How To Make A Viral TikTok Video For Beginners

Going viral on TikTok is tricky, and yet not, depending on your idea of viral. Viral content that hits the headlines and creates memes is rare, but plenty of users have that one video that just catches the attention of a large chunk of the internet, resulting in a few thousand or million views.

If you’re looking to go viral, take a look at our guide for TikTok beginners.

DSLR Shooting vs Uploading From Your Phone

Luckily for some, virality is a concept that is generally not affected by the concept or high or low quality. Take, for example, the Couch Guy trend. That is a fuzzy, shaky, blocked, footage of a long-distance girlfriend surprising her Couch Guy. It is blurred footage that drove a raging debate. Analysis of the footage, the actions of Couch Guy, the girls he was “caught” sitting next to, the roommates who appeared uncomfortable to some, etc. was rife amongst the app.

Now that being said, it was definitely a trend that could have benefitted from some higher quality shooting. If you feel you’d like to get your new DLSR camera out, no one is going to stop you, however deciding the quality of your resolution comes down to the message you are trying to put forward.

Fans that remember the early years of YouTube were excited when TikTok took off amongst anyone over teenage since they were excited for “homegrown” talent that didn’t have the ego or polish of big influencers. In turn, low-quality resolution has been associated with being humble and genuine.

So, it comes down to your own philosophy and aesthetic preferences. Do you want a polished and beautiful viral video, or are you looking to provoke a response and intrigue with lower-quality footage?

Get Creative With Effects

TikTok offers a full roster of effects, which, when used right, can offer hilarious results. To use the above example once again, it was not unknown for users on the app to slow down the Couch Guy footage to a snail’s pace to point out alleged evidence of Couch Guy’s infidelity. For months now, a filter that blanks out everything except a user’s mouth and eyes allows users to pretend to be speaking as someone else, usually a celebrity with stock footage superimposed behind the mouth and eye filter.

Like any other trend on the site, be it filters, songs, or concepts, the key is to put your own spin on it.

Spin Into Trends

In the fresh-faced days of TikTok before we knew the horrors of lockdown when TikTok was just a cherub named Musically, dance trends were all the rage. You couldn’t open the app without seeing The Renegade, or hearing Megan Thee Stallion’s Savage.

Obviously, we’ve come a long way since then. Dance trends are still alive and thriving on the app, so throw that Renegade or dance whichever way you want to the latest songs, but there are also trends around social experiments, products, tutorials, and sheer simple humor.

For example, you can send lyrics to a boyfriend and see what they say, show your audience what you got on your latest “haul” or use the latest sounds to make a point about your life.

But the point to be remembered is to make it your own. Users are not about to let something unoriginal go viral. If you are going to tap into trends, make sure you put your own spin on it, like the latest song trending being danced to by Irish or otherwise traditional dancers, for example.

No one is expecting you to be wholly original. That is a massive feat that could even be impossible with the sheer amount of footage uploaded to the app. You’re looking for a combination of relatable but new.

Viral Elements

There are other elements of virality you can focus on to catch people’s attention. Some of them might not make headlines as the hottest thing that all the kids are doing, but they will mean that you have the most looked at TikTok on your profile.

As mentioned, people don’t just go to the app to watch people dance, nor is it even a chance at a funny skit. You’d be surprised how well content does that is useful to users. More than anything, they want to learn something, even if they don’t intend to ever use the knowledge. DIY, smelting, travel content, etc. are all useful learning opportunities to users.

Other useful aspects might be to create content that fulfills the needs of the #oddlysatisfying genre, which is ultimately to see something in disarray become organized or clean, or something slot perfectly into place. You can also create content of you reading novel excerpts to an audience trying to sleep, or study on live with an audience that are also trying to study but are starting to feel lonely.

If all else fails, engage your storytelling skills. We all have them, even for something as simple as a 10 second clip. You can make a narrative as simple as your mother screaming from another room to take out the trash, then pan to the bin as you walk away. You’ve disobeyed your mother. That’s a narrative.

Be as heavy on dialogue, editing, or footage as you wish and you’ll soon have some viral TikTok content.

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