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Everything You Need To Know To Know About The New TikTok Stories Feature
TikTok has grown into a genre-defining social media platform, constantly meeting new trends and creating new ones. This platform has allowed a wide variety of creators to express their content to a considerable audience around the world.
Recent data has expressed that the average TikTok user spends around 52 minutes a day using the app. With such traction and engagement being drawn to the platform, the app has now jumped on a new trend with the release of TikTok Stories. Netinfluencer has all of the information regarding this exciting new feature.
What is TikTok?
TikTok first started its life in 2014 under the name Musical.ly, a simple lip-syncing app that mainly gained the attention of pre-teens and children. In November 2017, ByteDance acquired the app and merged it with an existing Chinese app called TikTok. Therefore, the blending of these two similar platforms allowed TikTok as we know it to take the social media world by storm.
As the years go by, TikTok has managed to become one of the most successful social media platforms of all time with an astonishing 2.6 billion downloads worldwide. This platform allows users to create short-form videos alongside a variety of music, sounds, or original recordings. Therefore, you can expect dancing, lip-syncing, and other forms of fun content.
These videos can also be edited to include a collection of fun and off-beat filters. These filters such as Green Screen and Time Warp Scan, allow influencers to add another dimension of creativity to their videos. In turn, new trends seem to develop every day on this platform.
Many influencers have made TikTok their most profitable platform, using the long-form video features to create vlogs and comedic sketches. As the platform continues to promote a diverse wealth of content, the app is considered to have a net worth of between $50 billion and $75 billion.
What are TikTok Stories?
Social media experts define stories as ‘mobile, full-screen, vertical videos, and images that appear outside of your regular feed and only last for 24 hours before they disappear’. This feature can be found on platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram, giving users the opportunity to create fleeting content for their followers to consume.
TikTok Stories adheres to the same trend, allowing influencers to post a collection of videos and images before they are taken down within 24 hours. This feature was originally tested using a few participants back in 2021. Now, it seems that TikTok has rolled out its stories further, allowing a larger number of users to experiment with the feature.
The main reason that TikTok Stories defies other social media stories is through its multiple engagement avenues. Traditionally, whenever someone comments on a story, the message will be sent directly to the influencer’s DMs. With TikTok Stories, comments are listed in a separate tab, where influencers can also see who has viewed their story.
Where can I find TikTok Stories?
Like other social media platforms, TikTok Stories can be found within an influencer’s profile. When an influencer has posted a new story, their profile picture will be illuminated by a blue circle. Occasionally, stories will appear on your For You Page, depending on the previous influencers you have interacted with.
Recently, users have seen a TikTok Stories pop-up notification appear as soon as they enter the app. This leads users directly to the camera, giving them the opportunity to create a story before they begin to view new content.
Who has access to this feature?
It is still unclear as to which countries have complete access to TikTok Stories. The platform originally stated that only US-based users will have access to the new feature. However, as of March 2022, users in the UK have also been able to create stories.
If you cannot access this feature, you may not be able to create TikTok Stories in your country as of yet. TikTok also recommends that users update their software regularly to ensure that they are using the latest version of the app.
How to create a TikTok Story
TikTok Stories maintain the same amount of simplicity as TikTok videos themselves, making this new feature very accessible. First, you must open the latest installment of the TikTok app and tap the ‘Post’ button at the bottom of the screen.
This will then lead you to the camera, which will need to be set to ‘Quick’ mode. In order to do this, scroll through the modes at the very bottom of the screen. Then, record a short video or upload an existing video from your camera roll. You can also take a picture from this menu.
Once you have created the perfect piece of content, it is now time to edit. You can implement an array of filters or add a popular sound to accompany your video. Finally, you can post the video to your story.
Will this feature be rolled out worldwide?
TikTok Stories has already amassed a large amount of popularity in both the UK and the US. Despite this success, there is no official date or indication as to whether this feature will be formally released worldwide. However, it seems that the feature is also slowly being released in other European countries such as France.
How can TikTok Stories boost engagement?
Although TikTok Stories is still in its Beta phase, there is no doubt that the feature helps to create even more engagement on the platform. TikTok’s interface is easy to navigate and allows influencers to post a collection of content within quick succession. Thus with TikTok Stories, viewers can consume and interact with a tremendous amount of content in just a short burst of time.
In addition, this feature also allows TikTok to stay up to date with the latest trends that other platforms are adhering to. TikTok may be an innovative platform, but it is vital that the app remains vigilant of its competitors’ actions. Therefore, TikTok Stories show how this platform is able to both follow and transform conventional social media trends.
TikTok has grown an incredible amount since its initial launch, moving away from the standard teenager demographic to attract users from every age range. The new TikTok Stories feature may still be in its early days but it is exciting to see how the platform continues to grow into a profitable space for influencers to use. To learn more about how TikTok can boost your engagement rates, visit our website.
