Some people may roll their eyes at TikTok, the social media platform that’s taken the world by storm, but for most people, its short videos about funny pets, people and situations are nothing short of addictive. In addition to being a great platform for video watching, TikTok also powerfully motivates people to create their own videos. With billions of downloads on mobile devices worldwide in the past five years, it’s safe to say TikTok has been a phenomenon. Given its immense popularity, it’s an important platform to include in your company’s social media marketing strategy.
What Happens on TikTok?
TikTok might appear to be all about lip-synching, silly challenges and pranks but it’s much more than that. Millions of video clips show people expressing themselves in creative and engaging ways that give them joy.
The fact that the average TikTok user spends over an hour on the app each day means that the platform comes with greater user engagement than most other social media destinations. Part of the enthusiasm that users have for TikTok comes from the fact that the platform uses artificial intelligence to keep making great content recommendations for users to watch. One in two TikTok users are under the age of 34, and one in four users are under the age of 24; it is slowly finding footing among older adults, as well. Close to 15 million people in America use TikTok. With its huge Gen-Z following, and the fact that marketers don’t currently take it very seriously, TikTok can be a great place for businesses to market themselves at minimal cost.
How do you use TikTok to Promote Your Brand?
TikTok can be a great tool for marketers who wish to show the world how their brand has a fun side. The platform can be very affordable to create content for, as well, because videos on it are rarely perfect and air brushed. Rather, they are about the zany antics that people get up to. Videos can be rough-and-ready, but need to be lively, and to hook users. If you can be creative on TikTok, you can make a huge impression for your business. What follows are ideas.
Build Montages
If you wish to promote your business on TikTok, it could be a good idea to try creating a montage of little, second-long video clips set to music. Music is an important part of any TikTok video. Nearly every video on the platform comes with a catchy song in the background that fits the mood of the video. You don’t need to supply the music on your own; TikTok has nearly every popular song out there on its catalog. You simply need to connect to one of those songs. When people look at your video, TikTok makes it easy for them to find the music on it on various popular music streaming services, as well.
Try the Duets Feature
Duet posts are popular on TikTok. A duet post shows a split-screen video. On one side is a video that you upload, and on the other, a video that the viewer uploads showing dancing in time to your video or trying some other kind of action. Duets, on TikTok, are a collaborative format that can help you promote ideas such as dance challenges and lip-synch challenges for your followers to engage with.
Work with Influencers
Influencer marketing is a powerful way to reach out to new audiences on social media, and TikTok is no exception. If the demographic that you’re aiming for is a youthful one, it makes sense to get in touch with TikTok influencers. All you need to do is to build a list of popular influencers and creators who speak to the right kind of audiences, give them a free hand to promote your product in a way that their audiences will pay attention to, and watch as they get their followers to organically notice you.
Exploit Trends and Challenges
Getting on viral trends and challenges is an important part of capitalizing on TikTok. When you jump on a bandwagon that someone else has created, it’s easy for you to make fun content and get user engagement for free. It isn’t hard to spot trends on TikTok. All you need to do is to watch the hashtags and the top trending songs, to create content of your own.
Advertising on TikTok
Organic promotion isn’t the only way to find user engagement on TikTok. The platform is in the early stages of introducing an advertising program. At the moment, it’s nowhere near Facebook’s in its ability to target audiences efficiently, but advertising is affordable.
Native content inside feeds: Native content ads inside feeds are videos that run up to 15 seconds long, and appear within TikTok’s selections of new videos to watch. The ads can be skipped by users, or users can click on the ads to go to an external app or website landing page. Call-to-action buttons can appear, as well, and get people to download apps or to click to buy products advertised. Successful advertisers see an engagement rate of about 4 percent, and a click-through rate of about 1 percent.
Hashtag challenges: If you have a hashtag for your brand to promote, hashtag challenges are a good idea. They encourage your audience to create their own content and post to TikTok.
Try a brand takeover: When you buy a brand takeover ad on TikTok, your ad shows up as a full-screen image, GIF, or video, when users open the TikTok app. TikTok ensures that users see no more than one brand takeover ad a day, a policy that ensures the sustained effectiveness of the ad type.
Try lenses: A lens on TikTok has functionality that is similar to the filters that Snapchat and Instagram have. When you order a branded lens on TikTok, you get a fun, custom lens for your brand that lasts 10 days. Lenses on TikTok can dramatically improve brand recall.
The bottom line is that TikTok is in its early stages as a social media marketing destination, and it would be a good idea to consider it as a possibility for your brand. All you need to do is to become familiar with the platform to see how its videos work, and post fun, real, experimental videos of your own to show your company’s human side to your audience. If yours is a business that targets a youthful audience, you should consider giving TikTok a try.