Almost immediately after TikTok’s meteoric rise in popularity in 2019, attracting hundreds of millions of users around the world in a matter of days, the focus of the world’s most popular social media platforms shifted to short-form videos.
With the introduction of TikTok Stories and 10-minute video capabilities, it appears like TikTok is once again challenging its top social media competitors.
TikTok Stories: What Is It?
TikTok Stories are videos that are shared on TikTok and remain viewable for 24 hours before disappearing. If a TikTok user has a Story accessible, a light blue circle will appear around their profile photo, indicating that you can tap it to view their Story.
After a successful beta launch in Brazil and a few other countries in the first quarter, TikTok has decided to roll out its Stories feature to a wider audience. TikTok has yet to release a public statement regarding Stories or the results of the pilot programme, but the app’s U.S. users have been receiving notifications about the new feature for the better part of the past month.
Brief Background
The HubSpot Blog has learned something from watching the various social media platforms’ Stories features evolve: when one platform creates a popular new function, the other big platforms will soon introduce a nearly identical one.
Snapchat was the first popular ephemeral app that allowed users to post a series of photos and videos to their profile, known as a “Snapchat Story,” that would disappear after 24 hours. Snaps, or a succession of Snaps that vanish after being viewed, were another type of content that users could send to one another and only have the recipient see if they opened the message.
With Snapchat’s success in attracting millions of users with fleeting content, Instagram introduced Stories as a central feature of its own.
The Step-by-Step Guide to Uploading Your TikTok Story
Creating a tale on TikTok in the United States or any other region where the feature is accessible is fairly similar to making any other type of content on the app.
Access TikTok’s Post feature
In order to begin, either visit your profile and click the turquoise plus (+) on your profile image, or visit your feed and click the Post button. The central posting button on TikTok’s bottom bar.
Second, create whatever it is you’re going to create.
Make a movie, post an image, or take a photo. Then you may customise it with music, text, and effects, just like any other TikTok video.
TikTok or a Story? That is the question you must answer.
After you’ve finished recording or choosing a photo, you’ll be presented with two options: Publish to Story and Next. When you select Publish to Story, it will be published to your Story feed as well as other users’ For You feeds.
Stories can be seen in one of three ways. All require some dexterity and, at times, luck.
Relax while you swipe through several Story options
The For You page feed of the TikTok app features both traditional TikTok videos and stories from accounts you follow or may find interesting. Even though they don’t have a lengthy description, you may still follow the user that posted it and “Like” the content just like any other TikTok video. This content is designed to be temporary and will be deleted within 24 hours, thus some features, such as video replies, will be disabled.
Use the “For You Page” drop-down menu to find the Stories that interest you.
Launch TikTok, then navigate to the section labelled “For You” (a.k.a. your main feed). Keep an eye out for the like and share icons that appear to the right of each video as you scroll. If a user’s profile photo has a turquoise ring around it, you can see their bio by tapping on the picture.
TikTok Profiles Are Good for Story Searching
You should check out the profile photo of a favourite TikToker’s profile. If a circle appears around a person’s profile photo, tapping it will take you to their narrative.
Nobody knows for sure if TikTok’s new feature, Stories, will be a smash. Sifting through my feed at random, it was difficult to identify anybody actually making use of them. This functionality, though still in its infancy, has the potential to gain popularity as word of mouth spreads.
Furthermore, Stories are used by accounts and have the same vibe as a short-lived TikTok video. In addition, it is currently unclear whether or not publishing a series of videos to your Story will be as beneficial as putting permanent TikTok videos with a “Part 2” link in the comments.
Keep these factors in mind if you decide to play around with TikTok Stories
- You should adjust your Story for the TikTok community and interface. The best stories for the TikTok platform are those that move quickly, provide a lot of value, or are otherwise engaging.
- Promotion of stories is necessary. Since Stories don’t have a fixed home in the app, they’re easy to overlook. When a user watches a video on TikTok, they will see an outline of the user’s profile picture on the right side of the screen.
- Find out if you care more about views or followers: The plus sign next to the profile icon in the video navigation bar is one way that many accounts get new subscribers. The profile picture links directly to the published story or live event when these actions are taken. If you want to swiftly amass a following, you should keep this in mind.
TikTok Video with a Prolonged Runtime
TikTok allowed users to upload 10-minute films to the platform in 2022. In the summer of 2021, the business began testing long-video features with a small set of beta users. When the long-video pilot was first announced, TikTok said it was done so that creators would have more options.