A Parent’s Guide to Getting the Most out of Tiktok

[5:00 minutes to read]

Why Parents Should Be On TikTok

One benefit of being a parent on TikTok is the inside look into the world of teens. By following the right accounts, this platform can give us first-hand insight into what our kids are interested in. TikTok can open the door for sparking new conversations with our teens on current affairs and can bridge the age gap effectively if used right. Learning about the latest drama going on with our teen’s favorite celebrities might seem insignificant, but teens ultimately do appreciate our interest. If you already have a TikTok account, you can skip this first section and jump into using TikTok as a parenting tool below.

Also, TikTok has a killer search engine feature - it’s so good that TikTok is encroaching on Google for search engine dominance 🤯. It’s a literal gold mine of interesting information, life hacks, and tutorials that adhere to no age limit. A prime example of TikTok’s usefulness is how it helped Teen Brain Trust’s founder, Mya Dunlop, fix an issue with her front-loading washing machine. She shared how the water was becoming stagnant and starting to smell, and her friend recommended a video that she found on TikTok about how to fix it.

In this article, we’ll help you through the initial hurdles of setting up your new account and how you can make your TikTok work as a parenting tool. With TikTok, it’s not just about making an account. Once you’ve set your account up, it’s so much easier to stay on the lookout for things to talk about. TikTok can become an ongoing, endless resource to use to engage with your teen through their interests.

Parents of teens have been around for a while now, we’re practically ancient by teen standards! We’ve had the chance to learn all about social media from the very start. Pretty much all of us are on Facebook, and a lot of us were on Myspace back in its prime. Instagram and Twitter are feeling pretty comfortable at this point too (at least until Twitter started imploding). Despite that, it seems that as soon as we get the hang of the next social media platform, something even newer comes around. 

This time, that thing is TikTok. Upon downloading the app, it might seem confusing, unrelatable, and pretty… Well, dumb. We get it, but don’t lose hope just yet. TikTok has the potential to be a really powerful tool for parenting and can be a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. In this article, we cover how to set up an account on TikTok - but it’s more about how you can use TikTok to interact with and better understand your teen. With that, it might be time to cut our losses and start adapting.

So How Do You Get Started?

It’s only after downloading the app and creating an account (which you can read more about here) that the exciting part kicks off.

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, before breaking in your account, you might get the sense that TikTok is pretty crap. You’ll be shown content that has nothing to do with you. You’ll scroll through silly dances. It’ll get annoying. But don’t despair! This type of content is temporary. You need to teach TikTok what you like, and you do this by following, watching, and engaging with different videos.

TikTok’s Next-level Search Function

To start things off, you’ll want to use TikTok’s “Search” feature. You’ll find a magnifying glass icon in the upper-right corner of the app that will let you type in the keywords you’re interested in. 

In the search bar, type in keywords or questions on a subject. For the sake of this example, try typing in “easy bread recipes”. This will instantly load up tons of videos by content creators that fit your search. You can watch any of the videos through the search gallery, or tap on a video to watch it in full-screen view. From full-screen view, you can scroll down to continue watching the search results for “easy bread recipes”

When you find a video useful, double-tap it or hit the heart icon on the right. If you really like a video, tap on the + icon above the heart to follow that content creator, and the bookmark icon to save that specific video for later. 

You can also jump in and leave your thoughts on a topic by tapping the chat bubble icon and commenting on a video. Commenting is a powerful way to let TikTok know that you’re interested in that type of content.

After you’ve followed a bunch of accounts, it’s time to start getting familiar with your feed.

At the top of your homepage, you’ll find two categories: Following and For You. These are the two tabs you’ll switch between to get content. On the Following tab, you’ll find new content by the accounts you’ve followed already. On the For You tab, you’ll find new creators that TikTok thinks you’ll like that you can then follow (by clicking the + icon).

This is where you’ll find all the coolest content and what most refer to when they say “scrolling TikTok”. This is where you get to go wild!

Besides these pages, you can also use the bottom bar to: Return to your homepage from other pages, check out TikTok’s new “Now” feature (frankly, feel free to ignore this unless your teen tells you otherwise), create a video, see your messages, or visit your own profile page (where your shared, liked and saved videos can be found) - in that order.

TikTok Strategies For Connecting With Teens!

So you’ve set up your account and learned how to interact with content to adapt your feed to your interests. Now to figure out how to use TikTok to get conversations started.

• How To Connect Through Content

Firstly, it’s time to look up content that your teen might be interested in. This is where you’ll need their input! Try approaching your teen with these questions:

🚀​​ I'm setting up a Tiktok account. Can you help me set up my feed?

🚀 Do you have any suggestions on who to follow?

🚀 Who are your top 3 follows? 

All throughout growing up, kids are heavily reliant on the validation our parents give us - even as teens. This holds true despite saying things that don’t align with that. Because of this, they are receptive to acknowledgment. Getting genuinely, respectfully interested in their interests is a powerful way to build your connection.

• Let Your Teen Teach You TikTok Etiquette

Just when we think we got the hang of things - it turns out there’s still loads more to go. It’s easy to fall into the “boomer trap” and start trailing off in the forbidden territory of making a fool of ourselves on TikTok. To avoid this, we’ll go to the experts - our teenagers. Consider asking them:

💥 Do you post on TikTok?

💥 How often do you post?

💥 What kind of content do you post?

💥 What’s taboo? Is there anything I shouldn’t post?

On top of getting the inside scoop on what’s cool and what isn’t, asking our teens for their input gives them an awesome confidence boost. Most teens love it when we let them take on a position of authority, which is exactly what happens when we go to them for advice on things they’re good at.

• Keep The Conversation Going

When our kids are young, it’s easy to keep a finger on the pulse of what they’re interested in. We take them to different lessons and they rave about how great it was, what they like, and what they don’t. As they grow older, they stop sharing their enthusiasm so vocally, and it’s easy to forget to ask. Having them help you set up your account is a great way to reinitiate that dialogue.

TikTok is populated by a huge number of creators, and their job is to always stay in tune with the topic they create content about. That means that we can stay on top of what’s happening in any niche and parrot back information that can help us engage with our teens on their interests. 

Besides what they share with us, we can also go ahead and search up some of their hobbies on TikTok to find content and stay in the loop. We can follow the accounts we find interesting from here, too.

All in all, Tiktok has gotten a bad rap, especially among parents like us who are fed up with our teens spending so much time on this platform. Despite this, we can't just wait for our teens to join the Luddite Club, so in the meantime, we might as well get familiar with the platform they're spending so much time on. 

By understanding the content they're consuming, we can connect with them more and maybe even learn something in the process. What’s most important to remember is that once you become a TikToker, it becomes easier for your teen to open up and talk to you about what’s going on in their social (media) lives.

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