TikTok 101 – All You Need To Know

TikTok is a social media short video creation and sharing app. It started out in China in 2017, and today there are two apps; one for the Chinese market, and an international version. Users can post videos of up to ten minutes in length on the platform, although most users tend towards shorter videos of 15 seconds or less.

Since its launch, TikTok has seen significant growth. There are now over 500 million users across the world, and it was the most downloaded app in the first quarter of 2018. During this time there were over a million downloads of the app for both Android and iOS devices.

We’re going to talk about the history of TikTok, along with how to use the app so that you can engage with users and grow your brand and business.

What is TikTok?

The company behind TikTok, ByteDance in Beijing, China, purchased the app Musical.ly for one billion dollars. It kept a number of the features on this popular app, along with adding a few new ones. Users of Musical.ly mainly created lip-sync videos to popular songs. This tradition continued with TikTok originally, but it boasted a lot more features besides this.

The user base for TikTok is young. Over 60% of the current users are under the age of 30. They like to be entertained, and they also like to entertain users themselves. As a result most of the videos are funny and make good use of the special effect features within the app.

Not every user creates their own content. Some are happy just to view and enjoy the content created by other users. TikTok uses artificial intelligence technology to recommend new videos to users on their “For You” page. The technology looks at the videos a user has watched in the past and makes recommendations for other similar content.

The “Discover” feature allows users to search for specific videos. One of the most popular things about TikTok are hashtag challenges. Here, the users are asked to participate in a certain challenge and create their own videos around this challenge.

The host of the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon, initiated a TikTok challenge called the #tumbleweed challenge. The idea behind this was for TikTok users to find a public place and when they heard a piece of music, had to drop to the floor and roll around like tumbleweed.

This challenge was incredibly popular and resulted in more than 8,000 videos created in response to the challenge. This challenge also created the greatest engagement levels the platform had ever seen at the time at around 10 million people. Seeing this level of engagement, companies and organizations are now using the challenges for branding and awareness.

Other Aspects of TikTok

TikTok has a very popular feature called the Duet. Here, users can create a video that appears next to a currently existing video. This was popular with Musical.ly, and now even more popular on TikTok. The most popular of these Duet videos are those that show a user’s reaction to another video. Some are providing harmony for people to sing the lead voice for popular songs.

There are some great special effects with TikTok. Slowing down or speeding up videos is a popular feature. There are also filters and other digital effects that can really make videos stand out. A majority of the most popular videos on TikTok all use special effects.

Using TikTok for Marketing Success

If you want to market your products to a younger audience, there is no doubt that TikTok can provide you with a great opportunity to do so. With more than 500 million worldwide users, it has surprised many with its fast growth and young audience base. To get the best out of TikTok you need to know what you are doing, how you’re doing it, and what effect you want that to have.

Understanding the TikTok Platform

Just jumping on to the TikTok platform not knowing what you are doing will turn users away so you need to study it carefully before you get involved. Take a look at the most popular videos on TikTok and work out why users are attracted to them.

You also need to know how to interact properly with TikTok users. If you get this wrong, then you will drive users away in droves. It is essential that you realize that TikTok is mostly about fun and entertainment. There are a ton of mini music videos that do well as well as humorous videos too. People post memes and tend to only post things that are either funny or a response to something funny.

There is no place on TikTok for pushy sales messages. In the United States, the majority of users are between 16 and 24 years old. There’s not many 16 year olds interested in a sales pitch. You have to be creative in the way that you connect with TikTok users. 

Creating Fun Content

You have to be prepared to create fun content for TikTok. Once you get used to doing this, you can create really inexpensive videos that have a major impact on the platform. TikTok users are not expecting top-quality, Hollywood videos. Almost all TikTok creators use their phones to create content, so recording your own content on a smartphone will be totally acceptable.

It really is best to keep it simple. Try not to be too clever or witty. Create light- hearted videos that showcase your products used in an entertaining way. TikTok users will really appreciate this and believe that you are authentic if you’re being authentic. Through this, you’ll create brand recognition on TikTok, and users will begin to trust you.

However, there’s no point creating a lot of TikTok videos if nobody is watching them. Here’s some of the best ideas for new TikTok videos, as well as how you can increase your followers and interactions.

The Lip-Sync Video

With the previous Musical.ly app, lip-sync videos were very popular. They still dominate much of the TikTok landscape. Take a famous music clip and record yourself “lip-syncing” to it. Others will want to see this video and will let you know how well you performed with it. Oftentimes, these videos repurpose the audio into something funny. One example would be using the music from Brittney Spear’s “Toxic” and referencing the wrong way to do something, then showing your product as the right way to do it.

