What I Know Now: TikTok

What do you think of TikTok? I feel like the mainstream reputation of Tiktok is very similar to the reputation video games had in the '90s and '00s. Older generations are baffled by the concept of a 15-second video being entertaining and even more baffled by the fact TikTok has over 2 billion downloads (as of writing this post).

Just today, I saw an article by the Sunday people saying that TikTok is being blamed for endorsing violent street crime. I can assure you that is not something that has appeared on my FYP, but I also feel like the headlines are severely insulting to the young and ambitious generation who use the app. Gen Z may have once been known for eating washing machine pods and taking part in ridiculous online challenges, but they are now a vocal part in most political and ethical discussions.

Did you know that 20% of Gen Z (born between 1997-2012) will purely buy from a brand which is known to be ethically and morally conscious? Well, you do now!

It's clear that Gen Z From a marketing point of view, they are also now old enough to start making their own purchasing decisions. Which is where TikTok comes in.

I feel like as a marketing tool, TikTok is severely underappreciated by the digital marketing world. I know that any conversations with whether millennials or Gen Y's (pre-lockdown) about TikTok were often met with a scoff and "Oh you mean that kids app?' ". Without going into too much detail, I pushed quite hard for people to take TikTok seriously in my office, but I don't think it helped my case that I was the youngest person in the office (if only by a few years).

But now lockdown has happened, and we've had more time with our tech. I'd like to think that those opinions might have changed slightly because so many of us have got seriously addicted to TikTok since March. So much so that the app has absolutely rocketed in popularity. It was even has been able to pay a lot of their creators to be on the platform.

So what does TikTok offer you? I know that from a marketing point of view, the benefits can be muddied by dance trends, funny videos and animals. But there really are some fantastic benefits for E-commerce businesses. Whether your a small-scale business operating only on Etsy or a major corporation- I can assure you there are several ways your business can boom through TikTok.

Reasons Why You Should Get TikTok:

Increase brand awareness of your product or brand

I think people often forget how big TikTok is as a platform. Can you believe it has over 2 billion downloads? Of course, the amount of active accounts is a little lower than this figure, but you don't need an account to use and make the most of TikTok. If you're an E-commerce brand, who is looking to reach. The worldwide audience then TikTok could be the perfect marketing tool for you.

As a social media platform, it's got insane reach, but it's audience are engaging and supportive. Compared to places like Twitter, TikTok encourages positive and support in its moment sections. I'm not quite sure how they managed it, but it's the dream scenario for any marketer.

Increase traffic to your other social channels

Even if you don't have TikTok, you've definitely seen a viral video reposted onto your Facebook feed or Instagram stories. But that level of cross-promotion works both ways. So when you make an account make sure that you link all your other social media channels.

Increase your web sales

TikTok recognises the perks of promoting online businesses on the app and are doing their very best to accommodate for the waves of companies looking to them for support. They were in talks to create their own version of shopping tags a while ago, they link websites with ease, and Microsoft and Wallmart have plans to further support E-commerce on the site.

Things To Remember When Setting Up TikTok:

Set your goals

This is important, no matter what platform you're using. I always tell my clients that they need clear goals and KPI's when setting up social media for your business. Those goals are fundamental to planning your social strategy. So, what do you want?

More followers?

More brand recognition?

More sales?

I won't go into too much depth about how these impact your social strategy. You'll have to hire me first!

Visualise your audience persona

Who are you targeting? How do you plan on targeting them? The Washington Post is a fabulous example of this. As one of the most respected news organisations in the world, it's surprising to say they've developed quite the following on TikTok. But instead of boring newsreels, they've found a new way to get the news across to users. Honestly, I think their social media manager should get a massive pay rise.

Sort your hashtags out

What hashtags are you going to use? Are you going to make it easy to find your brand? How are you going to use hashtags to find new audiences?

These are all important questions!

Duet and collaborate

Social media may be one of the best free marketing tools to ever created. But that does not take the relevance out of the word 'social'. It is a community of people who engage with and appreciate one another. I think if you're posting organic content, then you shouldn't aim to disrupt that too much. Join and contribute to the conversation- assert your dominance as the alpha in your industry, and the waves of respected followers and customers will follow.

TikTok ads

I personally have never had too much interaction with TikTok ads. I have access to ads manager, and I snoop around it every now and again, but I mostly interact with ads through my for you page. Compared to most social media adverting, I think TikTok ads have a certain level of elegance. They aim to (again) be undisruptive and add to the user experience. Most platforms encourage advertisers to be a disruptive influence.

Analytics

If you don't look at your analytics, then I don't know what to do with you.

Check your stats, figure out where you are excelling and figure out where you need to nurture change and growth. That's the only way you can polish off your content and make it the best it can be.