TikTok is the latest trend in social networks: more than 1.5 billion downloads on the App Store and Google Play and more than 500 million monthly active users. The platform consists of 15- and 60-second videos recorded by users, which can be edited in the application itself and integrated with other major social networks.
The audience of TikTok users is mainly people aged 16 to 24 years. But if you think that TikTok is just a hobby of the current generation, you should definitely think again. Since its introduction in 2018, TikTok has evolved from an application designed exclusively for ordinary users to an application, an application where you can show all your creativity in the field of marketing and advertising.
As you know, many brands use Instagram to interact with consumers through posts, stories, live videos and IGTV.
TikTok also allows brands to interact with users, but only with short clips. Over the past year, many brands have created platform-based accounts to interact with their customers. On Tiktok, you can find everyone: from powerful people and celebrities to politicians and completely ordinary people.
The attractiveness of TikTok for business lies in the large number of active users on this platform. It’s still not clear how the algorithm works, but it will be much easier for you to publish your video content on TikTok than on other social networks.
If you are ready to try TikTok to promote your business, then here are four types of content to get you started.
# 1: Create Your Own TikTok Content
Even if your brand is not well known, you can still use TikTok effectively for marketing. But first, you should start by planning great content and using the following guidelines.
1. Be natural. Most users of social networks do not have access to expensive equipment for cameras and do not turn to professional operators. They create content using their own phones and do it the way they can. Use the same approach for your content. Then users will feel a certain connection with you and your attitude to them, which will undoubtedly inspire confidence in them.
2. Two topics that usually lead to TikTok becoming viral are pets and children. As the audience of this platform is quite young, users are more interested in watching humorous and entertaining videos with children and animals. If your company has a mascot animal or perhaps even a service animal, engage it in your content.
Remember that TikTok is not a place where it is so important to make a perfect first impression and fake smiles are not welcome here. This is a place for fun, humor, fun and naturalness.
3. Create your own trend. But at the same time, you do not need to try to come up with new and unique ideas for content because of all your strength. The platform is based on user engagement and hashtags, so all you have to do is find existing content and create your own.
Take part in various challenges or dance trends. If there is a trend in your sphere, for example, to demonstrate how the morning of the working day goes, then you show how this happens with you. At the same time, the video of your company, its uniqueness and individuality will distinguish you from other users in the same category. Look at what is already working successfully in the application, and try to create your own trend.
Before you start creating content, experience the unique TikTok style. This is not an official or superprofessional platform. This is a space for users and brands where you can experiment with trends, behave stupidly and playfully, and show a completely different side of yourself.
Click on the magnifying glass in the bottom menu and you will open the Interesting page, where you can see videos and hashtags that are now in trend.
Watch a few videos to understand how users create their content.
Create your first video
When you are ready to create your first video, click the black “plus” at the bottom of the screen. At the same time, TikTok will ask you for permission to access the camera, photos and microphone. Next you will see the video recording page. Choose a 15-second or 60-second recording option and start shooting your video by clicking on the red circle.
Add music and effects
TikTok has various interesting effects that you can add to your video, including music. Users usually create lip-sync videos in the style of Musical.ly, where they pronounce the words of popular songs. In a way, this is like creating your own music video. In the TikTok database there are almost all popular songs that are played on the radio, while copyright is not infringed.
To add a song to your video, simply click on “Music” at the top of the recording screen.
When the music library opens, you can browse through new releases, genres, and popular playlists. Save the selected songs to Favorites by clicking on the bookmark icon to the right of the song name.
To add a song to your video, select it from the library and then press the red checkmark button to confirm your choice. After downloading, you will return to the recording screen, and the name of the selected song will appear in the place of “Music”.
- On the right side of the screen you will find effects that you can use (top to bottom):
- "Flip" allows you to use the main or front camera;
- “Speed” is responsible for the frame rate; You can speed up or slow down the video;
- Beauty erases any imperfections in the skin and improves the clarity of your face on the screen;
- Filters provide you with access to dozens of different screen colors, contrast levels, and more. Some filters will help make the video more attractive. For example, the filters in the “Portrait” tab will give your appearance different visual effects;
- “Timer” is one of the features that distinguishes TikTok from other video platforms, allowing you to create videos in real time. This means that you can record a song for a few seconds, pause, change your position and continue to record the song from the moment you stopped. To adjust the duration of your video, use the crop icon under the timer;
- "Flash" speaks for itself - allows you to use the camera flash.
