By Atul Jindal
Instagram has Stories. Snapchat has Stories. Even Facebook has Stories. So how could TikTok stay behind? The platform launched TikTok Stories back in 2022 but the feature is yet to gain steam.
This is why, now is the right time to learn more about them and leverage them to get a headstart and gain an edge over the competitors.
TikTok has helped numerous brands hit unimaginable highs. And it continues to be a must-have tool for anyone looking to grow their digital presence.
What gives TikTok this growth potential? Short-form content.
Short-form content reigns supreme in a world with shortening attention spans. With TikTok introducing Stories, you now have another tool to deliver bite-sized content that your audience loves so much.
What are TikTok Stories, how can you use them and why should you care? We discuss this and more in this blog. Stay tuned!
TikTok Stories – What Are They?
A US-based food business hit 20% engagement rates and garnered millions of views by getting creative with its campaign on TikTok. While the said business unlocked this achievement using in-feed videos and ads, TikTok has now introduced another feature that, if leveraged as a part of a brand-building campaign, can potentially help your business grow like the US-based food business we just mentioned.
The feature? Stories.
TikTok Stories are exactly what you think they are. A TikTok version of Instagram stories.
That’s right.
TikTok Stories are similar to Instagram or Meta platform Stories in almost all of their features.
They disappear 24 hours after you have uploaded them and give your profile picture a nice blue ring once they are live. You can create a story on TikTok and upload it directly or choose a pre-recorded video to add to your story on the platform.
Just like Instagram, TikTok also allows you to add text, filters, and various stickers to your stories.
All of these contribute to maximizing engagement rates and can help you grow your brand.
Unlike Instagram, however, where a story can last up to 60 seconds in duration, TikTok caps the story duration at 15 seconds. Moreover, TikTok Stories only appear as a blue ring circling the profile picture. Users can see it when they visit your profile or at the corner of your in-feed content. This is different from how things are on Instagram where stories appear at the top of your feed.
Okay, so that’s how a TikTok Story appears to users. But how do you upload a story on TikTok? We share next. It’s no rocket science. Promise!
Bonus: Instagram Insights Part 2: Using Instagram’s Latest Features
Uploading A TikTok Story
Reach and engagement are two metrics you live and breathe by if you are trying to build a strong presence on social media.
TikTok Stories can help drive both!
But before you can become a beneficiary of the powers of TikTok Stories, you will have to figure out how to upload one. This, of course, is nothing a short, quick step-by-step can’t explain:
Step 1: Open the TikTok app. You’ll see a plus sign at the bottom center of your screen. Tap on it.
Step 2: The app will take you to a platform-native camera with options on the type of content you want to upload appearing at the bottom. Scroll to get to “Story”.
Step 3: Tap on the record button to start recording.
Alternatively, you can also upload pre-recorded content, be it a photo or video to your Stories. To do that, follow steps 1 and 2. Once you are in the story mode, you can find your pre-recorded content on the bottom right. Tap on it and select the photo or video you want to upload. If this is your first time using the app, TikTok might ask for permissions that you will have to grant so the app can access your content and allow you to upload it.
Step 4: If you are recording your Story, TikTok will let you record for up to 15 seconds after which you will be taken to the next step.
Once you are done recording or have selected what you want to upload, you can choose to add text, filters, or stickers to your Story.
Step 5: Now your story is ready to go live. Find the post button at the bottom of the screen, tap on it, and voila! You just uploaded your TikTok Story.
You can also save the Story you have created by tapping on the small drop-down icon and hitting “Save”.
See? Nothing too complex.
What can, however, be complex is uploading a story that actually has an impact or the potential to help you get closer to your goal.
Bonus: Best Instagram Post Size: Optimize Your Instagram with Perfect Image Sizes
Getting the Most Out of TikTok Stories
Knowing how to upload a TikTok Story is just the first and very easy part of the puzzle. The second, more complex, and extremely crucial part is knowing how what to share to get the most out of Stories.
Your TikTok Stories have to be engaging to have any real impact. More importantly, they need to offer something to the viewers, be it entertainment or information. And since TikTok is THE platform for short-form video content your Stories have to be different from your feed content so your TikTok strategy does not appear all over the place.
What should you upload to your TikTok Stories? Here are a few ideas you can replicate or start brainstorming with:
Exclusive Content
Build a strategy to dedicate certain content types to your Stories only. This could be your daily routine, quick advice, health tips, or anything that fits your niche. Make sure this type of content stays on your Stories only.
