How to schedule TikTok posts and 4 tips for success

You know it, your brand loves it, you’ve lost hours scrolling on it. With more than one billion active users, TikTok has changed the social media game. And with brands on TikTok proving its value as a business tool, it’s here to stay. If you want to keep your content consistent and your to-do list short, it’s time to create a TikTok schedule.

Known as a short-form video app, TikTok is a powerful place to engage your audience, considering consumers find short-form video 2.5x more engaging than long-form. But the rise of another platform puts new pressures on social media professionals; according to the Sprout Social Index™, bandwidth is one of the top challenges for social media teams this year.

Creating a TikTok schedule makes it easier to keep your audience engaged with regular content, and helps you stand out without hitting social media burnout.

Let’s explore scheduling best practices and two ways to schedule TikTok posts ahead of time: natively through the platform, or with Sprout Social.

How to schedule TikTok posts on the app

Much to the joy of social media managers, TikTok launched their Video Scheduler in spring of 2021 for Creator and Business accounts.

This feature makes it possible to schedule content from 15 minutes to a maximum of 10 days in advance.

Here’s how you can schedule TikTok content natively:

• Step 1: Log into TikTok on a web browser: The scheduler is only available on desktop, so have your computer handy. Login and click the “+ Upload” button in the top right corner.
• Step 2: Upload and prep your post: In the “upload video” window, you can do everything you normally do before publishing. Add captions, TikTok hashtags, mentions, choose a cover image, run a copyright check and pick your settings.
• Step 3: Schedule TikTok posts: Once a video is scheduled, you can’t make edits. So take time to do a thorough typo and settings check before hitting “schedule.” When you’re ready, click the toggle next to “Schedule Video” so it turns green. Two boxes will appear where you can set your publishing date and time. The time zone defaults to your computer’s, so double check your settings.
• Step 4: Do a quick double check: Mistakes happen. Cut out Murphy’s law and make sure your content is scheduled at the right time. Find scheduled posts in the “Drafts” section of your Profile.

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Source: TikTok

Once you click “Schedule,” sit back and relax—your TikTok posting schedule has officially been created.

You’ll get a push notification when your post goes live, as long as you’ve enabled notifications.

How to schedule TikTok posts using Sprout Social

TikTok’s scheduler is great for a quick set-it-and-forget-it post. But chances are, TikTok is one of many channels you’re managing.

Using a dedicated social media publishing tool like Sprout Social empowers you to see and schedule all of your posts in one unified place.

TikTok was one of our most-requested features. And we’ve made it easy to schedule posts, with no limit to how soon or how far in the future you can post your content.

Follow these easy step-by-step instructions to create your TikTok Schedule using Sprout.

Step 1: Log into Sprout on your web browser and create your post

Start by logging into Sprout Social in your favorite web browser on your desktop.

To create a post, tap the blue notepad and pencil icon in the top right. Or, click “Publishing” on the left and click on the day you want to post.

Pro tip: According to the Sprout Social Index™, the majority of content consumers think posting 1-2 times a day is the sweet spot for brands.

To avoid over-posting or double-posting, schedule in the weekly or monthly calendar view. This gives you a high-level look at your upcoming posts across platforms to avoid over-scheduling in a given day or time period.

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Step 2: Select the right TikTok account

Agencies, social media managers and creators alike may be balancing multiple TikTok accounts.

With Sprout, you can manage multiple handles in one place.

Once you’re in the New Post window, select the dropdown in the compose box and choose the account you want to publish on.

If you want to repurpose your short-form video on platforms beyond TikTok, select your Twitter handles, Facebook Pages and more in that same dropdown.

• Save

Step 3: Upload your video content and prep your post

Time for the fun part. Upload the video you want to use. Then, in the compose window, polish and prep your post by:

• Creating an engaging caption
• Including any mentions and hashtags you want to use—these become interactive once your video is published
• Choosing how your audience can engage with your video—will you allow comments? Duets? Stitches?

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In this step, you can also use Sprout’s unique features to keep your campaigns and team processes organized.

For example, set a Message Approval Workflow to streamline team collaboration and communication.

Is your post part of a larger content campaign? Select a campaign to keep everything organized.

And internally tagging your content makes it easy to categorize posts based on business objectives, post themes and more.

Combined, these features help keep your TikTok content and campaigns organized and visible—for you and your team.

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Step 4: Choose the best time to post

Identifying the best time to post does matter, but it can also feel like a mystery.

Scheduling TikTok posts through Sprout cuts out the guesswork. The Optimal Send Times dropdown identifies the best posting times for you to engage with more of your audience.

