconception is that you already know your audience. But the thing is, you
might know a certain part of your audience even
if it is you like, even if what you're creating is for you as you are also
part of the audience. But there is another layer of research that you
should do so that you could narrow down exactly
how to get to that audience. So the first part, we
need to understand the profile of that
core audience. So how do they look? What type of demographic do
they belong to? Are they a certain age range? What kind of things are
they interested in? And what kind of things
are they connected to? So for my example, when I am looking at the core audience that
I want to target, I look at people who are
from the age of 18 to maybe 35 because these are the people that I feel like
my audience fits in here. So as I'm creating content, I'm sharing about
things that I have learned over the last
decade in my '20s. And these are life experiences through college, through career. And as these people
from 18 to '30s are developing their career
and their lifestyle, this is the type of content
that is perfect for them. So when I broke down
my audience profile, this is the age
that I put them in. And then as I
considered the niche, I thought about what type
of things am I teaching? So for example, I teach
about journaling. And along with the journaling is the mental health community. And with that community, what else is linked to it? So that's the thought process
that you want to take. Now, once you've
done that research, you've narrowed down
who you are targeting. Next, you should look
at what's popping up on this certain niche as you go through Tiktok for
your community. And a way to do that is by
looking at certain hash tags. A popular one within the
mental health space that I'm involved in is the Get
Ready with Me hashtag, and it's shortened with GRW M. As you look
through that hashtag, you'll see people getting
ready on their day, talking about their
morning routines, and then talking
about things that are related to mental health. So as you are watching there, you can go on different
profiles that are also posting that hash tag. We look at what they're
talking about and then you'll get a good idea of what is popular in this type of
topic and what other creators that are in this niche
is also making videos on. So as you're doing
that research, you can see what
videos are popular, like what videos are actually a hit that other
people are watching, other people are engaging with, and they are for the
most part viewing. Because sometimes we
might think that we make videos and people like them because we
know our audience. But it turns out not
all the things that we think are good is going to
be liked by our audience. For example, when I made videos about certain
famous people in the past. And while I thought those people were going to be a good hit, because in elementary school
I learned about them, it actually ended up not
being that big of a hit. So for example, my video on
Thomas Edison's quotes that I posted a year ago did really bad because nobody
likes Thomas Edison. Whereas if I did a
video on Elon Musk, that video got a lot more views. So as you are able to find
these hash tags and trends, you'll get a better
understanding of what your exact target
audience likes. So if you make these type of videos and continue making
these types of videos, it's actually going
to get picked up by Tiktoks algorithm
where they'll look at this content and
they'll understand that this is the type
of content unique. So as they see this, they're
going to start pushing out this content to more people that are in this specific niche. Now, as we've said before, we're here to provide value. And a good thing to consider as you're looking
at these trends, these topics and whatnot, is how you can answer
a problem for someone. So say for example, if I want
to talk about my lifestyle and bring people into the world of travel
that I do a lot. I would consider the problem
of being a new traveler. Maybe a new traveler
is flying to Bali for the first time and
they're not sure what to do. So I would introduce them to
spots to see things to do and just give them a better understanding and answer the question
that they have. Whereas if they didn't watch the video,
they wouldn't know. So for this practice, you need to create the persona
for your target audience. What do they look like?
Where do they hang out? How can you help them? What videos do they watch? And like I mentioned in
lecture, personally, I considered where I had
the most experience in, which was in my '20s, my career growing
my mental health. And these are questions
that would be answered for people that are
also going through these situations in their
'20s and maybe '30s. Properly targeting your audience
takes a lot of research, but it actually helps you out
because that will make you stand apart from all
the noise on Tiktok. Now takeaways from this lecture. Understand your
audience intimately. Create a profile for the ideal person that
watches your content. And consider their
ideal Tiktok page. Use hashtags and trends based on your niche
to your advantage. Up next we're going to talk
about the look and feel, which is going to be a very fun lecture because this is where we explore the visual elements
of your Tiktok account.
7. Look & Feel : So in this lecture
we're going to talk about the look and
feel of your page. And this is one of
my favorite parts because the look
and feel controls the whole vibe of someone's first impression
as they get onto your page. Now also as they stay on and
watch your page even more, they're going to
get encompassed and like ingrained in
how your page feels, how the videos are made, and essentially
you're bringing them into your own world
that's beautiful. Now the goal of this
lecture is to talk about the visual elements that you can control as you're
building your page. So as you're watching this, think in your mind what you
want to look like as you're building your whole videos and how you're presenting yourself
out to your audience. Now we all know a core part of branding is the
visual elements. And what are some
examples of this? So visual elements
include things like the color of
how your page looks. So when somebody comes on
and they see a certain vibe, they understand that you are representing yourself as
this certain type of page. And it's done
through color a lot. For example, if you go through
film photography pages, a lot of the colors
are very film like. If you go through some very
modern Bohemian pages, the colors are washed out and they're kind
of like pastels. Or if you're going
on a page that is of Hollywood
cinematic type stuff, showing film, like
cinematic films, the colors are more
teal and orange. All of these colors represent to your audience that you are
part of a certain community. It all goes in part
with branding. And falling up with color
is the font choice. Fonts really define how
things are perceived. There's a reason
why, when you look at certain luxury brands and certain casual brands or certain different
types of businesses, that there are
different fonts that are used within
certain communities. Maybe if you're looking
at a luxury brand, you'll find a lot
more Sera font, whereas a more modern
start up type brand, you'll find more San Sera font. And if you don't know the
difference between that is a seraphant is the fonts with
the hooks on their letters, and the San Seraph is the
ones without the hook. Now these are just
the two basic things to look at, font and color. Next we're going to dive deeper into how a page
represents itself. Significantly more different
types of elements. And this could be through shots, through how they present
themselves as they're talking, and maybe even how they branded all the videos to look as you're scrolling and
watching through them. So we're going to go
through a couple of counts and look at
how they controlled their whole aesthetics
and branding so that you can get an idea of what you
want yours to look like. A common misconception
is that pages don't need a vibe or a certain
type of look or feel. And that couldn't be
further from the truth. Even though Tiktok makes it easier for people to
get their videos out, you want to stay ahead
of the competition, meaning everyone that's
just starting a page by having a look and feel and
making it look professional. And also to stick out
to your audience. The audience that
you want to target, the ones that you
represent your tribe. And tell them that hey, I am part of your community. Now let's run through
a few accounts and dissect their look and feel. So the first one
we're going to go into is real Iman Gazi. So if you look through the page, you'll see that this has an
aesthetic like a look to it. You'll notice that there's small font texts in the middle. He like shows what his
page is, kind of like, you know, it's yellow
font, dark color way. It's very masculine and modern, like a lot of modern men
like this aesthetic. And if you look through
the growth and like men, masculine like growth pages and success pages,
it looks like this. So he's doing this
because it targets the right audience
for his niche. So you look at it, it's very quick editing with the
yellow fonts popping up. It's engaging. You know, you keep watching
through different videos and like I said, traits to become a man. You know, like it's a
very clean aesthetic. So this gives it that feeling, that professional feeling
that a lot of people in this particular niche
and category appreciate. So when he does
this, he represents himself as somebody that
is in this community. So when somebody
goes and sees it, especially like the people that are interested in
this aesthetic, because he has this aesthetic
ready to go like instantly, whoever watches it
feels like, okay, this person understands me
and understands what is cool. Because if that person
goes on a channel and doesn't see something that they affiliate
with being cool, they're probably not going to appreciate it as much
as when they're like, okay, I like how
