What is TikTok, and how to promote it

Being ahead of your competitors means always being one step forward. Now it is difficult to do this because competition is growing every day. Therefore, companies are looking for new schemes and techniques to stay on the wave of popularity and success. One of the current trends is TikTok. TikTok has taken over the world and turned it upside down. And, as you probably already understand, you need to know what it is and where it will take you in the future.

What is TikTok

The TikTok app is a social network where content consists exclusively of short videos. At least these days, it’s the only kind of content that looks like a mix of Vine, Instagram, and YouTube. The developers described their creation as a platform for inspiration, fun, and joy. It is not surprising that the application attracted the attention of children and teenagers.The platform for the publication of short music videos started work in September 2016 in China. The service, then called Douyin, quickly gained popularity in China. And so, at the beginning of 2017, a similar social network called TikTok, which we know today, entered the international market.The service is available only through the mobile application for iOS and Android. There is no desktop version. Visually, it is similar to Instagram with a panel at the bottom of the screen, on which there are tabs: Home, Interesting, a button to create a new video, Inbox, and profile page. Like any other social network, TikTok has its rules and restrictions. The developers created these rules to control the clogging of the feed and reduce the number of bots and fake accounts.

Top 10 limitations of TikTok:

1. You can create an account from the age of 13.
2. You can change your account name once every 30 days.
3. Broadcasting is allowed if there are at least 1000 subscribers.
4. The video must be up to 60 seconds long.
5. You can add up to 3 profiles to the official application.
6. You can put 500 likes per day.
7. A user can subscribe to 200 accounts per day.
8. You can add only one active link to your profile description.
9. You can tag friends and put hashtags in the video description.
10. Write comments under posts of up to 150 characters and direct messages of up to 6000 characters.

What kind of business is TikTok suitable for

The audience of TikTok is young people under 25 years old. Сontent about clothes, cosmetics, games, training courses, food establishments, and more is perfect for such a segment. That is, priority purchases for young people.Perhaps an older audience will soon enter TikTok, as happened with Instagram. And in this case, it is better to prepare in advance and start the brand activity on the platform now.Since social networks are primarily platforms for socializing, dating and entertainment, it is clear that TikTok has both advantages and pitfalls for business.

Advantages:

• This platform is suitable for effective communication of brands whose audience consists mainly of millennials and generation Z.
• Non-standard advertising in native content format. There is also an opportunity to launch challenges in the advertising cabinet.
• The loyalty of the audience and a minimum of negativity.
• Currently, the development of gray promotion methods is not so active on TikTok. Therefore, a feature of the social network is the maximum live audience.

Disadvantages:

• You must always keep your finger on the pulse of social network trends and generate creative content.
• The social network is full of humorous and entertaining content, so it is not always suitable for serious brands.

The promotion of the TikTok account

Foremost, it is necessary to determine the goals for this social network:

Traffic to other resources

For now, gaining followers on this social network is simple and fast. You can take advantage of this and direct users to other social networks, a website, or even download an app or game.

Monetization

The TikTok network allows you to earn money through live stream donations, brand partnerships, or collaborations with other bloggers.

Sales increase

Despite the work on brand awareness and promotion, the final expected result of effective SMM promotion is the generation of leads. That is the conversion of the potential audience into customers. It’s the same with promoting a business on TikTok. In the social network, you can advertise goods and services or, thanks to the most popular mechanics, work on brand promotion among a new audience.Depending on the chosen goal, it is necessary to develop a strategy for promoting the TikTok channel, consider the concept of brand presence on TikTok and deal with possible promotion options. One of the easiest organic ways to promote an account is to get publications into the recommendations of a social network.Getting videos in recommendations is a quick and free method to promote your TikTok profile. To understand how content can appear in the recommendations, let’s first talk about how social network algorithms work.A new video is shown to random 20-50 users, and then algorithms track their reactions on several parameters, based on which TikTok makes a verdict on the post — whether it is popular or not:

• viewing duration (users watched the video to the end or immediately turned to the next one);
• activity (whether users comment and like the video);
• repeat views (whether users watch the video a second time);
• transitions to your account and subscriptions.

All these factors affect whether TikTok will recommend profile content to a larger audience. When creating your videos, you should remember a few basic rules:

1. Audience retention and intrigue because the video should interest the user from the first seconds.
2. A slight provocation and encouragement of people to comment and discuss.
3. Publish new videos according to the schedule. It will help you gain experience and analyze what content goes in best.
4. Experiment with formats, angles and editing.
5. Track popular foreign accounts and generate new ideas based on them.

Paid advertising on TikTok

You can promote the account with both paid advertising and free methods. To attract new followers to the profile without spending money, you should always support user activity (regular publication of new content, audience reactions, commenting), use hashtags (they work very well in promoting the TikTok account), share the link to the profile on other social networks, increase ER (engagement rate) and collaborate with other bloggers.The platform also has several solutions for launching paid advertising. How to launch an advertisement on TikTok? You can use four goals: reach, traffic, conversions, and app installs. You pay per click or impression.Targeted advertising on TikTok is available for the following placements:

• TopView is a format that shows ads immediately after entering the application.
• Takeover is a format similar to the previous one. The difference is a short video with a link to the site or a unique hashtag.
• In-feed is a TikTok ad in the feed, similar to Instagram ads. You can add links or interactive call-to-action elements to such ads.
• Hashtag challenge is a banner in the challenge section. The mechanic is simple: shoot a video and post it with your hashtag.
• Brand effects — branded masks and stickers in 2D, 3D, and AR formats.

PR on TikTok

You can also use the TikTok social network as a platform for PR. Here you can promote both brands and individuals. To promote an account and turn an ordinary person into an influencer or media person, you also need to develop a strategy and go through a path to becoming a blogger.First, you need to decide on the blog’s topic and content formats. These can be humorous videos, life hacks, or helpful tips. Not so long ago, TikTok was a social network for children and teenagers. However, it is gradually expanding its audience, and among active users, you can find entrepreneurs, politicians, psychologists, etc. So don’t neglect this platform for communication and don’t lose thousands of new potential customers. To effectively «enter» TikTok, it is enough to study the social network and its audience in detail and find your niche.