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Step 5: Schedule TikTok posts, or save them for later

Once you and your team are feeling good about your post, you have a few options as far as how to schedule:

• Save it, or schedule it, as a draft: Still have pending reviews? Want to keep it as a backup post or calendar placeholder? Saving your content as a draft is a great way to give yourself more editing time.
• Auto-schedule with the queue: Ready to post but don’t have a time in mind? The Sprout Queue will choose the best time to publish based on audience activity within a time window you set.
• Submit for approval: It always helps to have a second editing eye on your posts. When you set an Approval Workflow, the “schedule” button will change to a “submit” button, and you can submit your post to the approver for their review.
• Publish immediately: Ready to post right now? Select this to send your post out into the world right away.

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Step 4: Double check your scheduled content

It’s all too easy to think you scheduled a post for noon, only to realize it was published at midnight.

While TikTok’s Video Scheduler does not allow you to edit scheduled posts before they go live, Sprout does. Take some time to do a quick typo and time check.

Scheduling in advance gives you plenty of editing room while also leaving more time in your schedule to dedicate to high-level goals—like enhancing your strategy.

Tips for creating your TikTok schedule

You’re almost ready to start scheduling. As you fill your content calendar, it’s important to think about how your TikTok schedule fits into your larger social strategy.

With 39% of marketers predicting the app will be one of the platforms they use the most this year, refining your team and content strategy as you post is key if you want to keep up.

Here are a few tips and best practices to keep in mind.

Maintain a shared, unified content calendar

Managing multiple platforms and posts can result in a lot of moving parts and silos.

Maintain a content calendar to see your scheduled posts across all of your social platforms in one, centralized place. This keeps you organized, helps you track whether you’re over—or under—posting and creates an easy-to-share resource for your team.

Create a calendar of your own, or use Sprout’s social media calendar as an all-in-one content calendar and scheduler.

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Track your best posting times

According to TikTok, recency is a factor in determining which videos show up in the coveted For You Page—one of the best places to get discovered and grow on the platform.

Posting when your audience is most active on the app is crucial.

We already mentioned that Sprout identifies when to schedule posts for maximum engagement opportunities.

Use this while you post. Then, take it a step further and track your posting times. Do any of your peak times surprise you? What posting times and days can you experiment with?

You can also do this on TikTok. To identify when your TikTok audience is most active in the app:

1. Tap the three-line icon at the top right of your Profile view
2. Tap Business Suite
3. Tap Analytics
4. Tap Followers at the top of the screen
5. Scroll down to Follower activity to identify what days of the week and times your audience is most active

Your best posting times might be at odd, outside-of-working-hours time blocks—all the more reason to schedule your content ahead of time.

Set a smooth approval process for you and your team

Whether you’re a solo social media manager or part of a team, having another pair of eyes is always helpful.

Defining a structured review process for your TikTok content—and all of your content—can help maintain quality control while limiting the amount of cooks in the kitchen.

Sprout makes this easy by providing you with built-in, customizable Message Approval Workflows. Create and select different workflows for specific posts or platforms to easily streamline your approval and collaboration process.

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Measure the success of your profile and posts

Measuring and tracking your TikTok marketing strategy, posts and posting times is crucial if you want to turn creative content into meaningful business insights—on TikTok, and beyond.

Regularly look at TikTok analytics to see what you’re doing right, and where you need improvement. Don’t be afraid to experiment and test until you find out what works for you.

With Sprout, analyze how your TikTok profile and content is performing—on its own, and compared to your other social profiles. Use the Cross-Network Reports like Profile and Post Performance to turn the metrics that matter most into insights that can fuel your strategy and create a deeper connection with your audience.

To truly make informed decisions and optimize your strategy, you need to analyze your TikTok performance over time—not just over days or weeks.

While TikTok only offers 60 days of data, Sprout doesn’t limit your TikTok data after you’ve connected your platform. Meaning you can analyze your profile’s growth and success quarter over quarter, year over year.

Engage with your audience often

Once your posts are live, remember to regularly engage with your audience in TikTok comments.

After all, it’s called “social” media for a reason. Engaging with your audience strengthens your connection with them, and shows you’re listening.

Engaging with your audience is crucial across platforms. Streamline this process by using a tool like Sprout’s Smart Inbox to keep up with comments across TikTok, Twitter and more—all in one place.

Lighten the load and schedule your TikTok posts now

Scheduling your TikTok content ahead of time ensures your content and publishing is “always on,” while also allowing you to disconnect and sign off.

You’re well-equipped to create your TikTok schedule—now all you need is to get started, and to breathe easy.

If you’re ready to streamline your TikTok scheduling process, and your social strategy as a whole, then you’re ready for Sprout Social. Try Sprout free for 30 days to see how it can power better insights—for your social strategy and business.

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