this is produced. This looks great, It's clean, it's cool, it's very luxurious. Even so, this page presents itself in a way
that speaks to its audience. Now the next example
we're going to go into is also similar, but it's very different in
that it is more casual. I'm going to go on,
this person is page Voca who over the
last few months grew hundreds of
thousands of followers. And their page is
essentially a watch page. This person goes and
negotiates deals on watches. And they presented in a way that's very different from the last one we just looked at. These are some of the
most popular videos, 15 million views on this video. We're not going to
play the sounds, but I'm going to show
you the visual just so that you can understand what's going
on based on the visuals. But he's negotiating for the watch and it's very
behind the scenes. But also quick transitions. This will also be the same two, this is their second most popular video that
they pinned up. It's also very quick
transitions between the two. The editing is a
lot more casual, it's not like the
other one we just went through where they have fonts
and text and everything. See their use of words here
is mainly just as a title or a subtitle so that whoever's watching gets an understanding
of what is happening. So he does it very casual. It's a very casual style, but in a way because
through his content, he presents himself
as the watch expert. By putting himself in
situations where he's with a lot of these watch
people and watch experts. So whoever watches
the channel sees that he is somebody that's in that industry and community. Here he is doing some quick cuts showing the behind the scenes. And one of these shots, actually, even though
it looks so casual, it's pretty well planned out because it starts
with the people talking pan to the watches pan to like different
people interacting. If you look through the videos, it does have this very similar
formula every single time. Yeah. So more behind the scenes. This page is more
casual but it still is on brand versus the other
one we just looked at. It was more professional,
wasn't as you know, like this is a bit more engaging in the Tiktok voice actually. So it's more something that
is native on this platform. Okay, now let's look
at this example, Katherine Saras, and she's got a very nice page,
very clean aesthetic. These are all mostly
shot on her phone. But the thing is, she's also made it look very
aesthetically pleasing, just like the last
example had it. So as you can tell, she has very good placement on the sizing of
her fonts and text. She's also using
the default fonts, which is actually great
because it's going to be easily recognized by Tiktok so that Tiktok understands what's going
on here and then puts it in their algorithm
and uses that to push out to people that
like similar content. But as you can see, it's both on a slightly casual side and
slightly polished side. It has all the elements of being casually filmed because
it's on a mobile phone. But it has the professional
side where all of the things, the shots are all thought out. As you can see
here in this shot, she fills up two
thirds of the screen. The text is tiny, very pleasing to the
eye because it's about one third of the
whole width of it. She does a really good job at capturing exactly how to
make something look good. You can even see here, this one, how she fills up two thirds of the screen and then the
text is one third of it. So she's actually using
the rule of thirds in that last shot,
like this one as well. She brands herself
as someone that's not like always
completely on camera to talk to cameras like some people do a log type thing and they're just
talking the whole time. And it's more so just
to showcase your life. And then every so often
she'll pop in and she, and she'll do something
that's more personal. But as you can see, it's
very lifestyle centered and very much shows
her and her life. I would say this
is like a medium to formal type of account. It's not completely casual, but it is casual enough
to be like a friendly, oh, this is someone
that I follow. I'm just going to check
up on what they're up to type brand page. So as we just went through accounts and how they
display themselves represent an important part of establishing them as a
brand to their viewers. So a couple things
to remember as you take away from this
lecture is that one, visuals are key and play a big role in
establishing a brand. To use cues like
colors and fonts to create and curate a type of
feeling through your brand. And three topics
that are discussed, establish your page
as a certain type of creator in that community in
a way it creates authority. Now in the next lecture, we're going to dive
deep down in and figure out where
your expertise lie.
8. Understanding Your Expertise: Understanding your
expertise. In this section, we're going to dig
deep and understand exactly where your expertise is. And we're going to
leverage that to create amazing content that people are going to love when they
watch your videos. So we're really going to figure
out what sets you apart. Where are you an expert,
what you're good at? And the most important thing where your personal
experience lies. See, there's a misconception
about content, is that everybody makes content. And maybe they're pulling
from sources on line and inspiration and they're just raffling it on top
of their head. But the secret to making good
content that really stands out compared to everyone else's is your
personal experience. Because that's the one thing
that nobody else can have. Now. They might have
similar experience. They might have went
through the same path, the same route to get
to where you're at. But your own personal
experience is going to be that thing that stands out and trumps all
the other content. So if you really want to
make your content stand out, you have to implement
personal experience into it. So let's discuss
how we can start. First, let's reflect on your experience and your
Ed education background. And when I say education, it could be all
kinds of education. Maybe your niche is going to be something that is in
the engineering field. Then you can tie in your
academic education. But really, education
can talk about the types of learning that you did while you were on a job. So if you're a blacksmith
or a craftsman, consider where you
learned your skills and how all of those things contributed to where
you're at now. And all of these experiences that you've gotten
throughout the years to get to where you're at
now is all part of the education process that you can use to teach other people. And what that does is when you teach other people is
you provide value. Which is the most important
thing as you're creating content is because when
people are watching videos, they want to come out
at the end of that with some more value than when they first came
into watching it. And like I mentioned before, value can be in the
form of entertainment, in the form of news, or in the form of some new
knowledge that they learned. So consider your
education background and how all of that has gotten
you to where you're at. Now, the second part,
what topics or skills do you particularly feel
like you're an expert at? Now, this is where you
really dive down deep into your subject
matter expert part, like you're figuring it out where you're actually
really good. So for me, my personal
experience is I have worked in the advertisement industry
for ten years now. I've bought ads,
I've created ads. I've done the design
for a lot of ads, like billboards and posters, all of it. I've done it all. So when I talk about
something like that, I could implement my
own personal experience and bring it into a digestible, easy to watch type video that communicates things that I've
learned to the audience. And a good way to think
of it is to consider which specific areas of a subject that you are
proficient or good at. Now the third part
is the community. Now you shouldn't
go without saying, but if you're active in the community that you're
trying to make videos for, then you're going to
understand where you exceed and are proficient
over everyone else. Because as you're
talking to people, engaging with people, questions and subjects might come up. And then you're
noticing yourself, like answering a lot
of these questions. Which means that these
are important questions that people are asking
people want to know about. And if you feel like
you are actually smart and proficient
and good at this topic, the specific topic in this niche that
you're talking about, then that's a good indicator of where your expertise lies. Now an example of this
is I'm very involved in Pat groups for people
traveling in Southeast Asia. And as I've done this already, I have specific
knowledge on how to get visas to travel and what
the regulations are. So I see a lot of people
asking questions about visas regulations and what types of things that you need
before going to a country. So as I'm answering
all these questions, I notice that this
is something that is in high demand and
that needs answering. Now, for this exercise, consider the three
things that we just talked about and then use that framework to really narrow down where
you have expertise. So for me, I reflected on my
education and background, which was an economics
major at UC Davis, Went to work in the advertisement
and marketing field. Then eventually how
that all connected with mental health in a
professional setting. And the next part,
what topics are skills do you feel
knowledgeable about? And I reflected on
that by considering things that I've been doing over my last ten years in
my professional career and how to create a
sustainable life doing it. So for my videos, I
implement a lot of the journaling exercises that I do that have really
helped put me on track. Now the takeaways
from this lecture, use your personal experience and unique perspective to
share your expertise. Your expertise is
what's going to set you apart from
the competition. Define your credibility, figure out which parts of
it make you a professional. Up next, we're gonna talk about defining your value proposition.
