TikTok is, without a doubt, the star of the moment. It’s the social media everyone’s talking about, and this obsession is understandable if you look at the huge growth the app has experienced in the past months. Just in the first trimester of 2020, TikTok was downloaded 315 million times! This is the highest download...
TikTok is, without a doubt, the star of the moment. It’s the social media everyone’s talking about, and this obsession is understandable if you look at the huge growth the app has experienced in the past months. Just in the first trimester of 2020, TikTok was downloaded 315 million times! This is the highest download count by trimester ever registered by any enterprise.
Indeed, TikTok is now one of the top trends in influencer marketing for 2021 and well beyond!
However, TikTok also represents an unknown territory, a new environment with its own particular challenges and threats. As a brand, it’s in your best interest to learn as much as you can about this new actor and understand the new environment it represents. Only then will you be able to employ it for your own influencer marketing strategy.
In this article we’re going to share some insights with you!
Getting to know TikTok
Getting to know TikTok doesn’t mean you have to become a tiktoker!
Being attentive to the latest trends, observing the challenges that become viral on the app and being up to date with the latest novelties is more than enough.
Once you’ve fully understood the inner workings of TikTok and the kind of content that prospers there, it will be time to devise a strategy for your own product, service or brand .
TikTok is ruled by challenges and trends that influencers adopt and make their own. What does this mean? It means that what works best on TikTok are formats. One video format becomes viral and many tiktokers want to imitate it. Viewers don’t care that they’ve seen the same video-type a few times already: they enjoy the format and want to see it presented in different ways.
It’s a very attractive format for consumers that appreciate one or two video formats and can amuse themselves watching their favorite influencer’s rendition of it. This is imitation and adaption game is why the videos are perceived as being very spontaneous and authentic!
The content on TikTok is very divided by sectors. Any and every industry can find formats and viral challenges that will suit their product or service.
Food trends on TikTok
Cooking videos are very popular on the app and have been one of the top trends of the year 2020. TikTokers love creating aesthetically pleasing videos where the main focus is the final presentation of a dish or dessert.
A food brand could collaborate with TikTok influencers by making these types of videos!
If your brand is specialised in cooking tools, it’s a nice way to present them to your target audience.
Short and easy recipes are also very popular on the app!
They’re an ideal way of connecting with your consumers by showing them different ways in which they can use your products.
For brands that carry gluten-free or vegan products, TikTok campaigns can be particularly efficient, as food tiktokers usually have very strong values: they’re specialised in vegan food, or their niche is creating gluten-free desserts…
Food brands can easily find their nook on TikTok, and it’s certain there’ll be a big community waiting for them, interested in their products!
Fashion trends on TikTok
On Instagram and YouTube, the trend is to show the clothes in a haul format: the influencer shows his latest purchases and explains them one by one. Occasionally, they may show short clips of themselves wearing the clothes, but not always.
On TikTok, the trend is very different! Fashion videos always follow a narrative lead through which the influencer can show off his or her outfits.
Moreover, while on other social apps the trend is to show off novelties, latest purchases and newly dropped collections, on TikTok what counts is the styling ability of each influencer. The “novelty” of the pieces by itself isn’t appealing enough.
The narrative leads to create looks are very different. One of the trends that became viral and even migrated to Instagram Reels consisted in creating outfits to go with the style of different world capitals (Paris, Berlin, London). There are fashion videos specially made for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day…
Fashion content creators can benefit from these formats to show off their wit and style. For fashion brands, it’s a new channel through which they can promote their products in an original and effective manner.
Music trends on TikTok
Music is the queen of TikTok. The different challenges and trends on the app always have a concrete music associated to them.
This means that just listening to the music of a video the user can already tell if it’s a humor sketch, a dance, lip syncing, etc.
The trend that made TikTok viral in the first place was precisely dancing, and shortly after, lip syncing. Nowadays, the platform boasts many formats and options, but music continues to be its central pilar.
Music is present in every single one of TikTok’s sectors. In fact, there are very few videos where you can actually hear the influencer’s voice.
A consequence from this trend is that most of the songs that become viral on TikTok also become viral on Spotify! This makes it the perfect social platform to promote artists and composers.
Find your TikTok influencers
Launching an influence campaign on TikTok involves the very same steps that any other influence campaign!
One of the essentials aspects of launching an influencer campaign is to properly choose your influencers. The public on TikTok is younger than on other platforms, even if this year the platform has managed to attract older users. Indeed, over 41% of TikTok’s users now have between 16 and 24 years, and this ageing trend shows every indication of continuing in 2021.
In order for your TikTok campaigns to prove effective, you must make sure that your target audience is precisely within its age gap.
If you’re hesitating to make the jump to TikTok, we have a very good method that can help ease you in: contact your current influencers (on Instagram or YouTube) and find out if any of them also have a community on TikTok!
You can start out by choosing your current influencers that already have a TikTok account and asking them to incorporate this channel to your current campaigns.
It’s a first step for you to have a first experience with the app and that will allow you to decide if your brand would indeed benefit from a dedicated campaign in it.
With TikTok, as well as with almost any other social media, the first step is simply trying!
The more campaigns you launch with diverse profiles, the more you’ll control the app and you’ll be able to decide what the most beneficial strategy for your brand is.
Social Commerce and TikTok: what you need to know
We couldn’t finish this article without a special mention to TikTok’s boutique!
in 2020, TikTok dove into the social shopping trend to offer its consumers an in-app store.
TikTok’s in-app stores allows brands to promote their products and services directly on the app. What’s more, they partnered with Shopify so that the purchases could be carried out directly within the app!
The complementary offer of an in-app boutique is the cherry on top for TikTok.
TikTok has become a marketing channel in its own right, where marketers can: improve their notoriety, boost their sales, connect with their consumers, create an ambassador pool, etc.
TikTok is, officially, Instagram and Snapchat’s biggest enemy. In 2021 the brand will continue on its current path, offering unique opportunities to brands influencer marketing strategies.