August 10, 2022
Recently Hootsuite hosted a webinar series titled “Fearless on TikTok” focused on the social media platform’s marketing and advertising capabilities. Since TikTok’s founding in 2016, it has gained a billion monthly active users and continues to grow by over 900,000 adult users each day.
The top two reasons people scroll through TikTok are to be entertained and informed. As a result of users scrolling, they are buying some of the items they see. Forty-seven percent of current TikTok users have purchased a product they saw on the app, and 39% of users have learned about a new brand. From those data points, it should come as no surprise that the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag has over 12 million views.
If you decide to launch your brand on TikTok, navigating the sheer amount of content to get noticed can seem tricky. Every type of business can find its place on TikTok through things like product marketing, brand awareness, recruitment marketing, etc. Getting started and attracting an audience can be challenging, but also incredibly valuable. Here are five tips on entering the powerful world of TikTok.
1. Create content that doesn’t feel like an ad. The success behind this marketing tool comes from the less formal and “perfect” content compared to other social media. Fun and laid-back content tend to perform best on TikTok while still accomplishing brand awareness and sales. Duolingo, the popular education app for learning languages, had 50,000 TikTok followers in September 2021. After one viral video streamlined engagement, the brand has now amassed 4.5 million followers. This massive growth came from using their brand mascot, the Duolingo owl, in funny and relevant TikTok trends to push their app. The disguise of the advertisement within entertaining content resulted in Duolingo being the top app in its category in the Apple App Store.
2. Add your brand’s personal touch. Most TikTok users think that professional and ultra-polished videos look out of place on the app, and 56% of users feel closer to brands that incorporate a human element. TikTok is the perfect place to embrace creativity and your brand’s lighter sight, making consumers feel more connected to your brand. The Washington Post accomplished this by attaching a human face to the brand on TikTok, resulting in 4.5 billion views.
3. Leverage TikTok to share a different kind of content. Casual content performs best on TikTok so why not take advantage? Show behind-the-scenes clips or videos demonstrating your company’s culture to optimize your reach and connect with your audience. This content has the potential to attract candidates and is great for recruitment marketing, especially as younger generations enter the workforce. For example, Insight Global, a national staffing agency, uses TikTok to show off its office culture by creating funny videos featuring employees in relevant trends. Several of the videos have gone viral, expanding their reach. Users have engaged with the posts, expressing interest in working at the company in the comments.
4. Be engaging and authentic! While users scroll on the app for an average of 19.6 hours per month, you only have a few seconds to grab their attention before they move on to the next video. Be creative and employ visually engaging tactics to improve the chances your audience wants to watch more of your content.
5. Don’t think, post. TikTok trends evolve rapidly. When you notice a trend you can capitalize on, post your content! People love TikTok for the fun, effortless, and endless videos; don’t spend too much time perfecting every detail.
All companies should reserve their handle and consider establishing a presence on TikTok so they can tap into the overwhelming growth potential that brands can experience on the platform. Whether you’re a business-to-consumer business (B2C) or a business-to-business (B2B) enterprise, your audience is on TikTok, waiting to consume your content.
Curious about TikTok and its capabilities but don’t know where to start? Reach out to our marketing communications team lead, Lisa Zone.
