For some time now, TikTok has been capturing the attention of many young people. The former social media trend from Asia is becoming increasingly well-known worldwide and now has an incredibly high number of users. Funny videos and small dance interludes with background music are characteristic of the social media platform and fill the everyday lives of many young people. However, these are not only represented on the forum but also more and more relevant target groups. That’s why it’s worth taking an in-depth look from a business perspective to discover TikTok for yourself and your marketing strategy. In this article, we want to explain the essential functions of TikTok to you as a TikTok beginner and show you how you can use this platform for yourself and your business.
To give you a comprehensive overview, we’ll reveal in advance which questions about “TikTok for Business” will be answered in this article to make your TikTok business profile successful:
- What is TikTok?
- Who uses TikTok?
- What content is suitable for my platform?
- How do I create a successful strategy?
- How do I use TikTok correctly?
The Social Platform TikTok
TikTok is a social video network that grew from the lip-sync app “musical.ly” and its Asian counterpart Douyin. TikTok users can consume short videos on the platform and upload short videos they have created themselves. You can edit the clips with filters and effects, making them reminiscent of familiar networks like Instagram or Snapchat. It can, therefore, also be seen as a combination of different social networks – a mix of musical.ly, Vine, Twitch, YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram. As with Instagram and co., there are also Like and Follow functions, with which TikTok relies on high user engagement. Companies have the option of setting up a TikTok company profile.
The vertical video format of the platform is particularly characteristic, which makes it especially suitable for smartphones. Especially the “Challenge” format and the “Lip Sync” videos have established themselves as social trend functions in the network. In this way, the interactive platform inspires millions of people and retains their loyalty with a relatively high daily dwell time.
This target group uses TikTok.
To get your business off the ground on the platform, you should know who is on TikTok and whether you can reach your target group via this channel. No matter how good your strategy is – if your target group cannot be called via this channel, it is not worth the effort on your part. That’s why we want to take a look at TikTok users first.
More than 100 million people in Europe use TikTok at least once a month. In Germany, about 5.5 million users use the platform. User analyses of the network show that 69 percent of users are between 16 and 24 years old and only 31 percent are over 25. Of this percentage, only under half of users are over 35 years old. In addition, the majority of TikTok users are female. That’s because 60 percent of users are women, most of whom are on the network. If you look at the distribution between iOs and Android, there is little difference.
So it’s clear that TikTok’s focus, at least for the time being, is primarily on the younger generation. Based on this information, you should decide whether TikTok is the right communication platform for you and your company. If so, you should set up a company profile.
TikTok For Business: This Content Is Suitable For The Platform
Any company can become active on TikTok if the target group fits. Whether you offer products or sell services – anyone can be creative here. However, this channel is more suitable for B2C companies than B2B companies. Because many companies have yet to discover TikTok as a communication channel, they are also not an appropriate target group for TikTok. However, anyone who wants to be active here must meet one requirement criterion above all: creativity. Because to be able to play on this platform, you have to be creative, have the desire and time to keep yourself busy with new contributions, and, above all, interact with your target group. And this can only be achieved if you create funny, creative, and entertaining short videos and share them via your TikTok company profile.
Topics For Content Strategies
Because TikTok is still in its infancy in Germany, there are a few examples of already successful company profiles on TikTok. Only a few companies have already familiarized themselves with this social media network. That’s why it’s also more work to say which content will be particularly well received for marketing strategies. Therefore, try out a bit at the beginning and see which content works and which does not. However, if you orient yourself on the most successful videos on the platform, the following content recommendations can be derived:
TikTok is predestined to provide insights into your business with fun and entertaining videos. Whether you focus on your employees, yourself and corporate partners, or new projects on your TikTok company profile – get creative here and let your followers look behind the scenes.
You can easily promote new products by including them in your videos. And it’s best to do this when they are in use, such as in short and appealing tutorials. This way, your followers can quickly see how to use the new product and what it’s for. Embedded in a funny context, a promotional video quickly becomes good entertainment.
In general, all topics work well packaged. Any issue can go viral, whether sports, fashion, or animals – with hashtag challenges that actively encourage followers to produce similar videos.
TikTok For Business – Marketing: How To Create A Successful Strategy
If you know what’s essential with TikTok, you can embed this channel excellently in marketing strategies. The most important thing here is to build organic reach via this platform. Users don’t want to see perfectly staged videos but accurate, authentic content. Your TikTok company profile can be crazy, freaky, and, therefore, particularly entertaining. Anyone who comes around the corner with promotional videos here has yet to understand TikTok. The content needs to be interactive and encourage followers to want to see more and, ideally, respond with their video. We’ll show you four ways to use successful marketing strategies with your business.
Hashtag Challenges
Hashtag challenges create massive amounts of user-generated content on TikTok. This format achieves enormously high reach and, with suitable hashtags, can develop into a viral trend so that good videos can register up to several million views within a week. The principle is simple: A challenge or competition is called for under a specific hashtag, in which as many users as possible should participate. In most cases, the users must perform a particular action within this challenge. Once they have created the video and used the associated hashtag, the video is displayed on the challenge page. This page then draws the attention of other users to the challenge, and they may also take part in it.
