TikTok newbie!

[changedmyname24]

I have- much to my 15-year old's mortification- recently joined TikTok, but I am struggling to work it out!

One of my main reasons for joining was to see what my teenagers see in it & be able to understand a bit - as well as DS15, I also have DS13 with SEN & DS10, who may want to join at some point, so I feel it wise to have an idea what's what.

Another main reason is that my clever DH, after months of redundancy & depression, has gone back to his passion of filmmaking (very short topical videos) & I want to support him & share them for all to see! He is really very good & it's great that he's found a passion.

However, on point one, I'm not sure that I'm seeing the same thing DS sees - he can't be interested in housekeeping videos! And I'm not sure how any messaging function works, if that's even a thing.

On point two, I don't know how to share videos! I would imagine that when I like stuff,people will see it, but I only have a handful of followers. I'm currently following people I know only, but again not sure if that's the point of TikTok! And don't want to pester friends/contacts with messages to like videos etc.

Is there some kind of comprehensive guide for a middle-aged, technologically challenged mum? Would love to understand it all a bit more!

Ok:

No you won't be seeing what your kids see, the algorithm works on what you like, watch and follow so you see more similar content.

To add content press the + in the middle at the bottom of the app. Assuming your husband will be editing you can just straight upload.

You need to tag it appropriately. So imagine it's a clip about baking, #baking #homebaking and ideally @ a few people as it will push out to more people.

I have no followers and posted a clip using the right tag that got 2k views.

Oh and Dts are 13. I reserve the right to scroll their FYP / follow pages if I want to check the sort of stuff they're looking at. They're fine with that. There's no other way to check.

Thank you, I think that is starting to make sense! I need to spend some time just exploring it & playing about.

So yes, your FYP (for you page) that you’re mainly seeing when you scroll, it’s tailored to you and what you like. The more you interact with content - what you watch the whole way through, like or comment on - you’ll see more of those similar things. Things aren’t shown in chronological order by when they were posted. You might get shown something from a year ago if it’s gaining traction and TT thinks you’ll like it.

From your FYP you can scroll right on a video to see all the videos by that creator.

Any videos you put out are visible to everyone unless you set them to private. The aim is for them to shown on people’s FYPs who like that kind of content. There’s various ways to try and boost your content.

You can’t see what someone else is seeing on their FYP (ie teenage child) but if you have their phone you can see what they’ve liked by going to their profile and looking at what’s showing under the heart icon.

Its worth clicking on things and exploring