How To Leverage The Power of TikTok For Business?
TikTok is a brand new social media trend, with close to 2 billion downloads and 500+ million active monthly users. Now for those unfamiliar with the platform, it consists of 15-60 second videos recorded by users, allowing in-app editing and integrating with other social media platforms.
Interestingly, the most significant demographic is 16-24-year-old men and women. However, you’ll be mistaken to think that TikTok is just a Generation Z fad. Since it was first introduced in 2018, the platform has evolved from just a video creation app for users to express their creative side to becoming a heaven for advertising and marketing.
While many brands have warmed up to Instagram to engage with consumers via a series of daily posts, IGTV, and live videos, TikTok allows the same thing through videos. The shorter bite-sized clips cater to the somewhat limited attention span of its audience. That said, many brands already have accounts on TikTok and are working on ways to engage with consumers.
As a business owner TikTok is a goldmine mainly because of the number of active users. While we can’t tell you how the algorithm works but video content tends to go viral much more often on TikTok than on other social media platforms.
If your business isn’t leveraging the power of TikTok, then it is possibly losing its edge over the competition. In this article, we’ll take a look at how your business can leverage the power of this rising social media platform.
Create Branded TikTok Content
Even if most people aren’t familiar with your brand, TikTok can still be immensely effective. But it would help if you planned to make the right content and follow all the best practices. Here are a few:
The magic ingredients – The two magic ingredients that make TikTok videos go viral are kids and pets. Since the demographic is younger, people want to watch humorous videos with animals and kids. If your brand has a mascot or an office pet, feature them in your content.
Your own unique spin – You honestly don’t have to think too hard about this because you can take inspiration from other videos. So, find content that people like, put your unique spin on it, and make that your own.
Be authentic – Most people on TikTok don’t have access to expensive cameras or a large production budget. Content is created with their phones. You will want to take this same approach with your content, but ensure your brand’s true personality shines true.
You will also want to take part in all the trending dances and hashtag challenges. If there is a trend that showcases a productive morning routine, show it as your own. That unique personality is what helps separate you from all the others.
TikTok Advertising
Like many other social media platforms, TikTok has also moved towards monetizing, allowing brands to show ads to users. At present, there are four ways in which TikTok allows brands to show ads within the app.
Brand takeovers – Usually, these are ads that appear in a user’s feed before seeing any content. These can be linked to the advertiser’s page. However, this slot only allows one ad per day per category. So depending on your industry, there could be a bidding war for the space.
Native ads – These are ads that will play in between user content. The ads can be from 9-15 seconds long and will include buttons. But they are skippable, or users can scroll past them.
Sponsored hashtag challenges – Now, for anyone familiar with TikTok, these are a big deal. Each time there is a new challenge on the discover page, there are potentially millions of users that will see it and then join. You can choose to sponsor the hashtag and get a custom banner across the Discover page as a business. Then when users tap it, they will be taken to the video in which your team explains and demonstrates the challenge while promoting your brand in the process.
A good example of the hashtag challenge being leveraged was by Samsung when they launched the Galaxy A phones. The #GalaxyA campaign encouraged everyone to use the hashtag when using their phone’s features to create TikTok videos.
Branded lenses – If you are an advertising agency or a design agency, you can design a TikTok filter for your business. Users can then choose your filter or lens when making a video, and it will be live for 10 days. Lenses are included in the top 10 list, and you also get 2D and 3D variations. The social media platform also has an AR version in the works.
Influencer Created Content
Similar to YouTube and Facebook, as a brand or business, you can also leverage the power of influencer marketing. On TikTok, influencers have anywhere from a few million to a few hundred thousand followers, which means that they have varying amounts of influence. The more followers a person has on TikTok, the more expensive it will be to buy their influence. Though ROI is generally excellent.
You can approach TikTok influencers with a proposal to forge a working relationship. Though make sure you know who you are partnering with. That means if your brand sells health care products, partnering with a video game influencer may not offer the best results.
Final Word
TikTok is now one of the largest social media platforms available today. It went from nothing to something big in just three years. That means there is great potential for businesses to market their products and services, but with a slightly different approach than other social platforms.
The idea with TikTok is you need to be unique, be ready to face criticism and work with influencers who make videos in their bedrooms. That said once you can overcome all of that TikTok marketing and advertising can be highly be
