How CommunityToks create safe spaces for authentic connection, creativity and joy

November 19, 2021

Culture

We've long said that our mission at TikTok is to inspire creativity and bring joy. The drive to create a positive space where all people can come to enjoy the best that entertainment has to offer is at the core of everything we do. When this drive for positivity and inclusion meets our ever-growing and endlessly diverse audience, something amazing happens.
 
Whatever a TikToker's passion, interest, lifestyle or identity—our audience has created a #CommunityTok for that.

Source: Hashtag Views, TikTok Internal Data, Global, October 2021

Are you a forager? Do you just absolutely love spooky season? Are you a fan of a nice, tidy home? Or maybe you're a bride who loves a good bowl of soup while traversing the country in your custom van on the hunt for UFOs? Well then, welcome to TikTok. There's space for you here. All you need to do is be yourself and your CommunityToks will find you.

Every time TikTok is opened, entertainment is guaranteed. TikTok's #ForYou Page serves content that is hyper-relevant to who you are, what you love, and how you spend your time. This also means that every single time a TikToker opens the app, CommunityToks that align with who they are, what they love, and how they spend their time are guaranteed as well.
 
If you're a bookworm, it's only a matter of time before you find yourself amongst the inspiring recommendations and commentary of #BookTok.
 
If your favorite way to wind down is to strum a few chords on the guitar, or turn it all the way up and rip a solo, you'll soon be learning new tricks and duetting with musicians halfway around the world on #GuitarTok.
 
Or perhaps you are sharing your journey and coming out as a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. Before you know it, you will find your chosen family and be embraced by the vibrant, accepting, and incredibly fun community that is #LGBTQ on TikTok.
 
When TikTokers see others passionately creating content around who they are and what they love—either scrolling their #ForYou feeds or exploring trends on the Discovery page—they're inspired to join in.

Our creators bring unparalleled self-ownership, creativity and acceptance to the platform every day. Their inventiveness combined with their willingness to share and accept is the genesis for each of these CommunityToks.
 
Creators in the art space allow artists to find and create alongside other artists. Creators who are new moms that open up about their journey make space for new moms to lean on and learn from one another. Creators who are majoring in engineering give engineering majors an entirely new, and much more fun, way to commiserate with one another.

How exactly do people exchange ideas on TikTok? Through co-creation. Taking inspiration and putting an individualistic, creative spin on it. Co-creation is how TikTokers turn moments into global movements. It is within CommunityToks that TikTokers find the inspiration, confidence and safe-space required for co-creation.
 
These genuine communities are becoming so popular amongst our audience, and the co-creation is becoming so robust, that ideas and trends formed in the space of a CommunityTok are spilling off-platform and showing up in day-to-day life.

Our diverse, growing audience means CommunityToks are here to stay, and there is an active, engaged audience waiting for your brand.

Driving this engagement means being authentic. Use TikTok like a TikToker, and start with CommunityToks. Here's how it works:

— Respect and honor the ways of the CommunityTok to identify which might be a best fit for your brand. Watch and observe what each individual CommunityTok cares about and immerse yourself in the content to understand the way they might uniquely express themselves.

— Listen and actively engage in the trends, topics, and needs of each individualized CommunityTok. Dive deep into CommunityTok hashtags, read comment to understand inside jokes and lingo, explore sounds / effects used by the community, and build bridges through common interests shared by relevant CommunityToks.

— Enlist creators to work as ambassadors that align with your brand and give them the freedom to create content in their own voice. Remember, creators are the experts of the platform's creativity but also can speak to the needs and language of the CommunityToks they belong to.
 
— Create hyper-relevant, native content that speaks authentically to those communities. Once you feel like you understand the various CommunityToks that work for your brand, invest in a content strategy that creates native TikTok videos that feel like a friendly neighbor in that CommunityTok.
 

— Take risks and be open to feedback from both the creators you partner with and the TikTok community at large. Experiment and optimize. Be open to new formats, techniques and ideas while also paying attention to creators and comments."
 
— By leaning in, making creative partnerships, and honoring the ways of any given CommunityTok creates and converses, brands could see massive dividends.

Take a tour of some of the most vibrant CommunityToks our audience has to offer, find your place, and stay a while.