It's time to take TikTok seriously. The China-based social media platform TikTok is turning into Facebook's biggest competitor. As of May 2020, TikTok was the 6th largest social network and the second most downloaded free app of the year. The app has 800 million monthly active users worldwide. In comparison, Instagram currently has 1 billion.
If you haven't thought about your TikTok strategy yet, now is the time to do so. Here are five facts that will get you up to speed and help you get the most out of this new channel.
Key Takeaways
TikTok is most worth investing in if you want to reach a younger audience (notably 13 to 24-year-olds).
Using creativity, humour, and showing your lighter side are the ways to get started on TikTok, with authenticity being key.
The best way to market your brand on TikTok is to pair up with an influencer and create hashtag challenges, although you can still get noticed without a large following, due to TikTok using AI to organise its feed.
As the platform is so new, there are few conventions, so experimenting is the way to go!
1. TikTok Is a Platform for Making and Sharing Short Videos
Users can create and share 15 to 60-second videos using a list of visual and sound effects, and soundtrack these with music clips. Content is organised around hashtags and challenges, which encourage users to film themselves performing to a song. This makes it incredibly easy to join in and get started on the platform.
One of the most popular challenges this year has been the Renegade dance challenge. More than 29.7 million users participated, and the most-watched video made by TikTok star Charli D'Amelio accumulated over 1.4 million likes in just two months.
Users can also "perform" duets, where they react to someone's videos by making their own. The video will appear next to the original one in split-screen, as you can see in this compilation of the trending "I'm Already Tracer" challenge:
Want to know how you can create a viral hashtag challenge on TikTok? We will dive deeper into this in our next TikTok post, so stay tuned or sign up for our Social Trends newsletter to get the latest blog posts once a month, directly in your inbox.
2. It Is the Most Popular Platform Amongst 18 to 24-Year-Olds
In fact, under 24-year-olds make up almost 70% (!) of its user base.
The app has 800 million monthly active users worldwide, and a leaked TikTok pitch deck from November 2018 suggested it had 17 million monthly active users in Europe. As the app gained popularity since then and experienced a surge in usage during the Corona crisis, this number has no doubt shot up.
TikTok users spend a good 46 minutes a day on the app. The average session duration of 10.85 minutes is the highest of all social networking apps. Compare this with Instagram, which has an average session duration of only 2.95 minutes.
If you get on the app, you will quickly find out why: TikTok is highly addictive!
If you want to get involved on TikTok, keep in mind: the general audience is young and looking for entertainment. You can discuss more serious topics, but keep your content on the lighter side, and inject a good dose of humour if you can. The Washington Post does this well:
3. TikTok Is About Performing and Being Creative
When you open the app for the first time, you likely feel overwhelmed by all the seemingly random videos in your feed. Unlike other social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok is not about perfect pictures and polished content.
By giving challenges to participate in, songs to record to, and an impressive list of video effects to use, TikTok encourages you to start making content right away.
Haley Sharpe did so and kickstarted the viral Say So dance challenge, resulting in 1.2 million followers on TikTok, 53.000 followers on Instagram, and a cameo in Doja Cat's next music video. As you can see, there is no sophisticated editing, but Haley's dance skills and original choreography made it go viral nonetheless:
Also - don't be afraid to get personal and show your vulnerable side! The popularity of so-called "cringe videos" on TikTok shows it can work to your advantage! If there's one place to loosen up and show the people behind your brand, TikTok is it.
4. You Do Not Need a Large Following (for Now) to Get Noticed
TikTok uses AI to create your feed, instead of giving recommendations like Netflix and YouTube. Accounts can quickly become popular with one viral video, as TikTok's recommendation system resurfaces old content by users that are currently trending.
TikTok's algorithms means you don't need a large following to show up in another user's feed and get noticed. And if it happens and people like your video, your audience can quickly snowball. Even as a newbie, you can get substantial organic reach by creating original and authentic content and engaging with your audience.
The San Diego Zoo has done so with its cute animal videos and quickly became beloved on the platform. With a total of 54 videos, they have gained 1.6 million followers and 17.6 million likes. If you take a look, it is easy to see why - who does not want to see epic videos of eagles flying in slow motion?
5. The Value of Authenticity Makes Influencer Marketing the Way to Go
With TikTok being all about authenticity, influencer marketing is one of the best ways to reach your audience on the platform.
TikTok stars already have huge audiences. The top 25 accounts have more than 20 million followers. And brands collaborating with these stars have booked impressive results.
P&G, for example, teamed up with Charli D'Amelio for its Social Distance Dance challenge. The video she posted got 187,3 million views in just one week(!):
P&G made a great move by leaving it up to Charli to pick the music and make the choreography. It made the video fit her personality and feel authentic to her audience.
While paid advertising is not the norm yet on TikTok, the platform currently offers the following ways of marketing your brand:
"Take over" a topic for a day, which means your brand will show up first for this particular topic/hashtag
Get your 9 to 15-second video featured on the For You page
Create branded 2D and 3D lenses - special effects users can pick when making a video
We will cover these advertising methods more in-depth in upcoming blog posts in this TikTok series.
Should I Invest in TikTok or Not?
Despite being the new kid on the block, the high number of downloads and growing popularity worldwide show TikTok is most likely here to stay.
If you are trying to reach a younger audience, investing in TikTok is a no-brainer. It is incredibly popular amongst 13 to 24-year-olds, which make up almost three-quarters of its user base.
When looking for ways to show your brand's lighter side, and creativity and humour are a few of your assets, TikTok is also worth checking out.
If you need inspiration to get started, here are 22 of the best TikTok memes so far.
We will cover how to make your TikTok campaign a success in our upcoming TikTok blog posts. If you want to get more insights, sign up for our free monthly Social Trends Update.