We have been familiar with social media for a while. In terms of marketing, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms have great importance and potential in today’s world. Social media started its journey as websites and apps for people to share pictures, memories, and maybe find their old friends. Nowadays, social media represents a place for both people and the business to share content, attract people and generate traffic.
Using social media allows businesses to share their content, generate traffic, increase brand awareness and most importantly generate sales. There are countless benefits of social media for both people and brands. Social media provides a cheap way to interact with customers, it is measurable, and as we said before, it has high potential.
According to the Social Media Examiner’s 2021 social media marketing report, marketers think Facebook and Instagram are the most important two social media platforms but today’s topic is about a different one which is a young social media platform with rapid expansion and high potential.
Yes, you guessed it right, it is Tiktok. TikTok has been named as the fastest growing social media platform of all time, making the shortlist one of the most downloaded apps globally for the past two years.
TikTok provides high potential for brands to advertise, especially for the small ones. You will know everything you need to learn about TikTok to expand your small business in the following minutes. Let’s start!
What is TikTok?
Tiktok describes itself as a destination for short-form mobile videos. The platform allows its users to create and upload short videos for up to 15 seconds. Users are free to combine their short videos with filters, editing effects, songs, lip-synch, or dance challenges. Also, users can combine up to four 15 second videos to create a 60-second piece.
At the start of its journey, Tiktok was famous for dance and lip-synching challenges. Indeed, the most used two hashtags are #entertainment and #dance on the platform. Currently, the platform includes various contents from different topics from entertainment to health care and education. Besides entertainment, fitness, home renovation, DIY, beauty, recipes, life hacks, advice, and pets are highly popular on the app nowadays.
In addition to sharing content, TikTok creators also use the platform to discuss complex subjects, create campaigns for change, and educate their audiences.
In some cases, an even broader range of topics is discussed and covered on the platform. For example, fertility doctor Lora Shahine attracted many people by giving some health advice on her TikTok videos.
Moreover, Tiktok launched its own campaign using #LearnonTikTok that categorizes educational content in a wide range. That hashtag has had over 45 billion views and contains content from the BBC, Cambridge University, and Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Who uses TikTok?
We all know that teenagers can adapt to new social media platforms immediately. In the case of Tiktok, it is the same. The platform is mostly adapted and used by teenagers around the world and this population is followed by millennials and Baby boomers.
The teenagers figured out how to use the platform quickly, and they became TikTok creators with lots of followers over the past few years. Thus, the users mostly use TikTok to share their ideas, create trending content and expand their brands. Also, they use it to attract audiences and interact with them.
TikTok is available in 154 countries, and its importance to interact with customers is recognized by some global brands such as Nike, Skittles, Fenty Beauty, Pepsi, Calvin Klein, and Sony. Similarly, the number of celebrity users on the platform has increased, especially during the covid- 19 pandemics. Recently, a lot of celebrities, including Dua Lipa, Kendall Jenner, and Snoop Dogg are using Tiktok to create content for their fans and interact with them.
How TikTok Works?
Let’s talk about what you will see on Tiktok. Its algorithm provides customized content and uses three types of factors to provide content for the user. In detail, these are individual settings, user interactions, and video information. Simply, this means that Tiktok is combining these factors to provide you with the most related content. The customized content is placed on the For You page, and it is the best place for a user to discover new content and users to follow.
Another important thing for both users and creators of TikTok is hashtags. The platform allows you to discover new videos through hashtags, and if you are a creator, you can attract many people by adding hashtags to your content. Indeed, using trending hashtags can give you great potential to go viral with your content.
Until now, you have learned what TikTok is, who uses it, and how it works. Now we will give you some information about how and why you should use TikTok as a small business owner to expand your brand.
Why TikTok?
First of all, TikTok is free. Instead of sending out emails, or spending lots of money on advertisements, you can have the same efficiency for free with a viral post. All you need is to follow trends and hashtags to create posts that will go viral.
As a young social media platform, TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms to come around since Facebook. Its user base is approximately 800 million people worldwide. For the next year, it is expected to reach 1.2 billion people. As a result, there are a lot of people on the platform, and there will be even more. This potential means more customers to interact and attract.
The platform has just appeared in recent years and it is mostly adapted from young people. Thus, the platform is not overwhelmed by well-known brands which creates an excellent opportunity for small business owners.
Although the platform expands quickly, it is not involved in integrated marketing tools or features. That means not all the big companies figured out how to use TikTok and include it in their marketing activities.
TikTok provides different kinds of advertisement for businesses including, in-feed videos, brand takeovers, hashtag challenges, sponsored AR content, and custom influencer packages.
How To Use TikTok As a Small Business Owner
1.Decide what you want
In any marketing activity, it is essential to determine what your goal is. So, start by deciding what your brand is, what kind of people you want to attract, what you offer to your customers, and what you want to generate from this interaction. Create your TikTok profile considering these factors.
2.Understand the platform
Spend some time to see what people are sharing on TikTok. Follow viral content and hashtags and try to understand why they go viral. Also, follow people to start creating your community.
3.Plan your content
Decide the time and frequency of your videos. As creativity is significant, providing new content every day for your customers and community can affect your brand’s expansion positively .
4.Follow trends
Hashtags are super important for both the platform and its users. Make sure that you adapt your content to trends and hashtags. Try to be a part of the trends, share related content constantly to reach more people.
5.Be active
It is a ‘’social ‘’ media platform. Thus, being active is significant. Open up TikTok multiple times a day even if you do not share any content.
6.Don’t be shy !
Interact with your community and customers. Do not hesitate to share fun content and humor your posts. Remember that fun and creativity are super important for TikTok. Also, you can go live to interact with your customers and followers directly.
In short,
Tiktok is a great platform to expand your business, and it has a high potential for small businesses. All you need is to understand how it works and spend some time on it. If you want to be successful on TikTok make sure that you are active on the platform by creating content every day. Also, do not fail to participate in trends and hashtags.
There is no need to be stressed out. Having fun and being creative is key to being successful on TikTok.
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About the Author: My name is Hazal and I’m 25 years old. I’m an intern at the International Institute of Digital Marketing™. I’m originally from Turkey and I live in Istanbul which is a city full of inspiration. I’m a big fan of creativity and I enjoy creating content, blogs, and visuals. I’m interested in topics such as marketing, literature, art, and anything related to creativity.