TikTok for Business: How to Repurpose TikTok Videos

TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform, particularly in the U.S and U.K. With listener numbers growing across all age groups, it’s increasingly likely that your ideal clients are spending more of their time hanging out on the short-form, vertical video channel.

It’s no surprise that more and more DTC, B2C, and B2B brands are including TikTok in their social strategy.

But vertical video – especially TikTok-style videos ­­– can be challenging for brands to create effectively.

So, how can businesses create videos that help them grow on TikTok?

Repurposing is the answer.

Press play on the podcast player to find out how to repurpose your brand’s content to TikTok and the dos and don’ts for repurposing TikTok videos.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a short-form video sharing platform, designed for use on mobile. Videos are up to 10 minutes long, and while you can access TikTok on a desktop browser, features are limited.

Here's an amazing analogy I've heard. If you can imagine Snapchat, Spotify, Vine, and Twitch having a baby… It would look like TikTok!

TikTok has merged all of those major platforms’ unique elements of short videos, music, and collaboration. This has given the dedicated fan bases and subcultures that exist across all of them a place to gather.

There’s plenty of singing, lip-syncing, dancing, skits, comedy, and duets. There are livestreams and hashtags to follow. There’s also educational content, ads, influencers, brands – everything you expect to see on a social media platform.

And yes, Content 10x are on TikTok!

Your feed is determined by a unique and powerful algorithm. TikTok is the perfect storm of multiple favorites from the social media world.

If you aren’t on TikTok, I recommend just downloading it and taking a peek to see what it’s about if nothing else.

TikTok originated in China (where it went by the name Douyin), made by a company called ByteDance. The app really blew up, though, when it merged with Musical.ly in 2018, marking the beginning of its rise to world domination!

How has TikTok grown to be so influential?

TikTok might once have seemed like a passing trend or just for kids, but it’s not.

TikTok has had more than 3.5 billion downloads worldwide, was the most downloaded app in the world for three years running (2019-2021) and had 94 million downloads in the US alone in 2021.

Delving into the data

Let’s look at those USA statistics a little closer, taken from the 2022 Infinite Dial report:

• 88% of the US population are aware of TikTok – beat narrowly by Instagram, then Facebook
• 36% of all US citizens are using TikTok – up from just 11% in 2019
• 10% of all US citizens say TikTok is the social media platform they use most often – making it the third most popular platform, again surpassed only by Instagram and Facebook

Another key point from the report is that TikTok’s sustained yet rapid growth can be attributed to its adoption across different age groups.

The Infinite Dial’s 2022 survey of US citizens found that:

• 61% of 12-14 year olds use TikTok
• 34% of 35-54 year olds use TikTok
• 13% of those aged 55+ use TikTok

It's important to realize it’s not just dancing teenagers anymore. TikTok has increasingly become a place all demographics go to consume content.

How to repurpose content into TikTok videos

So now you know why your brand should be on TikTok. Here are two repurposing methods you can use to create video content for TikTok.

1. Repurpose pre-recorded videos to TikTok

First things first, TikTok only supports vertical video. This means you will need to work with a video editor or use a program like iMovie, Premiere Pro, or Filmora to convert your landscape videos into portrait.

This complication comes up a lot in social media video repurposing. We’ve written a guide to help you reformat your horizontal videos into vertical videos. Get it here.

Creating portrait versions of your landscape videos is going to give you a lot more repurposing potential. Similarly,  Instagram Reels, Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, YouTube Shorts, Snapchat, Pinterest all support vertical video – and you can post vertical videos to LinkedIn and Facebook feeds too.

So what types of video content could you repurpose into TikTok videos? Here are 5 ideas (with examples):

1) Video highlights from on-stage talks or virtual presentations

If you’re a speaker and you have video footage from your talks, it’s a no-brainer to repurpose them into social media content – especially TikToks.

These types of videos are very popular on TikTok, and are great for showcasing your authority.

Here’s a great example from the one-and-only Tony Robbins.

2) Guest interview insights 

Exciting, memorable, or insightful moments from your video podcast interviews are another excellent type of content to repurpose for TikTok.

