5 Tips for Businesses Looking to Start Out on Tik Tok

In the age of short attention spans and phones becoming a necessity for most people, it is no surprise that an app that focuses on these factors has risen to popularity in a short time. Tik Tok is a social media app that focuses on short and easily consumable video content. Users can scroll through their “for you” page at their leisure and Tik Tok tracks your activity on the app to better tailor the content that it shows you. It can track your likes, watch time, and your followed creators to get a good sense of who you are and what you want to see. While most social media apps have a similar algorithm, Tik Tok has an autoplay feature that can automatically play videos after the other without having to search or even follow people. This has made it easier for someone to lose track of time on the app and endlessly consume content until they decide to stop watching, but Tik Tok’s format has become very addicting for most users on the app. They can spend hours on the app without even realizing it. Tik Tok’s main users of the app are millennials and generation Z. This makes Tik Tok the place to be for businesses who want to target the younger generations to sell their products to. If your business wants to target younger people, starting a Tik Tok account for your business would be ideal, but there are a few things to consider after setting up your business account to be successful on Tik Tok. Here are a few tips your business can implement to find the right people for your product.

1. Develop a very specific target market.

While having a specific target market is something a business should already have, this is especially important on Tik Tok, as it caters to the user’s likes and interests. You should have a very clear idea of who you want to target and you can even make a persona of your ideal customer to keep in mind when creating content on your Tik Tok. Keep the target market in mind with every post and ask yourself “would this resonate with who I want to buy my product”. You can get very specific with your content once you have a good idea of who you want to target on Tik Tok because the algorithm suggests your content to who they think would resonate with the post.

2. Use hashtags with intention.

Hashtags are a great way to boost your post’s attention as they can help show your post to certain audiences. The most common tip that people on Tik Tok give is to use popular hashtags, this isn’t the best thing to do if your post is meant for a certain audience. Using popular hashtags will show your post to a bigger audience, but if your post is directed towards a certain niche that doesn’t resonate with most people they will likely skip your video before it ends. This will hurt your video because Tik Tok only rewards videos that do well with a lot of likes and a long watch time. Some hashtags are oversaturated with so many videos that your post likely won’t gain any traction. Some of these hashtags are #fyp, #4u, #foryou, #foryoupage, #TikTok, #duet, #viral, and #trending. Tik Tok has a great system in place where you can view the hashtags that are already trending. You can use this feature to look for trending hashtags that are similar to your product or the audience that you want to attract. Using lesser-used hashtags that would resonate with your audience would help Tik Tok direct your post to the right audience. Another way to use hashtags with intention is to keep them shorter and to limit the number of hashtags within one post. Adding long hashtags or too many hashtags will likely distract your audience away from your actual post. Make sure your hashtags have meaning behind them and would help you reach your niche audience on Tik Tok instead of just using popular hashtags that don’t resonate with your desired audience.

3. Don’t be afraid to use popular formats for your videos.

There are always new trends, challenges, dances, sounds, and formats on Tik Tok that are waiting to be used by creators. Scrolling through the “for you” page will likely help you find some of them. Some of these trends are very easy to replicate and add your twist to them. Adding your version that promotes your product or would resonate with your customers would likely help your account grow and make your followers brand loyalists. Younger generations like when brands can have their personality and use trends the right way. This makes them more likely to think of your business as a friend or an acquaintance instead of a soulless corporation that cannot relate to them. If you can execute the trend correctly this will likely help your account grow with people who are fans of the trend. This doesn’t mean that you need to follow every trend because not every trend will help your business, but if there is a trend that can easily be applied to your business then don’t be afraid to use it!

4. Collaborate with other influencers.

Tik Tok encourages users to interact as many features promote collaboration such as stitches, duets, and comment replies. Find Tik Tok accounts that have the same target market as you and interact with their posts. Stitches allow you to start a video with someone else’s video, so this could be a question or a request and then you continue the video with your content. Duets use someone else’s content and put your video simultaneously next to theirs and this can be used to react, simulate a conversation, and add more context to their video. Comment replies allow you to reply directly to a comment by creating a video response. Using these features with creators that share your niche audience will help your business grow with new followers. You can also directly message these influencers to interact with your product whether it’s a review or an ad for your product. Collaborating with these influences can help build awareness of your business when using the right influencers.

5. Don’t constantly try to sell your product.

While selling your product is ultimately why you are making a Tik Tok account for your business it shouldn’t be the sole motivator behind making content. When all your content is telling your followers to buy your product this seems very ingenuine and doesn’t make a connection with your followers. When you make content that resonates with your target market it should make them feel like a friend rather than a customer because we are more likely to support a friend than a business you have no relationship with. The more you can connect with your target market on Tik Tok will make them want to support your business more. There are already so many businesses on Tik Tok that are paying to take up space but their videos are obviously just trying to sell you something and they get no interactions because they cannot connect with their target market. If your videos feel less like an advertisement and more like a friend recommending them a product they are more likely to believe the business that acts like a friend.