No one knows how to TikTok Story

Instagram Stories, Snapchat Stories, Twitter Stories (err, Fleets) (RIP), LinkedIn Stories (LOL) (also RIP)—every platform under the sun has at one point offered users the ability to post casual, day-in-the-life content. While several versions have been sunsetted, it should come as no surprise that the rising star known as TikTok has its own version, called (big surprise) TikTok Stories.

Here’s what’s strange, though: 10 months into TikTok Stories, users, brands, and even creators aren’t quite sure what to do with them.

Take a look at these tweets from Dave Jorgenson, the brilliant mind behind the Washington Post’s award-winning TikTok account:

That is not great for TikTok, especially considering it gave Stories prime real estate on both the recording screen and the edit-draft moment. Yet no one seems to…actually use them.

Confusion aside, I actually do think TikTok Stories could play an important role in turning lurkers into casual creators.

TikTok’s caught the old Instagram issue

Think back to 2016. Us social folks had all used Instagram for six years by that point, growing our personal visions along the journey until tastes coalesced into a recognizable Instagram Aesthetic. Unedited pics became faux pas. Now the Instagram addicts had to ensure every image proved itself “grid-worthy.” Our Instagram profiles went from day-in-the-life snapshots to greatest hits. So when the company introduced Stories to the platform in August, it was a revelation—for both users and marketers!

It turns out, if users know their content is only going to last 24 hours, they’ll feel incentivized to live in the moment by posting content from every moment. In 2021, Insta’s Adam Mosseri said that posting “a couple of feeds a week, a couple Stories per day” can help creators grow their accounts. That ephemeral impetus has resulted in 500 million daily Instagram Stories users as of January 2022.

TikTok secretly has a similar issue.

Creators meticulously craft their TikToks to feed the platform’s algorithm. Many perfectly blend personal artistry with social media best practices to earn exponential views. Brands, on the other hand, can be so precious about their average engagement that experimentation can feel dangerous. If they’re already getting views, why fix what’s not broken?

This brings us full circle to the Instagram aesthetic all over again. Preciousness for a specific format or feel of content limits how brands and creators use TikTok. You can hear TikTok worrying about it in its official language introducing Stories:

“This new tool is designed to support deeper engagement between you and your audience through a real and authentic look into your daily life. Stories will provide a home for existing relationships to flourish on TikTok, offering your friends and followers a more familiar lens into your world. Therefore, Stories on TikTok bring the creative expression true to platform without thinking too much about content strategy.”

TikTok is quite literally asking users to not think about strategy. Which makes sense.

TikTok wants everyone posting more, whether you’re a normie, a creator, or a brand. Instagram and every other platform have demonstrated that Stories encourage more casual content creation. The platform’s hoping we stop trying to game the algorithm, stop taking our Toks so seriously, and just create for fun.

Hopefully, casual TikTokers do exactly that. For all of us with bosses and clients, we need to consider strategy always and forever.

Let’s get back to basics.

What are the basics of TikTok Stories?

• Content-wise: The creation process looks a whole lot like Instagram. Vertical, up to 15 seconds.
• Consumption-wise: Again, similar to Instagram, when someone’s posted a Story, a blue ring appears around their avatar both on the content stream and their profile. Stories also surface within the For You page now, a recent change.

Should your brand make TikTok Stories?

Probably. The unofficial rule of new social network features: Platforms give preference to accounts that use the new feature. Instagram’s especially guilty of this, between Reels and Carousels. Good luck getting any engagement nowadays with a regular ol’ photo or video. So, yeah, brands should probably all give TikTok Stories a go.

What kinda TikTok Stories should your brand make?

Good question. For creators, it’s worth mimicking your Instagram Stories strategy. Use Stories as a way to be more candid with your audience away from your primary content.

For brands, it’s a little trickier. As the Washington Post’s Jorgenson established, no true best practice has emerged. Not one of the first-page Google results for “TikTok Stories strategy” returns anything helpful. Welcome to the most fun part of Future Social: when we go full Joan Callamezzo and speculate wildly.

The most common consumption journey seems to be:

1. User sees your TikTok in their FYP or Following feed.
2. User notices that pretty blue ring around your picture.
3. User clicks that pretty blue ring to see your most recent Story.

That supports Jorgenson’s “making of” strategy: You watch a Washington Post TikTok, then click through to see bloopers of the same TikTok. That’s a natural flow that makes sense, especially for their audience.

Stories do seem to reach the For You page, but it feels pretty rare, and mostly directed toward an account’s followers instead of the wider TikTok world. Thinking back to the above consumption journey, TikTok Stories do present an interesting opportunity for you to keep your viewers interested in you before they thumb to the next TikTok.

Here’s a few ways in:

• Post-credits scene: In the same manner that Marvel tosses in reveals after movies end, what Story could you post that’s an intriguing “post-credits scene” to your most recent TikTok?
• On the next episode: Use TikTok Stories to share what’s coming up in your TikTok calendar, Arrested Development style.
• Develop a brand personality: Want to dive into creating a parasocial personality for your brand? You could soft launch by introducing a real face via Stories, be it your community manager or star talent.
• A Stories-only series: If you want to go all in, build a content series that’s only on Stories. Give people a reason to keep coming back, be it a narrative or a specific style of content.
• Stories-exclusive promos: Lightning deals expire soon. What better place to feature them than in expiring content streams.

