Are you still on the fence about embracing TikTok as your newest digital marketing channel? If so, it might be time to take the leap and join the latest trend that’s taking the world and its biggest brands by storm.
The videos created on TikTok garner an average of over 17 billion views every month, and your company needs that kind of exposure to grow.
TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social networks on the planet. It’s rapidly growing in popularity among trendy brands and young content creators aiming to expand their audiences, increase engagement, and reach millions of users with their content.
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It’s a fun, vibrant social media video platform in which you can show your followers a less curated and more relatable side to your brand. You don’t need any professional filming equipment or a team of editors either; simple clips shot with your smartphone will do the trick here. You can use TikTok to experiment with video marketing media and drive valuable traffic to your website.
In this post, we’ll delve deeper into the ins and outs of using TikTok for business venture growth and increasing your brand’s audience using this popular networking tool.
How TikTok Can Benefit Your Company and Brand
TikTok is one of the newest social media channels, but it’s already rivaling the popularity and the user-bases of better-established websites like Facebook and Instagram. In fact, the platform already has over 2 billion downloads, and its growing fan base is showing no signs of slowing down.
That said, creating content for TikTok can be an intimidating prospect for some users and businesses. There’s a common misconception that you need to dance, sing, or create expertly filmed videos to use the app successfully. Thankfully, nothing could be further from the truth. Businesses of all sizes can use TikTok successfully without having choreography or video experts on board.
TikTok Can Benefit You and Your Brand By:
- Exposing your brand and your products or services to many millions of users from 150 different countries. TikTok had around 1 billion active monthly users in 2020, and Wallaroo Media estimates that the number is actually closer to 1.1 billion in 2021. TikTok has approximately 100 million active users in the United States alone.
- Allowing you to engage and connect with a specific audience that’s interested in your niche and what you offer
- Allowing you to take advantage of the influencer marketing movement and team up with influential content creators in your industry
- Giving you the chance to use TikTok’s proprietary paid advertising services and analytics algorithms to streamline your digital marketing strategy
- Enabling you to reach young Millennial and Generation Z audiences and add them to your customer base. According to data from Comscore, TikTok’s American user base is primarily around ages 10-19 (32.5%), 20-29 (29.5%), and 30-39 (16.4%).
The trick to making the most of your presence on TikTok is to pair your content creation with a powerful social media strategy. This combination will help your brand build its own niche community and reach out to younger consumers.
Your Must-Have Guide to Growing Your Enterprise With TikTok
Tip #1: Be Comfortable Using TikTok
TikTok is like a combination of YouTube and Instagram. There will be a learning curve involved when getting started, more so if you have no prior experience with the app or creating video content.
Your first step to using TikTok for your business or brand is to create a personal profile. Then, teach yourself how to use the app’s features before you dive into your social media marketing strategies. TikTok offers a wide range of video effects and editing tools. Explore these, try out video transitions and effects, and make note of those that would best suit your brand identity.
We recommend taking the time to research the social platform, understanding exactly how it works, and identifying your specific target audience.
Once you have a specific audience in mind, you can decide what kind of content – product launches, tutorials, behind-the-scenes clips, or user-generated content – you should share to engage them. Draw up a list of hashtags that you will target with your videos. Perhaps you’ll even develop some branded hashtags to use exclusively to promote your business.
It’s a good idea to peruse the Discovery page and follow hashtags that align with your industry to gauge your competitors’ use of the platform. The idea here is not to copy another content creator’s work directly. Instead, develop a creative spin on your own content that will help you connect with your audience and set your brand apart from its peers.
Tip #2: Pick a Niche Topic
TikTok’s users tend to gravitate toward unique and memorable accounts and content. The platform’s algorithms are engineered so anyone to find your content, regardless of how popular it is or how many times it gets viewed.
This gives TikTok the edge over Facebook and YouTube, as their algorithms are largely based on the number of hits a post or video receives. The more popular the post, the more promotion it receives, leaving new accounts or those with minimal followers in the dark. With TikTok, even brand new accounts can quickly gain traction and attract attention.
You can help ensure success for your brand’s TikTok marketing efforts by focusing on a niche topic. This allows you to post creative content, have fun with your TikTok presence, and find a niche for your business in which it will make an impact and gather a significant following.
Regardless of how weird or wonderful your brand’s products and services may be, there are almost certainly TikTok-ers who will find them fascinating. Even chiropractors, dentists, and florists have gathered huge followings on the app by sharing quick, satisfying videos of their sessions that intrigue their followers.
Selecting a niche topic will assist you in focusing on the core aspects of your brand that you most wish to present to the world. Let’s say, for example, you own a nail and beauty salon. Your TikTok channel could feature unique behind-the-scenes clips that focus specifically on applying false lashes, hair coloring jobs, or your nail technicians’ work. This way, you could build a reputation for your brand’s TikTok as the go-to account for lash application, hair dye before-and-afters, or beautiful nail work.
