How to Use TikTok in Small Business Marketing

As any good marketing expert can tell you, one of the best ways of getting a leg up on the competition is to make use of a proactive approach in all your marketing strategies. That's why using TikTok to promote your business is much more of a practical decision than any kind of gut instinct reaction or hunch these days.Other platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram have shown that brands which leverage an emerging social media platform early on, are well-positioned to become influencers, and to get the most out of marketing on those particular platforms. Given the success that the biggest social media platforms have had with advertising, it's not surprising at all that the number of active users and the number of active advertisers have been steadily increasing. This fact alone is a great reason why you should begin using TikTok to reach more of the people in your intended target audience.

Why not use the major platforms?

It has become increasingly difficult to get your advertising message across to your audience using one of the big four social media platforms, simply because they are all close to reaching a saturation point. It has also become difficult to identify when a Page has a legitimate following, since users can easily increase the number of page likes and followers they get just by spending a little cash.Another factor which makes the big four platforms somewhat undesirable for advertising is the constant updates to their algorithms which must be endured by advertisers. In effect, these continuous updates have resulted in a steady decline in the organic reach which those platforms can achieve. This has caused many advertisers to pause and consider the fact that they might either have to spend more dollars in order to reach their target audience, or they might have to find an entirely new social media platform to use.

The new player in town

TikTok has quickly become the fastest-growing platform of the decade, and with its enormous popularity, there is something of a paradigm shift emerging in the social media world. Most social media experts now agree that TikTok is poised to become the new major player among social media platforms, and statistics bear out this confidence.Already, TikTok has 500 million global active users, and with more than 33 million downloads in the first quarter of 2019, it became the single most downloaded app of any app available in the AppStore. TikTok is now available in 155 countries, and 90% of its users access the app more than once daily. More than 1 million videos are viewed daily on the platform, and that puts it at the forefront of video content popularity.Given the fact that this is a relatively new platform, which means its focus is on acquiring new followers, there has been no concerted effort to monetize TikTok. That means marketers can benefit greatly by limiting their expenditures to content creation, and can establish tremendous reach in a very short period of time.

Since more than 65% of TikTok users are under the age of 30, they are generally willing to engage in the platform's unique challenge feature. Businesses can make use of this challenge feature by creating their own challenges, and offering prizes or desirable freebies to users who participate. The youthful nature of TikTok users in general represents a very desirable segment of the population, for which a great many products are typically targeted. Any brand which manufactures items intended for a young audience would therefore do very well to have a strong presence on this platform.

Why is now the best time?

There are a number of reasons why this is the very best time to establish a presence on TikTok, and to do whatever is possible to increase your brand's visibility on the platform. While the platform does not yet have any kind of formal group feature, that will undoubtedly be incorporated very soon into the platform, and that will make it easier for businesses to reach vast numbers of people very quickly.All marketers are aware of the value of reaching communities of people with their videos and with their messages, especially when the target audience is a group of like-minded individuals who are pre-disposed to accept your products. Secondly, it's well known that Generation Z individuals are averse to being bothered by a whole slew of advertisements, which is why upwards of 51% of them make use of ad-blockers.Anyone paying attention will understand that old marketing techniques simply won't work with this group of individuals, and that a less invasive approach will be necessary. If you can master the strategy of including your brand in compelling Stories, you'll have a much better chance of reaching your Generation Z audience.

Lastly, TikTok is the absolutely ideal platform for user-generated content, especially since millennials think more highly of authenticity than any other quality. They are all pretty much aware of marketing tactics, and run for cover whenever they sense that a marketing scheme is approaching. Already, TikTok has become the single biggest source for user-generated content, and it's also enjoying the status of being the new kid on the block.Many youthful users distrust some of the established platforms, especially since they're plagued by fake views, and that has caused a number of young users to abandon some of the more established platforms. TikTok on the other hand, continues to drive content organically because that's the way it was originally designed, and it can encourage more and more user content by using its unique challenge concept in practically all situations.

Multiple TikTok accounts

Is it possible to have multiple accounts on the platform? In a word, yes. Businesses which need to have several accounts on a platform can use a social media engagement tool to schedule and manage their posts on the platform. This will streamline your efforts, and make it unnecessary to have multiple marketers engaged with disseminating one or more main messages to your target audiences. Just like with the other major platforms, all that's required is making use of a third-party software service, and you can easily control all your TikTok accounts, keeping them current and maintaining high levels of engagement with your following.