8 Viral Tiktok Video Ideas: How to Get Tiktok Famous?

• 02 June 2020

Last Updated on March 2, 2023

TikTok is the hottest new social media network in the world right now. The statistics, describing the platform’s growth can blow your mind. According to IMH almost 8% average engagement rates, 400+ million users in China, 50+ million in the US, users from almost every country in the world and other figures which don’t indicate a slowdown in the near future. What makes TikTok so appealable is its easygoing attitude, wide appeal and the almost limitless possibilities to make unique, entertaining content without too much work. We’ve decided to help you along the ride and share 8 TikTok video ideas that should help you get viral on this social media. So, regardless of whether you’re young, old, black, white, employed or unemployed, let’s focus on some unique ideas for making TikTok videos.

Comedy content & challenges

When a major challenge comes around, everyone decides to jump on the bandwagon. If you remember, we had some social media challenges that united the world even. There was the ALS ice bucket challenge which raised awareness on a serious illness. With that being said, we also had some funny challenges like the Chubby bunny challenge, the legendary planking, slightly forgotten Tebowing, stuff like the Harlem shake and more recently #FlipTheSwitch.

There was a time when Facebook was the epicentre of challenge-related content. There was a time when Instagram and even Snapchat were the major hubs for challenger. However, with that being said, TikTok is by far the best-optimised platform to make such videos. You can devise your own challenge and try to popularise it with the added help of TikTok video views and likes or try to catch a new trend and take a creative approach. For example, you had US politician Elizabeth Warren and Kate McKinnon, the actress which plays her on Saturday Night Live, did one of the most iconic #FlipTheSwitch. Even though this particular video went more viral on Twitter, TikTok was not far behind. Lacking ideas on challenge content? Here are a few examples:

Alright, physically this may not be the easiest challenge to do, but still. Quality content!
@espn

The invisible box challenge has had some different outcomes. 😂😂 (via arielo1220/Twitter, jcurlyy/Instagram)

♬ original sound – ESPN
Different outcomes, but worth watching results nonetheless!

Furthermore, you can always do comedy. TikTok allows anyone without a background in video editing or cinematography make entertaining skits and comedy shorts. Do you remember Vine? That strange social media platform which had so much followers but strangely died out? Regardless of its demise, Vine left a certain imprint on the social media comedy landscape. Vine arguably laid the foundation for internet comedy shorts of the foreseeable future.

Comedy is rarely something you can just research and nail just from statistics. You have to feel whether a thing is funny or not, but once you get over a certain hump, people begin to laugh and appreciate just because your persona, and not just because the content is super LOL, LMAO and ROFLCOPTER. We recommend creating certain characters for the sake of TikTok. Lenarr Young on YouTube does a great job of impersonating and creating characters for the sake of comedic skits. If you can figure your own way of creating something like the examples we’ll show below, you can definitely get famous and fast!

Nothing super creative or subtle, but still could crack a smile, even on a rainy day.
@itscamcasey

She Got Launched 😂 @echogreene07

♬ original sound – Cam Casey
Life lesson learned. Never do funny videos with your older siblings, they’ll just make you do all the stunts.

Cute pets & babies

If you are the dad or mom of a cute pup, mischievous cat or are proud parents, you can show off to the rest of the world. It’s actually a very simple way of getting likes because in all honesty, who doesn’t like babies and pets. Uploading them is just as effective as buying likes, views or followers on TikTok.

Check out these examples

A genuine set of emotions and a really light-hearted video! Props to the creator.
Peak parenting pleasures. Chasing your baby who took your phone.

What is the most impressive thing about this sort content is that you can create something really fun and memorable. Later on, when your kid is all grown up, you can reflect and take a trip down memory lane. It isn’t expensive to create and you can make a case that honest interaction with your puppy and child is the genuine most form of content. The emotions will be pure and unfaked which is very valuable to social media users. Whereas most influencers over-advertise in many other niches, you can’t over-love and over-cuteify babies and pets. If you’re a pet owner or work in an animal shelter, don’t just think that puppies and cats are your only viable content partners. Piggies, lambs, deer, goats, little birds, hamsters and all sorts of other pets are cute. People who work in a zoo or animal shelter can create entertaining animal-related content and get famous while simultaneously raising awareness on serious issues.

Music

If you weren’t familiar with the origins of TikTok, we will say that it began life as a different platform. At the time it was known as musica.ly, but a Shanghai-based multi-billiondollar company ByteDance bought it and changed it slightly, successfully rebranding it to TikTok. Read the full story on Vox here.  

The base of TikTok is still music and soundtracks, even though a lot more content creators are making videos without music in the background nowadays. Still, don’t forget that this is one of the best platforms to showcase your musical talents.

