Every few months there’s a new wave in the digital marketing world that completely disrupts the way we work, this time it comes in the form of a fairly new platform – TikTok.
It’s a Chinese company which has its origins in Musical.ly. It allows its users to create looped videos, share pictures and has some pretty good video editing tools.
As of November 2019, it sits with 1.5 Billion installs across google play and app store. 31% of those downloads are by users in India. An average user spends about 52 minutes per day on the app, which proves it’s addictive. The numbers have spoken and we cannot ignore TikTok or TikTok influencers anymore!
So what is TikTok?
In case you’re living under a rock, TikTok is a social media platform which started in September 2016 . It grew expontentially when Musically and TikTok merged and continued with the name TikTok.
The platform allows you to create and share short videos on loop, including TikTok challenges. We should mention that the platform is known for meme heavy and funny content. Think of it as a mix of Vine and Instagram.
Today, it is a direct competition to all video marketing platform Youtube, Instagram and Facebook. With video being the upcoming future, the future for TikTok looks bright. On to the real question:
Is TikTok for you?
In India, the platform has been able to penetrate to the lower dysphoria of the country. By spending a few minutes on the platform you will notice that on Indian TikTok lip-syncing to popular songs is a common video type.
Every platform has their own tone of communication, TikTok is no different.
With a majorly young audience it’s not surprising that the common tone is funny, silly and massy. The most common videos themes revolve around love, jokes and Bollywood dialogues.
TikTok hasn’t become mainstream for advertising yet, therefore it’s easier for you to create a campaign and stand out on the platform. The challenge here is for you to reach your audience in a way that feels organic to the audience and is true to your brand.
If you’re unsure if you should be on TikTok we created a quick checklist for you to know if you need to be TikTok. If you agree with even two of the pointers below, you need to be on Tik Tok immediately.
1) Is your target audience younger than 30?
As we all know TikTok has predominantly young audience. If your target audience is below the age group of you should really consider TikTok as a major way to reach your audience online.
2) You already create video content
Do you already create video content for other platforms with influencers? If your answer is yes, then it shouldn’t take too much effort for you to be on Tiktok. If you are predominantly an online based business for younger audiences then you should really think about TikTok as a medium to reach your audience. The platform isn’t flooded by brands yet which gives you an opportunity to catch the audience’s attention more.
3) Your audience is from smaller towns of tier 2 and tier 3 India
TikTok has appealed to the masses and have been able to penetrate to all corners of India. If you are looking for Marathi, Bengali, Hindi, Kannada or Tamil influencers, then being on TikTok can be beneficial to you.
What can I do on TikTok?
You can do almost every type of video marketing campaign you would already create for other platforms, if you remember to keep it short and entertaining. Remember, the content should feel organic to the platform.
Just to get the ideas flowing we’ve listed some type of work you can do with influencers that will work on TikTok.
1) Tiktok Hashtag challenge –
You can simply create a hashtag for people to do a certain challenge, it can be a form of dance, an action, a dialogue, etc. You can be really creative with your way. If your brand already has a jingle or tune, you can add that in the background for better retention.
2) Tiktok Brand Takeover
Similar to a brand takeover on any other platform, you can pair-up with influencers and do a take over with them too. A brand takeover means you post certain posts from their account as if you’ve taken over their account.
3) Set appropriate goals
Have a set goal with different amount to be reached. Choose influencers that feel true to the brand and has similar audience to your target audience.
4) Trust your influencers
In terms of creating content, you must remember that they are the ones with the following. Your younger audience does not worry about the high-quality camera production. You must trust your influencers to create content that will suit you and their audience.
How to judge influencers?
If you are used to Instagram or Facebook, it is fairly easy to judge an influencer’s influence on TikTok.
You can judge it by simply tapping on the user’s profile and looking at their number of followers and likes.
For a more in depth look simply look at the views, likes and shares as you would on Instagram videos.
For more advanced insights on audience demographics and reach, get in touch with us at Chtrbox!
How to find trends on Tik Tok?
It is very easy to find trends on Tik Tok, you can simply look at the number of videos made on a certain song or a hashtag.
The bottom line is
Do not judge the platform without fully understanding it. If your audience is there then you know, logically, you should be there too!
However, do you really think the content there is going to be of the same standard this time next year? We do not think so. Content creators are making better and better content every month. TikTok influencers are quickly innovating the types of tricks and filters they can use for better produced content, and we can’t wait to see and be a part of what comes next!
The one thing we’ve learnt about digital marketing over the years is that it evolves at great speeds. As a digital marketer you must evolve with it too.