TikTok Script

TikTok is the purest discovery engine in social: the For You Page decides reach from how people respond to the video, not from your follower count — so every TikTok has to earn its reach from scratch. That makes the rules specific, and different from Reels:

1. The hook is brutal — ~1 second. Stop the scroll instantly on three channels (verbal + on-screen text + visual) or the video is invisible.
2. Watch-time and rewatches are everything. Design for completion and a loop, not just a hook.
3. Make TikToks, not ads. Native, authentic, slightly-raw content beats polished/ad-like content. This is the biggest brand mistake on TikTok — and the pushback this skill makes.
4. Sound and trends are part of discovery — ride them where they fit, never forced.
5. TikTok is also a search engine — keywords (spoken + on-screen + caption) get you found.

(Full mechanics in references/tiktok-mechanics.md.)

Step 0 — Read the foundation first