10 Jan 5 TikTok Tips for Small Businesses
TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms and is great for connecting with your current and potential customers. Per backlinko, out of the 4.48 billion active social media users, 22.32% use TikTok on a regular basis.
Compared to other social media channels, TikTok videos are a bit more informal. As a result, your strategy should be slightly different.
We’ve put together these 5 TikTok tips for small businesses to help you maximize your TikTok presence.
5 TikTok Tips for Small Businesses
TikTok first launched in 2016. At the time, it was known as Douyin. It witnesses great growth in its first year after launching in China. TikTok founder Zhang Yiming had bigger ambitions, though. He had his sights set on taking TikTok internationally.
By September 2017, TikTok was launched for the international markets. It was in 2018, however, where its growth really skyrocketed. The app merged with another Chinese social app, Musica.ly. The result is the TikTok that many of us know and love today – a combination of videos and music.
So how can you capitalize on this social platform? These 5 tips will help.
Engage Quickly
On average, you have 3 seconds to engage a TikTok user. Our attention spans are getting shorter, so timing is key. Your audience will be seeing many videos, so engaging quickly with them is crucial.
Market Research
What’s trending? Which audio are people using? What challenges are trending at the moment? Using TikTok effectively requires understanding your audience. Put simply, take the time to do some market research. Take some time to browse through your feed, check out hashtags relevant to your industry and see what videos pop up. Yes – simply scrolling through watching TikToks can count as working!
Add Music
Instagram is focused on visuals, Twitter is focused on bite sized text updates. TikTok is focused on videos with audio. Users are watching and engaging videos on the platform with the audio on. Music is a primary choice for many content creators.
In fact, there are so many content creators using music snippets, that TikTok had a significant impact in how music charts are calculated around the world. Trending songs can propel a song into top chart positions. And music artists don’t need to be famous to experience this exponential increase in exposure. As Carbon Magazine describes:
“The app is incredibly successful in springboarding lesser known artists into the charts. Impacting pop music, it became a staging ground for hits — Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” a very famous example finishing 2019 as Billboard Hot 100’s “Song of the Year. But also Ambjay’s “Uno,” Y2k and bbno$’s “Lalala,” and now Lizzo’s “Good as Hell” — before they crash into the mainstream. “Roxanne” by Arizona Zervas, “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I, and “Say So” by Doja Cat. All of which have already cracked the Billboard Top 100 at some point.”
Trending audio is more likely to be seen by a higher proportion of TikTok users. Therefore, make sure you’re choosing your music carefully.
Establish Trust
Your content can help create trust and credibility with your audience. Create videos that humanize your small business and demonstrate your credibility. Give a sneak peek at your business operations, employees, and product creation or packaging.
Research shows that consumers buy more from brands they trust, and this builds trust.
Showcase Your Business
Per TikTok, the most successful content on TikTok is light and humorous so make your videos fun and relatable to your audience.
How about a video showing the products during production? Remember to add trending music in the background. Keep it light and fun.
TikTok can be a great way to reach an additional audience. If you’re unsure how to start, or would like some advice on how to best use TikTok for your business, get in touch with our social media strategists. Click here to request your complimentary consultation today or call us on (954) 632-3905.