Going Always-In: An Updated Strategy for TikTok Marketers

If you’re a marketer looking to get the most out of TikTok, adopting an always-on strategy is essential. This requires you to have a continuous presence on the platform.?

But while always-on unlocks a bunch of benefits – avoiding creative fatigue, for instance – it doesn’t allow you to get to the heart of TikTok’s sense of participation and community. To achieve this, marketers need to be always-in.?

Introducing always-in

Always-in is a holistic approach to your TikTok marketing. It unites organic, paid, brand, and performance efforts. With always-in, you truly immerse your brand in the platform, bringing all of these facets together and having them all pull in the same direction.?

Traditionally, these different areas are siloed-off and given a distinct strategy. Marketers pick which one will help them meet their objectives at a given moment. With always-in, these siloes are broken. Regardless of your objective, you run all four strategies in a joint effort.?

This makes a lot of sense, especially given that the lines between ‘performance and brand’, ‘paid and organic’ are becoming increasingly blurred.

Shifting focus from customers to community

TikTok is all about communities. For marketers, this requires a shift in mindset as to how you communicate with your audiences. Audiences should be seen as communities to participate in, as opposed to customers that you sell to.?

Of course, conversions will remain the end goal. However, the most effective route to get here is no longer via traditional “break through the noise” advertising. You want to be part of the noise instead. You can still have a loud voice, just make sure it’s part of a conversation – leave the monologues to SNL.?

Find your communities?

The first thing to do with your new community-focused mindset is to find your communities. There are thousands on TikTok, and they are usually tied together using a hashtag. Examples include BookTok, LGBT, FoodTok, FashionTok, and CleanTok.?

For marketers, the good news is that TikTokers enjoy it when brands get involved. In fact, 76% of users say that they enjoy it when brands get among communities on the platform.?

There will always be communities that are a more obvious fit for your brand. But don’t limit yourselves to these. The always-in mentality also sees you explore communities that have a less direct link to your brand. For example, if you’re a sneaker brand, an obvious community would be #FashionTok. But why not also occasionally produce some videos aimed at the #CleanTok crowd – the true sneakerheads are renowned for their cleanliness after all.

TikTok calls this the ‘Stay-and-Play’ framework for community building.?

• Stay: Natural-fit communities where you seek to build trust and cement associations with core audiences.?
• Play: Unexpected communities where you can be creative, use the element of surprise, and expand your audience.?

Along with speaking to both Stay & Play communities, also look to have a mixture of broad and niche communities in your strategy. Well-crafted, relevant content aimed at niche communities can be very powerful.?

Pro-Tip: To find and stay on top of the different platform communities, you can use the TikTok Creative Center.

Creative agility is the cornerstone?

The always-in approach requires you to be highly agile with how you produce creative content. This means being able to quickly turn around videos at short notice.?

TikTok is a fast-paced environment. Communities and the trends they foster are constantly evolving. To be an active participant, you’ve gotta be able to keep pace. If your creative processes are not agile enough to execute this, then you’re going to miss the boat on a lot of opportunities.?

Plan ahead for campaign peaks, sure. But build in a high degree of flexibility for the rest of your content and review the state of the platform on a daily or weekly basis, using this info to inform your strategy.?

It’s time to go always-in

Ever since TikTok burst onto the scene, it has been encouraging brands to change the way they market to audiences. To see success on TikTok, you need to treat it as a community – not a channel.?

Don’t just act on the periphery. Go always-in and fully embrace the platform as an active participant. When you do this, your engagement will flourish.