TikTok: Is It For Business?
TikTok is now a global phenomenon. Originally launching as Musical.ly and then relaunching as TikTok the platform has seen wide success and as of the beginning of last year, had over 1 Billion users worldwide, seeing growth that rivals that of Instagram which had around 1.5 Billion users around the same time.
With so many people finding success on the app, the question presents itself, is TikTok good for Business?
There Is No Easy Answer
By logging onto the app, you can see many businesses using the app in various ways. Firstly, the most useful way a business can take advantage of the rapidly growing popularity of TikTok is sponsorships. These can be done through TikTok itself or contacting creators directly. This can help advertise your brand to a large audience. Depending on the creator, you will have to budget this into marketing though. The other option is too simply set up your own account.
TikTok is set up into its own different communities, so appealing to these communities can be hard. Just like Instagram, Hashtags are a big part of attracting an audience. However, TikTok is not as fluid as Instagram and communities forming around specific interests tend to stay separate from each other. Attempting to break into these different groups at the same time will most likely not succeed. You will need to pinpoint your target audience.
So, if stress is such a big issue, why isn’t it talked about? Well, they do. To counteract an entire month of stress, April is known as stress awareness month (Heckman, 2020). Reminding us to look after ourselves and keep our stress manageable. This can seem a daunting task if you're inundated with office reports, meetings and making sure the house is tidy for visitors, so let’s dive into the simplest way to relieve stress.Does your Target Audience Use TikTok?
So, we know we can just use already successful TikTok creators to advertise products or services for our businesses, but can we go it alone? Scrolling through TikTok it’s easy to believe its entirely comedy sketches and young kids dancing. But, as mentioned earlier. These groups don’t really cross each other. This makes having mass appeal almost impossible. You can pull off a mass appeal approach, but that’s only really doable with a large marketing team.
So, to answer this question, does your audience use TikTok? Well, if you’re a B2B marketing specialist, yes, there is a marketing community on TikTok, Journalists and even gardeners have their own communities on TikTok. With TikTok reaching 1.5 Billion downloads last year, its worth a quick look just to see if anyone is doing something similar to you. If so, is there a community for you to talk to. Of course, don’t be put off if there isn’t, being the first is always risky, but that leaves you with 100% of that community to yourself.
Experimenting with TikTok, Ryan from our team has managed to gain a following creating content based on History. This was a small community, however, the number of people creating content in that field has doubled over the last 6 months.
This may look like almost guaranteed success, yet the majority of users are between 13 and 30. This is a large age range, but the issue here is, do you create products of services for people in that age bracket? If you’re looking at Marketing, you will be pushing content to interns and people in junior positions. You will have to keep this in consideration.
So, What Content Should You Make?
If you’re using TikTok for business, you will have to lower that professional wall slightly. People like to see a friendly face on the other side of their screens. The easiest way to gain traction is to show little updates of something you’re working on. If you’re working with art, a brief, short video on a piece you’re working on or a video talking about some artists that inspire you can be a good way of gaining traction.
Don’t be afraid to hop on a few TikTok Trends! As a Business it can be important to keep your account professional, but trends are trends for a reason. Getting the office together to do a TikTok dance may bring attention to your account, allowing you to move people to your website or store. If you’re working from home or working solo, don’t be afraid to do this by yourself.
Obviously, you want to keep the account to a moderate professional standard but allow for a breakaway sometimes. TikTok is about people and making friends at its core, use that!So, is TikTok good for business?
Ultimately, it falls down to how you want to market your business. An Accounting firm may struggle, but 5 random facts about Accounting may gain sudden traction.
To use TikTok effectively you need to be ready to occasionally let loose. Show off what you do in a fun way and keep those videos short, around thirty seconds. If you accept TikTok for what it is, a fun app for younger people, it will naturally help your business. A plain video of someone slowly talking to the camera probably won’t get seen, but the same video with high energy and a smile most likely will.
So, is TikTok good for business? Yes, but it takes a lot of effort to maintain. If you want to make the move onto TikTok, ask for help from those familiar with the platform.Conclusions
Don’t get caught up in the idea that TikTok is just a kids app. There is a community of more mature individuals, but there are mostly here for their free time. The same goes for younger audiences. If you want to market yourself or your business on TikTok, you need to get those who come to your account to have fun.
So, keep videos short, fun yet professional and TikTok will be good for your business. And you may even pick up some cool new dance moves for the next office party. We’re also taking our first steps onto the platform, so come and find us @Natalka Design