Sinatra x R&B = Why not

And here’s one more – slightly different.

@justinbernardez_

If Drake and DaBaby made a song together in 1 minute

♬ original sound – Justin Bernardez
This dude is just awesome. He makes these videos where he tries to make short samples of famous hip-hop & R&B singers’ songs, and they are hilariously on point.

Turns out, if you add some music to the background of your video, people find it easier to like said content. Dance, do a prank, play with something – it doesn’t really matter what you do, as long as it’s in tune with the trend and the musical soundtrack is familiar. There are also funny soundtracks that force you to react individually like the #coupleschallenge or the #familychallenge. All in all, you have an almost limitless amount of possible options of adding soundtracks to your content. Take full advantage of what you can do and experiment to the max.

Cars

There are a lot of petrolheads and car lovers (EV included) in the world. Safe to say that you have millions of people like that on TikTok. Chances are you yourself have even seen some drifts, tuning cars, exhaust tests as well as on-board videos from inside of the car. If you own an exotic, fast or a fun car, you can make a lot of content with it. From sound tests all the way to autobahn fly-by’s, TikTok allows anyone to make car-related content without investing a lot into what’s otherwise a quite competitive market. YouTube, Instagram and Facebook is full of automotive content while TikTok audiences still crave for car content. Here are a few examples with a lot of views and likes.

Being a neighbour of a person who owns a V8 Dodge is a nightmare. Just see what we mean.
“SKRRRT” – you should be able to hear 2Chainz (or another rapper) screaming that in the background of this video.

Just let it rev and become famous as a result!

Fashion

Just as cars are more likely to be watched by a male audience, the same, just for a female audience can be said about fashion. Both the quarantine pillowfashion challenges and look, style videos are very popular on TikTok. If you personally like fashion, clothes design and styling, you should definitely look into making such content because consumers for it are everywhere.

https://www.tiktok.com/@tayhage/video/6801879023824768262
Every boyfriend knows (at least partially) the struggle.
Modern, contemporary or in this case – vintage fashion is also very popular on TikTok.

Styling advice, presenting new looks, making silly fashion with your significant other, etc. Combining fashion with entertainment is easy. Anyone involved or interested in fashion can give it a go. Fashion-related videos are a great idea as a TikTok for photographers.

If you aren’t sure what could be shown, just have a look at a few examples below.

Food

The most notable was arguably the recent whipped coffee trend. During the lockdown of 2020, for some reason people fell in love with the recipe of a particular cold coffee drink. Some got it right, some got it wrong. Some loved it, some hated it, but the fact is that a recipe from TikTok captivated the attention of people all over the world. Just like you see on Tasty or other recipe sites, TikTok is an ideal platform for advertising cool recipes and presenting delicious meals in an awesome way.

The famous #Whippedcoffee everyone tried.

We’ll give some examples of how you can make food related content and become the next Gordon Ramsey, all thanks to TikTok.

We recommend putting a personalised twist on well-known recipes and making unique food. For example, everyone knows about BBQ ribs, but maybe you know another sauce that goes well with ribs? What about a special, in-house recipe of goulash or something really exotic which is actually very easy to make? You have a lot of famous personalities in the food industry. Popular chefs are followed by hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. They have their own TV shows and somewhat of a cult following. By starting out on TikTok you can achieve their level of stardom.

Slightly spiced up version of your regular omelette.

Another twist we can recommend is healthy food and dieting. You can promote healthy food, combine it with exercise videos and you got a recipe for unparalleled stardom. TikTok is a great platform for advertising training and dieting programmes for other people. You can show things in action as well as display common mistakes in a quick video. Never before has there been a platform, better suited for sharing knowledge and know-how about specific fields.

DIY

When it comes to DIY videos and TV shows, you have to appreciate the editing quality and the visuals, which are usually top notch. However, TikTok audiences won’t have such high standards when it comes to DIY stuff. You have very basic, yet super effective editing tools like adding sound, titles and/or text.

Thanks to the many possibilities of video and audio editing on this app, you can make things look a lot cooler than they are. Those simple life hacks like turning a paper clip and a soda can cap can look super impressive if you present them right.  

Albeit you need a lot of oil, this is a great DIY trick for decoration.
DIY and cars, why not?

DIY is a great way to generate TikTok video ideas without showing your face. Only show your hands.

Whiteboard & infographics

This is a bit of a longshot and quite an untapped market, but it’s definitely worth a try. Once again, you needn’t show your face to become relevant and famous in the field. You know those infographic and/or whiteboard animated videos like MinutePhysics? It would be really cool to combine some economic knowledge (like investment graphs), DIY stuff, fashion and some other video ideas from our article with a whiteboard format.

