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How to Trim TikTok Videos to Boost Engagement

With TikTok, it’s important to keep things short and sweet. Use LiveLink to trim down your TikToks and keep your viewers hooked.

Trim TikTok Videos
a tiktok video clip with lots of engagement based emojis and likes

How to Trim TikTok Videos to Boost Engagement

Why Trimming Videos is Important for TikTok

TikTok is so much saturated with content nowadays. TikTok has thousands of videos coming in every day with even more people watching them. Also, these figures have doubled since AI clip makers came onto the scene.

So even though many people will scroll past your TikTok videos, they won’t exactly stay for the full show. As a result, they won’t engage with your message, service, or product.

This is why you need to keep viewers engaged with your content. You need to make them push the brakes on their “scroll finger” and make them stay and watch your full TikTok.

Also, you can’t overdo engagement and stimulation. You can only keep them hooked and watching your videos for 20-60 seconds before they yawn and move on.

So it’s important to wrap up videos as soon as possible. This way, you can make sure that people will watch your TikToks in full before heading out.

One of the best ways to do this is to trim your TikToks with an AI video trimmer or manual editor. Trimming unnecessary parts of a TikTok will help you keep your videos concise and on-point. It also shows the viewer that you respect their time and yours.

Also, trimming videos on TikTok boosts engagement and click-through rates. More viewers will prefer commenting, sharing, and following you when your clips are short and engaging.

Besides this, trimming videos on TikTok will also help with:

  • Attention Spans: Most TikTok users can only keep watching shorter videos because of the shorter attention spans.
  • Clarity of the Message: You can create more meaningful and insightful content as long as you narrow things down. Keeping your videos short helps you stay on point with your content.
  • Virality and Algorithm Boosting: TikTok favours short and precise videos. As such, you get more support from the algorithm when you trim your videos to be shorter. Also, with more help from the algorithm, you have a better chance of going viral or making it to the FYP page.
  • Consistency: By keeping things short, you don’t expose all your content at once. You can then slowly drip-feed your viewers short snippets and build up interest. It helps you stay consistent and gather momentum.
  • Professionalism: Nobody wants to see sloppy edits or sections with long silences. So trimming videos helps you give the impression that your videos are well-polished and professional.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Trimming TikTok Videos

One of the most rookie mistakes creators make when trimming is doing too much. Sometimes, they might take out key moments or takeaways in an effort to shorten the TikTok video.

To avoid this, the best approach is to understand your video content. You need to know what the key points are so you don’t cut them out.

Sometimes, this can be difficult when you’re working with a team. Maybe you’re just the video editor. You might cut out the sections the scriptwriter or director deemed important.

In that case, you’ll have to do some back and forth between the other members of your team. Collaborate and find which moments you should and shouldn’t cut.

However, this can take a lot of time. So instead of this approach, you can use podcast clip-maker tools like LiveLink to speed this up.

What’s great about these podcast clip makers is that anybody can use them. Besides, these tools can also trim sections automatically. So if you’re a solo content creator or a team, you can easily work with these AI-powered tools.

Also, these tools come with extra functionality. LiveLink for instance, has a built-in TikTok overlay to preview your clips before you even upload them. The overlay helps to ensure your captions and visual elements are in the right place.

How to Maintain Quality While Trimming TikTok Videos

So apart from overdoing trims, some other common things to note are:

  • Cutting Out Transitions: It’s important to avoid taking out any smooth transitions or video loops. Otherwise, your TikToks will look choppy and amateur.
  • Not Checking the Audio: Mind the voice lines, music, or sound effects when trimming. Otherwise, the sudden audio breaks will sound “sound” disjointed from the visuals.
  • Inconsistency with Branding Elements: When trimming out videos, the automatic captions or branding elements might cut out. Make sure to reapply them so your videos look neat and proper.
  • Not Maintaining Visual Continuity: This is important when trying to trim videos with flawless loops. Make sure to trim carefully and review the edits multiple times.

How to Trim TikTok Videos to Boost Engagement

Trim TikTok Videos

Upload Your Video to LiveLink

First, you’ll have to find the video you want to upload to LiveLink. Then, head over to LiveLink.ai and upload this video from your device. You can also paste the link of a YouTube video in LiveLink’s search bar.

Select an Aspect Ratio

After you pick the video, LiveLink will ask you to select a suitable aspect ratio. Here, 9:16 is always the best but you can change to 1:1 or 16:9 depending on your content. LiveLink gives you a few pointers on how to pick the best aspect ratio format.

Import Your TikTok Clip Into the Editor

LiveLink will then start auto-clipping your videos. LiveLink will take you to a new page after it finishes processing. Here, select the video you want to trim and click the “Edit” button. LiveLink will import the video to the editor.

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Can I Trim a TikTok Video After Posting It?

No. You can’t trim a TikTok after it’s live. The only solution is to cut a newer video, delete the old one, and re-upload it.
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What’s the Ideal Length for a Trimmed TikTok Video?

The TikTok app allows you to upload videos on TikTok that are as 60 minutes long. That said, it’s better to keep TikTok videos 15-60 seconds. The shorter the better.
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Does LiveLink.ai Offer Tools for Trimming and Editing TikTok Videos?

Yes. LiveLink has dedicated editing tools for trimming and editing TikTok clips through their platform. You can easily trim your video with LiveLink’s online video editor and upload it directly to social media.