9. Determining Your Value Proposition : Determining your
value proposition. So we've determined the subject, who you are, which part of the subject that
you belong in. Now we're really going
to target and narrow down to your core offer
your value proposition. Your value proposition is important because
it communicates a clear value that
your audience is going to be able to receive
after watching your videos. And it's really what you're
going to stand out for now. There's a common misconception. Build it and they will come. Have you heard of that quote? Well, it's not quite true
because many times you build something and the value is not clearly communicated, then the people won't come. And that's one of
the biggest hurdles that I see content
creators go through, is that they create
a lot of content, but they can't communicate the value that somebody is going to gain
from watching that, so they don't get
that many views. Now this lecture
borrows a lot from what we've determined over
the last few lectures. So make sure you
have those in mind. So let's consider
the first aspect of considering your
value proposition. So remember who you're
creating content for. Identify that audience. Now think about the area of
expertise that you have, where you're knowledgeable, what specific topics in a certain niche that
you stand out in. Now really think about those. Now, if you're a
woodworker for example, consider which part of the
world you're woodworking in. So maybe if you are a
Southeast Asian woodworker, that's something that
no one else around the world has besides other
people in Southeast Asia. So if you can narrow
it down specifically, that's going to help next research other people
in this world. And then consider how to differentiate
yourself from them. Like what is specific to you? What value do you
offer that they don't? What is your unique
selling point? And like the last lecture said, consider your
personal experience, because no one else has
something like that besides you. Now consider the type of
content that you're making. Are you here to educate? Are you here to inspire? Are you here to entertain?
Think about that. And then consider the pain points that your audience
is going to have. Remember how I talked about how certain audiences have
questions that need answering. Consider those questions. So once you have all
of these things, like just floating around, that you're thinking
about, what type of value proposition can you
communicate to your audience? Now for me, when I did that, I came up with my
value proposition as a mental health page for working professionals
between the age of 18 to 35. With a specialization
in stories that inspire actions through
journaling that you can take and motivational quotes. Now for this practice, consider in one sentence, what is your value proposition? Write that down and
make sure to share with us so we can give
you an opinion. Now, some takeaways
from this lecture. Value proposition is
a clear communication of what to gain when
watching your content. Determine your area of expertise to stand out
from everyone else. Identify who you're
creating content for and what type of content
they're expecting from you. Now up next, we're
going to talk about how to create a
valuable content.
10. Creating Valuable Content : So in this lecture, we're
going to go through the guidelines of what
is valuable content. And the goal that
I want you to have at the end of this
lecture is to have a takeaway or an understanding of what goes into creating
valuable content. I want you to have
the guidelines, the mindset to start
thinking about the content that you're going
to make that has a value. Now the goal of this
lecture is for you to start thinking
about what type of content you're going to create that has a value
to your audience. Now a quick thing we have
to get out of the way is valuable content
provides a solution. Imagine you're going on Google and you're searching
something up. Google provides you
with an answer, a solution, and that is the
value of the Google search. Now, videos are very
much the same way. When somebody
watches your videos, they should have a takeaway
at the end of that, whether it's information or entertainment or something else. A common misconception
is that all you have to do to create a channel
is to niche down. But niching down doesn't actually get you
all the way there. You need to niche down and also create valuable content
for that niche. Because somebody could just niche down on a
certain topic and create a ton of different videos that
nobody wants to watch. For example, if somebody
is niching down into a very common topic and
all they're doing is logs or things that are
entertaining to themselves, their audience is not going
to enjoy that content so much because it's not
made for the audience. And your goal as a creator is to create for your audience. Now here are the things
that valuable content has and you need to think about as you're going
through your videos. The first is to
understand your audience. If you have an understanding
of your audience, you can make content for them. You'll understand what
problems they have, what issues they're
going through, and how you're going to
be able to answer them. For example, when I
make videos I consider somebody who was in my
position years ago. Maybe they just finished college and they're stuck and they
don't know what to do. So I bring myself back to how I felt back in
the day and I create videos that would answer those questions that were
burning questions that I had when I was at my
parents house after graduating and not sure what
else to do with my career. The next is to address
or solve pain points. And this is very easy if you
are in a technical niche. If you're in a
technical niche and there's something
that needs fixing, that's exactly what you
can make a video about. So for example,
if somebody is in the niche of surfboard
building, for example, and they are talking
about how to fix and repair a surfboard because that's a common
problem that comes up. Somebody dings their
boards and there's a hole in there and
you make a video on how to patch up that hole
and put fiberglass and resin over it that directly solves and
answers that question, AKA that pain point for
that certain audience. And then after they
watch the video, there's a lot of valuable
content and takeaways that they have there because this directly answers
their pain point. The next is digestibility. Having your content be easy
to consume and understand. One of the things Einstein
said was that if you're truly a master at
what you're doing, you should be able to
summarize it in a way that even a elementary school
kid would understand. And this is very true
with just about anything, if you are hiding behind
jargon and all these big words and just trying to act like a professional or somebody
that's very well in the know, it's actually going to be in the detriment or it's
actually not going to help your audience as much
who is trying to understand and fix a certain
problem or learn a concept. Because they're now stuck behind trying to figure
out what you're trying to say and maybe what you're
saying isn't even making sense. So while you're making
content to make it valuable, make it in a way that's very easily understandable
for your audience. A common way to think about it is there's a
very popular sub, read it on Reddit.com that
is called Explain five. And in that sub read, the people would ask questions
and then somebody else would explain this concept
like they're a five year old. So as you're making
these videos, consider how you
would be able to explain this concept to
somebody that is younger. So boil down the concept, make it as simple and easy
to comprehend as possible. The next is, is your content
authentic and reliable? Is this something that you
are knowledgeable in that you're creating content for
that you actually know about? Nobody wants to learn from a fraud who doesn't know
what they're talking about. And that's one of the problems with social media is a lot of people pretend to be an expert in something
when they're actually not. So consider if you're actually
an expert in this field. And in our class we
do talk about how to dig into where
your expertise lies. So it doesn't have to be something that you
don't know about. We're actually bringing out what you know about what
you're a professional in. So that when you're
making these videos, you're making very
valuable content that everybody is going to understand and sees you as an authentic figure
of authority. Next, is there consistency
in your content? Do people know what to expect
when they go to your page? And if you're able to
provide a consistency, as in you're creating
content that is always in line with what people are expecting from you. That's going to be a lot more valuable than when somebody
follows you and you have different videos all over the place about all
different types of subjects. Imagine you're a
viewer going on a page and you watch one video
and you really like it. So you check out the rest of those videos that
that creator made, and they're all in
a similar topic. You're going to
watch a lot of them. You're going to binge, watch
a lot of this content. So being consistent
and reliable is something that the
audience values and wants to see out of you. And the last one is, are you passionate
showing you care about a certain subject shows and
shines through your video. If you're making something
you're not passionate about, something that you
don't care about, it's going to show off and
it's like it's going to come off as you not being
passionate about that video. So as we're making
videos to create something that's actually
valuable to your audience, you have to be
passionate about it. And in doing so, you're
going to stand out from all those people who are
not passionate about it. And consider this when you're working or watching
or interacting with somebody who's
passionate and has a lot of energy and is excited about what they're
talking about. You're going to want to learn a lot more right than
compared to someone else. That's just boring and dull and just going through
the motions of it. So by being passionate about what you're
creating videos on, that shines through
to your audience. And they're going to see
it and they're gonna feel it and they're going to
enjoy it so much more. Now in the previous lecture, we talked about your
value proposition. This lecture highlighted
the guidelines of what goes into a valuable
type of content. So now your job is to
piece the two together. How do you use your
value proposition and present it in a way that's
valuable to your audience? And remember, valuable
content solves a certain need of your
audience and your brand. Your voice, your persona, is an important
part of your value. Up next, we're going
to talk about how to optimize your video structure.
