By now, you’ve most likely heard of social media’s latest child on the block, TikTok. However for those who haven’t heard of the booming video-sharing app, you’re not alone. The newcomer to the scene has discovered its progress via the early adoption of younger audiences — 60 p.c of US TikTok customers are between 16 and 24 years outdated (and in some instances, customers properly under the minimal 13-year-old age requirement).
Whether or not you’ve heard of the app or not, it’s time to take discover. Up to now yr, TikTok has emerged as a social media large, beating Fb, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat in month-to-month installs in September 2018, and clocking over a billion downloads whole in the identical yr. The app has develop into so common that Fb even quietly launched a competitor known as Lasso in November 2018 — all this whereas nonetheless flying underneath the radar of even probably the most digitally savvy shoppers.
It’s clear TikTok has taken off with millennials and Gen Z customers, however are manufacturers utilizing it, too? TikTok solely lately added promoting and hyperlinking capabilities to the platform. Nevertheless, some early-adopting manufacturers are successfully utilizing TikTok to have interaction youthful audiences and increase model consciousness via quirky, quick-hit content material.
To know if TikTok must be a part of your social media technique, let’s first take a look at what it’s and why it has gained speedy recognition.
What’s TikTok?
TikTok capabilities by offering seamless video modifying functionality, intuitive shareability, and tapping into our mysterious love of weird humor and cringe-worthy performances — it’s basically a digital, shareable, infinite karaoke bar in your cellular phone. TikTok customers movie themselves lip-syncing or performing comedic sketches in movies which are as much as 15 seconds lengthy, and may faucet right into a database of songs, sound bites, and results. Customers may even add their very own sounds, giving different customers the power to lip-synch to their unique video. Much like Instagram’s reside video characteristic, TikTok customers may even collaborate in a duet format by replying to one another’s movies. Duets then show in a split-screen which different customers can then reply to, creating an infinite chain of response movies.
All of those capabilities have translated into a robust device for content material creators. Unsurprisingly, a part of the app’s excessive recognition with younger customers is its skill to create viral sensations like dance challenges and obscure memes. To achieve an thought of the stardom potential of TikTok, think about 20-year-old Montero Hill, in any other case generally known as Lil Nas X. After digitally releasing his now-certified hit “Previous City” Highway and selling it with comparatively little success by way of different platforms, Lil Nas X uploaded his music to TikTok, the place it sparked a sequence of response movies with the hashtag #yeeyeejuice. What began as a meme ended up going so viral that file labels took discover, sparking a number of remixes that includes worldwide stars like Billy Ray Cyrus, BTS, Younger Thug, and Mason Ramsey. The rapper finally signed with Columbia Information, and “Previous City Highway” went on to develop into the longest-running number-one music in Billboard Sizzling 100 historical past, holding the spot for 19 weeks.
TikTok is exclusive in that its customers recurrently describe it as “a optimistic, enjoyable house.” The performance of the platform promotes democratization, and that has amounted to a major failsafe in opposition to bullying tradition. Quite than the pristine, curated aesthetic that tends to dominate platforms like Instagram, TikTok’s neighborhood of on a regular basis, earnest non-celebrities sharing humiliating movies of karaoke fails and viral problem makes an attempt virtually create a tradition of radical acceptance. Moreover, TikTok includes a discovery web page with posts that rely not on follower depend, however on traits and common jokes, which supplies customers a extra equitable alternative at fame. Though TikTok’s video view depend is seen solely to the unique poster, movies featured on the “For You” web page (the house feed that showcases the platform’s greatest content material) can obtain wherever from 50,000 to over 1 million likes. This can be a big alternative for manufacturers to attach with the youthful technology in a approach that matches their values: actual, uncooked, and relatable.
three TikTok suggestions for manufacturers
Whereas there is no such thing as a secret sauce for creating viral content material, numerous highly-shareable content material has one factor in widespread: viewers participation. From Lil Nas X to the ALS problem, it’s clear at this time’s digitally savvy audiences wish to actively interact with their favourite manufacturers, artists, or causes. Listed here are 3 ways you possibly can check out TikTok and rapidly determine whether or not the platform is a complementary match on your current built-in advertising and marketing efforts.
Submit a problem: Manufacturers trying to acquire an viewers on TikTok might submit challenges that encourage customers on the meme-friendly app to submit their very own movies in response. For instance, Chipotle’s #guacchallenge is the platform’s highest-performing model problem so far, proving the model’s funding in TikTok is paying off.
Share your model’s softer (or goofier) aspect: Many firms use Instagram or Fb to current a extremely curated view of their model, or to share academic, worthwhile content material. TikTok provides manufacturers the chance to point out a extra private, informal, and relatable behind-the-scenes take a look at their enterprise.
Be experimental: With its comparatively current soar in recognition, it’s a bit early for tried-and-true greatest practices for TikTok to exist. That being stated, it’s your alternative to exit on a limb — what are you able to do to have interaction this rising viewers? Take a look at early and infrequently and if it doesn’t repay, don’t be afraid to stay to what you already know works greatest on your model.
The long run: advertising and marketing with TikTok
For now, TikTok is in its gold rush section. The app’s nonetheless relative infancy within the celeb and influencer world, mixed with its large community of surprisingly addictive humor and ensuing reactions and meta-reactions, make it a diamond mine for creators and types alike. Early adopters who’ve already amassed a big following have begun to accomplice with manufacturers. Equally, celebrities like Will Smith and Amy Schumer have develop into early celeb adopters, which can little doubt end in model partnership alternatives.
Anyplace media garners impressions you’ll discover manufacturers keen to accomplice, and the timing is true for TikTok. The app’s proprietor, Bytedance, has even claimed that in 2018, the Chinese language model of the app added a “Store Now” characteristic that generated $29 million in a single day. These sorts of numbers imply that e-commerce is a positive consideration for the American model of the app and one other attainable space of income for forward-thinking manufacturers.
Whereas it’s sensible to suppose strategically earlier than embracing each new expertise and platform, TikTok’s recognition signifies it could be time to begin eager about methods to creatively combine the platform into your content material advertising and marketing and technique plans.
Afika Nxumelo is a NewsCred Contributor.
Initially printed on Nov 21, 2019 2:30 PM
