Since the 2016 launch, TikTok surpassed Facebook and Instagram, ranking as the most downloaded app in the iOS App Store at the beginning of 2019.
Rather than just being a fun app for teenagers to make videos on, it is thus becoming increasingly apparent that TikTok is a fast-growing social media platform to be reckoned with.
How can a brand benefit from TikTok? TikTok with its ever-increasing 800 million monthly active users allows increased brand awareness among a large demographic of teenagers and young adults, as well as keeping track of and boosting user engagement through the app’s various features aimed at helping businesses to connect with users.
Marketing your brand to the Gen Z and Millennial Demographic
TikTok can provide an avenue for you to effectively market your brand to a large demographic of teenagers and young adults, commonly known as ‘Gen Z’ers’ and ‘Millennials’. Statistics have revealed that an impressive 42% of the platform’s users consist of individuals between the ages of 18 and 24 years old.
With these Gen Z’ers and Millennials making up almost half of the app’s total number of users, building a strong online presence for your business on TikTok can be a unique way for you to reach out and market your brand to this large and relatively young demographic of consumers as the app continues to grow in popularity. This can effectively boost brand awareness for your business, which would be advantageous considering the significant purchasing power held by Gen Z’ers and Millennials.
Increasing and tracking user engagement
The features on TikTok’s platform that are available to all users can help you to increase and keep track of your brand’s user engagement on the app.
In addition to likes, comments, and shares, which are features that many social media platforms similarly provide, TikTok additionally allows users to create content that directly responds to a specific video through the unique Duet and Stitch features. These features allow for greater interaction with videos and also make it easier for users to participate in viral trends and challenges on the app, which garner greater views and overall engagement with the content. Taking part in viral trends using specific audios on TikTok is also convenient as you need only tap the audio at the bottom of the video to incorporate that sound in making your own content. These general features provided by the app can help you to create viral content and boost user interaction and overall engagement with your content.
Moreover, the app also helps you to keep track of your user engagement so that you can identify which of your videos appealed most to users, and which ones didn’t. TikTok displays the number of likes, comments, shares, and even views that each video garners. This way, you can easily keep track of which videos managed to engage more users. This can help guide you to curate content that really sparks interest in viewers and draws them in, thus expanding your brand’s reach and awareness among users.
TikTok’s marketing features
TikTok has also recently introduced a new platform called ‘TikTok For Business’ that is specifically catered to help businesses to better connect with users online. This platform provides features to help you to market your brand more effectively with its various marketing solutions and to allow you to improve and track user engagement with the content that you upload. Some of these features include Brand Takeovers, In-Feed Videos, and TopView – all of which allow you to showcase your brand through advertisements within the app, depending on which format would best fit your business.
- Brand Takeover ads are short videos lasting a few seconds which are immediately displayed on a user’s screen once they open the TikTok app.
- In-Feed Videos are longer ads that appear in between videos as a user continues to scroll through their feed.
- TopView ads are somewhat like In-Feed Videos in that they show up within a user’s feed; however, they appear on a user’s For You Page quickly after they open the app. While TopView ads do not appear from the moment users open the app – like Brand Takeover ads – they are the first video ad that users encounter as they scroll through their feed, and these ads can last up to one minute. You can experiment with these different features and find out which works best with your brand in reaching out to the many users on the app.
On top of getting your brand name out there through different video ads, TikTok also allows you the opportunity of featuring your products on the app where users can choose to purchase them. TikTok For Business includes a shoppable component in the app – provided by its Hashtag Challenge Plus feature – that allows users to conveniently shop for products within the app, making it easy for them to browse and purchase items from your business.
Examples of Successful Brands in TikTok
Based on TikTok, examples of brands with the most popular Hashtags and also their own creatives:
- NYX Professional Makeup - #ButterGlossPop encouraged creators and beauty enthusiasts across the platform to show their creativity in how they “Pop Their Gloss” and apply the cult-favorite Butter Gloss Lip Gloss.
- L'Oreal - #LetsFaceIt aimed to de-stigmatize mask-wearing by reminding the community that looking and feeling you are most beautiful is never out of style, even while wearing a mask.
- Pepsi - #ThatsWhatILike ushered in a new decade by encouraging consumers to unapologetically do what they enjoy, even in the face of others' judgment – whether it's clapping at the end of a movie, wearing an over-the-top costume for the fun of it, or simply enjoying a Pepsi.
- Bomb Pop - #NotOneThing set out to highlight individuality - we're not limited to just one thing, but rather we're each a unique mashup of interests, feels, and surprises. The challenge asked people to celebrate the epic collabs and low-key dope contradictions that come from refusing to choose a lane.
- Hulu - Using creative assets from their popular Hulu Original comedy series, "Pen15," Hulu promoted the show’s Season 2 release in a hilarious way that caught the attention of users in their For You feeds.
- NFL - NFL Kickoff 2020 was an opportunity to energize the country around the return of football after an unprecedented offseason that affected fans, players, and the world. On TikTok, NFL welcomed back their fans with excitement and joy and rang in the start of a one-of-a-kind 2020-21 NFL season.
- Amazon Prime Video - To promote the much-anticipated second season of The Boys, Amazon Prime Video shared a hilarious and empowering clip from the show.
- Spotify - Featuring the smash hit "Mood", Spotify partnered with creators Jena Frumes, JaNina, and Vienna Skye to showcase their range of music and podcast offerings that match any mood
- Tenet - Warner Bros. offered fans a preview of the action-thriller and encouraged them to join the action through the #TimeforTENET hashtag.
Conclusion
In sum, far from merely being a trivial platform for teens to watch funny videos on, TikTok has become a largely influential social media platform amassing millions of users. Building a strong online presence on this app would thus be a great opportunity for you to benefit your brand through raising brand awareness among the growing Gen Z and Millennial demographic, boosting overall user engagement, and making use of TikTok’s various marketing features to further market your brand.
References:
https://sg.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-global-digital-overview
https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-stats/
https://later.com/blog/tiktok-ads/
https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/year-on-tiktok-the-brands-that-inspired-us