Small Business Social: TikTok Tips
Last month we began to shift our focus on the blog to social media. Social media can be a helpful tool for businesses, especially for small businesses such as ourselves. There are so many benefits available for businesses using social media effectively like increasing brand awareness, creating connections with customers/potential customers, and generating leads. There’s a lot more we could add, but we decided to break down some tips for some of the largest social media platforms around right now. In our last entry we focused on Instagram, and today we’ll be turning to look at another popular platform: TikTok.
TikTok’s origins are a little different from the stories we’re used to hearing. There was an app called Musical.ly that launched in Shanghai in 2014 and had strong U.S. business links, who was eventually bought by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance. The company essentially folded the app into its own app, Douyin, and created the wildly popular app that is TikTok. It allows for users to create short form video content with a huge database of songs and filters, and it boasts an extraordinarily powerful algorithm that learns what content users like to see at a rapid pace. TikTok quickly became a hit, especially among younger audiences, but its reach always seems to be expanding.
Businesses and brands have begun to see the potential benefits of TikTok, so let’s talk about some tips that might help with your engagement.
Create a Business Account
Like most social media accounts, there are added benefits when signing up for a business account versus a personal account. It gives you access to better analytics, allows for access to Ad campaigns, and contains auto-messaging and a post scheduler. Just be sure to optimize your profile and make sure it’s linked to your website and other social media accounts.
Engaging Content is Key
TikTok is for short-form video content, so you definitely want to make sure your visuals are up to par. Use high-quality images and videos, and while it's debatable about what the ideal length of a TikTok video is, try to hit the 30 second or less mark.
As always, the key is to share content that makes sense for your brand. If you’re a retail business, showcase your products. If you’re a restaurant, share cooking tips or recipes. If you’re in the service business, share customer testimonials, or if you’re a B2B business, share industry news or educational content.
Utilize Popular Hashtags
Like with Instagram, hashtags are a great way for your content to be seen by a wider audience. Always pick hashtags that accurately describe your content, but try to utilize popular hashtags when you can to expand that reach even further.
Run Contest/Giveaways
While this might seem a little gimmicky, sometimes participating in a contest or giveaway can help extend the reach of your business. This kind of content can help generate excitement and engagement while potentially attracting some new followers.
Use TikTok Ads
We’re not recommending that you use this on every single post, but TikTok Ads on specific videos can help you to reach your particular audience. You can target your ads by demographics, interests, or keywords, so be sure to use that to your advantage.
Track Results
As with any social media platform and strategy, you have to track your results. Utilize analytics to see which videos and types of content are connecting with people, which times and days of the week bring about the best result for you, then adjust your strategy as needed. Also, try to be patient. Going viral overnight is unrealistic; the safer path is to consistently create great content and engage with your audience.
We know there are a ton of tips that we could have included here, but we hope this list helps you to get started. Also, keep in mind that about 70% of TikTok users are under the age of 35, so if that’s your ideal demographic, TikTok really could be a useful tool.
And, as always, if you are looking for assistance on your social media strategy, we encourage you to check out our services here. We’ll be back in two weeks to focus on another popular social media platform.