11. Optimizing Your Video : We're going to talk about
how to stand out by optimizing the structure
of your video. Now there's a formula that makes your video the most
engaging that it could be. And it optimizes user attention as well as having it at the end, having them satisfied with
what they're watching. Because as a beginner, when you're making videos, there are many times
that you just create a video that has no
thought of the audience. But with this structure
we're going to talk about, this puts the needs of
the audience first. And when you do that, it
incentivizes them to watch more. So the goal of this lecture is for you to have this
thought process in mind so that as you're
planning or creating videos, you apply this when you see fit. Now, the big misconception
is that when somebody makes a video,
they just make a video. And there's no
inherent structure to it, and that's a mistake. When somebody first
starts making videos, they don't notice the
formula and the structure that goes behind making
an engaging video. But if we want to leave it to just chance,
that's how you do it. In our situation though, I want you to optimize your
video as much as possible. So let's start by talking
about how to build your video out now the first
part is to have a hook. Your hook is what's going to bring your audience in
to watch your video. Basically, you
have 2 seconds for your audience to
decide whether or not they want to continue
watching your video. And as you've noticed, Tiktok is an easy platform for you to just scroll past the next video. So you need to have
something that really draws the attention right away. So the hook should be
something that picks their interest so much that they're like, okay, what's next? Now once you finish the hook and you've got them
interested in your video, the second part is adding the description or
setting the scene. This is where you describe
to them what's going on, you give them some
more information. So for example, I made a video with a hook
where I talked about these are the five places where people live the
longest and healthiest. And then the second part
where I described it, I talked about the different
countries where they're at, and then I just fill them
in with information. This is where the bulk of
your video is going to be. And then finally, you end
it off with a value ad, and this is where you
conclude everything. So for my video, I ended it by discussing what these people
do in these places. So that now there's
a full delivery of everything that the
audience wants to see. First, they got hooked
into wanting to know more. Second, I gave them the information about
what's going on. And then finally, I gave them a value ad where they have
something to take away, which was information
in this case. Now the takeaway for this
section is you need to optimize your video for the
best chances of going viral. You need to make your
videos appeal to your audience because
they're the ones watching. And finally, you need to
structure your video so that it's easy to
watch with a hook, a description, and then
finally provide some value. Now in the next section,
we're going to talk about how to be native
on this platform.
12. Being Authentic on Camera : In this lecture, we're going
to learn about how to be authentic and comfortable
in front of your camera. One of the biggest
challenges that a lot of new creators
come up with is that they have a problem
getting in front of the camera and feeling like
the camera is their friend, they feel nervous, they hate
hearing how they sound, and it just doesn't feel like something that
they want to do. And let me assure you,
with some practice, it gets a lot easier, like
significantly easier. And the reality is the
camera is your friend. So the goal of this lecture is to provide you with
some guidelines. So that you can keep this
in mind as you are filming. So that you feel and act a lot more comfortable and
authentic as you're on camera. So the first thing to keep
in mind is to be yourself. It's important to be
genuine and authentic because this really
communicates your audience, who you are, like they
can really feel it. And if you're not feeling authentic or feeling
like an impostor, then you're going to show
that in front of the camera. So when you're making videos, create a brand as in create videos that make
you feel like you. So then your entire
brand from that point onwards is going to be a
real reflection of you. You don't want to be
months down the line and finally be like,
okay, I've had it. I don't want to be this persona that I put on line. I
want to just be me. So be yourself from the
beginning to practice, This goes without saying, but practice makes a big difference. When I first started
videoing myself, I would just film
and not publish it. And this is something that a lot of people don't think about, is that they think
that they have to publish everything they film. But I filmed a lot of videos
that never published. And I even went in
with the intention of just filming this
video to not publish. And if it so happens to be good, then alright, I'll publish it. But the act of filming, having the camera recording, looking at the camera
and talking to it, performing in front of it, gives you a lot of
that needed practice so that you can become a lot better at communicating and acting
authentic on camera. And it makes you feel a
lot more comfortable too, knowing that you've spent so
much time with this camera. Three, know your audience. Know who you're speaking to. Because if you
know your audience and you know exactly
who they are, you can be the authentic
version of you. Imagine when you're going out and hang out with your friends, you're much more
authentic like you are just genuinely you and you know how to act
around your friends. So when you understand
your audience and you know what their values
and what things they like, what kind of wording they like, you can act as yourself
and know how to communicate and
present yourself in a way that speaks
to your audience. And when you're
genuine and authentic, there's no one else that can
compare except other people who are also in that
same world as well, and those people are
essentially your friends. The fourth thing to
consider is to be prepared. Make sure you know what you want to say and how you say it. When you're prepared and you have all this
information already, you can present it in
the best way possible. And when you have
all of that like out the way and you
know what to do, you're going to feel a lot less nervous and shy about
what you're filming. One of the reasons
people don't like filming and being in
front of the camera and feeling uncomfortable
is because they think what they're going to film is going to end up looking bad. But if you know what you're
going to film is going to end up being valuable
and provides valuable, good information and
is presented well, then that helps alleviate
a lot of the stress. And the fifth thing to
consider is to trust yourself. Believe that you can do it, believe in your content,
believe in your authenticity. If you truly believe
in what you're saying, it's going to come
across so much better and look a lot better
in front of the camera. And when you believe in
what you're saying too, you're not going to
feel that nervous or shy because you
know this is true. So a good way to practice that is to remind yourself why
you're making this video, and remind yourself why you're
qualified for this video. And if you're still
feeling nervous, remind yourself that this camera is meant to capture
the best of you. And if you stutter, you do something that looks
kind of out of line, doesn't look right, then you can always delete or edit it. The camera is your friend. So a couple takeaways
from this lecture. Use these tips to be natural and authentic
in front of the camera. And if you forget them already, go back and rewatch
the video again. Next, having the right mindset helps make filming a lot easier. And finally, authenticity
makes for the best branding. Now for the next video, we're going to learn about how to be native on the platform.
13. Being Native on the Platform : This lecture is on how to
be native on the platform. Do you know why so
many people are called boomers and that's because
they don't fit in. And you can see
these on a lot of Tiktok pages and videos where
they make videos and use a ton of hash tags and
say the things that just don't fit in on the platform.
