How to hack social media marketing on TikTok

While this platform is yet to gain Facebook or Twitter level prominence on digital marketing forums, companies and influencers are flocking to TikTok, one of the youngest and most prominent social media platforms.

Tick tock, tik tok…the marketing clock is ticking.

Are you familiar with one of the youngest, quirkiest and fastest platforms for social media marketing, namely, TikTok?

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service.

It allows users to upload short (15 second to 60 second) videos, add musical overlays, sound effects, and visual effects, and publish them.

How is that different from other websites like Twitter or Instagram?

It’s the lack of order – chaos, in other terms – that sets TikTok apart from other social media and networking platforms.

Log onto TikTok and you’ll be served with an array of content, with no seeming rhyme, reason or connection, but which will hook you onto the app for an entire day, or even for the entire weekend.

What is the marketing scene on TikTok like?

Given how important…and valuable…social media marketing is these days, TikTok has been late in introducing advertising and marketing onto the platform.

However, that hasn’t deterred companies.

A lot of companies have been uploading content onto TikTok even when it didn’t have any marketing program. They have instead been doing brand promotion, and it’s been going well.

What demographic can be found on TikTok?

As you would perhaps expect, the quirky and chaotic nature of TikTok appeals mostly to the younger – teen and just above teen – crowd.

For example, someone in the younger age set looking for things to do in Orange County may be inspired by TikTok content which means that Orange County establishments looking to attract the younger crowd would go well to start promoting their brands on TikTok.

What kinds of content are brands using to promote themselves on TikTok?

Mostly two kinds of content

• Short skits featuring some aspect of their brand they feel TikTok users will find interesting
• Challenges for TikTok users

Challenges are doubly potent, since they can be used not only for brand promotion but also to get the viewer to take some kinds of actions – including purchases.

While a comprehensive guide to TikTok marketing would take a lot more space, I hope this short introduction to TikTok marketing gives you an idea of how to proceed to promote your own brand on TikTok.