Technology
Here’s How I Plan to Use TikTok to Grow As a Writer and Blogger
TikTok can be just as useful as YouTube for writers

If you've read my previous articles, you’d know I primarily write about technology, social media, and gaming-related topics. Additionally, I own my publication called Illumination Gaming which, as you might guess from the title, focuses on gaming-related topics.
I plan to use TikTok to reach a broader audience while also directing as many viewers as I can to my Medium profile and publications.
In this post, I introduce TikTok and answer frequently asked questions by those who are interested in joining this platform as a user or creator.
If you don’t know what TikTok is, here’s a brief introduction.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a very popular social media platform that is focused on short-form videos ranging from 15 seconds to up to 10 minutes. But most videos are between 15 seconds and 1 minute.
TikTok can be used for any type of family-friendly content you wish to create, but the most popular ones consist of the following:
- Entertainment
- Dance
- Pranks
- Fitness/Sports
- Beauty/Skin Care
- Fashion
- Cooking/Recipes
- Life Hacks/Advice
- Pets
TikTok, as a hosting service and platform, is owned by ByteDance, which is a Chinese company. There are some data security concerns globally that I will cover in my next story.
Why is TikTok so popular?
The reason TikTok is so popular is because of two main reasons. The first is the ease of use. After simply creating an account, the main page titled the ForYou page, is filled with an endless amount of videos that can be viewed just by scrolling down.
The second reason works very well off the first reason, which is TikTok’s incredibly accurate algorithm.
Just by using TikTok for a few days, its algorithm can specifically distinguish what type of content you prefer to watch. It then uses this information to fill your ForYou page with videos catered specifically for you (that’s why it’s called the ForYou page).
After the first few days of using TikTok myself, it already knew I wanted to see content relating to gaming, humor, cars, and technology. That is precisely the reason I sometimes get carried away, swiping away and losing track of time.
TikTok is advertised as a family app, therefore, it can be used by people of all ages. There are even parental controls included in the app's settings so that inappropriate videos will be filtered out.
How is TikTok different from other social media platforms?
Although TikTok may be put in the same category as media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube, there is a distinct difference.
Instagram is more focused on photos, with videos as a secondary. While on the other hand, YouTube is focused on longer-form videos, with a lot of the platform consisting of videos longer than 10 minutes in a landscape video format. TikTok differs from these since it’s focused on short-form portrait format video content.
Now that you’re caught up on key points regarding what TikTok is, I’ll start by talking about the benefits of using TikTok as a creator.
Benefits of TikTok for Writers
Since TikTok has millions of active users constantly scrolling through their ForYou page, there is a moderately high chance any content you publish will be distributed to people who are interested in that category, assuming your content is consistent while using the appropriate hashtags.
Writers can benefit from TikTok in the same way that other creators can. By creating short videos talking about your posts or anything regarding your posts, you could potentially direct some of your TikTok viewers to your writer profiles, therefore directing more traffic to your written content.
I intend to create short-form videos regarding my gaming articles in order to direct new readers to my writer profile and publication.
The videos will be around 20–30 seconds and include a very brief description of what my article is about. At the end of each video, I will direct my viewers to the link in my bio, which will lead to my writer's profile or my publication on Medium.
How to create a TikTok account?
If you wish to create your own TikTok account, it’s as simple as downloading the app or visiting the website and creating an account by using your phone number or email address.
Alternatively, you can log in using your existing Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple, or Instagram account. There are no prerequisites to creating a TikTok, anyone who wants to create content is free to do so whenever they want.
In terms of actually creating TikToks, it can quickly be done just by recording straight from your phone. There is a moderately simple editing tool built into the app, which is good enough for most people but isn't the best option.
If you would like a bit more editing power, you can simply download mobile video editing apps such as iMovie or Adobe Premiere Rush.
But if you’re like me and prefer professional video editing software, you can use any desktop video editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro.
You can either transfer your videos from your phone or record them via your webcam. Then your videos can be uploaded via your phone or your desktop, whichever you prefer.
To finish things off, I’ll talk about some common issues which may arise from consistently using TikTok.
Issues with TikTok
The first of which can be an addiction. Due to its very simple viewing design, it’s really easy to get lost in the algorithm and spend hours on end scrolling through videos that were chosen to keep you scrolling for as long as possible.
My advice would be to try to restrict your view time to a specific amount of time to ensure you don't get lost in the endless loop of scrolling through your ForYou page.
Additionally, if you have kids who use TikTok, ensure you enable parental controls to ensure they don't see anything they shouldn't be seeing.
My New TikTok Account for Writing
I created my TikTok account with the username illumination.gaming just earlier today, and I will be posting short videos relating to my posts on Medium within the coming days.
Here’s a link to my TikTok page:
https://www.tiktok.com/@illumination.gaming
I’d appreciate it if you could follow me to get notification for my content to be posted soon. I plan to post daily and guide writers contributing to my publications.
If you enjoy my posts, please consider following me since I regularly post about exciting gaming-related news and talk about other gaming topics.
With that being said, have a good one, and thank you for reading.
Writing and Editing Update
Recently, I wrote about my stats on Medium. While my gaming article receives great views from external sources, they get very few views from Medium members.
Here is the story if you are interested in my thoughts and feelings as a writer on Medium.
I also put a few links that might have new writers to gain followers and learn from the experiences of other writers. I wish you the best in your writing career.
Top writer badges might be valuable for new writers in some topics, even though gaming and social media did not bring me, new readers. I posted a video using the ideas of Dr. Yildiz and hope new writers can learn from this video or related article.
I enjoy posting a story each day. I will continue by posting one each day this month. Please feel free to join this writing challenge. I’d love to read your stories on this initiative.
Recently, I recorded and posted a video to share my progress in writing and gaming publications. If you are interested, you might watch the short video.