To the left of the record button is the Effects icon. When you click on it, you will see dozens of different effects that you can add to your video. One turns your face into a deer with a flower crown, the other adds flame to the background. Some of them are even interactive, and if you shake the phone when this effect is turned on, it will change one filter to another.
To the right of the record button is the “Download” icon, which allows you to upload previously recorded video to your phone in TikTok. Long videos must be trimmed to fit the 60 second interval.
Share your video
After selecting music, effects and recording a video, click on the checkmark in the lower right corner of the screen, and then click “Next”.
On the “Publish” screen that appears, you will have the following options:
- the ability to describe your video;
- Insert hashtags and tag friends
- choose a cover;
- set those who can watch the video;
- enable / disable comments, duets and reactions;
- save the video to an album.
You can also share videos from WhatsApp, Instagram and VKontakte.
After creating your post, click on the "Publish" button in the lower right corner to publish or on the "Drafts" button to save it for later.
# 2: Share custom content on TikTok
Although TikTok is focused on showing fun, moving, and everyday videos, in order to create content that matches this direction, you still need to make a real effort, as well as a creative approach. Brands especially need to plan the content of their content in order to get the most out of their efforts.
For example, Nike took an interesting approach to TikTok. Instead of publishing their own video, their content is created by the users themselves.
Search the hashtag #nike to see real marketing magic. Over 1.5 billion users have viewed this hashtag, and millions of TikTok posts use it. If you scroll down the page, you can see the videos and GIFs of users who wear Nike, draw Nike, dance in Nike, and much more. And this content, which is created by the users themselves, is the real free advertising for the brand.
# 3: Advertising on TikTok
Like other social media platforms, TikTok is moving toward a monetized future where brands can pay to display their ads to users.
Below are four ways in which TikTok allows you to pay for advertising in the app.
Absorption. Such ads appear in the user’s feed before they see any other user-generated content. They are associated with the advertiser's landing page and are unique to different categories. In fact, for a certain category, only one ad per day can be displayed in this slot.
Native advertising. This is an ad in the form of video ads that play between user-generated content. They can be 9 to 15 seconds long and include buttons. However, users can skip or scroll through such ads.
Sponsored Hashtag Challenges. Hashtag challenges are important on TikTok. When a new challenge appears on the search page, millions of users can see it and join it. Your company can also pay for its hashtag and thereby get its own banner on the search page. When users click on it, they get on the video of your company, where the challenge is shown, while promoting your brand.
At one time, Samsung used the hashtag challenge to enhance its content with the help of users while advertising new features. When they released their Galaxy A smartphones, they created the #galaxya hashtag. Users were encouraged to add this hashtag when using the features of their Galaxy A in TikTok.
When you ask this hashtag in the search, you will see that it has more than 195 million views and a lot of content from users who demonstrate the functions of their phones.
TikTok is a great platform for brands that work in design, technology, and software to showcase their products.
Branded filters and effects. Create a filter or TikTok effect that will be associated specifically with your business. Users will be able to use it for their video, and it will be available within 10 days. At the same time, the filter is automatically included in the top 10 trends and presented in 2D and 3D. TikTok also has an AR version.
# 4: Develop your content with popular tickers
Like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, your brand can use influence marketing to expand reach. Popular people on TikTok have a different number of subscribers and, therefore, a different degree of influence. As a rule, the more followers such people have, the more expensive it is to work with them. However, payback in this case is of great importance.
On behalf of your company, you can turn to such TikTok authorities and offer cooperation, but it is important to approach this issue wisely. If your brand sells cosmetic accessories, then cooperation with those who have influence in video games is not suitable. Find those tickers who work specifically in your niche and who match the values of your brand.
Popular people on TikTok can:
- talk about your product in your video;
- write a post in the description of the video;
- provide a link to your brand in the description.
You have probably seen how successful influence marketing on other social media platforms is, and TikTok is no different. Like other platforms, it is also important to be careful about those with whom you are working or are going to draw up a contract.
Conclusion
To fully understand what TikTok is, it is important to know about its predecessors. Vine is a video recording and sharing application that allows users to create short 6-second videos. Musical.ly was identical except that it allowed users to add special effects and was usually used to synchronize with popular songs and sound tracks. In 2018, the creators of a similar Chinese application called Douyin acquired Musical.ly. They combined these two applications in TikTok and entered the Western market.
TikTok is here, and he seems to be not going anywhere. So get acquainted with the application and get started!
