What Is TikTok? And Why Your Brand Needs To Be On It!

Starting with the number one question that I get asked about this platform - what is TikTok? It is a social media platform for short-form mobile video sharing. The closest comparison would be Vine. It allows users to create short videos with music, filters, and other features, enabling everyone to be a creator.

While other social media platforms may have perfectly edited and curated content feeds, TikTok’s feed is refreshingly simple, light and fun. Featuring many challenge-based, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos. It is an excellent expression of creativity for many, whether its through dance, act-out memes or informative content/hacks.

Now that we're grounded on what TikTok is, the next question that I typically get asked is who's on TikTok and should my business be on it? If your target audience is between the age of 13 and 30 years old, I would highly recommend giving it a chance.

In 2019 TikTok had 500 million active users worldwide (according to Datareportal), and was the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide for January 2020, with over 104.7 million downloads (according to SensorTower). It is currently one of the fastest growing social media platforms. For those who feel that they missed the "starter wave" on other social platforms, here's your chance to make your mark early!

To answer the question of should your business be on TikTok, let me walk you through my experience, after 2 weeks of being on the platform (and 5 posts in). I posted a video of opening 2 perfect avocados and paired it with the song Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice (watch it here). I thought that it was a fun, relatable and special moment (hands up my fellow avocado eaters!). And guess what happened? It received over 146,700 views, and counting! I can quite confidently tell you that the same scenario unfolding on Instagram would not deliver nearly the same analytics. But how could this help for business? Well…imagine these avocados had a “Avocados From Mexico” produce sticker on them. Subtle branding, not distracting from the content, but adding to brand exposure and associating it with quality and consistency. Now imagine an avocado company created an account dedicated to avocados and the special or funny moments such as these that people can relate to, and love to watch. And imagine that account started its own avocado challenge (ex: how many perfect avocados can you open in a row) and associated the challenge with a branded hashtag. Now imagine that hashtag begins trending on TikTok.

While this is just one example, I hope that it helps to display the powerful reach potential and content style of the platform. Oh, and not to forget that this video cost me $3 (price of the avocados) and took literally 16 seconds to film.

Whatever products or services your business offers, if your target audience is between 13 to 30 years old I would recommend downloading TikTok right now and start experimenting with it. Who knows, it could become one of your most valuable social media marketing tools, however you won't know until you give the platform a try.

If you have any other questions about TikTok, or a story of your own experience to share, I would love for you to comment below!

---

TikTok account @thefithive

Brigitte Hermanns - Alveare Social