It’s no secret that social media has become an integral part of our everyday lives and business practices. According to We Are Social and Hootsuite, the average American spends 2-3 hours per day posting, scrolling, sharing and engaging on social media. The latest social media fad? An app called TikTok.
TikTok is a social media platform where users share 15 or 60 second videos and audiences engage by liking, commenting, sharing, duetting and following. Although stigmatized to be a silly app dominated by teenagers, TikTok is quickly becoming a great platform for businesses to promote their brand, products or services to a large audience. Even better, all video editing services are built right into the app making it easy to create and upload content.
How is TikTok beneficial for businesses? Being relatively new, especially to the business and marketing world, TikTok is not as saturated with ads as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This also makes advertising on the app less expensive compared to advertising on bigger platforms.
TikTok can be a great platform to build your business, but it’s important to first determine if it’s the right platform. Content is king when it comes to social media. TikTok thrives off quirky, fun and authentic content. The app has earned the reputation of being a casual platform where users can be creative and feel comfortable expressing themselves. Spend time on the app to become familiar with the culture, what content is most successful, how users can engage and how to edit videos. It’s important to fully understand your business’s identity, culture, audience and goals to determine what content will succeed on the app while keeping it authentic.
If you’ve determined TikTok is right for your business, here are a few ways to use TikTok to promote your business:
Create a Hashtag Challenge
A hashtag challenge encourages users to create or recreate content, tag the branded hashtag and nominate friends. These challenges should be fun and engaging and can be anything from a dance, styling or using a product, making a dish or anything in between.
Partner with TikTok Influencers
Partnering with TikTok influencers is a great way to reach a large audience. When choosing an influencer to work with, keep in mind the type of content the influencer posts and make sure their audience matches your target audience.
Utilize TikTok’s Advertising Options
TikTok recently introduced four different types of advertising options for businesses. The app also offers precise targeting, ensuring an ad is hitting your desired audience. The advertising options include:
- Infeed Native Content: This option allows businesses to share an ad to the TikTok “For You Page” that is similar to Instagram and Snapchat story ads and supports website links and app downloads.
- Brand Takeovers: This option allows businesses to take over TikTok for a day. Businesses have the opportunity to create images, GIFs and videos with embedded links to websites or hashtag challenges.
- Hashtag Challenges: Rather than hoping a hashtag challenge will go viral, businesses have the option to use promoted hashtags.
- Branded Lenses: Branded lenses are similar to Instagram and Snapchat filters for faces and photos.
Overall, TikTok is a great way to generate brand awareness and engagement, as long as businesses are willing to be funny, creative and candid. This type of content is likely to succeed quickly and keep TikTok users coming back for more.