This is another common type of repurposing on the platform. It’s a great way to give your audience the best bits from your interviews, while teasing what’s in the full episode.

Check out how Steven Bartlett does it.

3) Training videos, product walkthroughs or instructional screen-recordings

Show your audience what you do and how you do it by repurposing your demo videos and product-walkthroughs into bite-size instructional content.

Research shows that 84% of TikTokers are on the platform to learn or discover something new – and that could be your brand or your product. Plus, the same study found that TikTok users are 1.7x more likely to use the platform as a product discovery tool, compared to other platforms.

If you’re worried about being “too salesy”, you don’t have to use this repurposing method to create all your TikTok content, but you could drop an instructional video in every once in a while to show your audience what you really do.

That’s what video editing company, Veed.io, do.

4) Bloopers

Blooper repurposing is a brilliant tactic to increase your reach and build a stronger bond with your existing audience.

TikTok is ultimately a big video playground, so there’s arguably no better place for your bloopers to live.

The great thing about TikTok is its playful nature is forcing brands to embrace the human side to video marketing. Whether you’re D2C, B2C, or B2B, your bloopers are welcomed with open arms on TikTok.

IT services organization, Plytix, understood the bloopers assignment.

5) Images to video

Finally, we know this isn’t exactly video repurposing, but it is repurposing image into video…

How about repurposing still images into a TikTok video? Just set it to music, add some text, and voila! You’ve got yourself a TikTok video.

You could try:

• Showcasing your client’s press coverage with screenshots
• Shining a spotlight on your brand’s glow-up over the years with images showing different iterations of your logo
• Or show what goes on behind-the-scenes with team pics or office snaps

Here’s a brilliant example from SaaS company, Formstack.

Those are some ideas for how to repurpose pre-recorded videos into TikTok videos – but here’s another idea.

2. Repurpose other content into TikTok video scripts

How about repurposing concepts from your content to create native TikTok videos? So use a pre-existing content idea as the foundation for a brand-new vertical video.

Yes, this does mean getting on camera – but the good news is, you’ll know exactly what to say.

For example...

If you recorded an audio-only podcast episode sharing 5 of the best CRMs for content marketers, you could record a vertical video where you share one top benefit of each CRM.

You could then make it platform-specific by adding:

• Trending music
• Text on screen
• Cuts between each point
• Screen-recorded footage for extra guidance

Here’s one of our TikTok videos, created by repurposing this podcast episodes into a script!

When it comes to creating organic content specifically for TikTok, the best advice is to pay attention to what’s working on the platform at that time.

How not to repurpose TikTok videos

We mentioned earlier about all the other platforms you can post vertical videos to (Instagram, YouTube, etc.) but a word of warning – if you create a vertical video within a certain platform, it will likely only perform well on that platform.

You can create a TikTok video within the TikTok platform, download it, and post it to Instagram Reels, but don’t expect the same results.

In fact, Instagram recently made an announcement that they are focussing on ‘original content’ and made specific references to not favoring TikTok videos posted as Reels.

Even if you run your video through a watermark-removing tool, the platforms seem to know that you originally created the video for a different channel, and it may limit the reach.

The benefits

The huge benefit of using a platform like TikTok is the phenomenal reach potential – if this is compromised, what’s the point in posting to the platform at all?

Here’s what we suggest you do.

Firstly, focus on just one platform. Study what’s working and create videos with growth on that particular platform in mind.

Secondly, create your videos off the platform as much as you can. Record them using a non-platform-related camera app on your phone, then upload the video to the platforms separately, and add platform-specific features such as music and text.

This way, TikTok and other platforms are more likely to view your video as native to that platform (not reposted) and won’t harm your reach.

How to repurpose TikTok videos

If you’re going to spend time and effort creating content for TikTok, it’s important you repurpose that content.

For example, you could repurpose your vertical video script into a Twitter thread or Instagram carousel.

Or take core concepts and quotes and turn them into shareable social media images.

