How can you use TikTok for social media marketing?

It is important to understand first and foremost that the platform has matured far beyond an audience of only Gen Z and millennials. Over 50% of users are over the age of 30- which indicates there is an audience for almost every business.

TikTok opens creative marketing possibilities, like learning a viral dance routine. Dazzle with eye-catching visuals, clips, and captions. Jump on trends with challenges and hashtags. Engage creators to rep your brand. Experiment across formats like stories and LIVE. Respond to comments and engage in duets. Monitor performance and optimize. Show your funny, quirky personality. Soon your content will delight and take off spreading joy across the feed! Now grab those sneakers - it’s time for some TikTok magic! ??

Your niche can be educational videos. So many people are nervous to start creating on TikTok because they know it as a "dancing app" but there are people creating great educational content across all different industries. You have a unique opportunity to develop an audience for your business or yourself that passively educates your target audience. TikTok will show users a variety of content across their different interests so that you can share your message with them at a different time and place than you can on LinkedIn.

I would suggest it is less about challenges than it is about taking advantage of trending sounds or audio. Using the sounds that are making their way across the platform and giving your audience an analogy to your specific niche. If you can mix trending content with educational content you can find a nice balance of education and entertainment.

One thing I’ve found helpful is understanding that inasmuch as challenges and trending sound might help give you exposure on the app, it’s not every trend one must jump on. Some sounds and trends are geographically more relevant than others and this understanding will help filter out what to join and what to just enjoy.

Creating your own challenges is great once you've developed your brand on the platform. With that being said it can be hard for larger commercial entities to play along with trends/challenges without ending up in IP hot water. From experience, challenges can lower the age of your audience too. (Could be a good or bad thing based on your business) You can't go wrong with staying trend agnostic and doubling down on blazing your own path.

Stitching other creators to spark conversation can also be a really great way to gather additional reach. Like many other platforms, TikTok pushes videos that keep users on the platform and take advantage of the features specific to their user interface.

Not only is stitching a great way to generate additional reach like Ema mentioned but so is duetting. If a piece of content has already proven itself in its entirety, duetting it can be an easy and effective way to redistribute a message you heavily agree with and ride its success. It is less effective than it used to be (If you used to duet a viral video, you would have a viral video), but it is still an effective and underutilized tool since it got algorithmically balanced.

One of the things not mentioned here is like Youtube, you can see breakdowns of video retention rate. Which is awesome for trialing your content for other social platforms, redeveloping content for a later date, or understanding your distribution. High retention rate TikToks have worked wonders for my paid social campaigns on other platforms.

Good, bad, or indifferent, TikTok is not LinkedIn and the type of engagement and comments you get are very different. You will be able to easily see what type of content sparks discussion and comments and what content is simply a "like". For most creators, the in-app analytics will be enough to hone in on what type of content is performing best!

While TikTok has become the place where quirky and off-brand acts tend to become viral/popular, sometimes it’s good for a brand itself to step out of their comfort zone. Not all brands will brace it, and will try to mold their presence on TikTok similar to other platforms. That shouldn’t be the case, but some will have to learn the hard way.