Ultimate Guide to TikTok in 2023

For most of 2022, my TikTok growth was totally stagnant, but, in just a couple of months I have gained over 10,000 new followers - by implementing just one simple strategy.

I really feel like TikTok has changed a lot since it first blew up in early 2020 - and the way that creators are growing on TikTok has changed, too. For so long my growth was stagnant - I had a few early viral TikToks that had gained me around 14K followers, but I couldn’t seem to push past it. I was trying to follow trends, share videos off-the-cuff, since casual content seems to do better. But then I tried something new - and that’s what got me out of my TikTok rut and past 25,000 followers (and still growing). Today, I’m going to share my TikTok growth strategy for 2023 - and show you how it’s already working.

TikToks are mini YouTube videos

Let’s not beat around the bush any longer: my growth strategy for TikTok is to treat it like YouTube. For the past couple of years if you asked me what kind of content was on TikTok I would say - dance videos, memes, lip-sync, transitions, funny cat videos, and random and relatable skits. And to be honest, I found it really hard to figure out how to make content like that - it was very different from what I was doing on Instagram and YouTube, so even though I tried random things here and there - nothing seemed to work all that well for me.

I had random videos go viral - but not anything that was related to the rest of my brand. But over the second half of 2022, I started seeing more and more content on my For You Page that felt familiar to me - it felt like mini-YouTube videos. Some looked like a video podcast, or a video essay tackling in-depth topics, some felt more like vlogs, and some content was like a mini-YouTube tutorial.

Overall, what I saw happening was the youtube-ification of TikTok. As videos have gotten longer (up to 3 mins) and the userbase has grown (not just teenagers) TikTok has started to look more and more like YouTube. Even down to the increased significance of the search engine. So, this got me thinking - why don’t I try to make my TikTok’s like mini-versions of my youtube videos?

It’s what I am comfortable doing and a similar strategy has been successful for others. But how?

How to make an effective YouTube video on fast-forward

Now…this is important: this strategy is not about repurposing, necessarily. We’re not just posting clips, trust me - that doesn’t work. We’re using the same or similar ideas from YouTube videos, and then creating a TikTok. Beyond that, it also needs to be framed effectively to work on the For You Page - remember: the main difference between TikTok and YouTube is that on YouTube you need to convince someone to watch, on TikTok you need to convince someone to keep watching. The viewers on TikTok are served your videos without choosing them and you have a very short amount of time to convince them not to scroll.

I think the easiest way to explain this is to walk you through my thought process for coming up with the TikTok that really got this strategy started for me - it has over 450K views now.

I made a YouTube video called Why no one is watching your vlogs (and how to fix it) where I talked about the but-therefore rule of storytelling that I learned from Matt Stone and Trey Parker, South Park creators (and funny enough, I actually originally found that video clip on a TikTok, just saying!)

This video performed fine - nothing crazy, but I had good feedback in the comments that the but-therefore rule was a helpful way to think about storytelling. So I figured, why not. I set up my phone and filmed a vertical video where I explained it. But, I started the video by saying “if you’re not getting views on YouTube, this is probably why.” I added a hook that was relevant to what I wanted to share, and would hopefully grab the attention of scrollers.

Then, here’s where the secret sauce of my TikTok strategy comes in. I edited the TikTok like a YouTube video. I brought that footage onto my computer, I added titles, extra graphics, supporting b-roll, and captions - and then I exported it and sent it back to my phone to post.

This is why I think it did so well - not because it’s so much higher quality than a video made in TikTok - it’s not. But just because I went to the effort of adding a lot of visual aids to make it more engaging. You can do this in the TikTok editor - it would just take me a long time because as a YouTuber, I am way faster at editing videos in my preferred editing software, Premiere Pro.

I wasn’t convinced that this video would do well - I just thought I should try it - and I was really impressed with the views and new followers that I received because not every viral video on TikTok will bring in new followers, but this one was valuable and engaging enough that people wanted to see more.

Okay, so now you understand my secret sauce and how to achieve it - but now the question is - how do I add this to my weekly workflow?

My TikTok Creation Workflow

Okay, if you want to give this strategy a shot and want to implement this TikTok workflow for yourself, here’s what you’re going to want to do:

Step One - list out ideas: You can pull these ideas from your YouTube content, or from comments you get on your TikTok’s. This is a great positive feedback loop. Once you start getting engagement, you’ll have a million new ideas based on what people asked about.

Step Two - write scripts: Yes, you need to write them. It’s too short to go off the cuff as I do on YouTube or in this podcast (at least for me). You should always include a strong hook and end early. My pro tip is don’t include an outro, it’s a waste of time and will wreck your completion rate.

Step Three - film a bunch at once: I like to do this for efficiency and no one cares on TikTok if you’re wearing the same thing in multiple videos. I like to film on my Sony ZV-1 because it’s the easiest way to get footage to my computer. But, you can definitely just use your phone!

Step Four - edit a bunch at once - Similar to batch-filming, I like to edit all of my TikToks at once if possible. I will add as many extra visuals as I can; like b-roll, graphics, and extra titles for emphasis.

Step Five - publish them throughout the week: I post these TikToks manually throughout the next week. I’m aiming for about 3-5 per week. I post these manually, versus using a scheduling platform like Later because I use this time to engage with my audience and it keeps me from getting stuck in a social media scroll-fest later in the day.

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So that’s it! That is my TikTok strategy for 2023 - and I really think that this will be a more effective way to grow for the majority of creators. Especially if you’re already a YouTuber - you don’t need to reinvent the wheel for TikTok. This realization changed the game for me and it made it feel a lot less intimidating, and like something I can actually integrate into my existing creative workflow. If you decide that you want to use this strategy and want to see this workflow in action, check out my recent YouTube video - **My TikTok Content Creation Process 2023. In this video, I walk you through each step of the creation workflow we just talked about. Just head over to youtube.com/kate to check it out! Also, if you need a little help evaluating your TikTok - my creative agency, Creatorly Media, does offer TikTok Audits - you can go to creatorlymedia.com/audits and it will be linked in the show notes.