If you create a series of TikTok videos about one topic, you could curate these into a blog post and publish it on your website. This way those who find your website through a Google search, for example, will know you’re an authority on that subject.

And of course, you can share the vertical videos across other platforms too. But remember to practice platform-specific repurposing, and don’t just repost the videos (see above).

For more on repurposing videos to social media successfully, check out this blog post.

TikTok for business, brands and content inspiration

Whether you’re still on the fence about getting your brand on TikTok or are unsure how the platform could benefit your business, here are some B2B brands that are leading the way.

• Shopify – the business e-commerce platform reposts influencer and user generated content, and creates informative videos about topics their audience wants to know about, e.g., buying websites.
• Adobe – the computer software giant intersperses UGC with videos showcasing their products in TikTok-trending-style videos.
• Square – digital payments company, Square, showcase their happy customers and range of applications with customer-created videos, just adding a clear call to action.
• SalesFeed – created by B2B video organization, Vidyard, Sales Feed grew from zero to 40k followers in 6 months by posting entertaining videos that resonate with their audience. Hear more about how they did it in our B2B Content Strategist interview with Vidyard’s VP of Marketing, Tyler Lessard.

Like any platform, it’s best to spend time on it and get to know the content and creators before you start posting there.

If you’re part of a brand that’s trying to create fun, easy-to-consume, exciting content – head to TikTok, watch videos, and study the formulae and styles of funny and creative users. Then give it a go yourself.

My TikTok story!

I was at the beach and filmed a simple video of me jumping off some sand dunes. #parkour.

Someone who saw it on Instagram mentioned that they thought it would be perfect on TikTok and I… laughed, to be honest (whilst pretending I knew what TikTok was!).

But, a few days later, I was on a train with some time to kill, downloaded the app, posted the video and… forgot about it. I put in the least effort imaginable – I didn’t follow anyone, had no followers, didn’t post a video description, used no hashtags.

A few days later, I was on 100k views! To date, I’m at over 500k views. It still baffles me now!

I will admit that I haven’t had the same experience since, so maybe I’m not cut out to be a TikTok celebrity! Regardless of my status as an A-lister, I’m finding TikTok to be a great place for creative inspiration and idea generation. 

My experience of using TikTok for business

For International Podcast Day, I created this video:

This was jumping on a TikTok trend at the time – the content I posted was relevant to the platform, but the message made sense wherever you see it. You may not have known about this TikTok trend, but you can understand the point of the video anyway.

So, I didn’t just share it on TikTok… I shared it on all of our usual social media platforms, and it performed brilliantly. People loved it! They thought it was new and different and creative.

Promoting my book on TikTok

When my book came out, I made a TikTok video to promote it, using a creative style that is familiar and popular on the platform:

Again, you might not know this style if you don’t use TikTok, but you don’t need to know it to enjoy it or understand the message.

This is the key takeaway here – creativity can spread and be impactful across platforms.

If it’s good, engaging, and on-brand, your content will perform well with your audience. Even if you aren’t on TikTok, you can learn from examples of awesome creativity on the platform and apply them to your content elsewhere.

How will you use TikTok for your business?

TikTok might seem like a place that only ‘fun’ or ‘whacky’ brands can succeed – but that’s not the only source of value in TikTok for business.

The platform is a great source of inspiration for brands – from the most stuffy and corporate to the zaniest and snarkiest! Wherever you fall on the spectrum of brand identity, you can get a great deal of value from being on TikTok – even if it is just lurking, consuming the content, and observing what is working on the platform!

With content creation, the more sources of inspiration and education you have, the better your ideas will be.

Don’t just think about TikTok for business, think about all the other platforms you can use for inspiration.

And if all else fails, you can always jump off a sand dune and hope for the best!

For advice on how to use TikTok for inspiration without actually posting to TikTok check out this bonus podcast episode (disclaimer: the episode below is from 2018 – so while the advice still stands, scroll back through this post for updated statistics, etc.).

If you want to start sharing content on TikTok, but need help creating and managing content for all the different social media platforms out there, we can help. We repurpose video content and manage its distribution with our end-to-end audio and video repurposing services.