How to Do a TikTok Trend Tutorial

Jumping on a TikTok trend at just the right moment can send your views stratospheric, but teaching others how to do that trend positions you as a leader in your niche. Creating a clear, helpful trend tutorial is one of the fastest ways to build authority and connect with a genuinely engaged audience. This guide provides the complete blueprint for finding, planning, and executing a TikTok trend tutorial that actually gets views and builds your following.

Why Even Make a Trend Tutorial?

Participating in a trend is one thing, teaching it is another level. When you just do a trend, you’re part of the conversation. When you create a tutorial, you’re leading the conversation. It shifts perception from a passive user to an active expert. This simple change has some powerful benefits:

• Unlocks Higher Engagement: Tutorials get saved. A lot. Saves are a massive signal to the TikTok algorithm that your content is valuable, pushing it to a wider audience. People will rewatch your video multiple times as they follow along, which boosts your watch time metrics.
• Builds Community & Authority: You become a go-to resource. When you help someone successfully create a fun video, they remember you. They’re far more likely to follow, trust your future content, and see you as someone who knows what they’re doing on the platform.
• Attracts Your Ideal Followers: A tutorial attracts other creators, hobbyists, or brands looking to level up their own TikTok game. These are often highly engaged, ambitious users who are a fantastic audience for coaches, social media managers, photographers, and anyone in the creative or marketing space.

Instead of just chasing virality by copying a dance, you’re creating evergreen (or at least, trend-cycle-evergreen) educational content that serves a real purpose for your viewers.

Phase 1: Finding the Right Trend (Before It's Everywhere)

The success of a trend tutorial hinges on timing. If you’re too late, the topic is saturated. If you’re too early, nobody is searching for it yet. Your goal is to catch the wave just as it’s starting to build. Here’s how you spot it.

Step 1: Become a Proactive Scroller

Stop scrolling your For You Page (FYP) passively. Switch your mindset to active listening and observation. As you scroll, pay attention to repeated patterns. This isn’t just about sounds, it’s about formats, filters, and editing styles. Ask yourself:

• Have I seen this specific audio more than two or three times in the last hour?
• Are multiple people using the same on-screen text format or green-screen effect?
• Is there a common editing trick (like a whip-pan transition or a specific camera shutter effect) that’s showing up more frequently?

Note these down. Active Observation is your most powerful trend-spotting tool.

Step 2: Use an 'Audio-Forward' Approach

Audio is the backbone of most TikTok trends. When you hear a sound multiple times, don’t just scroll past it. Tap on the spinning circle in the bottom-right corner to open the audio’s main page. This is your trend intelligence hub. Look for two things:

• The Video Count: How many videos have been made with this sound? An audio with 500,000 videos is already at its peak. One with 2,000 videos is just a blip. The sweet spot for a tutorial is often when a sound is in the 5,000 to 20,000-video range. It has proven its appeal but hasn't yet reached total saturation.
• Growth Rate: Is the video count rising quickly? Check it in the morning and again in the afternoon. If it jumped by a few thousand videos, you've found a fast mover.

Step 3: Keep an Eye on Niche Creators and Influencers

Mega-celebrities often signal a trend’s peak, not its beginning. The real innovation comes from smaller, highly creative accounts within specific niches. Identify and follow the creators in your field who are known for being early adopters.

If you're a photographer, follow other video-first photographers. If you're a small business coach, see what other marketing pros are experimenting with. These accounts are your canaries in the coal mine, when they start using a new format or sound, it’s a strong sign that it has the potential to break out to a wider audience soon.

Phase 2: Planning and Scripting Your Tutorial

A good tutorial feels effortless, but it’s the result of thoughtful planning. Your goal is clarity and simplicity. You need to break down the trend into dead-simple, follow-along steps.

Step 1: Deconstruct the Trend into Simple Steps

Watch the original trend video a few times with the goal of reverse-engineering it. Forget the content for a moment and focus on the mechanics. Write down every single action required. Let's use a popular lip-sync transition trend as an example:

• Step 1: Record clip #1, mouthing the first part of the song. End the clip by covering the phone's camera with your hand.
• Step 2: Change outfits/location/look for clip #2.
• Step 3: Record clip #2, mouthing the second part of the song. Start the clip by uncovering the camera with your hand.
• Step 4: Open the editor. Trim clip #2 so it starts exactly on the beat where the uncovering action happens.
• Step 5: Add a popular 'flash' effect at the moment of the transition.

By breaking it down into these micro-steps, you’ve just created the bones of your tutorial script.

Step 2: Write a 'Show and Tell' Script

Your tutorial will combine two types of footage: you performing the trend and screen recordings showing the editing process. Your script needs to account for both.

Start with a strong hook that will lock viewers in for the first three seconds. Don't say "Today I'm going to show you..." - be direct.

• Bad Hook: "Hey everyone, I've been seeing this trend everywhere so I wanted to make a tutorial for you."
• Good Hook: "Here’s the step-by-step tutorial for the viral Sunset Hand transition you keep seeing."

