15 TikTok Ideas for Your Next Viral Video

TikTok has completely changed how marketers use social media, which has effectively become social entertainment, as users now visit social platforms to be entertained, and TikTok is at the forefront of this shift. As the platform moves much faster than what marketers may be used to, brands need to post regularly to keep their content top-of-mind.

While TikTok content skews toward low fidelity (lo-fi) rather than the hi-fi content that has defined traditional social media, its simplicity can be deceiving. Ideating content that suits TikTok and performs well, all at a regular cadence, is a monumental task. We've put together some TikTok ideas for your brand to help you get started on your content creation journey and help come up with things to post on TikTok.

15 TikTok Ideas for Expanding Brand Content

Figuring out what to post on TikTok can be a challenge for many brands. In our most recent TikTok benchmarks, we analyzed the performance of over 600 of the world’s leading brands on the platform to figure out baseline performance and identify overarching trends in the content strategies that brands employ. As TikTok is a channel designed around algorithms delivering content to users who show interest in the subject, no two brands will have the same TikTok strategy. That being said, there are a few consistent themes in the types of content that do well. Here are some ideas that your brand can use:

1. Show the Behind-the-Scenes of Your Brand

Users prefer authentic content, and the best way to show authenticity with your brand is to pull back the curtain and give a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into your business. Brands are finding success by using team members as a part of their TikTok cast, which adds a human element to their content and earns high engagement.

2. Try Out a New Trend

TikTok is a channel of trends, and there is always something new and exciting that is gaining traction. Brands that are lost for ideas have a treasure trove of inspiration conveniently available through trending hashtags, as well as marketers’ own For You pages. As TikTok’s algorithm is shaped by users’ interests, brands need to keep up with trends and create content that is as relevant and timely as possible to ensure algorithmic recommendations are working in their favor.

3. Educate Your Audience About Industry Secrets

Users love to be in the know about industry secrets, and educational content inspires them to share TikToks with friends and family, which significantly increases engagement and awareness. Brands are using their unique perspective to share tips and tricks for buying new products, making the most out of services, and saving time and money, which resonates well with TikTok users.

4. Keep Your Content Short and Sweet

The platform allows users to post videos up to ten minutes long, but the quick scroll of the channel’s feed means that videos under fifteen seconds long receive the best retention rates. Brands should lead with a quick wit that immediately captures the audience's attention, and encourages them to watch the video the whole way through.

5. Show Your Product in Action

As a video platform, everything is in motion which gives brands a unique advantage in how they approach the channel, as it allows them to provide demonstrations or highlight unique angles of products that would be impossible with static imagery. Emphasis on sounds and editing also gives even more dimension to your marketing, and the best product marketing on TikTok uses every feature to its advantage.

6. Experiment With New Styles

What works on the platform differs for every brand. Experiment with different filming techniques, video lengths, sounds, and text, and iterate on your best-performing content to better understand what gets your content on people’s For You pages. Using tools such as Dash Hudson’s Entertainment Score benchmarking can also help you get a sense of which experiments are hitting the mark.

7. Share a List of Life Hacks

Life hacks, particularly when they contain useful information, are known to earn incredibly high engagement rates, as users tend to share them with their friends and family and use them as reference points in conversation. SELF Magazine’s most popular videos on TikTok are life hacks for improving your health and wellness. They always capture a cheeky, relatable tone that viewers can immediately identify with.

8. Give Your Opinion on IRL Trends

Users love to use the channel to find out what’s trending in real life, from fashion to makeup, furniture, and food. No matter what industry you’re in, you have the opportunity to give some insight into emerging trends in your space, naturally allowing you to plug some of your products as well.

9. Lip-syncing With Trending Sounds

Trending sounds are typically fun snippets of pop culture, spreading across the channel like wildfire once they become popular. You only have a short time to truly take advantage of a sound. However, lip-syncing skits are easy to film and only require a bit of text and editing to give context to your brand’s unique perspective. Lip-syncing is also great for brands because it doesn’t involve copyrighted music, which can be challenging for marketers to navigate.

10. Satisfying Close-up Shots

Audiences are drawn toward soothing close-up shots of activities such as art, cooking, or unwrapping makeup products. These videos are great for brands because they are easy to produce and do not require any faces to appear on camera–only hands.

11. Partner With a Creator

Creators are at the heart of TikTok, and no one understands the channel better than them. Partnering with creators is not just an influencer sponsorship –– it is an opportunity for your brand to lead with relatable, relevant content that appeals to multiple audiences, particularly audiences who may not be familiar with the brand.

12. Play Around With Filters

Filters are fun and unlock a world of possibilities for unique, eye-catching uses that get people talking. The channel is constantly introducing new ways to edit your videos, so it is essential to stay on the lookout for TikTok content ideas that did not exist previously.

13. Stitch a Popular TikTok and Weigh In

TikTok has a wide range of editing tools. Stitching and duets are fun opportunities to repurpose existing popular content, putting a new spin on the idea of UGC. Many brands also encourage users to repurpose their content through jokes or challenges, which is a great way to get their content on other people’s feeds.

14. Incorporate Current Events and Pop Culture

Our most recent TikTok benchmarks found that celebrities and pop culture are significant constants in top-performing videos. The worlds of pop culture and TikTok are beginning to intertwine, and audiences come to the channel to be entertained and watch entertainment-related content. Make content related to hot new albums or TV shows wherever you can to be a part of those conversations and 

15. Use Livestreams To Engage With Your Audience

Live Streams are growing in popularity, and with good reason. They have a level of real-time interactivity that pre-recorded video does not allow, and they provide a forum for superfans to engage in a way that makes them feel seen. Many brands are now using live content, sometimes partnering with popular creators, to engage with their audiences on a deeper level.

TikTok Insights by Dash Hudson

Marketers only have so much time in a day, and having the right TikTok insights tool will cut down the hours you have to spend researching so you can focus on making videos. Dash Hudson’s TikTok insights tool allows you to measure the performance of your content, create reports on what your competitors are doing to succeed, and surface insights on what TikTok video ideas your audience wants to see.

Dash Hudson offers a wide range of tools for TikTok marketers, including a link-in-bio solution for e-commerce, content segmentation and campaign measurement tools, and the proprietary Entertainment Score, which gives you a number from 1 to 10 to benchmark how well your content is doing with your audience in an industry context.

FAQs

What kind of content should I create for TikTok?

You should make content that you know will resonate with your audience. What that means is different for everyone, so you have to look at what you’re doing well and keep iterating on your ideas to figure out your winning formula.

How do you make good content for TikTok?

The most important thing is to keep making content. TikTok is a channel where the most significant risk is not doing something and missing out on tremendous opportunities rather than creating bad content. TikTok moves so quickly that your time is better spent filming new videos rather than focusing on a video that didn’t work.

What content is the most popular on TikTok?

TikTok is a platform of niches, and all sorts of content can become popular. Rather than trying to appeal to everyone, your best option for TikTok video ideas is to appeal to your specific target audience.

How to edit a video on TikTok?

TikTok has embedded editing tools in its app, and when you finish filming your video, you are immediately shown a wide range of options for edits to give your video the snappy, comedic edge it deserves.