Reaction Duet Videos

The Duet video is another very popular type on TikTok. All you need to do here is to open the video that you want to create a Duet reaction to and then find the “Share” icon and tap on it. From here you can tap on “Duet” and record or upload another video so that both videos appear side by side.

Pet Videos

Some of the most popular videos on YouTube feature cute cats and dogs doing funny things. Well guess what? These videos are very popular on TikTok as well so always have your camera ready so that you can record your pet doing crazy stuff. If your product can be used with pets? Even better!

Trending Videos Concepts

If there is something trendy going on at the moment, such as a festival or a specific video trend like the #tumbleweed challenge, you can record your own videos about it. If you attended the festival then you can shoot footage while you are there and upload this to TikTok.

Many brands and organizations have had a lot of success with hashtag challenges. You can even create your own branded hashtag and use this to promote a challenge where users participate by creating their own videos using your hashtag.

A good example of this was the hashtag challenge created by Guess Jeans. Their challenge was to ask TikTok users to create videos of themselves wearing their Guess clothes “their way.” Their hashtag was #inmydenim, and it gave their followers ways to interact with each other and Guess Jeans.

Skills Videos

Do you have a particular skill that you want to show off to the world? Maybe you are great at baking or shuffle dancing. Whatever it is you can create a short clip and get it on TikTok. Remember that you can speed up or slow down a video for better effect.

Travel Videos

If you are going to be traveling, or if your product involves traveling, then be sure to take some interesting videos when you are at your destination using your product. Make these as fun as you can. Many TikTok users enjoy watching travel videos to odd and interesting places, so talk about where you’re going and what you’re doing.

Use Influencers Popular on TikTok

There are already influencers on TikTok that have huge followings in the millions. Leveraging the audiences of specific influencers is a great way to extend your brand reach on the platform. Not all influencers will be willing to work with you, though. Your brand and style needs to fit with theirs or they will turn you down.

Influencers need to be comfortable with your products. If they like them, they will be willing to showcase them to their audience. Do your homework here and use external tools to check out potential influencer bios before you commit to working with them.

There are a number of influencers on TikTok that you can connect with to help spread the word about your videos. Approach them and see what they say. Some will be willing to help you by sharing your videos with their following.

TikTok Ads

Back in January 2019 TikTok started experimenting with ads on their platform. This led to the launch of their managed service platform in April 2019. At the time of writing this article TikTok ads are not available in all countries.

As with other social media platforms there is a biddable ad environment available. You cannot self-serve TikTok ads at the moment, and everything has to go through a representative of the company. This will certainly change in the future.

All available ads on TikTok are of the short form video format. This makes perfect sense as TikTok is a platform that is full of short form videos so any ads will be seamless to users. There are three different models that you can follow with TikTok ads which are:

1. CPC (Cost Per Click)
2. CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions)
3. CPV (Cost Per View where a view is a minimum of 6 seconds)

The targeting features are a little basic right now. You can choose your audience on the basis of age, gender and location. The geo targeting allows you to target down to state level in the United States. In the future you can expect to see more targeting options such as interest and behavior.

There are four types of TikTok ads you can create:

1. Native Ads (in feed): With this type of ad you need to decide on the length of your video from 5 seconds to 15 seconds. You have to create a vertical format video because it is going to display in the “For You” page of your target audience. You can add a call to action such as downloading an app or visiting your website.
2. Hashtag Challenges: TikTok users really like to participate rather than taking a passive stance. So if you come up with the right hashtag challenge ad you can expect some very good levels of engagement. These ads run for 6 days and a TikTok representative will support you the entire time.
3. Brand Takeovers: With a brand takeover ad, your brand will appear full screen when a user opens the app. Not only can they be targeted and include a link to direct potential customers, but they’re instantly engaging and can’t be missed, so are great for brands seeking mass awareness. However advertisers should expect to pay premium prices for this spot. Especially since TikTok will only show one Brand Takeover Ad to a user each day.
4. Branded Lenses: This feature allows users to add interactive visual effects from advertisers to their own videos. The clickable “AR brand effect” allows viewers to tap the effect on videos to see more of the brand’s advertisement. 

By using these ads strategically you will be able to reach out to many TikTok users. There are targeting options for you to narrow down your audience; these will improve over time.

Go Rock it on TickTok!

Now that you know everything about interacting and engaging on TikTok, what are you waiting for? This social media app is the latest and greatest way to engage with younger audiences, and if you can gain TikTok fame, you’ll gain a whole lot of brand recognition. Grab a phone and get recording!