TikTok has exploded in recent years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic kept people shut in and looking for entertainment like TikTok trends to lighten the mood.
While the platform was once dominated by Generation Z, its users span almost every generation pretty evenly. Here’s the audience you can expect to reach on TikTok by age as of March 2021, according to Statista:
- 25 percent ages 10 to 19
- 22.4 percent ages 20 to 29
- 21.7 percent ages 30 to 39
- 20.3 percent ages 40 to 49
- 11 percent ages 50 and up
This social media platform is a powerful tool for influencers and brands looking to grow their reach.
TikTok is always adding more features and effects to keep content fun. Let’s look at the top trends for 2021 and what you may be missing out on if you aren’t riding the TikTok train yet.
Top TikTok Trends
Vlogs and comedy are the most popular content on TikTok. TikTok is often used as an escape from daily life as well as a way to connect people. Nine out of 10 TikTok users use the app multiple times a day. TikTok absorbs its users and keeps them scrolling. Content creators use the following 2021 trends to create content that grabs the audience. Let’s see how they do it.
Episodic Content
TikTok users turn their videos into a series with multiple parts. It’s common to tell a story with a cliffhanger leaving the viewer wondering what happens next. This leads them to the creator’s page to search for the next part of the story.
People will follow the content creator because they want to see future episodes in the series. Episodic content is a promise that there will be more like this video you just watched, enticing people to come back for more.
Dance Challenges
Dance challenges may be what this social media platform is most known for. Users create short, fast choreography set to a catchy song snippet. The dances can be done in one place in front of the app’s vertical screen, and the moves stay very tight.
Once a dance gains popularity, you start to see it all over the app with other users trying to duplicate the dances too. Using multiple people in the dance where you have movements lining up perfectly is also popular.
The trio effect is a TikTok effect where the video will clone you so that the dance is showing up three times from the same person’s moves. This creates a choreography feel with only one person in the video.
Behind The Scenes
When you have a business or a unique job, behind-the-scenes videos give you a personal face on media platforms. The more personal and relatable you are, the better your marketing campaigns will perform on TikTok.
Many companies have looked to their employees to be the face of the brand on social media. Involving your employees in your influencer marketing strategy gives followers a personal connection to the brand. Employees are encouraged to create content on social media as a nano- or micro-influencer in most cases.
Branded Hashtag Challenge
This is a video posted with a unique and memorable hashtag that invites others to take part in the challenge. They use that same hashtag, and when another TikTok user searches that hashtag, they can pull up many TikTok videos created in the challenge.
Chipotle is popular on TikTok. An example of a branded hashtag challenge is its #GuacDance challenge where Chipotle asked their viewers to create their own dance for free guacamole on National Avocado Day.
This is a great example of how brands can get people interacting with their campaigns using fun, light entertainment and comedy. You can pay for an ad on TikTok to help give your challenge attention. You can also partner with a TikTok influencer to start the challenge off and help it gain traction.
Branded Stickers
Your company can pay to create a sticker or filter with its information on it. A sticker can promote an event or campaign that gets people thinking about you.
For example, Pizza Hut has many branded stickers that make posting with pizza more fun. If there is a sticker or special effect to go with an idea, a TikTok user is more likely to do it.
Tell Me Without Telling Me
This is one of the most popular TikTok trends in 2021. Someone creates a video that asks their audience to tell them something about themself without actually saying the words to tell them.
For example, “Tell me you still live with your parents without telling me you still live with your parents.” This invites viewers to answer them while stitching their video together with the original, which gives the original video more attention. The stitched video will then come up with something to show that they still live with their parents without actually saying that they do.
Green Screen
Green screen is one of the most used TikTok effects. It allows you to change the background of your video. You can pick any image from your camera roll to be your image or choose from some backgrounds TikTok provides.
Some people will use this video feature to talk in front of a picture from a story they are telling or to show a statistic or report in the background that supports their video.
Long Face
The long face effect warps your face to make you look funny. Some TikTok users use this effect when they’re acting out a conversation. They will use their normal face for one side of the conversation and a warped face for the other.
Double Screen Effect
This splits your screen so that you can put a different video on each side. It’s used when showing two different scenarios. For example, someone is comparing living with roommates to living on their own, they may show the side-by-side comparison of their mornings for comedic purposes.
This is similar to the duet feature on TikTok where a user can choose a video and create a new video to play alongside it. This is popular with reaction videos where you record your reaction to a prank or another surprising video.
You can also create a conversation with another user or sing a song together. Duets are very popular and for good reason. Collaborating with other content creators is a great way to extend your reach and grow your audience.
When brands and influencers take advantage of these TikTok trends, they can grow their popularity on the platform. When creating a marketing campaign on TikTok it’s important to know what content is performing the best and how you can use the trending features to get attention.
All of these trends create a fun experience for the community on TikTok. Since we know comedy performs very well on TikTok, the more fun you are on the platform, the more popular your account will be.
