If the thought of creating content for TikTok gives you a headache, this is the blog for you!
The Legendary team has tested a few methods for TikTok content creation and developed a process that makes it easy and efficient.
Here is a breakdown of how the Legendary team creates TikTok content in 5 steps:
1) Prep Work
The Legendary TikTok content creation process begins 10-14 days before the actual shoot date. Preparation is key for having a smooth and successful shoot and ensuring you have enough content for the month.
Check in with the client
The first step in our TikTok content creation process is reaching out to our clients to schedule a shoot date and request any topics that they would like covered in their upcoming month of content. Here, we may receive products that should be featured or topics to have mentioned in videos.
Create a shot list
Once we solidify a shoot date, we get to work on creating a detailed shot list to follow during the content shoot. Here, we map out each idea, the shots and props needed, the audio we want to use and links to other TikTok videos to use as inspiration.
2) Shooting Content
Next, and arguably the most important part of the content creation process, is the day of the content shoot. The Legendary team typically books 90 minute shoots with 2+ Legends, which allows us to capture enough content for 12+ TikToks.
Depending on the shoot and client, we either take turns being in front of the camera as stand-in models, or when provided by clients, we use hired models or employees.
Following the shot list is crucial to ensure we capture enough content and no trends are missed, though we often leave time to film any extra TikToks that we feel inspired to make in the moment.
We have found that the best way to film TikToks is in-app, especially when you are lip-syncing to an audio. Here are our top 2 favourite in-app filming tips and tricks:
1. Effects:
Utilize trending effects and the numerous green screen effect choices to mix up your content and showcase products (view example here).
2. Countdown timer:
This feature will stop and start your video for you so you can film hands-free. This is especially useful when you are lip-syncing audios that have multiple different shots needed (see how it works below).
Important note: Once a video is filmed in-app on TikTok, the clips will be stuck in the drafts and cannot be exported without publishing and then downloading the video.
3) Editing
Each content creator has their own editing process, but after many trials and tribulations, this is what works for the Legends.
Editing content in TikTok
In TikTok, you can edit simple videos using the “adjust clips” option after filming. You can also add on-screen text which helps the TikTok algorithm to categorize and push videos out on the For You Page.
Another tip is to add captions whenever someone is speaking in a video, increasing accessibility and adding more SEO for the algorithm. If you are speaking in the video, you can use the “auto-generate captions” option. If you are using an audio that has any words in it but you are not adding additional speech on top, TikTok will not auto-generate captions, so we recommend adding the text on screen somewhere, again, to increase accessibility and SEO.
Editing content in other apps
For videos that require a bit more finesse and fancy editing, we recommend filming your footage on your phone’s camera app and then putting it together in editing apps like InShot, VN or CapCut. Here’s how to add your TikTok audio into InShot so you can edit your video to match the audio perfectly:
4) Review and Approval
Once we have everything filmed, edited and created captions, we have a round of internal reviews before sending it off to the client for their approval. We do this by screen recording the videos in our TikTok drafts and adding them to the client’s content calendar.
5) Schedule and watch it go live!
Finally, we schedule all content through SproutSocial, but since most of our TikTok content will be in the app’s drafts, we schedule a placeholder image as a reminder to post.
Finally, we hit publish on the draft and watch the views start rolling in!
Productivity Tip
Professional content creators know that the secret to successfully making and managing social media content (and keeping your sanity intact) is planning ahead and batching content creation. The Legendary team creates TikTok content on a monthly basis, leaving space in our schedules to create trending content ‘on the fly’ that may pop up throughout the month.
Are you ready to kick-start your TikTok account? Get a customized TikTok content creation package suited to your unique needs!
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