From an endless loop of visual content to its ability to create viral content that builds community, TikTok has given schools many reasons to bring the platform into their social media strategy. Since the social media platform’s inception, TikTok has continued to engage its users in a way that stands out amongst its competitors.

Choosing whether or not your school should use TikTok is one thing, but, bringing your school on TikTok is another decision entirely.

How to get started with TikTok at your school

Here are a couple of questions you should ask yourself before you get your school’s TikTok account up and running:

Question 1: What are your intentions for utilizing TikTok?

Just like any other social media strategy, it’s important to have established goals in mind.  Think of your “why” like it’s the centerpiece of your posts — the driving force behind the direction of your content.

Here are a few goals that can easily feed into your overall inbound marketing strategy:

• Build a sense of community in your school
• Showcase your school’s brand
• Promote aspects of school life and campus culture
• Bring in more prospective families to your website

Question 2: Who is your target audience?

Gen Z makes up the majority of your school or district’s student population, so it’s a no-brainer that TikTok is highly regarded as the main platform to engage your community. To unlock a new way to drive awareness and demand for your school's programs, TikTok could very well become the answer.

It’s going to be essential to understand how to authentically connect with your Gen Z student body.

Question 3: How can you provide value through your TikTok content?

When you’re communicating to your audience on TikTok, the viewers want the same information that’s found in other online spaces and mediums. However, it’s all in the delivery of the content that will ultimately determine the value.

Consider the lighthearted nature of TikTok. Many established brands, businesses, and schools have to change their overall way of creating content in order to reach and retain their audience — adjusting their tone and delivery to match the expectations of those who use the platform.

With an average attention span of eight seconds, your video content needs to be what Gen Z’ers perceive as valuable.

Question 4: What will the content strategy look like?

There are so many conversations and trend cycles that are cultivated on TikTok in a short window of time, and it can be tempting to hop on the first trend you see on your For You Page (FYP). If you’re thinking of your brand on TikTok in terms of authentic longevity, not every trend is going to be one-size-fits-all, and that’s okay! It’s best to insert your school’s content when a popular trend aligns with your brand and gives you the space to add your own spin to it.

As you’re tracking trends, it is helpful to structure your time and efforts toward having set days and times to schedule TikToks. You can either create a separate content calendar or add it to an existing social media calendar alongside your active platforms.

Now that you have a better idea of how TikTok is going to play a role in your school’s social media strategy, here’s the fun part….setting up your account!

How to set up your school’s TikTok account:

1. Get a TikTok business account

After you’ve created your personal account, you’ll want to go to the three lines in the top right corner of your account page. From there, select “Settings and privacy”, “Account”, then “Switch to Business Account.” Lastly, you’ll have the option to pick a category your brand would fall under.

2. Optimize your school’s TikTok profile

1. Your school’s name and username, which users will search to find you and interact with your content.
2. Logo profile picture for easy recognition. You can use video or images. This is also where you add to your “Story.”
3. Follower, Likes,  and Post Summary, for quick reference of performance.
4. Tap on the Bell Icon to receive notifications when a user posts their content.
5. You can also tap these three dots to share their account on and off the platform.
6. Follow buttons, where you can follow a user from their profile, access their other provided social media, and suggested accounts.
7. Bio and link, to give visitors a clear idea of who you are.
8. Bio Tabs, where someone can tailor their Following preference to your account, contact via Message or Email, or see Suggested Accounts similar to yours.
9. Post grid, showing the full history of your school’s published content.

Your school only has 80 characters and one URL to share, so it’s imperative that you nail your bio, like Felsted School’s TikTok profile above. For your profile picture, remember to keep your branding consistent across all of your active social media accounts.

3. Creating your school’s first TikTok

Step 1: Open the app, log into your school’s account, and click the plus button at the center of the bottom of the app to start your TikTok.

Step 2: Record your clips in real-time, or upload them from your library. If needed, choose a sound.

Step 3: Edit your clips, add text, add captions, and do anything else you need to make your TikTok stand out.

Step 4: Add an engaging caption, include relevant hashtags, add location, adjust your settings…and VOILA!

4. How to expand your reach on TikTok

Creating compelling, user-generated content is how you draw in new users and a lot of views. But, how do you sustain that? Like any other social media platform, you’ll need to tap into the factors that play into TikTok’s algorithm:

Comments: Want to know what your growing audience is thinking? Read the comments. It shows your audience that you’re tapped into what they care about, and you’re able to begin to foster those authentic connections and form a community.

Pro tip: Responding to a comment in a separate video from its original can help bolster your overall engagement, and keep the conversation going!

Hashtags: TikTok has become an alternative search engine for Gen Z’ers — almost 40 percent turn to TikTok and Instagram over Google Search to conduct their research on goods, services, and interests. When you’re creating your captions, it’s a good rule of thumb to pull keywords within your video’s copy and the caption itself to include as hashtags at the end to boost the SEO.

Trending Audio: If you scroll through the abyss—that is, TikTok’s FYP, you’re more likely to run into the same songs playing in the background of creators’ videos. How can use them to your advantage?

1. Click on the audio at the bottom right of a video to see the number of times it’s been used on the platform, to see how other creators utilize the sound in their videos, and to save them as you scroll.

2. Go to the TikTok video editor at the bottom center of your FYP, press “Add Audio," and you can go through a plethora of trending sound bites or by genre.

5. How to track metrics and success on TikTok

Once you’ve been on TikTok for a while, you’ll need to keep track of how you’re content is performing and where you can improve. TikTok’s analytics provides an objective overview of your:

• Engagement: 
  • Video and profile views
  • Likes, comments, shares, and live videos over a given period of time
     
• Content: 
  • Trending videos over the last week
  • Total video views, likes, comments, shares, and play time per post
  • Average watch time
  • Watched the full video
  • Reached audience
  • Video views by section (FYP, following feed, your profile, sounds, searches, and hashtags), and by geographic regions
     
• Followers: 
  • Gender
  • Location
  • Activity
  • Videos they’ve watched
  • Sounds your followers are listening to
     
• Lives: 
  • Total views during your live videos and time spent hosting over a period of time
  • New followers
  • Unique viewers
  • Top viewer count

Utilizing these built-in metrics can help optimize your content on a consistent basis and plan ahead.

Key takeaway

TikTok brings in roughly a billion active worldwide users monthly, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Schools are beginning to follow the lead of bigger brands and businesses that have mastered the art of making their content authentically valuable. With set goals, an identified audience, and a grounded strategy, your school can have the potential to reignite its sense of community among current and prospective students.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In her position as Social Media Manager, Lanitta assists with demand generation efforts across all social media channels, email, and website communications. With almost 5 years of experience in content creation, digital marketing, and social media management, Lanitta enjoys working with clients to create, produce, and strategize. She holds and maintains a number of certifications from Google, Hubspot, and SEMRush.