How to Utilize TikTok for Your Business: A Beginners Guide
In case you’ve been living under a rock…
TikTok has rapidly gained popularity as a powerful platform for connecting people and businesses with a diverse and engaged audience, all the way from Gen Z’ers to Boomers. With its short-form video format and creative editing tools, TikTok offers truly unique opportunities for brands to showcase their personality, products, services, and practically anything else (can anyone relate?) In this guide, we’ll share how businesses, specifically all you service providers out there, can effectively use TikTok to create standout content and market themselves to every generation.
Understanding TikTok's Appeal
Before diving into content creation, it's essential to understand why TikTok is so flippin’ popular:
Short or Long Engaging Videos: TikTok's 15 to 60-second videos are perfect for capturing attention. However, they recently allowed creators to make 10-minute videos… if you're feeling fancy or want to rant into the abyss.
Creative Tools: The platform offers a wide variety of editing tools, filters, and effects to enhance content.
We’re especially loving these trends:
Viral Potential: With the right content and strategy, businesses can quickly gain visibility and reach. Your videos have a higher chance of going viral! Hello brand visibility!
Setting Up Your TikTok Business Account For Success
To start using TikTok for your business, follow the following steps:
Download the TikTok App: Available on iOS and Android.
Create an Account: Use your business email, choose a username that reflects your brand, and add a fun bio!
Expert tip: Make sure to include key phrases from your brand messaging so your customers can easily find you!
Switch to a Business Account: This provides access to analytics so you can see how your posts are doing. But of course, if you work with us to create this account, we’ll help you with all of this AND provide quarterly reporting!
Creating Compelling Content
You may ask yourself…But HOW do I know if my followers will actually enjoy this content? Yes, we can help with that too. Here are a couple of tips for creating engaging TikTok content:
Showcase Your Brand Personality: TikTok is a platform where your authenticity shines. No two brands are the same, and no two competitors market the same. Create what feels in alignment with your people and your business and watch the followers and views pile up! We recommend showcasing the human side and personality of your business.
Use Trending Sounds and Hashtags: Engaging with trends can increase your visibility. Trends, you ask? This is where the “research” comes in. We like to spend a few hours in the TikTok feed getting ideas and consuming content (which is the addicting part!) Use trending sounds and hashtags relevant and on brand to your business.
Educational Content: We’ve found our followers LOVE educational content. After all, if you’re not learning, you’re just life’in. Think, what educational tips are we giving to our customers on the reg…? Offer tips, how-tos, or industry insights. This shows that you're a thought leader in the industry.
Analyzing Performance; We Didn’t Skip Stats.
Use TikTok's analytics tools to monitor your content's performance.
Track Key Metrics: Pay attention to metrics like views, likes, shares, and comments to understand what content resonates with your audience. You can see this right in your post.
When we analyze content metrics, we look for what content performed well, looking at engagements, impressions, and how/if this content drives traffic to your website. Want to know more about how this works? Contact us today!
Adjust Your Strategy Along the Way: We use the insights gained from analytics to refine your future content and strategies.
It’s important to note: When we say, “refine your future content and strategies,” we mean to make SLIGHT adjustments, not change the entire content strategy. This is important because marketing, no matter the short attention span, is for the long game. We believe in building marketing strategies that cater to your company’s future clients, which can mean, maintaining a strategy for two to three years–we’re in it for the long haul
Staying Updated with Trends
TikTok trends can change rapidly. Stay updated with the latest trends by regularly exploring the For You Page and following popular creators. A couple of people that I recommend following are @stanleybrand, @joshandmattdesign, @wisdm8, and @therealdrmiami. These are just a few popular creators that we love because not only do they share their brand, but they showcase who they are as people. They are informative, funny, and keep up with the trends!
TikTok offers businesses a unique platform to reach and engage with a broad audience. Your business can build a strong presence on this versatile platform by creating authentic and engaging content, interacting with your community, and accurately tracking your video’s performance. Remember, consistency and creativity are key to succeeding on TikTok. Start experimenting and see what works best for your brand, OR call us and start your mongrel marketing strategy with Spotted Dog today.