FAQ

We also strongly recommend reading through this FAQ. Every self-respecting TikTok celebrity should be familiar with this information!

How do you get TikTok famous?

Fame is a relative concept, first and foremost. However, if you’re looking for ways to become a recognisable brand and/or face on TikTok, this article is a great way to start. You need to be a frequent content creator. There still hasn’t been statistical research on an optimal amount of TikTok videos to upload, but this, much upvoted answer on Quora suggests at least 5 uploads per week. This is a social media that’s loaded with content and the feed forces people to see a lot of new and fresh videos. This is why you need to be a frequent uploader.

How to make money on TikTok?

Since TikTok is probably the fastest growing social media platform in the world, it’s a very exciting business prospect. There are a few ways of how you can make money on TikTok.

  1. Put up sponsored posts – get offers from businesses and/or private advertisers and advertise their products and or services to your audiences
  2. Donations via Live videos – people can buy TikTok coins for real-life cash. They can then donate these coins to creators once they’re doing a live video. The creators can converts these coins into diamonds and convert those diamonds into a cash transfer.
  3. TikTok ads – advertise your content, product and/or service and engage people into buying. You can make money
  4. Flipping TikTok accounts – you can buy a poorly managed account, rebrand it, give it new life by uploading awesome content and then sell it for a profit. Furthermore, you can create a profile, attract audiences and then sell your own creation, or you can buy for cheap and sell for a higher price.

Sadly, as of now, there isn’t a way to monetise your content like on YouTube.

What does FYP mean on TikTok?

According to cyberdefinitions.com, FYP on TikTok means – “For You Page.” The “For You Page” is a page that appears when the video-sharing app TikTok is opened. Many TikTokers strive to get a video of themselves on the #FYP (or #ForYouPage), as this results in more views, more likes and (probably) more followers.

It could also mean Fixed Your Post. FYP is often used after re-posting a version of someone’s post but with your own edits to align the post to your opinion. However, this meaning is a much rarer one.

How long are TikTok videos and what’s the optimal length for one?

Regular TikToks that you create in the app can be up to 15 seconds long. With that being said, you can also upload videos from your gallery that are longer, as well as being able to string together a few clips to create a TikTok which is up to 60 seconds long. Before you begin to record, you can select a video format for either 15 or 60 seconds.

There are also the following regulations and specs for videos:

  • Video File Size: no more than 287.6 MB (for iOS) and no more than 72 MB (Android)
  • Asset Dimensions: 1080 x 1920 (video must use the entire canvas)
  • 150px margin on top and bottom, 64px margin on each side
  • Resolution: 9:16 aspect ratio
  • File Type: MP4 or MOV file
  • Vertical video orientation is preferred

How do I go live on TikTok?

First and foremost, your account has to meet the only requirement: have 1,000 followers. There could be rare cases when your account is suspended from being to start live feeds, but that’s very rarely the case. If your account meets the sole criteria, here’s how you go live:

1. After opening the app, click the glowing (+) icon which is at the centre-bottom part of the screen

The icon in question is marked red.

2. Click the ‘Live’ button which should be next to the option to ‘Record’
3. Give your live video a name and you should be good to go!

How to add text on TikTok?

Editing videos on TikTok is super simple. Adding text is also super simple.

1. Film your video and click the bright red circle with the white confirmation mark

After confirming your creation, you’ll be able to add text.

2. Click the button at the bottom which says ‘Text’

Many options, but you should click ‘Text’.

3. Type in the text and format it by changing the alignment, font, colour and layout.

Such a beautiful piece of text, right?

How many people are on TikTok?

As of early 2020, TikTok had 800 million active users worldwide. In comparison, Reddit has ~440 million, Snapchat – around 400 million, Twitter – around 400 million. The only social media networks which have more users are Instagram, WeChat, WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook.

Pick courtesy of https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics

How to duet on TikTok?

Duets are a popular feature of TikTok. Duetting is actually quite simple, and the feature is integrated into the app itself. Here’s two steps on how to begin making duets:

1. Click the share button at the centre-right part of the screen

The white share icon is always present next to videos in your feed.

2. Click the ‘Duet’ button at the bottom-centre of the sharing options list

Once you click ‘Share’, the ‘Duet’ button is very noticeable.

How to get more likes on TikTok video?

If you’re eager to be more popular on TikTok and if you want to get more likes on your TikToks, the easiest and fastest way is to buy TikTok likes. It’s much faster than regular grind and a lot cheaper than advertising on TikTok or anywhere else. Skip the grind and enjoy the fame a lot quicker!

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