Thoughts about the {official} TikTok Academy

I spent a goodly portion of last night going through Tiktok’s own academy. I completed what they call the 101 course. And this program is BADGE HAPPY - goodness. I got a badge for just breathing most of the time - just look at that image!! It’s just WAY too much.

I have thoughts.

  • 90% of it was torture - how many times can you say the same thing over and over again…
  • no controls for speed watching - that in and of itself is torture for me
  • all the good detailed parts they crammed onto one slide inside each section - instead of actually talking about those things in the videos.
  • every single thing in this 101 section was just leading up to really pitching the ads program.
  • the ads on TikTok seem even more convoluted than FB :slight_smile: and do you really need new words for things we already know? Like why call ugc ads “Spark ads” ??

Have you taken this “course” yet? I have a feeling when we get to announcing the Tiktok section in OUR Academy, it will be much better than this…

BUT I do give it credit for the fancy graphics and animations :slight_smile: - a solid B+ for that. But the curriculum - a solid C.

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I had heard about it but I have not actually done it, tried doing it now. Originally I thought it was a bit dumb that I have to make a NEW account and not just use my Tiktok login.

But in the end it may serve me because if there’s a badge I can share on social, I probably want it under my real name. Therefore the separation ends up being somewhat useful.

I’ll circle back when I’ve gone through the actual academy.

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I thought about it but reading this not sure I want to now! How long did it end up taking you?

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felt like forever - and I didn’t time it - maybe 90 minutes? or more? I’m sorry I didn’t pay more attention to how long it took @communifi – maybe @eternalkaz will tell us how long it took him.

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It does look very ads oriented thats for sure. I will have a look. Had a client cancel so have some time

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I have not started it. I did notice just now as I was about to register that there is an NDA that we have to agree to, but when I clicked on it, it did not load.

A bit hesitant to agree blindly to an NDA and wondering how much we can really talk about it. Thoughts @phylliskhare - did you see the NDA?

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I haven’t started it but didn’t notice. Will have to look at that. - Ok I’m not seeing it… in fact I go to the business learning centre from academy and it didn’t even ask me to sign up… Are you in the business or the creative academy? Oh wait right at the bottom there is a sign up to see more video… got it!

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Well I also questioned that for a moment.

This one is where I got sent to from the official blog: https:// my. academywithtiktok .com/learn

(I’ve spaced out the link above because it just has a “loading” tag instead of the actual url)

But if I just search for “Tiktok academy” this one also shows up as an option: https://www.tiktokadsacademy-sea.com/

So is the second one for two different regions? Is it pretending to be Tiktok?

I also figured out how to get the NDA to show up… I had to toggle “Reader view” on Firefox for some reason, like their page isn’t set up correctly. It’s relatively short.

I’ve attached it so we don’t have to do a back and forth on whether you can find it and to make it easier for others.

If it’s too long of course moderate me please lol.

I think from reading it it seems fairly harmless? Just don’t share stuff they say is confidential basically?

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Yes, they just don’t want you to clone it and teach it - and the CAPS section says that things change and they can’t be help for data that changes through time.

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Decided that it was worth giving it a shot so I’ll be seeing that 101 course now! Thanks Phyllis.

My first thoughts are that the fonts are absolutely awful. Hard to really see. Very confusing in terms of user navigation.

Why did it let me click continue (why did that even appear?) before the video was done to send me to the other part of the course?

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Yes - I agree with you on all those points.

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More thoughts as I go along with the academy:

Module 1 only took 10 minutes. This is with me taking notes at times - i was visibly confused as to when the module was done? I guessed clicked on the hamburger and it told me all that was inside the module. So I guess I’m done and I click on “Next module” but that button has been there since the BEGINNING. So I could have gone to the next module at any time without finishing module 1?

Also it asked me if everything they said made sense, I didn’t try it but what if i had clicked “no”? would they have sent me to MORE info or would they have repeated their previous videos? And if there is more information, why not just share it all??

This may be really nitpicky but the buttons aren’t perfectly aligned and it bugs me lmao.

Module 2 - about 11-15 mins with notes. This one didn’t have a hamburger break down?

I’m not a fan of the badges, they don’t serve a purpose (yet) that I can see just doing the modules.