You don't want to do that. So in this lecture, we're going to go through
a few accounts. We're going to describe what
the impression is like when somebody goes in and watches
this page and their videos. And then we're
going to talk about what makes a account look like, it's native on this platform. And a big misconception from people who have
been in the industry for a while is that polished content is what needs
to be pushed out and what needs to be part of your professional video
brand building plan. But really polished content
sometimes does not belong on the platform and
it's actually more important to look
and be the part. For example, big
brands might have a whole big budget
production when actually what they
really need is just a video filmed
on the iphone. So let's go through a
few accounts and go and discuss the impression that
this account gives off. Okay, so we're going to
start by talking about this first account
by Grace Andrews. I just looked up blog and she was one of the first
few that popped up. So let's go and look at her
page and talk about what this account impression is like for someone that
is going to look at it. So as we look at her page, we can see that it's super pop in and very bubbly and fun. So you can look by
some of this stuff, a lot of bubbles and a lot of different adventures
that she's going on. So she's showing like a
lifestyle type of page. And the way that
this is edited and captioned too is very modern. So we'll go through
a few just to look. So you see how she does all the fast cuts and
how she's zooming in. All of this is a
very modern vibe, so this fits with the current aesthetic of Tiktok and
it fits with the voice. So if somebody is making stuff that is not very much
edited like this, it's edited something
like Instagram. It's going to look different and not fit in on the platform, and people are not going
to want to watch as much. So we'll move on
to the next one. So Ali Abdaal is known for making productivity type videos, and his edits are actually
very well edited. And you can see that he's
working with the team. But the thing is this
works for him because it's very engaging and also the content is
very high quality. Now the way that all
of this is done, you can see the little
moving elements. This is to keep the
whole screen dynamic. So when somebody is watching it, they're not losing
their attention and going to another video. All of this is very dynamic, just like the last
account we looked at. So you can see he's also very much a modern
account that fits in with the aesthetic and the feel of Tiktok and what they
appreciate these days. If we scroll down, we'll
see a lot of these types of videos that have been popular since the
beginning of Tiktok. The six types of lessons
or the ones that are, you know, are listing
different things. So this one is like four things
I wish I knew in my '20s. This one is seven side hustles. And you can see that a lot
of these videos are very engaging and fits in with
how people like to see it. Now this next account
we're going to go to is Jodie Danielle, and I found her
because I was looking for some floggers about LA, and I ended up
finding her account. Now her account is easy to appreciate and to
put yourself into. So what I mean by that is that if you look
at this account, you can see that it's
a very lifestyle is she's doing her
get radio with me, she's doing a bit of talking
like with this video. Then she's showcasing her life
as well and what she does. So what that helps with for anyone who's
trying to create on Tiktok is that this is a
type of formula that you can look into
and see and be like. Okay, this is a
page that I could potentially recreate a lot of the gears that she's
probably shooting with. I also have, which is the phone. So you look at these shots
and you can see how they're done and then potentially incorporate this into
your account as well. Now this is all very
much edited to be like the way Tiktok has it like for this
video for example. It's very fast cuts that keeps the element very
dynamic here as well. Pov. Using POV is a term that's very popular
amongst the app as well. It means point of view, so it's just showing like that's the
point of view or something. And then here's more of the other videos that she's
doing. Those are the three. And you can see that a lot of these accounts have a
fast type of cut and are also showing a lifestyle type of content that fits in
with what they are doing. If you find what is
authentic to you, then it's going to
fit the voice of the platform and
you look authentic. The takeaways from
this lecture is that you need to fit in and be native to grow on this platform. Find how you can be
comfortable by being you so that it looks
right on Tiktok, and finally, speak the
language of the platform. The next lecture,
we're going to go in and discuss editing styles. This is how to make
your videos look and feel like it
should be on Tiktok.
14. Intro to Editing : Welcome to the
section on editing. We're going to talk
about video styles. Here, video styles is an important part of
creating your brand, because video styles have all these engaging
elements and things going on that will really help you stand out from everyone else. In this section, we're going to discuss the things
you can do for your videos that will really give it that
professional touch. And we'll put all of this
together so that it can help you set the mood and tone, control the pace,
convey your message, engage the audience, and
piece everything together. So let's dive into
some examples. Okay, so I'm going
to show you how to record the video, what
the process is like. And today we're going to
talk about this video. And the video we're
recording today is about the happiest
monk in Europe. Now he's also called the
happiest monk in the world, but the interesting thing is
he's actually from Europe. He's like a philosopher as well. He's a writer. And we're going to share some
facts about him. Now, the reason why I
picked him is because he is European and that as
the punch line is probably going to be pretty interesting and hooks people in. I want to show you
in this process that sometimes you
might mess up, sometimes you might stutter, and it's completely okay. I just want to show you
what it's like to film and be behind the camera so that when you go
and do it as well, you don't feel discouraged. Alright, ready your film now. Actually, before
we start though, I want to show you what
I'm shooting with. And this is the
iphone 12 Pro Plus, and it's on a Gorilla Pod. Now a Gorilla Pod
is very helpful. I've been using it for a
few years because it has these flexible legs that lets me put it just
about anywhere now. You don't really
need something like this if you're just
getting started. $115 tripod, a small little one for your
phone works just fine. The reason why I use this
is because I could fit it anywhere I want because
the legs are flexible. I could put it on a tree, I could bend it onto a rock. I could just make it fit
anywhere I need to be. And I used to take this out
onto beaches and places. I went out a lot
because when I was in Hawaii and most of my
videos were filmed there, I would just be out and
about all the time. So this was very helpful to
use what I was filming there. Now let's hop onto the Tiktok app and
get started filming. Okay, so now that
we're on the app, make sure you're positioning
and everything looks good, the framing looks
good like this. Now, of course, you do want
to be more in the frame, especially if you are
the center of attention, you're the person talking. So first things first, I always like to go to
60 seconds, at least, because most videos aren't
going to be 15 seconds. So we have our script ready. I've written it down,
and I'm going to start recording now on here now the
buttons look kind of funny. Just make sure you look presentable because if
you record it already, you can't go back and
fix it. All right. So ready to get started Now, I always like to use the timer because with the timer you won't have that quick shake
in the beginning. But if you're holding
your phone up and just like shooting like this,
that's totally fine. A bit of shake is natural
and it is actually very much the style of how Tiktoks are when you're doing one
of those casual shots. So with this, we're going to start and talk about how he's the happiest
monk in the world. And his name is Matthieu
Ricard from France. Okay, let's go. The happiest monk
in the world is actually a man from France
named Matthieu Ricard. Okay, we'll get that sentence done and then we'll
move on to the next. Oops, so I messed up. I didn't put the timer on, so we need to discard the last clip. Go
back to the timer. You just don't want
it to be all shaky by accident because it
doesn't look as clean. And here are his tips on