There is nothing to win, but the best videos get the most likes and views. This format generates more reach through this “snowball effect” and makes the brand or products of your company better known. You can combine the challenge with a contest or cooperation if you want to increase the appeal.
Duet Function
The duet function on TikTok still comes from its predecessor, musical.ly. The idea is that users can sing or dance along to their favorite clips on the same audio track. To do this, the camera opens in split mode with the video of choice, and users can get started immediately. But even away from singing or dancing duets, businesses can benefit from this feature. For example, you can embed an explanatory video alongside an entertaining product video so that you can also add necessary information to your creative content.
Influencer
Influencer marketing is just as crucial on TikTok as on Instagram and Snapchat. Because a particularly young target group is addressed here, influencers offer an excellent opportunity for companies as brand ambassadors. If you have products or services that you can perfectly combine with a specific influencer, then try to start a cooperation with this influencer. Because through this, users perceive your brand and interact with it. In advance, however, you should see what the profile of this influencer looks like. What kind of content is in his videos? How many followers does his account have? And how many views do his posts get? Often, these influencers already have successful profiles on other networks, so you can also research there.
But again, an influencer who is very large and promotes every company will probably have a different effect on your target audience. Again, look for micro-influencers who can promote your brand more and seem more credible.
Advertising
For some time now, there has been the option to have Ads play through TikTok. Although this function is still relatively new, it offers many potentials. This is because the content on the platform is predominantly organic, and the ad formats are also designed this way.
In Feed Ads/Native Ads: In this ad format, videos are played directly in the TikTok feed. These ads are tagged but visually embed themselves very well in the feed. They can be compared to the usual advertising formats on Facebook and Instagram. Through these In Feed ads, you can increase reach and interaction because they are displayed to the appropriate target audience.
Brand Takeover Ads: This ad format is displayed directly when you open the app and is the most eye-catching variant. Through this banner ad, you can either lead the user to a specific TikTok video or even to an external website.
Topview Ads: These are built like brand takeover ads. Here, the ad appears in full-screen mode for a few seconds and then switches to the standard feed view. This allows users to like, comment, and share the ad you’ve placed.
Hashtag challenge: In simple terms, you “buy” a hashtag from TikTok for one week. The platform places a banner on the “For You” page, and users can film and post their challenge contribution within this week. This is an ad format that only some can book. Why? Challenges generate a relatively large amount of traffic. This means that the advertising is very prominent and permanently visible.
TikTok For Business: Cost Of Tik-Tok Advertising
TikTok advertising has recently increased significantly in price. For example, the advertising cost for an in-feed ad is around $10 per CPM. At the same time, there’s a good chance you’ll be one of the first to position yourself in this market segment on the fastest-growing social media app in the world.
Using TikTok The Right Way
To get started, you must sign up with a business account on TikTok and create a business profile. Once you’ve created an account, it’s a matter of knowing all the functions and features and using them correctly. To help you find your way around the app, we’ll introduce you to the essential functions and features.
Functions And Features
The feed: After logging in, you will automatically get to the home screen with the video feed. Here you can see the latest videos of the users you follow. The meal is personalized based on your Likes, Shares, and Follows, so you’ll see posts that reflect your interest. TikTok will show you current trending content if you have few or many followers.
The user interface: As with other social platforms, you can access almost everything on TikTok via the navigation bar. Here you can find the essential functions like liking, sharing, commenting, and following. A simple swipe takes you from a channel to the relevant information about that user or channel owner.
Tikcode: TikTok allows you to embed your TikTok channel on other social media platforms or your website via the so-called TikCode. By scanning the QR-like code, interested parties can directly access your TikTok company profile and do not have to find it via the search function.
Record and post video: TikTok videos used to be limited to 15 seconds, but now you can record and post 60-second videos. You can record a video via the plus sign in the menu and edit it the same way as on Instagram and Snapchat. You can put different filters on it, change the speed, trim the video, caption it, use a particular sound, and add effects. Again, there are no limits to your creativity.
Hashtags: If you want to post the video, remember to work with hashtags. They serve the same function here as they do on Instagram. Especially with challenges, the corresponding hashtag is indispensable because otherwise, your video cannot be assigned to the challenge under this specific hashtag.
Conclusion: TikTok For Business
With this beginner’s guide, you should now understand what TikTok can do for businesses, so you are prepared for your first contact with TikTok. No matter how you start – do it according to the well-tried motto: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” You won’t know what works if you don’t try different things. So go slow and use your creativity to create exciting, fun, entertaining, and innovative videos. Break away from stagnant strategies and try crazy, wild, and completely new approaches. Let your content appear honest and authentic because these spontaneous actions, in which perhaps something goes wrong, are more in demand than perfectly produced videos.
TikTok is a fast-moving network for jumping on or off trends. What’s important here is that you communicate in real-time in your TikTok company profile. If you’re stuck here in weeks of coordination with marketing colleagues, you might as well let it go. Be fast and act intuitively, but try to bring predictability into your TikTok strategy. After all, every video has a specific purpose contributing to the overall marketing strategy. And part of that strategy will undoubtedly be to increase reach and brand awareness. So use the interactivity of the platform for that. Encourage your followers to take action and respond to your videos with their videos. Once you understand this mechanism, nothing stands in the way of a successful content strategy and positioning.