Stories come with a sense of urgency rooted within their DNA and with the added exclusivity, they can have the potential of becoming must-see content for your followers and other users.
And once users start to consider your Stories “unmissable”, you can then monetize them for your growth.
Bonus: 14 Best TikTok Tools You Need To Improve Your Reach
Announcements
Announcements mostly have a small shelf life and uploading them to your feed risks making your feed appear irrelevant, filled with dated and “expired” content.
This is why, Stories are a great place for sharing news and life updates.
Once you begin using this space for announcements, your followers will start to expect life updates on your Stories. This will make them keep coming back for updates and announcements, potentially boosting your engagement rates and even follower count!
Do Q&As on Your Stories
Q&As are great for getting your followers and other users to engage. Moreover, they allow people to interact with you more directly which can help build your community and boost loyalty.
Stories offer excellent space for this type of content. Like announcements, QnAs too have a short shelf-life and you don’t want them sitting on your feed for very long. Therefore, leveraging your Stories for QnAs can help you benefit from their engagement potential without risking the relatability and freshness of your feed content.
Get Candid with Your Audience
You want your audience to connect and relate with you. This becomes a bit more challenging when the interactions are almost always happening through screens. So it is critical that you get candid with your audience and the best or perhaps the only way you can do that is to share glimpses from your personal life.
But you can’t upload a video of you going to get groceries on your feed, can you? Of course not. This is why, Stories offers prime real estate for behind-the-scenes and a-day-in-the-life type of content that gives the audience a sneak peek of your human side and helps you connect with them on a deeper, more emotional level.
Consider uploading short daily vlogs or taking your followers with you as you do something as simple as fixing a quick snack for yourself. This will help your followers see a more human side of you and enable you to build a tight-knit community.
Since Stories only last 15 seconds, you can create a shorter version of a long video and upload it to your Stories with Repurpose AI, our dedicated tool built for this very purpose.
Bonus: The Complete Blueprint To Sell On TikTok
TikTok Stories – Why Should You Care?
There’s not much difference between your average TikTok video and something you’d generally upload to Stories on any social platform. So, what makes TikTok Stories so special?
Here are a few reasons why you should pay more attention to TikTok Stories and consider adding them to your social media arsenal:
A Powerful Tool To Boost Engagement
A blue ring appears around your profile picture once you upload a Story on TikTok. This helps you stand out and grab attention. Such visibility is especially helpful on the For You Page since it can help your account reach and engage newer audiences.
Reinforce Authenticity
Authentic content reigns in social media and modern marketing. With so much curated content scattered all around, users now crave authenticity. This is why, 80% of consumers find the authenticity of a brand’s content to be the most influential factor in their decision to follow it.
Stories allow you to get candid with your audience more frequently. They offer excellent and exclusive space for you to upload behind the scenes and offer an inside view of your personal life – the kind of content you can’t upload on your feed as frequently.
Gain Competitive Advantage
TikTok launched Stories back in 2022 but the adoption has been slow. We don’t see many users uploading Stories on TikTok. However slow adoption does not take away from the potential of this powerful feature.
Uploading TikTok Stories can help you leverage the powerful but underutilized tool and gain a competitive advantage. When you prioritize Stories in your TikTok strategy, something your competitors may not yet be doing, you can make your brand stand out and grab more of the audience’s attention share.
Bonus: Utilizing Instagram Branding to Boost Your Thrift Shop’s Promotion
Deliver the Type of Content Your Audience Prefers
44% of TikTok users are Gen Z. And guess what? Stories are the content format this group of audience prefers when using social media.
TikTok Stories allow you to reach your target audience and deliver content through a format they prefer and engage well with. And when used right, this feature can help maximize your engagement rates, build your community, and potentially bring more followers as well!
Get Ahead with Stories on TikTok
TikTok Stories may not seem so special at first glance. But on closer look, it is easy to see how they might be a must-have in your social media arsenal. The not-so-new but highly underutilized feature can help you stand out from the crowd on TikTok, boost engagement, and reinforce your brand’s authenticity.
But since story content is very similar to the usual in-feed TikTok content, you will have to be very strategic about what goes on your story and what you upload on your feed.
Behind-the-scenes, exclusive, and short shelf-life content may perform best on Stories and deliver the most resounding impact.
Simplified offers powerful tools that can make creating perfect TikTok content a breeze. You can leverage our AI tools to create the perfect content in no time and get going with TikTok Stories right away!