As always, there’s no one answer to social, we should all experiment. And, if you’re experimenting, @ me with what you’re trying. I’d love to feature some successful examples here in Future Social.

The social media briefing process should be pretty simple:

1. Brand has a strategy or initiative they’d like to promote.
2. The social or creative team devises a social-first way to message the initiative.
3. Profit.

Something you’ll see a lot in this newsletter: examples of brands nailing that process, along with detailed breakdowns. That’s why I’m so excited about this Chipotle TikTok series.

Chipotle pushed its queso blanco pretty hard the last two years. The newest promo: Free queso Mondays if you order from their app. Heckuva deal. Certainly one folks are going to jump at.

If you’re in advertising, you’ll probably ask for an “insight” before getting to the creative. Fine. Here’s a handful of insights (and don’t you dare argue with me about what is and isn’t an insight—save that for agencies):

• Often, Chipotle fans customize their items past the basic menu. There’s the quesarito, nachos, “dragon sauce.” It’s a whole thing.
• “Hacks” are a forever-popular content format. People love seeing products they’re familiar with used in unexpected ways. The word “hack” itself carries buzzy weight and works as a hook for viewers.
• “Shot on iPhone” content with native TikTok text treatment makes brand TikToks come off as more personal, authentic, and less brand-y.

That’s what makes Chipotle’s new series of “queso hacks” so perfect. Let’s break down this 15-second TikTok with their Spicy Queso Hack.

0:00–0:03: Visual + voiceover hook. “Here’s a hack you can use to make spicy queso at Chipotle” is clear, unmistakable, and interesting.

0:04–0:08: Making the spicy queso. Three simple steps in four seconds, quick cuts on what’s clearly an iPhone camera for nativeness.

0:09–0:15: The promo. All the details + the promo code in big, TikTok fonts. We, the users, are happy to hear the message since we’re already entertained and the promo’s for free food.

A simple 15 seconds that’s full of creativity while also pleasing brand managers. It’s the dream. Sure, shouting, “FREE QUESO!!!” would’ve worked plenty fine, but you get wayyy more brand awareness, wayyy more social engagement, and wayyy more sales when you actually allow your social team to social up the idea instead of tossing up some basic ad; 371,000 TikTok views can’t be wrong.

There are a handful of marketing-focused awards shows out there, from the ever-prestigious Cannes to the more digitally minded Shorty Awards. I’m always scouring the entries to see who might bring home the trophies in social. Here are a few recent winners I loved.

Shorty Awards Winner: MTV Video Music Awards

Running social for live events can be a beast. It’s wildly different building a lead-up campaign for one big moment than for a brand, team, or product. What’s stunning about MTV’s VMA campaign is the sheer depth of executions. There are countless platform-specific plays here, utilizing native features from every single platform, including two brand new features: TikTok’s trending unit with in-app voting and Facebook’s Super Hash experience.

Clio Silver Medalist: Vienna Tourist Board’s OnlyFans

Facebook and Instagram don’t allow nudity on their platforms, which, shockingly, extends to art. Vienna has some of the world’s most exquisite art, which, unshockingly, includes nudity. That’s why the Vienna Tourist Board made an OnlyFans in protest of Meta’s policies. Super clever, super silly, but very informative.

Clio Silver Medalist: Call of Duty, Warzone in Paradise

You might not think travel influencers and shooter video games share much in common, but Call of Duty came up with an original way to showcase their new paradise game map—send creators to the fictional island from the map itself. Activision’s strategy for blending IRL + in-game worlds into content is a neat watch.

Shorty Award Winner: Blue’s Clues, “A Message from Steve”

We all needed a little love during the pandemic. Our good friend Steve returning for the Blue’s Clues 25th anniversary on Twitter may go down as one of the most heartfelt pieces of brand content ever. The earnest video explaining Steve’s departure and how he’s proud of his now-grownup viewers couldn’t have come at a better time, and clearly resonated with the people—to this day it’s garnered over 40 million views and almost 800,000 retweets. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

I do, in fact, have interests outside of social media (even if you could never tell from Twitter). Think it’d be fun for us to get to know each other a little bit. You know, we’re not our jobs, work-life balance, that sort of stuff. Here’s a few things I’m digging lately.

In Her Own Words’s new album, Distance or Decay

I’m not a millennial, I’m an elder emo. Grew up on the Warped Tour scene, even spent a spell as a music journalist before I started my advertising career. That means there’s plenty of pop-punk blaring out my speakers when I write. On repeat for me right now? In Her Own Words’s new album—big riffs with polished production plus an angsty vocalist with big pipes. Give “Daydream” or “Raining in Toronto” a spin and a mosh.

HBO’s Barry

I am just so astounded by this show every week. It’s my favorite thing on TV right now (yes, over Obi-Wan, which I also adore). If you missed the first two seasons, SNL alum Bill Hader plays a discharged marine who works as a hitman, only to decide he wants to become an actor. It’s the darkest of dark comedies, so expect to double over laughing as much as you gasp at the body count.

Letterboxd: Social Media for Films

I’ve always admired Twitter threads where people list every book they read in a year. Letterboxd is sort of that, but for movies. It’s an easy way to keep track of everything you’ve watched, how you rank them, read other reviews, and more. I especially love that it has a “Share to Instagram Stories” feature. I see a film, I mark it in the app, and then I can share with all my normal friends who are perfectly content with basic social media apps. Lightyear and Elvis analysis coming soon.