living a mindful life. So it's okay to have your
sentences go on a little bit further because
you could always go back and like edit it out. So for me here, depends on how it looks. Later we'll go back
and look at it, but if it looks pretty
clean and smooth, I don't have to go back and edit it out like if it
cuts pretty well. Okay, so the next is we're going to go and
talk about the tips. The first one is to cultivate
a benevolent and friendly. Okay. See, So I messed up, now I tripped on my words. And what we got to
do is just go back, it's no problem, go back, discard the last clip, and then we'll start the
timer again and film again. Now the first one
is to cultivate a warm and benevolent
relationship. Okay, so we got the
first part down. Now you can add to it or you can just do the style
of listing it out. Listing it out is a lot easier. So we're just going to list it out just for the
sake of the example. But if you do longer videos, it is really nice to have
the long videos with explanations and just going
deep into details because people actually do like
that and the current like. Tiktok style, or at least
how the algorithm pushes, sometimes it pushes these
long form content a lot. The second one is to focus on the intrinsic
value of things. And the third thing is to
meditate and be in the moment. So now that we have
these three things down, we could mention something
about that's how he focused on living
a mindful life. And then if you do want to add like a hook so that
it like loops around, you could say something
like that so I could film. And then if it comes in like it feels natural to
say something like. So that's why I was impressed when I heard
about and then boom, the happiest muck in
France or in the world is. Okay, anyway, let's film this last sentence,
the ending sentence. And these are the things that he teaches to live a mindful life. That's why I was so impressed
when I learned that. Okay, so that kind
of gives it a loop and we're done with
our recording now. From here we can
go on and edit it. So we'll talk about the
editing process now. And usually what I like to do with these videos
is to add captions. And Tiktok has a very
convenient function that adds captions to your video
from the application. Now it's so helpful
to have this here. So the happiest monk
in the world is actually a man named
Matthew Ricard. And here is his tips on
living a mindful life. Now the first one
is to cultivate a warm and benevolent
relationship. Second one is to focus on the
intrinsic value of things. And the third is to meditate
and be in the moment. And these are the things that he teaches to live a mindful life. And that's why I was so
impressed when I learned that the happiest monk in the world is actually
a man from France. Okay, so with this one it fits. So I'll move the captions there. And then I will, I will change some things. Okay. I will go on
the captions and I'll change the words
second and third. And I'll use the
numbers that way. It has a bit of a difference. Or at least it could stand out. I could actually, words like
now is like filler words. It's not completely necessary. So I'll take that
out and that'll make it look more organized by changing first to number one
and the second one to 22. And the third, I'll delete all the extra noise words and just add the most
important things. We'll go back,
we'll fix his name. Tu Ricard Man. And then I'll add the
capitalization for the first word. Make sure everything
looks right. Okay. I'll also just get rid of these extra words so that it
just focuses on cultivate, focus, and meditate
strong words. That is what keeps
people cooked. So here we have the captions, and we do have an emphasis
on the word mindful. And it pops up a lot
here, and it looks good. So now you could go and add a sound depending on
what is trending, or maybe a sound that you find fits with whatever is
going on right now. Because every day is different, Every time the
post is different, there's going to be
trending sounds, there's going to be sounds
that aren't trending anymore. Some sounds might be trending last month, but now it's not. Find a sound that is
fitting up the vibe of the video you want to
make and then add to it. Or if you have sounds that
you use all the time, like this one, a steady
girls one, I use a lot. You have sounds that you save, that you use all the time
that you can go back to see. I didn't know my favorites
list was this long. But yeah, back in the
day I'd had all of these very famous ones that
I would use all the time. Monkey spinning
monkeys, that's like a very popular sound. I will do block type beat, keep it low, added sound. Just keep it low just for
some background music here, I do think this text should
be a little smaller, just so it looks presentable. It's like a third
of the way here. I think it looks a lot better. Now, you could also give
it a different type of editing to make it look like different effects that
you could throw on there. I don't typically
use any of those. There's also a couple
of different things here you could do as well, such as enhancing how it looks, reducing some of the noise to make it look
more presentable. I will put the enhance
on a lot of people. Put the filters on
because, you know, if you're not feeling
super comfortable, it's okay to put a filter on just to clean out your face
or make it look, you know, somewhat more
appealing to you so that you feel more natural and comfortable putting
yourself out there. And that's completely fine. A lot of people do it, so we'll just do the
enhanced filter. That way the lighting
looks a little bit better. And then we can go onto next. Now once we go here,
this is where we would post our descriptions and how we can target and like optimize
this video for our SEO. Now before we forget though, I will go back and add one
more thing and that is the happiest monk tips
on a mindful life. Now you could add
something like this to just give it a bit of a bit of pop to it so that people are more interested in
watching the video. Now you could do
it in many ways. You could put in small
space like this in the middle or like the top somewhere, that's
like a placeholder. So people can see it. Now as we do notice when
we're going through this, I do press on the
camera at the end, so I want to make sure to
get rid of that, that way. It's seamless as you are going through
the video watching. Cool now we've made it where I'm not like like
pressing the button, so it's more seamless here. It's going, looks
pretty good so far. Yeah, pretty seamless.
All right, great. So now we'll go on
to the description. With the description, we're going to go
with the approach, just making it a
teaser for the video. We'll go with something like you could do something like secrets
or hints or something. Just like if you do that, make it more like a teas and gets people
interested in it. But we're not going to click
bait too much for captions, since we want to be found
on the mindfulness tag, we'll just do mindfulness. Mindfulness is also connected
with self improvement. We'll also want to tap into that community and then we'll also see what
else is on mindfulness. You know, like we'll look
at it and we'll see, okay, Mindfulness Practice
Mindfulness Tips. It looks like Mindfulness
Challenge is doing good, so we'll just have
a few of those. If you do feel like it's
cluttering too much, we don't even need to have
the original mindfulness tag because that's already
linked so much in the video like even in the description
already we have that I would just add another
mindfulness one just to be safe. But we've already got plenty targeting the word
mindfulness or mindful. Mindfulness has
practice and we'll just use these three so
it'll categorize and be optimized for
the word mindfulness. And then for a cover,
here's our video. You can add a cover that
fits with the video. I could do something like
mindfulness and this really would just be targeted, but I think this time we
can do Matthew Ricard, because we already do have
mindfulness here and I think the algorithm optimizes for it to crawl and see
titles already. It will already see
the mindful part of that, this cover image. Although whenever
people are looking through your page,
they won't see it. But it's okay because you do have something else that
will capture their eye, which is Matthew Ricard. Okay. So we do have this, this description with
mindfulness linked. We have hash tags that
link to mindfulness. We have our video
using the word a few times which the algorithm
will pick up on, and we have it in
the title image. So this looks like a
video that's ready to go. The key takeaways
from this lesson, editing styles is a
really important part of a brand identity. Use things like subtitles, editing cuts, and imagery
to create a cohesive video. Up next we're going to talk
about trending aesthetics.
