Building Your Brand With TikTok
Founded in 2012, TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms of all time. This short-form video app has 689 million monthly active users worldwide (DataReportal, 2021). It has been downloaded more than two billion times worldwide on both the Apple App Store and Google Play (Sensor Tower, 2020).
To put things into perspective, it took Instagram a total of six years from the launch date to gain the same number of followers TikTok managed to do in three short years. Many marketers draw to this app as it reflects a critical social media trend for creativity and collaboration amongst young audiences. It is also highly engaging with users on the app, where they are spending an average of 52 minutes per day (BusinessofApps, 2019).
Taking a Look Back
In 2014 there was an app called musical.ly. It was a platform specifically created to share short lip-sync videos. In 2016, Bytedance launched a version of the Musical.ly app known in the Chinese market as Douyin before being introduced overseas as TikTok in 2017. Bytedance saw the potential among the young digital natives that it decided to buy and incorporated Musical.ly and became the version of TikTok we know today.
How Does it Work?
TikTok’s platform is based around video content that max out at 15 seconds and can be combined for up to a total of 60 seconds. People interact with videos by scrolling through their feeds. Unlike other social media platforms, TikTok allows people to add all sorts of effects and background music to their videos. This has resulted in many viral dancing videos where people post videos of themselves dancing to a particular song. When interacting with videos, you can comment or share the video via direct message or SMS. Engagement figures are incredibly high on this platform, making it an excellent tool for marketers to use in their digital marketing strategy.
How Brands Can Utilize TikTok
Brands that have successfully used TikTok have gained massive brand awareness rewards. Unlike other social media platforms, content is truly king on TikTok. For example, Chipotle Mexican Grill was able to gain 1.5 million followers and launch several viral campaigns. Their strategy included a branded hashtag challenge using famous YouTuber David Dobrik to promote the “#ChipotleRoyalty” challenge—giving users the chance to win $10,000 by proving why their Chipotle order is best among the millions of possible combinations. By utilizing TikTok, they could target teenagers and young adults familiar with video-sharing apps and could participate easily, making it a viral sensation. By offering the “Chipotle Royalty” menu items on its app and website, this burrito chain was able to triple its digital sales to $776.4 million in Q3 from the year prior, making up almost half of their total revenue.
Utilizing TikTok for marketing purposes is easier than one may think. It all comes down to these primary objectives.
- Uploading videos that are relevant to your brand
- Utilize the use of influencers to reach a broader audience
- Paying for advertisements. (though this is more for big business instead of smaller campaigns)
Ultimately, in a world where people are constantly surrounded by ads, having an original, unedited, raw video on TikTok can showcase real people interacting with your brand in their daily lives—leading to more success for your brand. If you are interested in expanding your digital strategy, give us a call today at 334-446-6149.
Posted: Apr 08, 2021