If you’ve made it to July 2020 with no idea what TikTok is then you’ve either been taking an intense digital detox, or you’ve been living in a hole.
What is TikTok?
With over 1 billion installs and 800 million active monthly users, this video sharing platform is the social media trend that is here to stay.
Most videos are short – up to 15 seconds – and play on a continuous loop, featuring musical overlays and visual effects. Tik Tok first became popular for lip-sync and viral dance trend videos.
It is primarily aimed at Gen Z-er; these are the ones who are tech-savvy digital natives, that is, those between the ages of 13 and 25.
How to use TikTok for marketing
TikTok only introduced paid advertising relatively recently; this means it remains to be seen how this functionality will develop, there are other recognised ways to market your product or services.
One is to create a channel and establish it as the go-to place for relevant video content. Alternatively, you could partner with influencers and work with them to increase brand awareness. Remember to form smart partnerships. Make sure the influencer is the right fit for your brand identity.
How to advertise on TikTok?
Due to it’s younger user-base, the brands who have so far advertised most successfully on TikTok have had to be immensely creative. Often they have led with funny campaigns, based around challenges, showing an irreverent, quirky side to their company.
Because Gen-Z love immersive, interactive content, involving users in your campaign and encouraging them to create their own content – including your hashtag – is the best way to engage them.
Should you advertise on TikTok?
There are some incredible benefits to marketing through TikTok. It allows accounts with little or no following to achieve viral status overnight; a phenomenon which simply isn’t achievable with YouTube or Instagram.
It is so easy to get swept up in the latest trend. So do make sure that TikTok is the right platform for your business before allocating budget to it. On the whole, it’s brilliant for increasing brand awareness, but weaker for driving traffic or generating leads.
Simplicity and fun are the names of the game with TikTok. It’s immensely trend-driven so if you can leverage an existing one or create your own trend, then you’ll have success.
