TikTok has taken the digital world by storm with extensive growth, especially during the pandemic. With over 689 million active users worldwide, it’s no secret that TikTok is a great place to help skyrocket your business. 

Before setting up your account, you must ask yourself one question: Who is my target market? If your brand’s target audience falls anywhere between the age of 13 to 40, your brand should definitely be on TikTok. 

Much like other social media applications, TikTok provides you with the ability to follow other creators, like and comment on content, and share videos to various other platforms. However, there are also a lot of features that differentiate TikTok from other applications. These features include selecting music tracks and adding them directly to your videos, choosing special effects, filters, and in-video text, and searching and viewing millions of diverse users located all over the world at the touch of a button.

With all of that in mind, it’s clear that TikTok is a great platform to use for brands that are planning on curating fun, original, and sharable content that will capture the attention of their target audiences. So, how do you get started? Let’s dive in –

Getting Started with TikTok for Business

The first step in creating a TikTok business account (after downloading the app, of course), is choosing a profile name and ensuring you’ve selected a TikTok Pro account. Doing so will give you access to useful analytics, giving you insight into how your content is performing.

Once you’ve got your account set up, it’s time to start creating content! Before publishing your first video, there are a few things to keep in mind – your target audience, what you’re promoting, the goals you want your content to achieve, and how you can incorporate this new content into your current marketing mix. Once you have the answers to all of those questions squared away, we can move on and discuss how to actually get seen on TikTok.

Gaining Exposure on TikTok

You can use both organic and paid avenues to increase your exposure on TikTok. One of the most noteworthy organic ways to increase exposure within the app is to utilize hashtags. When users are looking for content they want to watch, hashtags are the go-to. You’ll want to do a bit of hashtag research before using hashtags on your videos. This will allow you to see which hashtags are trending and what’s working for similar businesses in your industry. Also, if your business is more location-specific, you can use local hashtags. 

Share Your Content Everywhere

Next up on the organic tips, share your content wherever you can! The possibilities are endless when it comes to creating your content within the platform, which in turn makes the content super-shareable. When I say share your content wherever you can, I genuinely mean it. This includes within your company newsletter, on your blog, and to every single social media platform that your business has. 

Be Yourself

Another important tip to note when sharing your business on TikTok: Be genuine and authentic. I cannot stress this enough. A lot of social media users don’t have access to fancy camera equipment, professional lighting, or production budgets. They create the content on their phones, in real time. It’s authentic to who they are. You must take this same approach and apply it to your business content. Show the world who your brand really is and allow your target audience to connect with you. In turn, this will build trust between your brand and your audience.

Paid Advertising on TikTok

Now on to the paid side of scaling your account. One of the largest ways to get your brand more exposure is through influencer marketing. Partnering up with a popular influencer within the platform is sure to skyrocket your brands reach, but it comes with a price. This monetary investment will vary based upon the influencer that you choose. Every person has a different rate depending upon their follower count, view ratio, etc.

While larger exposure is great, it is important to partner up with an influencer that truly aligns with your brand in terms of core values and someone who will connect well with your audience. This allows you to continue to be authentic and genuine. Building long-term influencer partnerships are a win-win for both brands and influencers alike. These collaborations over time are mutually beneficial in expanding reach to new audiences. However, it is important to be upfront and transparent with your audiences. Therefore, be sure to follow proper #sponsored content guidelines.

Stay Consistent & Monitor Posting Times

The last TikTok tip of our beginner’s guide is to stay consistent and monitor posting times. As previously mentioned, it is incredibly important to consider your audience when posting on TikTok, this is especially relevant in terms of posting times. Considering posting content when you know those within your audience segment are actually online.

As a general rule in the social media space, the best posting times tend to be during morning commuting hours, during lunchtime, after work, and on weekends. However, the “perfect time” to post truly depends on your personal audience. In fact, Influencer Marketing Hub analyzed 10,000 TikTok posts and engagement rates across the world and found the best times to post varied widely each day of the week.

It’s hard to say whether TikTok will still be around in five years, let alone next year. As we’ve seen with Vine and Google+, the social world can change in an instant. What we know for sure, though, is that it’s here now, and it’s incredibly important that your brand is using it.