How to Use TikTok To Build Your Business

Formerly known as Musical.ly, TikTok was purchased in 2018 by Chinese tech firm Bytedance. It has now become the leading destination for short-form mobile videos, with a whopping 800 million active users as of October 2019. For two years straight, it has been one of the 100 most downloaded apps in the world, with users posting around 13 million views per day. 

With any social media platform receiving this amount of traffic, businesses are going to want to take advantage of marketing opportunities in any way they can! The creators of TikTok have even recently launched a platform specifically for businesses advertising on TikTok, called TikTok For Business.

But how does a business use TikTok to build its brand? Isn’t it just lip-syncing videos and dances? Not anymore! We’re going to take a look at what companies need to do to take advantage of all TikTok has to offer for their advertising and marketing campaigns.

Study the Platform

Before you embark on any new endeavor, studying the platform is absolutely necessary. For your new marketing plan to work, you have to thoroughly understand the ins and outs of the app. You need to see what people are doing, how they’re doing it, and what’s working for others.

Syed Balkhi of Enterpreneur.com tells us why it’s important to make sure that your business can create content that fits in with the platform’s tone of fun and visually appealing content:

“The last thing you want to do is join a social media platform and look like you don’t know what you’re doing. To avoid getting shunned by users on TikTok, you need to study the platform. By studying what type of content works on TikTok and how to interact with others on the platform, your business can fit into the culture naturally.” 

Mimic Trending Content

One of the good things about TikTok is it’s easy to build a great following just by finding other trending content to mimic – theoretically, you never really need to come up with original ideas to achieve a viral video or create a following. This is hugely beneficial to those who have limited time to come up with new and original content for yet another platform.

Nick Weinberg of Tally explains why following this technique has lead to significant ROI compared to their other social media platforms on Forbes.com:

“Consumer fintech company Tally closely monitors what’s trending every day, says senior growth manager Nick Weinberg, “allowing us to quickly recreate content that will resonate with potential Tally users. For example, there’s a popular video series on TikTok that tells a story by knocking away paper signs. We used that same concept to highlight Tally’s value proposition.” It got results. “Compared to Instagram, TikTok has been 300 percent more efficient in getting customers to sign up for Tally,” he says.”

Add Your Own Spin

Although you can (and should) mimic trending content, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have to find a way to put your own spin on it. After all, you’re trying to advertise your business, and simply doing a dance or putting on a short comedy skit without any reference to your business is not going to help you reap TikTok’s marketing benefits.

Marly Broudie of the Social Media Examiner tells us why it’s important to put your own spin on trending content:

“You don’t have to struggle to come up with new and unique content ideas for TikTok. The platform is based around community engagement and hashtags so all you have to do is find existing content and make it your own. Take part in hashtag challenges or trending dances and songs. If there’s a trend in your niche about having a productive morning routine, show your own. Your unique brand story and personality will differentiate you from others in the same category. Look at what’s already successful on the app and put your own spin on it.”

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