TikTok is the latest hit social media platform, allowing for growing creative minds to build a successful following. Due to the explosion in popularity, brands are pouncing on the opportunity to advertise themselves, but because of its infancy, the competition is still growing.
This leaves lots of room for smaller businesses or companies to jump in before the pool gets too crowded. If you’re looking for a new way to market your business to a young audience, you should consider TikTok. Here are five ways it can boost your business strategy and increase your online presence.
Influencers
Companies have used social media influencers for advertisement for a long time now, seen mostly on Instagram, YouTube, and now TikTok. The premise is simple: you pay an influencer to promote your product or brand to their following in hopes of reaching a broader audience.
While Instagram is full of brands trying their best to get influencers to promote them, TikTok is new and hasn’t been saturated with companies claiming their spot in advertisements.
Ads
TikTok ads are similar to those on other platforms but vary in how they’re shown. There are five different types of ads to look out for while marketing on TikTok.
In-feed Ads are the cheapest type of ads that appear between posts while scrolling, similar to Instagram’s feed.
Brand Takeovers appear when the app is first opened and reach a large audience at once. They are costly but worth it.
TopViews: an in-feed ad that appears at the top of the For You page.
Branded Hashtag Challenges: hashtags that link to the business’ page and allow content creators to be as creative as they like.
Branded Effects: AR overlays similar to Snapchat filters that encourage participation from creators.
Diverse Content
Compared to other social media, TikTok's unique format allows for diverse content to blossom. Because it’s video and sound-oriented, it’s important to have high-quality visuals and audio while making a post and tagging it properly so your target audience can find it easily.
Trending TikToks are comedic or dances with popular songs, but that isn't to say serious ones don’t exist. Most people are looking for short, to-the-point videos that don’t take themselves too seriously while still being informative.
Better Chances Of Going Viral
Because TikTok has strayed from the normal platform’s virality, focusing less on the creator’s popularity and more on a collage of videos that show up on the FYP, everyone has a chance to become an overnight sensation, whether you have one million followers or ten.
The easiest way to take advantage of this method is by hopping on trends, putting popular songs in the backgrounds of your videos, using hashtags to reach a wide following, and even creating your own tag if you’d like to.
Unsaturated Market
Few household names have moved to the platform for advertisement, leaving space for you to be creative and innovative with your marketing in TikTok.
However, unsaturation isn’t a guarantee of success. It takes an adjustment period to understand the kind of content that gets popular and an innovative mind to become attuned to the culture while creating.
If you want to get the feeling of what to aim for in your content creation, watch some TikToks, see what’s thriving and what isn’t, and adjust your approach accordingly.
Because TikTok is still in its youth—barely four years old—many people are still apprehensive about what could happen to it and where it could lead. But even so, there’s plenty of opportunity in something new and full of potential.
The only way to determine whether TikTok marketing is right for your brand is to download and experience the app firsthand.