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TikTok is one of the hottest platforms on social media — Keep reading to cover everything you need to know.
With over one billion monthly active users, TikTok has become one of the best platforms for marketing your brand. And if you think TikTok is just for teens, think again. Users of all ages have joined the TikTok phenomenon, with celebrities, influencers, and brands in the mix now too.
What Is TikTok?
TikTok is a video-sharing social network that first found mass appeal with Gen Z users, and is best known as the home of viral dance trends, challenges, and lip-sync videos.
TikTok has experienced phenomenal growth since its launch in 2016, and is fast becoming one of the most popular social network sites.
How Did TikTok Get Started?
ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) first launched TikTok under the name of Douyin in China. It then launched the TikTok app to international markets in 2017, and acquired Musical.ly — a popular platform for creating short lip-sync videos. Fast forward to 2022 and TikTok has sky-rocketed not only amongst teens, but with users of all ages.
FYI: Did you know you can schedule your TikTok videos in advance with Later — a social media scheduling tool used by 4M+ brands.
TikTok Marketing Benefit #1: Increase Brand Awareness
Brands who’ve successfully pivoted to TikTok early have reaped huge brand awareness rewards, often with very little investment. Publishers like The Washington Post have quickly amassed huge followings by positioning themselves as a creative powerhouse and shifting their reach to a new, more global, and younger demographic in the process.
Unlike Instagram or YouTube, even accounts with zero followers can get millions of views.
TikTok Marketing Benefit #2: Build Community
TikTok thrives off niche communities — whether it’s for books, art, pop culture, sports, fashion, self-care, or cars — there is truly something for everyone. So whatever your brand specializes in, you can succeed on the app.
TikTok Marketing Benefit #3: Sell Products and Services
TikTok is becoming a huge player for generating leads and driving sales — the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag has over 12B views!
You can leverage trending hashtags like #supportsmallbusiness (over 4B views), experiment with TikTok Ads, or drive traffic to the link in your bio. But it can be time consuming to manually update the link in your bio with every new video — which is where a link in bio tool comes into play.
How to Create a TikTok Marketing Strategy in 2022
Step #1: Define Your TikTok Goals
Having a clear TikTok marketing strategy to reference is important for growing on the app.
But first, it's important to define your reason for using it. Do you want to build brand awareness? Drive traffic to your website? Take the time to set SMART goals, and build your strategy from there.
Step #2: Experiment With Content and Find Your Niche
Once you've set your goals, you can start experimenting! And experimentation on TikTok is key. What works on TikTok is likely to be different than what works on platforms. So, a lot of trial and error is needed.
Think about who your target audience is, what content will resonate, and use trending sounds (or filters) when appropriate. And remember to dedicate time each month looking at your analytics to see what's working, what needs tweaking, and what missed the mark.
Step #3: Be Consistent We know, "be consistent" is an overused phrase, but for good reason!
In July 2021, our social team started posting every day during the week for one of my clients:
As you can see, after a couple weeks, we started to see the effort pay off, especially in terms of follower growth. Now the page have over 50K followers (and counting).
So how we do it?
Using relevant keywords or hashtags in your captions
Being consistent in your niche
Using trending audio
Prioritizing shorter videos
Posting at optimal times
Remember: TikTok is a unique platform, so test, experiment, and have fun. We can't wait to see what you create.
Ready to take your TikTok strategy to the next level? Let's talk :)