TikTok is the hottest social media platform at the moment with lots of creatives lip-syncing or dancing to their favorite songs.
It has more than 680 million users worldwide, which means you can market your business to a huge audience.
It may seem like a video app just for teens, but nearly 38% of its users are above 30 years old in the US.
Of course, not all businesses can sell on TikTok, especially those with serious sit-down sales pitches, but if you have a creative and fun way to sell your business, you can fit naturally in the TikTok culture.
Table of Contents
Study the App
Before you take your business to TikTok, you need to study the platform.
This way, you can know what content type works on the platform and how you can reach your target audience.
Look at the trending page, find videos that relate to your business, and learn how to make such videos.
You should be ready to continuously update yourself on the trending videos because TikTok is all about new, fun, and visually appealing content.
Create Exciting Content
One of the biggest benefits of marketing on TikTok is that you don’t need to have high-end filming equipment.
Just pull out your phone and start filming.
In order to succeed on TikTok, you need to create content that results in the algorithm putting your videos in front of more people.
One way to do this is by creating videos on topics of interest or solving problems your audience may have.
If you don’t know the problems they may have, look at your competitors on TikTok.
Or ask your existing audience on other platforms.
They may be excited to share their issues and how your business can solve them.
TikTok videos need to be 1080×1920, so we recommend using an app like Wave.Video to make them if you are not willing to be on camera.
Start a Hashtag Challenge
When you launch a hashtag challenge, you encourage TikTok users to create or recreate videos using your business hashtags.
This is a fun way to drive traffic, engagement, and user interaction to your business.
Use Hashtags for SEO
If you want your content to be visible to a certain group of people, you need to use TikTok SEO.
TikTok suggests a range of relevant hashtags when you type in a broad keyword.
There’s no limit on the number of hashtags you can use, but TikTok video captions are limited to 100 characters, so you should use about two or three hashtags, as this will save space for your video description.
Partner with other Content Creators
You can use content creators who have a huge following on TikTok to market your business.
For instance, if you’re in the t-shirt printing niche, you should find people who are into fashion that have more followers.
When you find these individuals, send them a short friendly message letting them know that you want to partner with them.
This is a great way to market your business, and as your following grows, you’ll find more people who are willing to partner with you.
TikTok Ads
This is another great way to market your business on TikTok, as you don’t have to spend a lot of time building your audience on the platform.
When you set up a campaign, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience in 24 hours.
TikTok ads are cost-effective because they reach a wide audience even with a little budget.
So you can easily scale your ad without spending so much money.
TikTok isn’t like other platforms, it may take a while for you to understand how it works.
But, once you do, you will make endless sales from the platform.
Even if your business doesn’t have a younger target audience, you can capture your audience’s attention once you’re creative on TikTok.
Is TikTok Ideal for my Brand?
Going viral on TikTok is no magic.
You need to know how TikTok works and how its algorithm can help you improve your odds of success.
The average TikTok user spends 46 minutes on the platform daily.
This means that whatever content you are putting out should be able to find your audience easily, and catch their attention quickly.
In the rest of this article, we’ll be exploring how TikTok works and how users interact with each other.
How TikTok Works
Until recently, we did not know how TikTok ranked its content.
Influencers who succeeded on the platform and got featured on the For You page had no working strategy.
They guess worked themselves to fame on the platform.
Tiktok recently described how their platform works and the ranking factors they follow.
Each of these factors is explained below:
User Interaction
Users are served the type of posts they engage with.
So, if you consistently engage on a particular account, you’re more likely to see similar content from other accounts like that.
Another ranking indicator in this factor is the video completion rate.
If users watch your videos to the end, it’s more likely to be suggested to other people.
As a content creator or business owner with an account on TikTok, you should make videos that will hold the user’s attention so as to make it to the For You page.
Video Information
When users explore a particular content or hashtag, they are more likely to keep seeing more content with the same sound or hashtag.
This explains why you keep seeing different content from the same challenge on your For You page.
Device or Account Setting
A user’s language preference, location, and device type also play a role in the type of content TikTok serves them.
However, it doesn’t determine the ranking of a video as much as other factors.
TikTok is a global market, so it’s not going to restrict your video to just users in your vicinity.
How Users Interact With Each Other
Users can interact with each other on TikTok by commenting or chatting over a video or by setting up separate chat channels between themselves.
Until recently, all users could send direct messages, but as of April 2020, you have to be more than 16 years to use private messaging on TikTok.
The platform restricted those under the age of 16 from communicating privately, but they can post publicly in the comments sections of videos [3].
Either way, you can make new friends or chat with your friends on the platform.
Direct Messaging
You have to be following a user or be friends before you can send them a message on TikTok.
This depends on the recipient’s privacy setting, which can be friends only or public for messages.
You also need to set up a valid phone number to be able to send messages.
This is to avoid spam.
Comment on Videos
If you’re restricted from sending direct messages due to age or phone number, you can still comment on the user’s videos.
You can also respond to the comments made on other users on your favorite influencers’ videos.
This is another way to interact with your friends or a user.
As much as you can comment on a video and send private messages, you can also be blocked from doing any of the above.
TikTok doesn’t support harassment and spamming, so they have a feature that allows users to restrict who can send them messages.
Being restricted from sending a message or commenting on TikTok is different from being unable to send a message.
If you occasionally see a message that says, “unable to send,” it may be a temporary issue with TikTok messaging.
Wait a bit, and if nothing changes, update your app.
TikTok for Beginners - Final Words
This article has hopefully given you an insight into how the platform works.
It’s not for everyone, granted, but you cannot deny its growth and potential.
Like with anything, the key is going to be clearly planning a strategy and being consistent with it.
Chances are you will not hit a home run off the bat.
That’s normal.
But stick with it.