So far you’re right @phylliskhare that they’ve repeated a LOT of stuff - and so far all they’ve done is really a pitch for ads on tiktok and no strategy. There are some nuggets of interest in modules 1-3 but honestly, I think you could skip all those modules if you know somewhat about tiktok? These are like the fundamentals of fundamentals - although they do tell you how to add music to your videos at the very end of module 3.

Module 3 took 12 mins and 01 seconds (I’ve started timing these for ya’ll and they include my note times)

Main takeaways from fpr me from module 1-3 is: Be real, don’t make it looked polished, the for you page guesses what you like and doesn’t take your followings into account. Tiktok competes with YT strongly and beats it.

Module 4 took 17 mins and 9 seconds - Their question was weird. They asked if you should create your videos with same tone and messaging. I think you should definitely try out things for your brand and see how things work. Their 2 answers were strange. One answer was to stay true to your brand mission and values and the other to try different messaging and tone. But staying true wasn’t the right answer? Sure you can create different tones and messages but you can still stay true to your brand mission and values. Bit weird that one.

I decided to say that I didn’t know much at the end of their questions - they gave additional tips! Why not just give them!?

Module 5 21 minutes 58 seconds - 61M vids removed in only 1 quarter and that’s only 1% of their vids uploaded to TT? That’s INSANE. Tiktok has their hands full with moderation.

I’m taking a break after this one - 2 more modules to go but it’s been a bit ya’ll.

Okay I completed my dailies for Apex Legends I suppose I can go back now. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Module 6 37 minutes and 36 seconds - My continue button disappeared right as the video was ending, so i had to rewind for it to appear again??? Continue button really needs some work I think.

15s as the optimal duration for a topview ad - I knew our attention spans were bad but yikes. Usually I skip any ads when i open tiktok, usually they’re irrelevant or I know they’re an ad so i don’t care.

This one had a LOT of meat and potatoes. A lot of notes for me and a good amount of information on what to use for certain scenarios.

Module 7 9 minutes and 55 seconds, short one- basically case studies and a lot of selling for ads. Understandable. But they then throw out ideas they’ve never mentioned before. They mentioned Hashtag challenge before, but what the heck is Hashtag Challenge Plus? I assume its stuff you can do within hashtag challenge. And what are all the things related to it they put next to it? Why was it not explained? They just move on and ask if you understand what a topview ad is, which has been explained before.

Module 8 28 minutes and 13 seconds - In module 1-3 they talk about how they focus on content not demographics, in other modules they say their algorithm focuses on content, but now they say they can target based on demographics. Which kind of contradicts what they said the rest of the way. Not that I didn’t expect them not to be able to do this type of targeting, just makes the first 7 modules not seem as genuine when it comes to focusing on content?

Very scary to me is “carrier, operating system, network type and device price”. That just sounds sooo invasive. I don’t have a lot of experience with ads manager but I feel like this one is the most intrusive in terms of targeting capabilities. But I should have expected them to have that considering their privacy issues news they’ve had in the past.

The fact that you can’t leave the tab and you can’t do anything BUT watch the video really encompasses Tiktok’s whole “fully engaged and do NOTHING else but our app” culture.

Overall it was an interesting course. I think it did a decent job at explaining its ads but failed to explain all the concepts that it brought forward.

151 minutes and 52 seconds or 2hrs 31 mins and 52 seconds. But somehow it took me all day haha!

Hope that helps @communifi and of course I put it on LinkedIn lol.

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omgosh @eternalkaz - thanks for ALL of that. I kinda wish I had all that time back… :slight_smile: as I don’t think I really learned anything valuable. Good lesson for those of us who create online courses @ruthbinman

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I think it was still somewhat valuable, especially for someone that’s not versed in tiktok and potentially ad managers. I think the meat of it is really in modules 5,6 and 8. The rest MAYBE have one or two little bits that are good nuggets of info.

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This is what TikTok should create - this is for LinkedIn Ads https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/amp/marketing-solutions/images/ads-guide-gateway/pdf/linkedin-ads-guide.pdf?trk=lms-blog-liproduct&src=bl-po

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For sure!! That’s like a 5-20 minute read and basically would cover all of Tiktok

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ever since i signed up but havent done it, I have TikTok ad rep leaving me messages every other day!

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That’s crazy. I haven’t gotten any emails at all? Maybe I did something with my preferences, but I don’t remember doing so.