Share niche content with your audience consistently, and your brand’s ideal target market will naturally find it and engage with you. As your community expands, you will be able to engage with your followers directly on TikTok and beyond by steering them toward your website or e-commerce store.
Tip #3: Create an Impactful Posting Calendar
Brands that use social media channels successfully do so by using detailed social media strategies and content posting calendars. TikTok is no different.
Once you create a posting calendar for your TikTok account, you can brainstorm content ideas and plan the scope and nature of your content over the coming days, weeks, and months. When you first begin to create TikTok content, it’s best to adhere to a posting frequency that feels comfortable and manageable for you and your business.
Just like other social media platforms, consistency is the key to building a solid presence on TikTok. However, avoid the trap of posting five times a day, becoming overwhelmed by the volume of content you need to create, and then not posting again for weeks on end. Instead, start with posting a few times a week and work your way up if it’s viable for your enterprise to do so.
Once you start posting, it’s a great idea to use analytics to keep track of what resonates with your audience and which approaches you may need to revise. You can access TikTok’s own analytics and review data on your top territories and when your target audience is active by creating a Pro Account.
The app makes it easy to experiment with content formats; you can use graphic design tools to create custom graphics that fit your voice and will resonate with your audience, and if necessary, pivot when needed. Your audience wants engaging, entertaining, satisfying, inspiring, and helpful content. The finer details are up to you.
Tip #4: Endeavor to Be Authentic, Not Perfect
TikTok is the ideal social media platform for brands that want to show off their personalities and authenticity. Sites like Instagram prioritize polished, cohesive aesthetics, but TikTok users tend to prefer accounts that are willing to keep it real.
According to co-founder of PRZM and LaterCon presenter Larry Milstein, Gen Z TikTok users want to follow brands with bold personalities and aren’t afraid to make waves on social media. Milstein was referring to Instagram in his quote, but considering that over 60% of TikTok users are Gen Zs, the same principle applies.
This means you are welcome to be yourself, enjoy yourself, and show off your approachable side when creating TikTok content. Bonus points if you can share educational and entertaining content that offers your insight genuine value in some way.
Being authentic will strengthen your connection with your online community and let them feel as though they’re genuinely getting to know the people behind your brand. You’ll be able to boost your engagement rates and reach new leads as a result.
Tip #5: Launch Engaging TikTok Challenges
TikTok has a notably powerful reach and has created an environment in which many previously unknown content creators went viral practically overnight. The trick to achieving this level of fame on the platform is hosting regular and interesting TikTok challenges.
Challenges are a fantastic way for your brand to amplify its growth and naturally reach millions of TikTok users. The good news is that you don’t need to collude with TikTok’s most popular users to host successful challenges either. Work with users in your niche, industry, or even followers who often comment and engage with your posts.
With a bit of creative thinking, you can come up with challenges that are relevant to your industry or promote a social cause in a positive way. Tying this back to your brand strengthens the feeling of community and boosts engagement.
You can even cross-promote your TikTok challenges on different platforms like Facebook and Instagram to encourage those platforms’ users to join the movement. This approach helps you to leverage your social media impact. Plus, it allows you to use all of your audiences to your advantage and encourages them to become a part of your TikTok fan base.
How to Use Paid Ad Placements
Paid advertising on TikTok offers excellent returns on investment. Assuming you have the advertising budget available for it, of course.
The app’s paid advertising is still in its infancy compared to the programs run by its older peers. But it still offers a viable way to increase your brand awareness and attract new leads to your website.
You Can Get Started With Paid Advertising On TikTok By:
- Signing up for a TikTok ads account on the site’s official advertising platform.
- Creating a paid advertising campaign by setting your objectives, choosing your ad placement types and target demographics, and tailoring your ads to your target audience. Once you have refined the details of your campaign, set a budget and schedule to ensure that your advertising efforts reach the right TikTok users at the right times.
- Following the best practices laid out by the many TikTok paid advertising tutorials available online. Follow the advice of seasoned content creators with experience on the platform who have actually amassed significant follower bases with their strategies.
Making the Move to TikTok
In an age where sharing marketing material is as simple as the click of a mouse or tap of a screen, TikTok is a fantastic platform for any business that wants to show a different, more authentic side to their brand. It’s ideal for building a niche audience and targeting Millennial and Gen Z customers with their marketing strategies.
It’s a fun, diverse, and down-to-earth platform in which you can experiment with video content creation and ensure ongoing engagement. TikTok can contribute to the growth of just about any business, small or multinational, as long as solid social media strategies are in place.
Topics: online public relations, shared media, social media
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