TikTok became, in just a few years, one of the most important and influential social media platforms. It has, by now, over a billion active users around the world which also makes it the ideal space for brands to reach their audiences in a creative and engaging way.
Its unique algorithm, short-form video content and trend-driven culture have made it a very powerful marketing tool…but it is very important to understand this platform and, therefore, take full advantage of it. For this matter, it is important to analyze its dynamics and learn its best practices.
Next, we’ll explore the most important and effective strategies to make the most out of TikTok.
First of all, and before you start navigating and exploring TikTok, you have to truly know who your target audience is. TikTok’s user base is composed mainly of millennials or users part of Gen Z, which doesn’t mean you should ignore the rest of the users.
Actually, older demographics have started increasingly joining this platform and fully understanding the preferences, behaviors and interests of all your audiences is crucial to create effective content. To achieve that it is very important that you use TikTok’s analytics to get all the required information about your audience.
In addition, you should be aware of popular hashtags and trends that align with your target audience and follow and study the content your competence creates.
TikTok values and rewards authenticity so creating content that feels genuine and original will have far better results than fake, stolen, overly polished or promotional content. Unlike other platforms where the most important is having high production levels, what really matters in TikTok is creativity, humor and relevance.
To create valuable content for TikTok you can implement some practices such as sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses, using storytelling to connect with your audience on a deeper and more personal level and, instead of hard-selling, opt for focus on entertaining and educating.
It can be viral challenges and dances or popular audio clips, in any case using trends can significantly boost your content in TikTok. However, it is also very important to adapt these trends to effectively and genuinely fit your brand’s message.
For this matter it is very useful to regularly explore TikTok’s Discover page and also following influential creators in your niche to timely identify the emerging trends you may use. You must be quick since these trends usually have a very short life.
Hashtags are very important to boost your visibility on TikTok since they help categorize your content and make it easier for users that may be interested in specific topics to find your videos.
Some of the best practices you can implement to take full advantage of hashtags are mixing popular hashtags with niche ones to increase your reach to, not only targeted, but also broad audience, participate in hashtag challenges or even create one and focus on relevance avoiding overloading your captions with too many hashtags.
Influencer marketing on TikTok can be very useful to increase your brand’s reach. Take into account that TikTok influencers have very loyal audiences and they can introduce your brand to them in an organic and engaging way.
However, keep in mind that, first of all, you have to choose the right influencer so you must seek influencers with values aligned with your brand. In addition, evaluate their number of followers and, overall, their engagement rates and, start with micro-influencers to obtain a more authentic and cost-effective approach.
You should also allow influencers to put their own spin on your campaign ideas to keep your content authentic and, at the same time, aligned with their personal style.
This is a key factor to truly build presence on TikTok. Regular posting helps you to keep visible and relevant and, for the same reasons, gain more followers and a higher engagement.
The ideal is to post at least 3 or 5 times a week. You can also try with different posting times to identify the moments when your audience is more active and use different types of content including trend-based videos.
TikTok has different advertising formats according to its different marketing goals. Some of these options are:
– In-Feed Ads: This option allows your content to appear as part of the user’s feed, blending with organic content
– Brand Takeover Ads: These are full-screen ads that appear every time a user enters the app.
– Branded Hashtag Challenges: This type of challenges is highly effective promoting user-generated content
– TopView Ads: These are premium ads that appear at the top of user’s feeds
– Spark Ads: This tool boosts organic posts to generate more visibility for creators as well as for brands
To take full advantage of these options, you should use appealing visual elements, clear calls-to-action, optimize ads for mobile devices and try multiple ad formats to determine which one works the best for you.
The TikTok algorithm rewards engagement and, for this reason, it is essential to actively interact with your audience to build a loyal community.
For this matter it is very important to reply to comments on your videos, host Q&A sessions or live streams to interact in real time and engage with user-generated content.
This is a particularly powerful tool for TikTok marketing. Encouraging your audience to create content featuring your product or brand inspires trust among your community.
To promote UGC you can launch a branded hashtag challenge, offer incentives like discounts for user participation and share the best UGC on your profile to encourage others.
Tracking your performance on TikTok is crucial to determine what type of content works and what doesn’t. Through TikTok’s Pro Account you can access analytics that can effectively guide you to design your content strategy.
The most important metrics to measure your performance are: views, for the reach of your videos, engagement rate, that tracks interactions such as likes, comments and shares, follower growth, which helps you to understand the growing of your audience and trending content to identify the videos that best perform.
TikTok offers a wide range of tools, resources and features that help to increase the engagement of your content so you can use and experiment with all of them, from filters and different types of effects to green screen options, to highlight your videos among others.
You can use transitions creatively to increase the visual appeal of your videos, incorporate trending music and try interactive features like polls and quizzes.
Keeping in mind that TikTok is a mobile-first platform, it is crucial to create content designed for small screens and remember that vertical is non-negotiable. In addition, keeping your content concise will effectively hook the audience’s attention.
You must use the 9:16 aspect ratio, maintain the text and key visual elements in the center and ensure the opening of your video effectively hooks viewers’ attention.
Following trends and adapting to TikTok’s culture is very important, but also to preserve your brand’s authenticity. Your challenge is to get the perfect balance between posting relevant content according to TikTok’s conditions and staying loyal to your brand values.
By achieving that, you would be building trust among your audience. The best you can do is use consistent branding elements (logos and corporative colors), develop a unique and distinct voice for your content and ensure it reflects your brand and is aligned with your marketing strategy.
TikTok is a very informal space with a playful and warm nature so this is not the place for formal or corporate content and even serious brands use humor and creativity when creating their content.
Humorous sketches and parodies related to your industry will be well-rewarded by the algorithm. In addition, participating in quirky activities related to your brand and using memes or cultural references can effectively help you to connect with your audience.
By following this advice, you will be able to use TikTok to establish meaningful connections with your audience.
Keep in mind that, to be successful in Tik Tok, you don’t have to be perfect, it’s just about creating relevant, entertaining and trendy content that truly impacts your audience.
Stay consistent, carefully track your performance and keep changing and adapting your strategy according to the platform’s evolution. By doing so, TikTok will quickly become a very useful tool to boost your brand and a very important component of your digital marketing strategy.
