After hours and hours of mindless scrolling research, I found it. I’ve discovered the perfect TikTok. A TikTok that’ll teach you every single best practice. A TikTok that’ll teach you how to write a hook, how to tell a story, how to make a perfect loop, when to introduce yourself to non-followers, and, most importantly, how to dehydrate tomato sauce.

Meet Renee and Tim, better known on TikTok as @thruhikers. They’re a couple who treks long hikes across the US, amassing 2 million TikTok followers along the way via their how-to hike prep and day-in-the-life content. Just take a look at their consistent virality:

• How to pee in the wilderness: 4.6 million views
• Finding places to sleep: 8 million views
• How to filter water: 2.5 million views

But back to tomato sauce. Don’t believe me? 14.7 million views say otherwise. Let’s dig into thruhikers’ perfect TikTok and everything you can learn.

0:00 - 0:03: The hook

On TikTok, the first three seconds matter more than anything—@thruhikers have mere moments to convince a scroller to lift their thumb to watch. Being clever has its advantages, but so does being on the nose. Plus, when food is presented in weird, unexpected forms, the visual sells itself. “This is what dehydrated tomato sauce looks like!” is a great hook. As viewers, we want more!

0:03 - 0:13: The story

Next, @thruhikers pull out all of the smart tricks in the social strategy playbook in record time. In just 10 seconds, they hit:

• Three fun facts that work well as standalone hooks
• Timelapse footage that varies shot styles, keeping your eyes guessing
• Quick cuts that still follow a linear narrative
• Alternating male and female voices catch the ear

These are the little things that differentiate good content from great content. The core hook’s strong enough to earn algorithmic love either way, but when you nail so many best practices in one piece of content, your chance of virality increases significantly, thanks to increased retention.

0:13 - 0:20: Why follow?

When your hook is adjacent to your mission, it’s important to transition your audience into understanding who you are, whether you’re a brand or a creator. Remember, they’re not food scientists, they’re hikers.

The voiceover moves from tomato sauce to “Soon we’ll embark on a four-month outdoor adventure…” and begins showing dehydrated food used during their hikes. It’s a natural flow, contextualizing the content’s hook in their lives. Even within that pass, the hook of the four-month hike is enough to get you interested in the rest of their content.

0:20 - 0:30: How-to + Loop

Twenty seconds in, viewers are fully hooked, and @thruhikers haven’t even mentioned how to dehydrate tomato sauce yet. Most TikToks would’ve jumped into the how-to, but Tim and Renee save it as a final storypoint for one very important reason: It builds a natural loop. TikTok’s algorithm grants bonus points for repeat views. TikToks begin replaying once they’re over, so many creators build “loops” that seamlessly tie the end of their TikTok with the beginning.

Notice how the final frame above matches the first frame? Viewers barely realize they’ve finished the video before it begins repeating, and even more effective, they probably want to watch it again to soak up all those quick fun facts.

How can my brand use these TikTok tips?

While these creators aren’t selling a product, each of these lessons can easily be applied to brand content thinking. When you’re making your own TikToks (or any social content for that matter), consider the following:

• Be honest about your hook’s strength. Will it actually pull in viewership? Try writing the hook 25 different ways.
• Consider how long you hold on a shot. We may love cinematic touches, but they’re often not best for social. Vary your cuts more frequently than you think you need to.
• Cut your script to bare bones. What are the most interesting elements?
• Build a final line that naturally transitions back into your hook.

This might be a triggering tale for social media managers.

You’re pitching your latest creative idea. You’ve tossed in all those wonderful tricks that come with years and years of experience—the type of thinking you’re employed to show. Then you spend the whole meeting explaining the strategy to executives who don’t get it, barely get to your creative idea, and ultimately don’t get your content approved.

It’s infuriating. It’s a common tale. It’s sadly a reality of the gig. I got really tired of the charade.

