Taking the world by storm, there’s no secret that TikTok is being used across the globe, both personally and professionally.
Driving attention, reach and engagement with short form, engaging content that demands regular, fresh pieces on a daily basis, it can be a challenge to leverage the platform for your brand.
But never fear, we’ve collated a cheat sheet on everything you need to know about this social phenomenon, and how to use it for your business.
So what is TikTok?
Released in 2016 by ByteDance, TikTok saw its birth after receiving a glow up following its merge with Musical.ly, and started initially as a dance based platform, capturing the attention of the Gen Z market.
As we plunged into the COVID lockdowns, the platform saw a swift rise, increasing significantly in followers, content and usage globally.
Now, the platform is home to more than 1.7 billion users globally, as of early 2024, we see the platform’s expansion far past just trending sounds – creating a space for on platform shopping, TikTok advertising for businesses and even Creator Partnerships, amongst other things.
But what does this mean for your brand?
Reaching & Engaging Your Audiences
With such a high volume of users, using TikTok for your brand is a great way to reach your audiences across the platform, however, this isn’t in the same way as other platforms we know and love, such as Facebook or Instagram.
TikTok thrives due to its more raw and authentic nature, with users creating content multiple times per day, with little/no plan, on their iPhone or Android that appeals to them and their growing interests, and includes them in an engaged community. This means, should you want to leverage the platform, your presence will need to bear this in mind – unfortunately, your beautiful documentary style video won’t work as well here.
To see regular growth in reach, following and engagement, it’s beneficial to emulate this usage style as much as possible, and have fun with it! This means posting regularly in the authentic nature being used by your audience (shooting on your phone is encouraged), engaging with other content and actually using the platform.
Recently, the TikTok team shared that content that’s shared by active accounts are regularly picked up, and pushed out to wider audiences (should it pick up initial engagement) – it’s time to get liking and commenting!
Posting regularly to see growth on the platform is also key, as well as partnering this content using trending and relevant sounds for your brand. You don’t have to post 3 times per day everyday, but it’ll definitely help you reach your goals faster!
Once your content is shared, the on platform algorithm begins to test your post with a small select group of your audience (both followers and non followers), to gain initial understanding of how good it is. Should these audience members LOVE it – your content continues to reach more and more users, and you could go viral.
If not, your post might end up in the dreaded 200 Views Jail. But never fear – this isn’t forever.
But what if I want to grow on TikTok faster?
We get it – you’ve got goals to hit, so how do you leverage TikTok to see results faster?
Enter advertising for TikTok!
Much like the other well loved social platforms, TikTok has its own section for businesses to leverage the high volumes of data and learnings captured by the feeds via Ads. Tapping into how your audience interacts with content, time they spend on the platform and even things they add to their TikTok Shop Basket, you can extend your reach, engagement and growth significantly. However, much like posting organically, TikTok ads for Businesses also recommends using an authentic creative style to see high converting activity from campaigns.
Tap into Spark Ads amongst other creative styles, with a collection of relevant targeting and your scroll stopping creative and copy and reach additional audiences with TikTok for Business, taking on learnings as you go. Need a hand with this? We’d love to help
Top 5 Things to Takeaway
Use TikTok, how your audience is using it.
Create and share raw and authentic content.
To grow, leverage consistent posting, get involved, and share content with trends and trending sounds (but keep it relevant)
Supercharge your growth with TikTok Ads for Business
Have fun with it!
Looking to get started?
Whether you’re an agency or a brand, we offer all the strategy, creative and production experience to deliver great results for your clients or business by leveraging TikTok.
Get in touch today and discover how we can help you start your journey.
