25 February 2021
By Roger Jones
roger@TheCork.ie
Our society is rapidly growing thanks to the advent of technology. One of the most recent game-changers is the rise and integration of social media platforms. Arguably, the most prominent one today is the surprising dark horse, TikTok, which has garnered over 1 billion users worldwide in the span of the past few years.
Downloaded more than 2.6 billion times on Google Play and the App Store, it is widely regarded as one of the largest, fastest-growing, and most interactive social media platforms to date. Because of this, it is not easy to grow on the platform, but places like TokUpgrade, a TikTok growth service, gives you the power to leverage it’s user base. This is one of the best news for brand marketers and business owners for a long time.
The vast extent of reach the social media platform offers gives brand marketers and business owners alike an advantage of low-cost global exposure. The best part is that as the platform is still relatively fresh amongst the big names, it is still in its early stages, thus it is the best time to get your foot in the door and grab a slice of that pie while it is fresh out the oven.
However, there are downsides to TikTok. Primarily, it is very different from any other social media platform and adheres to its own unique approach and layout, making it rather difficult to understand for newcomers. Even more so as the main demographic on Tiktok are younger generations such as teens and millennials. So, how do you overcome these problems and successfully use TikTok to market your brand?
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Hashtag challenges and user generated content
One of the best and most efficient ways for brands to market on TikTok is by using hashtag challenges. These challenges are basically trending hashtags that prompts users to do a certain action as a challenge. For example, one of the biggest in history was the ice bucket challenge to raise awareness for ALS. Overall, it managed to gain more than 800 million dollars in donations, and it went from being one of the least known diseases in the world to one that is now considered general knowledge.
Many brands do this too, such as various instant noodle brands that challenge users to try out their spiciest flavour and film their reactions. When the campaign is successful with a ton of participants, the challenge brings in a lot of brand awareness and sales for the business, as well as a ton of new followers.
Not only does the marketing and advertising run by itself, it is done organically by your customers themselves. Best of all, a great campaign can potentially be free of charge with a little bit of creativity.
Create Marketable Content
TikTok is an incredibly video-oriented platform. You can think of it as a mix between Twitter and Instagram. It comes with a low word count limit, and also only allows you to post videos less than 20 seconds in length.
Does that sound familiar? That is because it is straight up advertising. It follows the exact same pattern and formula as adverts do. By creating marketable content that is engaging on TikTok, you are effectively creating great adverts for your products.
Many successful businesses do this by identifying the current local trends, research which ones are the most popular, and marketing their product in a fun and engaging way that compels users to share it.
In fact, created content that is entertaining is the best way to market your brand on TikTok and it is what receives the most engagement.
Collaborate
There are a ton of different types of influencers on TikTok. Depending on the number of followers they have, they can be split into different categories: macro, mega, micro and nana. Macro influencers being A list celebrities and nana influencers being new and unknown faces.
Sports brands can benefit
Collaborating with macro influencers might be too expensive for most budgets, but even working together with a micro influencer can bring many benefits to a brand, while costing a reasonable price. You should choose an influencer that is relevant to your brand, for example, choosing a gaming influencer if your brand is sports related won’t do well. By choosing a sports influencer for your sports brand, you can effectively increase your follower count and brand awareness. Think of it like having multiple spokespeople, and you are sponsoring an up and rising star. You might even strike it big if they hit virality and become mega influencers!
