Tiktok (and short-form video)webinar summary

We’ve had a Cyberpros webinar about short-form videos for marketing. Our guests were Keren Brown and Michal Gat from Titan Branding.??

You can watch the recorded session here.??

Content is the basis of all marketing activities. We need to produce quality content and distribute it to our audience. But in recent years, we have seen diminishing returns on traditional content production. As a result, we all suffer from content overload and a shorter attention span.

The solution?

Create short-form videos. But is Tiktok a valid option for B2B marketers???

First of all, we need to acknowledge that although Tiktok was the first to use short-form, full-screen videos with an “endless scroll” user experience, it is not the only one that utilizes this: today- Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have similar formats, and it is not unlikely that LinkedIn will follow. But since Tiktok is soooo popular now, we’ll focus on it.??

Tiktok is not a social media network. It is a media platform (consumed with the volume On)- similar to Netflix. Hence the traditional methods of using the platform (start an account, follow/ unfollow to gain followership, comment/like/repost other users’ content, etc.) simply do not apply.

?The platform aims to deliver the most relevant content to the most relevant users. They don’t need to follow that content creator, they just interact with the content (like, watch to the end, save, share, and more) and discard less relevant content to “teach” the algorithm what is right for him. Once calibrated, the algorithm does a great job of serving you with extremely relevant content. When a new video is created, it is shown to a test audience that determines to whom it will be shown.?And if the test audience interacts, it is shown to another test audience (and it keeps going), which is the magic of it all.

Short-form video

Short-form videos are an evolution from longer format videos seen on Youtube (or other platforms). It is aimed to be watched on the go, on mobile devices. They have a distinct structure:

They start with a strong “Hook” (5-10 seconds into the clip), go on to deliver some insights (or action, show a CTA, and then often a sharp ending. Some popular formats are:

• Interview
• Conversation (one person can play both roles)
• “A day in a life” showing an event or product use?
• Q&A (answering questions in the video)
• Live Broadcast
• EGC: Employee-Generated Content

I did not mention dancing or lip-syncing. For many, Tiktok is an educational platform, and there are numerous pieces of content to please everyone.?

Video length should be 15-40 seconds(in the beginning). Add text and captions as the platform’s SEO engine reads and ranks these. Aim at making about 4 of these every week.

Tiktok for search

With growing popularity (and diminished popularity of websites and search engines) Tiktok has become a favorite search engine. As such, conducting an SEO study before making videos is essential.?

Is it suitable for B2B marketing?

Tiktok enjoys a varied audience at the moment, but if we have learned something from social media history is that new platforms tend to be adopted by younger users. As the platform gains popularity, older users will flock to it, pushing the younger crowd away. The age has evolved quite quickly and is no longer a young person’s game.

With this more mature crowd, we’ll find many B2B would-be clients. Companies moving onto Tiktok now, when it is relatively a greenfield, can gain a significant advantage over latecomers.?We’ve discussed the SEO benefits in a previous paragraph (it is assumed that Google will start crawling TikTok soon).?

Remember that a short-form video can be reused on all other platforms, so you can have a better ROI (also, if Tiktok is banned someday, at least your videos will still be alive).

Conclusion:

Tiktok is not a trend, and short-form video is here to stay. Start experimenting now so that you will be well-established by the time your audience comes to the platform. Also- it’s tons of fun.??

For additional information about TikTok, feel free to contact Keren. For information about using Tiktok as part of your brand identity- contact Michal at Titan Branding (they offer a free consultation for community members).?