15. Descriptions & Hashtags : All right, let's talk about
the best practices for your descriptions
and your hash tags. Now these are vital parts
of publishing your videos, and a lot of people
seem to get them wrong, especially if you came
from the Instagram world and have been on social
media since the 2010. Because one of the
biggest misconceptions I see people do is they pack their entire description
with a bunch of hashtags, Like we used to do back
on Instagram in 2010. And that's just not how
Tiktok works these days. In this lesson, we're
going to discuss how to properly use your
descriptions and your hash tags so that it could separate you as a fluent user of Tiktok versus just somebody that is a hobbyist
publishing on Tiktok. Now the main thing you
have to keep in mind with using descriptions and hashtags is that it's really to guide the algorithm
to your videos. Because these days hashtags and descriptions aren't like
what they used to be like. It doesn't directly put your
video in front of someone. It has to go through
an algorithm, and that algorithm has to place you where it thinks
works properly. Now, there are two
things to consider here. First, let's talk
about the hashtags. Now, hashtags are really
simple in Tiktok, so don't overthink it. And all you really have to
do is search up your topic and just give it
a couple hashtags that are relevant to your topic. It doesn't have to
be more complex. Now if you do want to make it a bit more complex and rank for harder words that are like
more a niche specific, then you can also
add those as well. But it's important not to crowd your whole description
with a bunch of hash tags, which I see a lot
of accounts doing. Next is how you're going
to do your description. Now Tiktok has recently upped the maximum amount
for your description, So that means they put a lot
of emphasis into reading through what's in
the description to help place your videos
where it should be. There are three
approaches to do in this. The first one is to have a
really short description, and that is essentially
just giving it a quick understanding of what's in your video with a hash tag or
a couple hash tags, just super short,
minimum to the point. Next, you can do a medium
length description that gives users an understanding
of what's in the video, a couple key points
in the video, and then again with
some hashtags. And then finally, one of
the newest things that have emerged on the platform is
long form descriptions. Now, since they have upped the maximum characters on
your Tiktok description, a lot of people have been
taking this opportunity to make full on articles within
the Tiktok description. Now this is very
helpful actually, because this article
provides another whole means of communication with the viewer and the algorithm and
delivers more value. So consider this as
your video is playing. Someone is reading the article. So they're reading this
article that is pretty long and your video is constantly playing
at the same time. So the algorithm is
going to be like, okay, this person is
consuming this video. And at the same time that
adds up your view count. And then with the
long description, Tiktok is able to dissect every individual part of it and then find
what's important. So if you pack this article, this long description with
a lot of relevant words, Tiktok is going to document
all of that and then place you in that
keyword ranking. Now again with the hashtag for this long style description
is very much the same. Just add a few on,
don't crowd it, the key tag ways forth. This section is very simple. Consider how you want to
do your descriptions Long, short, medium, and by doing so, you have a structure to
build your descriptions on. If I was just starting, I
would recommend something shorter and easier just so you
can get in the flow of it. And hashtags is really just
to guide the algorithm, so don't overcrowd your videos
with a lot of hash tags. Up next we're going
to talk about SEO and how to be discoverable
through your videos.
16. Systems for Consistency: In this lecture, we're
going to talk about creating systems
for consistency. What does that mean? Well,
imagine this problem. You made a video, it went viral. And now there's a lot of
people who are coming back to your account
expecting more content. And one of the biggest
challenges is for creators to consistently
come up with content. Because if you keep making a ton of content
every single day, you're bound to burn out.
There's no way around it. You need to take
breaks or you could develop a system for your brand. Now the goal of this
lecture is for you to come up with a strategy so that you can consistently have a constant roster of
content to go to. These are for the
days that you're going to feel burnt out. So having a system will help
you pre create your content. Now there's a big
misconception that creators make content on the
fly every single day. But if you ask around, the biggest creators
have a ton of drafts. They make the content
and have it ready. Now, even example,
with me when I was an amateur and I was
just making videos, I was trying to make
videos every single day. And every day I would go through this whole process and it
would take so much time. And eventually, after a month, two month, I was burnt out. And then my video rate
went significantly lower. I was publishing a
lot less videos. But your job as a
content creator is to consistently post. You can't let your audience
down. And imagine this. A professional athlete
probably doesn't want to work out
every single day. But they have to do it because
it's part of their job. So to be a real professional, you have to put in the hours. So here's some tips
to keep in mind. First is to plan ahead. Set aside some time each week to brainstorm and come
up with ideas. And if you can create
content in advance, this is going to
help you when you're feeling those days
that you're down, don't have enough energy, but you can still use this pre created content
and push that out, or even schedule it to use a content planner by having a plan of when your content
is going to go out, pre publishing it as in like having it
scheduled to go out on certain dates takes
a significant weight off of your shoulders. This way, if you're making a ton of videos at the
beginning of the week, you can schedule it out
over the entire week. And for the most part, relax and not have to worry
about that aspect. When I used to work in the
advertisement industry and we were part of the media buying
and media planning team, we would have a content calendar that is spread out
through the month, different types of
content that is being published
every single day. Because there was
not enough people to have every single day
come up with new content. And to publish it that day, you need to make everything
in advance and then publish it as it's scheduled
out throughout the month. And the third one
is kind of a trick, but you can repost old videos. Reposting old videos
that have went viral might reach a
whole new audience. And also it gives a good
boost to the video's value. For example, I had a post, I got over 500,000 views. And I knew that somehow the
algorithm like that video. So a couple months down the
line I would repost it again. Because I knew that that
structure works with the app. And also there's a lot of people who haven't
seen that video because throughout
that time I've had a lot of new
audiences come in. And also it could be a good
refresher for the audience that used to be here this whole time and have seen
that video beforehand. Now for this practice,
I'd like you to consider what your system for consistency
is going to look like. What do you see yourself
consistently talking about and doing videos
on time and time again? And this goes into thinking, whether you're an
entertainment page or whether you're an
informational page. Think about ideas
that would go and work hand in hand with
your brand and your page. And a couple tips for you
to come up with topics to discuss Frequently is
to look at the trends, watch the latest sounds
that are trending, or see what your favorite
creator is doing. So the takeaway from
this lecture is to, one, create a system so that
you can post consistently. And two, remind yourself
that it doesn't have to be a new type of video
every single time. If you have a
structure that works, you can also post that again. Now in the next video,
we're going to talk about some editing templates
for posting.
17. Workflow Templates : Okay, for this lecture,
we're going to talk about the template for your
entire workflow. Now let me let you
in on a secret. Everybody has a workflow. One of the biggest
misconceptions is that all videos are filmed on the fly and are just
posted on the fly. Sure, there are
channels that are Bra and Live and
just on the fly, but that's a minority though. Most of the big
channels that you see have a whole
planned schedule, a planned content
publication schedule, have everything down to a process because otherwise
it would be unsustainable. Trust me, I've been there. And if you want to be able to continuously create content, high quality content,
then you have to have a template that you follow
for your entire workflow. Now typically this workflow
looks like Ideation, filming, and the whole
production process. And then finally, the third step which is putting it
out there, publishing. So let me share with you
how my workflow works. And the beginning of it all
is the ideation process. So as I am ideating
my different ideas, I have it all down in a list. So whenever I get an idea
watching Youtube or Tik Talk, I would save that video, put it in this list so
I have a fat list of many different ideas that
I could possibly record. And it's helpful to have this because you won't be able to record the best videos all the time based on
your inspirations. You might have an idea to
do five different videos. But as you come to record, it turns out that only
four of them are good. One of them isn't very good. So it's important to have
a lot of different ideas, so you could run
through many of them. And maybe if this
time you recorded a video and it didn't look good, you can come back and
rerecord it again. Once I finish Ideation,
I would start filming. And when I film, I set
up my camera to have a certain angle and
then I would run through like 1020
videos at a time. Now does take a full day
sometimes, but by doing so, you're able to have
your work done in a production line
so that it doesn't get all jumbled up and
you won't get mixed up. Because otherwise you'll be
doing many different steps in a day and ultimately only
finished with like one video. So after I film, I take all of these videos and
then start editing. Now for me, I work with editors. So when I do that,
I have to send certain files that are prepared a certain way to my editors. And depending on
you, your process, it might not involve an editor and you yourself
might be the editor. So in which case,
this is important for you to come up with a style of editing that you will be
using for all of your videos. Now the thing is,
even with my editors, I have a style of editing that I tell my video
editors to do. And I try to make it as simple
as possible so that it's easily replicated and it's
easy for them to understand. So as you're filming
your videos, think about how you're
going to edit them. And then once you're done with all the filming and you're
starting to do editing, how can you boil this down into a couple easy steps so that all your videos are going
to follow this guideline. So once you get your
videos finished, that's when the fun
part happens and that's when you post it out
into the Internet. So your job from here is to consider what your process
is going to look like. How every single step in your
whole workflow needs to be able to be simplified down
into a couple easy steps. Meaning how can I simplify ideation into one process
of a couple steps. Filming into a couple steps, editing into a couple of steps, and then publishing
into a couple steps. So the takeaways are, how can you implement your
own editing templates? Templates help you get into the flow to produce
more content. Make it as simple as it can be so that it could
be replicated. Up next we're going
to learn about creating a series of topics.
