Right now, TikTok is all the hype on social media. With reach in over 154 countries and 800 million active users worldwide, it's not hard to see why. While it boasts of more teenage and young adult users, it has incredible potential to penetrate all kinds of different markets.
As long as one is an active internet user, chances are they've come across a TikTok video at some point. You know, those short videos where people usually do a choreographed dance to a song.
It's great entertainment, but there's something even cooler about it – it's great for social media marketing!
TikTok for Marketing
Any smart business owner knows that the world has gone digital. Hardly anyone ever uses billboards and other traditional forms of advertising – well, except for Fortune 500s who can afford their exorbitant prices. As a small business owner, instead of spending a ton of money doing that and not even reaching their target audience, it's far better to go online and use one or more social media platforms to market your business.
With social media, businesses can market their brand for free, and with the option of focusing on a particular demographic that will best suit their business. TikTok offers this and more.
At first, people wondered how TikTok worked. Growing followers on TikTok is much easier than doing so on Instagram. People wondered why a person with two million TikTok followers would have less than a hundred thousand followers on Instagram.
The simple answer is the unique algorithm TikTok uses. The "For You" page in particular. With this, TikTok pushes recommended videos on a customized feed. The number of trending videos and creative content is staggering. Yet, there's more than enough to go round. This content is pushed out so that the app users – whether famous or not – get great exposure.
Beyond that, hashtags work great on this platform. Unlike Instagram hashtags, TikTok hashtags are often regarded as 'Trending.' Using these trending hashtags pushes you to an even larger audience than you would have otherwise had.
Promoting Your Digital Knowledge Business on TikTok
Let's bring back the statement, "The world has gone digital." Digital products go beyond software and similar products to involve various forms of knowledge. As a digital knowledge business person, your business consists of a series of tools to improve personal and/or professional development in the digital world.
If one has the right knowledge, they only need the right platform to share it. So, go ahead and use TikTok to promote your business.
Here's how you can start
Create your content
This goes beyond making ads and such. Focus on building an organic connection with your audience. You might be wondering how you could make a product such as digital knowledge (which isn't so much a product as a service) into something creative enough for TikTok. The good thing about TikTok is that it's all-encompassing and free-for-all to use as they deem fit regardless of their niche. [2]
That said, merely adding some nice music in the background and explaining what your business is about using text or even a voice-over works excellent.
Pro Tip:
To make this catch your audiences' attention, use a great caption. For instance, "how I built my first digital business from start to finish." The topic is interesting enough that it would slow a potential client down or stop them in their scrolling to watch the video.
However, this video cannot be longer than a minute, so make it power-packed. As with all social media marketing, driving traffic is easier than converting them. Make your content on TikTok engaging enough to make a potential client seek you out for further business.
Advertise on TikTok
Is it an actual form of social media marketing if paid ads are not involved? Not quite. All social media platforms support the use of paid ads. TikTok is not left out.
A few ways to do this include:
Brand takeovers where your ads appear on a user's feed before any other content comes up.
Host sponsored hashtag challenges. They have an incredible reach of up to millions of users. Also, you get to make a video explaining the challenge, which is an extra means of promoting your brand.
Native ads are usually much shorter videos that play between user content. But they still do the job.
Branded lenses are clickable AR brand effects that let users tap on the effects to learn more about the brand.
For your digital knowledge business, you can find ways of making any of these formats relevant to your brand before putting them out there.
Work with influencers
If regular accounts can get thousands of views on TikTok, what do you think influencers get? With TikTok, most influencers engage with over a million users. That provides you with an excellent opportunity to showcase your brand. They can either discuss your business in a video, write about it in their video description, or even link to your brand in said description.
Find influencers who are relevant to your niche. It makes the partnership organic and more likely to 'take' with the audience.
Share user-generated content
This will get you "in with the people." It's hard enough coming up with creative, engaging content always. At some point, you may have to share some content generated by users. Such use cases provide satisfactory social proof of your work and are great for building a solid rapport with potential clients. [3]
Getting Started with Digital Marketing on TikTok
Your best bet to maximizing TikTok to its full potential regarding your business is to take advantage of the tools/systems the platform has provided for you.
Before you start using paid ads or influencers and such, make sure you create a solid account on TikTok. It ensures the people who end up at your actual account after coming across your videos have something worthwhile to keep them.
Remember to optimize the platform. Show off what you do. Talk about it and make it fun for your audience. Share some tips and business advice. It is a great way to show off your talents and help people. Nothing like a bit of kindness and skills to get people interested in your brand.
Find ways of connecting with your audience. Engage meaningfully with them so you feel like less of a robot and more like an actual person they could do business with.
Lastly, make sure your social media presence outside of TikTok is solid. You can either share different content or the same type of content across all your social media platforms. Just be sure to keep them within the umbrella of your business.
What are you waiting for? Go ahead and get started with TikTok for your digital knowledge business.
References
TikTok statistics – Revenue, Users, & Engagement Stats [2021]. Influencer Marketing Hub. https://influencermarketing.com/tiktok-stats/. Accessed: 30-12-2020.
TikTok for Business. https://www.tiktok.com/business/en. Accessed: 30-12-2020.
4 Ways to Use TikTok for Business. Marly Broudie. Social Media Examiner. https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-ways-to-use-tiktok-business/. Accessed: 30-12-2020.
