Nothing like trying to do something your teenager does on a regular basis to make you feel old. I spent most of yesterday making a 60 second TikTok video. You don’t know what TikTok is? It is a social media application that displays short, fun videos. There are quick tutorials, dancing or fitness challenges, riddles…really just fun moments to share. Most are set to music and last about 1 minute. I wanted to do a demo for Beautycounter, the new clean personal care product I am promoting. Makeup tutorials or demos can be a bit challenging for me due to my disability and shaking hands, but with TikTok, you can speed the display to 1,2 or 3 times faster, so it is easy to hide the hand shaking.
There were a few things I needed to do before starting to record. First, I needed to select a speed. I chose for the video to display 3 times faster. Next, I wanted to pick a song as background music for the video. That took me forever. I did not recognize any of the music until I came across Footloose. Finally, a song I could relate to. I selected Footloose and kept creating videos, wondering why each one only lasted 15 seconds when I had selected the 60 second option. It was impossible to fit all of the makeup steps into 15 seconds. Well, the song I picked only had 15 seconds worth of music! Who knew? I finally found a 60 second song I did recognize. It was from the Twilight movies, A Thousand Years. Yes, a teenage favorite.
Next, I wanted to add text. YouTube came in handy to find those instructions. Gotta love Google and YouTube. But, man, is it a tedious process when you have no clue what you are doing. I’m sure with time and practice it will become easier. Overall, I had fun. I can see why the kids get into it. I was determined to finish my 60 second makeup demo, which is why I was up until after midnight! As my friend Kristal said when I shared my TikTok accomplishment with her, “spontaneity is so time consuming”.
I wanted to add my hashtags – #Beautycounter, #Momover50, #Easymakeup to feel officially a part of TikTok but I posted the video before adding them. Hashtags cannot be added after the video posts. Oh well. I’ll put a whole slew of hashtags on my next one. Honestly, I don’t understand hashtags. Some people love to add a whole bunch of hashtags to a post. Personally, I still use the term “pound sign”. Do hashtags really DO anything?
I will keep practicing my TikTok techniques and hashtags. I did try to learn a TikTok dance. Not as easy as it looks. I need a lot more practice before I post one of those!
My first TikTok is posted and how sweet is Alice, she warned me that there might be negative comments and to just ignore them. Sadly, negative comments happen to everyone when a post goes Public. So feel free to “like” and add positive comments!
My TikTok!
https://vm.tiktok.com/w9Cd7p/
Finding Abilities 