Takeover Your Industry Using The Newest Social Media Platform - TikTok

Owning a small eCommerce business can be intimidating in a world that is oversaturated with social media retail giants. You may look at some of your industry leaders and think to yourself ‘They already have everyone following and trusting them. I have no chance of catching up.’ or you may be the optimist, patiently waiting, doing your research to find the next big thing so you can jump on the train early and reap in the fame before your competitors do. Regardless of what side of the fence you are on, TikTok is probably knocking on your door! The hottest new social media platform is finally here! Well… actually, it has been since 2014, but your curiosity for it has probably heightened recently because of its major increase in marketing. The good thing is, you are still very early to the party! With over 1.5 billion downloads, TikTok has recently surpassed Instagram’s popularity and there is no sign of growth slowing down. Major companies are just now beginning to take notice of the opportunity and are working quickly in order to figure out how they are going to use the growing platform to capture their market.

Now here is something you don’t hear every day, your advantage in this scenario is that you are a small business! So, you are naturally much more agile and adaptable. Unlike your industry leaders, you don’t have to wait for a large hierarchy of approval over every detail. Read the rest of this article to learn more about TikTok, how you can use it for marketing, and GET MOVING!

What Is TikTok?

If you were around for the rise and sadly short-lived fame of the hilarious short video platform Vine, you are already fairly familiar with what TikTok content is like. If you are unfamiliar with either, TikTok is short video platform where users can create 15-second video clips to share with their friends or they can link multiple 15-second videos to reach up to a minute of footage, you can even upload videos that are a little longer than a minute if the video was filmed outside of the TikTok app. Just like all other major platforms, TikTok offers a range of filters, live streaming, and other basic tools to help you up your content game.

Unlike other platforms though, TikTok has become so popular because of how raw the content is. Since this is a video platform, people can’t hide behind photoshopping nor can they afford to have luxurious surroundings in every video. This can be used as an advantage for small businesses. The audience that lives on TikTok is not looking for anything fancy or flashy, nor are they looking for in-their-face ads,  they are looking for real! There is not all this pressure to be perfect on this platform. Keep that in mind when creating your content for TikTok.

How can I grow my business on TikTok?

To keep the rest of this simple, here is a bulleted list. Pick and choose what can apply to your business:

• #HashtagChallenges: An easy avenue for growth on TikTok since so many people are new to the platform and are trying to figure out what content is relevant on TikTok. Spoon feed the audience something they can do, that will at the same time benefit you. Just make sure it is in some way relevant to your business, engaging, and fun. Check out these successful TikTok brand #HashtagChallenges for inspo: Ralph Lauren’s #WinningRL, BMW’s #THE1Challenge, and Guess’  #InMyDenim.

 
• If influencer marketing is something that has been out-of-budget in the past, we suggest making negotiations with micro-influencers on this platform because most are not extremely well established (but soon will be) nor are they fully aware of the rising stardom of TikTok. Use this as innocent leverage.
• Paid advertising – Although, we recommend to hold back on this one for now, until all the kinks of this young platform have been worked through.
• Need ideas to inspire your content?
• If you are a clothing retailer: Try-on hauls! Short clips of all your merchandise and accessories.
• Go live when anything exciting is happening in your office. Remember, you don’t need to get fancy.
• If your products require assembly: Simple content that explains step by step how.
• Employee takeovers: Show people the behind the scenes or a day in the life at your office.
• Share general behind the scenes footage of things like photoshoots, meetings, sneak peeks, etc.
• Whatever you decide to do, remember that people on TikTok are there for a good laugh so have fun with it, experiment, and find your own groove in this growing platform. You are sure to find success if you just start taking action now.

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