Plan your voiceover and on-screen text to guide the viewer. For example:

• VO: "First, film yourself mouthing the first line and then cover the lens with your hand."
• On-Screen Text: 1. Film first clip + cover lens.
• VO: "Now, here's the important part. In the editor, you need to find the exact beat drop. Use the trimmer to cut right on that frame."
• On-Screen Text (over a screen recording): >> CUT HERE ON THE BEAT <<

Step 3: List Your 'Ingredients'

What does someone need to succeed? Tell them upfront. This builds trust and sets them up for a win. Your ingredients list could include:

• A specific filter (e.g., "You'll need the 'Teen Look' filter for this.")
• An external app (e.g., "This effect is easier if you use the CapCut app.")
• Physical props (e.g., "Make sure you have a tripod to keep your phone stable.")

Mentioning this early on shows respect for the viewer's time and solidifies your role as a helpful guide.

Phase 3: Filming and Editing Like a Pro

This is where your planning pays off. High-quality execution can make even a simple tutorial stand out and feel premium.

Filming Your Tutorial

• Good Lighting is Essential: You don't need expensive gear. A ring light works wonders, but so does facing a large window during the day. Clean, bright lighting makes your video look more professional and trustworthy. Avoid backlighting (where the light source is behind you), as it will make you look like a silhouette.
• Record Crystal-Clear Audio: If you're doing a voiceover, don't record it in TikTok, where background noise can ruin it. Instead, record it using your phone's native voice memo app in a quiet space (like a closet!). You can then add this audio file to your video in the editing stage for a much cleaner sound.
• Master the Screen Record: The most valuable part of many tutorials is showing a process on-screen. Before you hit record, clean up your phone screen - close unnecessary apps and turn off notifications. During the recording, use slow, deliberate taps so viewers can easily follow where you’re touching. You can even enable on-screen tap indicators in your phone's settings to make it even clearer.

Editing for Clarity and Engagement

• Show the Final Product First: This is a non-negotiable hook. For the first 1-2 seconds of your video, show the beautifully finished trend. Immediately, viewers understand the value proposition: "Oh, that's what I'll be able to create if I watch this."
• Use Fast Pacing and Quick Cuts: A tutorial should feel energetic and efficient. Trim any dead air between steps. Cut on the beat of the background audio. Get rid of any moment where you're just thinking or searching for a button.
• Leverage Action-Oriented Text Overlays: Your on-screen text should be a clear, concise instruction. Use all caps or emojis to emphasize the most important parts. Instead of writing "Then you click the effects button and find the retro filter," write "Tap EFFECTS -> Find '70s Film' Filter ✨". It’s quicker to read and easier to understand.

Phase 4: Structuring Your Caption, Hashtags, and Rollout

Your amazing video won’t find its audience without the right packaging. The caption and hashtags are how you tell the algorithm exactly who needs to see your tutorial.

Write an SEO-Friendly Caption

TikTok is a visual search engine. Write your caption with discovery in mind. Use keywords that people would actually type in if they were trying to learn this trend.

• Good-enough Caption: "Trendinggggg again!!! ##fyp"
• SEO-Optimized Caption: "Super simple tutorial for the viral mirror photo reveal trend. Here are the editing steps to get the perfect transition on the beat! #mirrorphototrend #photoreveal #tiktokeditingtutorial #creatortips"

The second example not only describes the trend but also includes high-intent keywords like "editing tutorial" and "get the perfect transition."

The Art of Hashtag Layering

Don’t just throw random hashtags at the wall. Use a layered strategy that combines different categories of tags:

• Trend-Specific (2-3 tags): These are tags that name the trend or the audio. Ex: #asokatrend #makeuptransition.
• Tutorial-Focused (2-3 tags): These target users actively looking for help. Ex: #asokatutorial #howtodoit #tiktokeditingtips.
• Niche/Topic-Focused (1-2 tags): These place your video within your broader content world. Ex: #beautycreator #socialmediamarketing.

This mix helps your video get found by people looking for this exact trend and by people generally interested in your area of expertise.

Engage with Early Comments

The first hour after you post is valuable. As comments come in - especially questions or messages like "This was so helpful!" - respond to them immediately. This quick engagement signals to the algorithm that your post is sparking conversation, which can give it a helpful boost in the initial push to the FYP. You can also pin your own comment clarifying a common question or a viewer's comment that adds an extra helpful tip.

Final Thoughts

Becoming the person who teaches trends, not just follows them, completely changes your status on TikTok. You shift from being a content consumer to a respected resource. Breaking down a trend into easy steps, editing for ultimate clarity, and optimizing for search are the core pillars of a successful tutorial that grows your authority and brings in the right kind of followers.

Staying on top of trends means having a system for planning and organizing content so you're always ready to create when a new format starts bubbling up. We designed Postbase with exactly this in mind, our visual calendar makes it easy to drag and drop content ideas, schedule your TikToks and Reels ahead of time, and visualize gaps in your strategy. By taking the chaos out of planning, we give ourselves more time to focus on creating content that truly serves our audience.