5 Ways your Brand Can Use Tik Tok for Business

#1: Embrace the weird (or niche)

If there’s one thing a Tik Tok audience loves, it’s strange, weird content. For example, some of the most popular channels include an angry chihuahua with a weird bark, a Van Wilder style party boy who loves his duck, and a man that’s always yelling at his dog Gucci for getting out of the house (as you can see, Tik Tok loves animals too). Memes and repetitive jokes reign king on Tik Tok, so if you can create a funny schtick and commit to it, you’ll increase your chances of getting noticed.

#2: Create fun content

As Tik Tok is predominately used by people aged 16 – 24, it’s worth noting that serious content is unlikely to gain much traction. Like it’s predecessor Vine, Tik Tok mostly centres on short and funny videos, dancing, impressive art (predominately music and makeup), fashion and plenty of lip-syncing. Content should be no longer than 60 seconds and aim to inspire, impress, or entertain your audience. Unlike Instagram, you don’t have to worry so much about creating high-definition content, as authentic home-style videos tend to favour better with Gen Z, who are more likely to shun anything that looks like it’s produced on a high budget.

#3: Engage with Tik Tok trends

One of the best things about using Tik Tok for business is that you don’t necessarily have to always create original content – you can jump on trends instead. Tik Tok trends tend to move quickly, and usually have quite a lot going depending on the algorithm you’re following. It’s worth investing some time researching what’s popular and to make sure you don’t follow a trend that was hot a few months ago. These trends always use music samples and sometimes incorporate hashtags (it’s advised you use them, so the algorithm picks up on it). Tik Tok trends tend to be comedic and sometimes a little absurd, but if you do it well, you’ll reap the rewards. A good example of a company embracing the weird is Ryanair airlines, who’ve made videos using the eyes and mouth filter on their airplane.

#4: Work with Tik Tok influencers

Much like Instagram influencers, Tik Tok influencers are fast taking over the platform, massing tens of millions of likes per video and a following count larger than most celebrities. Though it’s highly unlikely a small business can afford to feature Tik Tok’s famous creators such as Charli D‘Amelio or Addison Rae, there are plenty of low to mid-tier Australian influencers that can help you reach your audience faster using someone else’s platform. When it comes to using Tik Tok for business, it’s worth choosing someone who suits the value set of your company as working with anyone with a controversial past can harm your business. Be sure to do your research and come up with a Tik Tok small business advertising strategy that suits both your business and their online persona.

#5: Advertise on Tik Tok

There are currently five ways you can use Tik Tok for business marketing, which include:

In-feed ads

These types of ads are short-form videos that appear in a user’s feed as they’re scrolling videos.  A user can click on the ad to view a website or click on the ad’s user profile to see more content.

Branded hashtag challenge

A brand instigates a challenge to Tik Tok users using a specific hashtag i.e., #pepsicanchallenge. The challenge will then appear in the user’s feed and can be searched by looking up the challenge hashtag. These videos are usually accompanied by a music sample, which users can also click on to see more videos.

 Brand takeover

A brand takeover appears as a full-page video ad on a user’s feed that appears as soon as someone opens the app.

Top view ads

Top view ads work similarly to brand takeovers as they involve popping up as a full-page ad but typically last up to 60 seconds and appear at random times instead of when a user opens an app.

Branded effects

Like Instagram, using Tik Tok small business gives you the option to make branded filters that can last up to ten days.