TikTok – Skin & Dermatology

What is TikTok? TikTok is a social network for sharing user-generated videos, mostly of people lip-synching to popular songs. Users can create and upload their own videos where they lip-synch, sing, dance, or just talk. It was launched in September 2016 in China (as Douyin) and internationaly in September 2017 (as TikTok).

TikTok statistics ! With 690 million (M) monthly active users TikTok leads over Linkedin (675M), Pinterest (367M) and Twitter (340M). TikTok also outperforms Reddit, the 6th most visited site in the world, which has 430 million monthly active users. In China alone, Douyin has 600 million users daily (not monhtly !!). TikTok is mostly a Gen Z media but its penetration is estimated at 18% of global internet users aged 16-64.

What are TikTok Challenges? Challenges are any idea that goes viral. They can be songs, activities, or dances that start trending and then get copied by users on the platform. Sometimes they're spontaneous, but sometimes they're planned out by brands, musical artists, or influencers for marketing purposes.

TikTok – Skin & Dermatology : Certain challenges encourage risky behaviours such as #pimplechallenge, #tanningchallenge, #moleremoval, #lipfillerchallenge or #sunburnchallenge. In this excellent article the author is saying that the potential for propagation of false, misleading or potentially harmful information, especially via ? TikTok challenges ? must be borne in mind. Dissemination of dermatology-focused health promotion information by qualified healthcare professionals to a global, young and engaged audience may partially offset this risk by promoting positive health behaviours (‘sunsense’, photoprotection, encouragement to attend a qualified physician when required), however monitoring this trade-off would remain challenging. Dermatologists are needed on social media to debunk falsehood and push back misinformation.

 Here are the 5 Dermatologists on TikTok recommended by Refinery29: Dr. Muneeb Shah ( @dermdoctor ), Dr. Camille Howard-Verovic ( @dermbeautydoc ), Dr. Joyce Park ( @teawithmd ), Dr. Suchismita Paul ( @derm4brownskin ), Dr. Lindsey Zubritsky ( @dermguru ). If you like to see more please refer to my newsletter October 22, 2020.

E-commerce is next : TikTok plans U.S. e-commerce push to take on Facebook ! TikTok will allow most popular users to share links to products and automatically earn commissions on sales. TikTok is also rolling out “live-streamed” shopping, a mobile phone version of television shopping channels, where users can buy goods with a few taps. It’s also seeking to let brands show their catalogs.

And you ! If you are in the skin business and still skeptical about how TikTok might help it, here the case of a skincare brand that unexpectedly is all over TikTok ! And in the JAAD. Bear in mind that social media is only a means, what is strategic is your content (promotional, non-promotional and educational) and how it reaches your audiences via your own efforts or thanks to third party curation.

To receive my newsletter directly to your mail, please register here.