An introduction to TikTok for businesses
TikTok, a social video app, has been the breakout star of the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst it is uncharted territory to most people aged over 25, as the fastest growing social media platform currently, it’s time to take notice! So, what is it all about? Essentially TikTok allows users to share videos, with lots of available features such as stickers, filters and soundtracks for personalisation. Take a listen to this weeks podcast where we discuss TikTok in more detail.
We discuss how to use TikTok for business on our Revitalise & Grow podcast, which you can listen to here, or read on for more info…
So, who uses TikTok?
- TikTok has 1.2 billion monthly active users and was the most downloaded app of 2021!
- Almost 50% of TikTok’s global audience is under the age of 34.
- Roughly 43% of all TikTok users are aged between 18 and 24.
- It is genuinely worldwide. TikTok is available in 155 markets, in 75 languages.
- The average user spends around 52 minutes per day on the TikTok app.
- 57% of TikTok users are female and 4% are male.
In fact, TikTok is generating so much attention that businesses are starting to take notice. TikTok itself has launched a number of advertising opportunities based around pre-roll ads (like the ads you see before a YouTube video). Just as with YouTube, viewers can skip after a few seconds and advertisers pay for the number of impressions they receive.
Read on for our top tips for getting to grips with TikTok!
- Do your homework
First and foremost, study the platform and use it! When you start using it, you’ll quickly see what starts trending, and the topics and videos people engage with. This can give you ideas for how to relate your business content to the platform. TikTok is full of highly engaged, passionate users. Study what video content performs well and then decide how your business could fit in and entertain and inspire a global audience!
- Unleash your creative side
TikTok is all about fun and creating visually appealing content. For businesses, the platform should be used to unleash your brand’s creative side! Creating your own content is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to promote your business on TikTok. Home-made content is much better received than slick, shiny promo videos on TikTok so this is a chance for you to really think outside the box! With such a rapidly growing number of users, there really is an audience for every voice. No matter how big or small your business, or what your products or services are, the potential for brand discovery is extremely high due to the platform’s high consumption rate and algorithm (more on this later). Tap into unique new sounds, ideas and graphics to authentically connect with audiences around the world!
- Creating purposeful, authentic content
While it’s true that dance trends and lip-sync videos are phenomenally popular on TikTok, don’t try to re-create these if it’s not your business’ style or purpose. Keep it simple and genuine. A light-hearted video that shows off your products will come across more naturally than if your business tries creating a crazy stunt video which doesn’t suit your image. Harness your own creativity to produce an innovative and interesting video, which is aligned with your business and your audience.
- Get involved!
Hashtags are hugely popular on TikTok, and a great way to interact with a trend. Hashtag challenges can be a fun way to promote your business, all the while making your account easily findable. TikTok challenges are when TikTok users encourage others to create or recreate content. If you happen to find a challenge which is relatable to your business, get recording! It is a highly interactive way to get featured on the For You page…
- Drive exponential growth
TikTok’s algorithm allows users to discover fresh content through the For You page, it’s based on what they have interacted with before and their likes/dislikes. This helps brands achieve fast growth and maximum visibility even if they don’t have a big audience already and it means everyone can be in the spotlight! In addition, each For You page is completely unqiue, based on a user’s past behaviour, combining suggestions of creators and accounts who share similar interests. With this algorithm, an unknown user on TikTok can amass millions of views, providing people are liking what they see and engaging with the content. This offers a major advantage over the likes of Facebook and Instagram where in order to reach huge audiences you need to invest in advertising.
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