Social Media Marketing with TikTok

Looking for something new in social media? Are you a brand hoping to attract attention from a teen audience? If so, you may want to check out TikTok. In 2017 ByteDance, a Chinese Internet company, introduced a new social media video-sharing app called TikTok.

In 2018 ByteDance bought Musical.ly that had a substantial U.S. based audience and merged it with TikTok and gaining a presence among Americans. Forty-one percent of TikTok’s audience is between the ages of 16 and 24 (Global web Index, 2018).

Getting in on the TikTok action

Although the platform may be new to you, TikTok was the most downloaded app in the Apple App Store in the first half of 2018 — one billion downloads (CNBC Sensor/Tower) worldwide, which surpasses downloads of platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Currently, it has more than five hundred million monthly active users.

Interested in exploring the app? You can download it free from the App Store and at Google Play. You’ll want to look around and see the types of content that are successful.

So, what is TikTok? It’s a video sharing app on which users create fifteen second videos that play on a loop with music tracks. The videos are largely made up of lip-synching, stunts, pets doing tricks, and other humorous music-backed content. The app supplies tools to create something unique and fun.

Experimenting with TikTok

If you think that major companies aren’t interested in an app such as TikTok, you forget that five hundred million monthly users are a lot of eyeballs. Companies like Guess, Chipotle, and even the Washington Post are experimenting with this new social media app.

Of particular interest to brands is the Challenges tab. Companies are trying out challenges that relate to their products. A challenge asks the reader to participate in a themed action. For example, in 2018, Guess a fashion brand, partnered with TikTok to create TikTok’s first branded content challenge using the hashtag #InMyDenim.

Guess asked popular fashion influencers on the channel to create content and asked users to take photos of how they looked in their new denim line. So how did it go? Guess considers the campaign a great success with thirty-four million views and lots of attention to their product.

If you want to reach this Gen Z audience, research carefully and see what others are doing. This is an audience that will let you know if you’re missing the mark!