18. Creating a Series : In this lecture,
we're going to talk about creating a series. And that's important
because a series is what's going to bring
your audience back. Over and over and over again. We're going to discuss why
you should have a series. And the goal for
this lecture is for you to start generating
and coming up with ideas that could potentially be used on
your channel as a series. A misconception that's very
common is that you have to consistently upload new different content
every single time. But really it's a series, that's what brings people back, not new content
every single time. See, the thing is people come back to you because
they expect something. For example, some people
might be known for making logs and their audience would just come and
watch those logs. If this person were to
make different stuff, it might be something that the audience wasn't
prepared for. And as this person continues
to build on their log, it only gets better and
better in terms of quality. So they're separating themselves out from the rest
of the competition. And their audience is
watching it because this is top tier
quality content. So first, let's
talk about what to consider as we are
creating a series. And the first point is that the audience loves consistency. When you create a series, you establish this
constant theme. And this theme is what your audience could look forward to. Maybe they're going to
your page because you do reviews on certain topics. If your niche is on cars and every week you come
up with a car review, your audience is going to come back and watch you
for your car reviews. Also, there are
people who I follow personally that do Tiktok tips. So I go and watch
their Tiktok tips over and over again
because every week they're going to have different
videos like on trends in the music or trends
in videos to make. And generally, I
just know what to expect from this series
when I see it on my feed, I'm more obligated or I want to watch it more series
are so much easier to plug into your content
calendar because now you have a structure of something to
do when you're burnt out. You have something to go
back into to just film. Because you know that
this structure works. And you don't have to
use up precious energy, like creative energy, to
make a whole new concept. You can just refer to
this old concept and just film with that formula. And like we mentioned before, consistency is one of the most important
things to consider. Three, it's easier to
market or promote. When you have a series, you can just refer
to that series versus referring to
every individual video. For example, I
follow someone that does a series on
trending sounds, so they can just talk about that trending sound series
that they do on their account. And then once I see one of
their trending sound videos, I'll be reminded to watch their other trending
sound videos. Or if you're a new viewer
on this page and they mention this trending sound
video series that they do, this new viewer feels like they want to watch other
trending sound videos. So they go on this
creator's page and then watch the
rest of the series. Now when you do this,
it's easier to refer to this series so that that
reaches a lot more people. And the fourth thing to consider is that it's exciting for your viewers when
you have a series that they look forward
to every single week, with every new release, it's something that
they want to see, they're excited
for this, they're genuinely here to see this. And ultimately what
this does is it gathers engagement and keeps your
audience coming back for more. So this is only helping
you out in one, building more engagement for your videos and retention time. Because these are audiences
that like your stuff already. And that builds it up some more and pushes it
in the algorithm. And when it's pushed
on the algorithm, there's new people
that are coming in. Because the algorithm is
saying this is good content, we're going to push
it out to new people. So new people are seeing this and old people
are seeing this. And that's just raising
up your view count and helping your channel
reach a lot new people, like people who haven't
seen your page before. Now your practice here is to consider what type of
series you can do, something you can
constantly recreate over and over and over
again for my channel. Personally, I focus
on having quotes, snippets of lessons or
stories that I can share. Because I know
these are things I can constantly go back to. One that I really
like a lot is doing a seven second video that
utilizes a long quote. And the reason why I do that is because it's one
of those videos that are easily watched
multiple times. So when your audience
is watching it, it's only a seven second video, but the quote is so long that as they're reading
the entire quote, they'll probably watch
the video three times. And that shows to the algorithm a retention rate
that's really high, like 300% So that's going to make it be pushed out
onto more people. So I like doing that type of series where I just
share a long quote, have people read it and then play with the
algorithm in that way. Now for the takeaway
here is go and create your own series because it's going to be very valuable
to your account. Consider what videos
you can do over and over and over
again in a series. Consider where your
audience would want to watch from you and turn
that into a series. And then finally,
consider if this is something that
can get engagement from your audience
to want to come back weekly or whenever
you publish it, where it's something
that they anticipate and really want to see.
19. SEO on TikTok: Okay, so this section
we're going to talk about the SEO of your video. And SEO stands for Search
Engine Optimization. Now, a lot of times our videos are discovered by people
through the search engine. So imagine going on Tiktok and you want to look for
local restaurants. So you type in a couple of local restaurants
and then you'll see a lot of review for
local restaurants pop up. And they'll be like
walking tours, video tours, or image tours. Essentially, very
practical videos that are reviews that
bring you to the place. Now this is really
important because we're starting to see the SEO on Tiktok start to out rank Google in some places because
it's just more intuitive. So it's important to
start considering how to implement search
engine optimization of your videos on Tiktok. Now, common misconception is that searches are all random, but that couldn't be
further from the truth. On Tiktok, the searches
are very much like Google, where it goes through an
entire algorithm that understands what's
in your content and then places it accordingly. Because in this way it's able to hold their users longer
on the platform. And ultimately, that is
what platforms want to do. They want to keep you
on the platform longer. So let's discuss where Tiktok looks at through
your entire video so that it knows where
to rank you in the first place is
your spoken word. So as you're making videos,
as you're speaking, Tiktok has its own
caption system that already reads all the
words that you're saying. So that's why if you go and
use auto captions on Tiktok, it has all the words pop up. But even if you don't
use auto captions, the algorithm itself is already reading through every single
word that you're saying, that you're describing what you're talking
about in the video. The second place they look
are the onscreen texts. So these would be captions
that you're using, subtitles that you're
using on the video itself. And it's important to use
the built in Tiktoks, fonts and words because
if you're using your own, the algorithm on Tiktok might not be able
to read it too well because it's not
optimized for Tiktok. So if you're using their fonts, you're using their softwares
to edit all of this, it's a lot better catered for their platform to read
what is on your content. And then finally, what's on your description and
what's on your hashtags. These like we just mentioned, are important in guiding the algorithm to where
your content should be. Takeaways from this section, SEO is how the platform finds
and ranks your content. There are three
places, Tiktok looks, your spoken word,
the on screen text, and your description
and hashtags. Up next we're going
to talk about creating systems
for consistency.
20. Conclusion: Congratulations on
finishing the class. We went through three
important concepts for creating a brand on Tiktop. First, we went through branding, creating the look and feel, going through your
image presentation, and ultimately, how your
whole brand looks on Tiktok. Two, we went through
communicating with your audience. How to create a genuine,
authentic voice. How to present a message
that appeals your audience. And then finally, we went through all the
audience's needs so that we could figure out exactly how to cater to your audience. And the third thing
we went through is how to find a system
for your whole process. We went through the formats of videos that you can
continue to use, the way to edit your videos, and then finally, how
to optimize it all. In this way, you have the
best chances of succeeding. Now the biggest takeaway of all of this is that we're
crafting a message that is authentic to you
and done in a way that you can continuously repeat it and create a system
for yourself, and then establish your
brand through that. Once again, congratulations
on finishing the chorus. And don't forget to
upload your project.
Arnold Trinh, Mixed Media Creator