So, I decided to shift my perspective. My job couldn’t just be knowing social strategy. Selling social strategy was my job. If I couldn’t convince internal teams or clients to buy my strategies, that’s not on them—that’s on me. I ended up building expertise in pitching, greatly increasing my promotion rate, raises (since I was bringing in new work), and my visibility in the industry.

My biggest tip?

Focus on showing your expertise + building trust before your projects.

I want to share some tactics I’ve used in the past.

Show your homework

It was well-known at my first agency that I was kinda obsessed with social. Our VP wanted our team to see what other brands were doing for inspiration, so she asked me to write a weekly “What’s Happening in Social” email. Every Friday, I’d send a simple bulleted note around our team with three examples of brand social from the week. The format was consistent and short:

• A link to the tweet/video/post
• What it is: a description of the content/any necessary context to understand it
• Why it works: my analysis of the social or brand best practices

I’d see the examples I brought up put into decks. I’d get emails from other departments asking me for other examples or more analysis. That email allowed me to show off my brain and my love of the industry, which got me on many more projects.

Meet with senior people from other departments

On my first social strategy project, I worked with my agency’s head of digital to build the “Injustice Battle Arena,” our campaign for the DC Comics video game Injustice: Gods Among Us. He’s someone I immediately looked up to—an incredibly kind man, so eloquent and composed, and a fellow tall (6’6” to my 6’5”). Young me spent a lot of time with him despite having different expertises—a shared interest in the NBA helped. I didn’t enter that friendship as a strategy. I didn’t realize when it transitioned into an informal mentorship of sorts. But building that relationship was key for my career. It gave me a role model. It gave me someone who’d give me incredibly candid feedback on how to grow.

That project we worked on together? Best-selling video game for two months, over 850% ROI in earned media value, and a bunch of gaming awards. Maybe more importantly: Five years later, after my mentor joined a different agency to start a new department, he made me his first hire.

Ask to shadow people

I wanted to learn how to pitch (again, because I wanted my ideas to get made). I asked my boss if I could shadow her in meetings—promised I’d never say a word, just sit in the corner and listen. I learned so much from that exposure. Even better, I was often asked to participate anyway—very senior folks would ask me what I thought about social, or if I had any examples that’d support their theories (I’d established myself from the aforementioned weekly emails).

Besides improving my personal skills, that shadowing resulted in the biggest shift in my career. When our agency had grown and needed more help on the pitch team, my boss nominated me to go in her stead since “Jack already knows the process.” I became the youngest member of our agency pitch team, traveling around the country with 20-year agency vets as a 20-something.

Find your own style

The end result of all the above: I had established my expertise long before I ever needed it. When I pitched a creative idea or suggested a change, I didn’t have to defend myself; there was inherent trust that I knew what I was doing. I firmly believe you can’t accomplish that from simply doing the work. It’s just too hard.

These are just a few methods I’ve tried. My challenge to you: Consider your personality and your organization, then figure out what you can do away from your typical deliverables that’s comfortable and rapport-building for you. Don’t wait ’til you want your ideas approved.

There are so many social big thinkers out there, writing all kinds of amazing strategies, analysis, and breakdowns. All ships rise with the tide, so here are a few reads from other places I think you could learn from.

“MrBeast Explains YouTube’s Algorithm” (TechCrunch)

At 97.4 million subscribers, MrBeast has become the platform’s more generous celebrity. He’s given away millions of dollars, cars, and, most recently, a chocolate factory, almost always on a brand’s dime. He took the stage at VidCon last week to share his perspective on YouTube, including what mistakes he thinks brands and creators make in chasing virality.

“How to Be Food Famous” (Eater)

Boy, Eater’s pumping out amazing editorial on the cross-section of food and content. I’ve previously featured their Hot Ones breakdown, but here’s the full directory of their recent social media work, from how restaurants rely on TikTok to becoming your own food influencer.

“How Influencers Hype Crypto Without Disclosing Financial Ties” (the New York Times)

You’ve either heard of or hurt from the recent crypto crash. The market’s collapse has inspired all sorts of finger-pointing, especially at influencers who willingly accepted crypto promotional deals that sure seem shameless on second glance.