What is TikTok? And should you be using it for your business?
TikTok is a combination of several app functionalities. Think of a combined Instagram, Twitter, and Vine, and you get TikTok. It is an app launched by a Chinese company in 2016, which has grown into 500 million active monthly users.
With TikTok, users can record short video clips with music. The app allows users to edit the videos and images, and share it in the platform.
Here is the burning question: should you use TikTok for business?
Definitely. Let us take a look at the benefits of dancing to this app’s tune and how your business can make the best of it.
A Different Generation of Users
Unlike Facebook, the vast majority of TikTok users are those aged 10 to 19, mostly born between 1995 and 2010. These are what we call Generation Z, or simply Gen Z.
People who belong to Gen Z are leaning towards creativity and freedom, of transparency and honesty. These people are born into technology, and the main context of their mindset is mobility and social networking.
Given this, businesses can take advantage of the fact that this generation is going to do free advertising for companies because they love to share what they like on social media.
And TikTok is where these people are converging. And where these people are, there you must be.
A Fun Way to Get Followers
TikTok has just recently begun exploring the advertising avenue to monetize its platform. For now, the advertising network is young, and the users really get to enjoy the platform because it is almost ad-free.
Given this situation, your business would benefit if you start gaining organic followers as early as now. You can put content out there, or create challenges for the Gen Z community where they submit their contest entries to you.
You can reward the winners, and this should boost your follower base. Keep in mind that TikTok users are Gen Z people who like transparency. As such, this is the ultimate place where your brand can be “itself” with no pretentions.
A Leverage of Influencers
Like Instagram, TikTok has its own influencers for the Gen Z population. Your business is going to benefit from this if you leverage the power of these people on the platform. Although it is not as huge Instagram yet, there will come a time when it will certainly be at par with the social media giant.
Since Gen Z people are typically annoyed with ads, so you need to shift your marketing paradigm to sponsoring influencers rather than launching ads on the platform.
If your product is endorsed by an influencer, it sounds more credible because the influencer is human, normal, and not some made-up model by large and faceless corporations.
Summary
TikTok is the future of social media. It has managed to combine several functions into one, and it represents the dawn of a new group of people who would one day soon dominate the market with its purchasing power—the Gen Z.
Roughly 20% of the U.S. population belongs to this generation, and while they may be young today, investing in them is surely a worthwhile endeavor. One day, these people will start looking for jobs and earn. And when this happens, you will reap the rewards.
And when they do start working, you surely want to be on their radar for brands they want to buy. Use TikTok for your business, and grow your follower base as early as now. Despite what people say that fans and followers are not customers, they surely will be paying customers one of these days.
