Why Your Brand Needs To Be On TikTok: A Beginners Guide To Starting a TikTok
by Alexa Engelhart •
A Little Bit About TikTok: The Stats
TikTok is now the highest-grossing app in the world. Let’s put this in perspective:
Since November worldwide, Facebook has a total of 250,000 downloads, while TikTok has a total of 41.3 million downloads.
Today, TikTok now has a total of 2 billion downloads worldwide with 800 million active users. Every. Single. Day.
Even if you’re not on the TikTok train yet, you still have to admit these numbers are crazy. The average user opens the app 8 times and spends more than 52 minutes watching TikTok each day. In 2020 alone, the TikTok demographic expanded from encompassing only 18-24 year olds to a significantly larger audience of 18-44 year olds, and quickly rose to the number one spot for the most downloaded app of the year.
First Comes Awareness, Then Comes Leads
WHY your brand should be on Tiktok
It’s no secret that growth takes time, but what if we told you a secret to fast tracking your brand awareness? On TikTok, you can easily reach thousands of users by following a few simple steps. Here’s what you need to know to get your brand set up for success on TikTok.
Average Engagement Rates – The engagement rates on TikTok are exponentially higher than any other platform landing TikTok with a 10% average engagement rate compared to Instagram’s 1.22%.
What to Report on & Main KPIs – Reporting might look similar to Instagram but there are a few KPIs that may look a little different. The results of your content will give you the clearest idea of your profile’s success.
With TikTok, that means Video Views (total video views and individual video views) is the main KPI that should be monitored every single week and month.
The secondary KPIs to look at are: likes, comments, share, reach, and profile visits.
*Helpful Hint – To get the most accurate reporting, you must have at least 100 followers
to access the TikTok desktop analytics platform. This will give you insight on all of your key metrics and growth. The more you post the more followers you get!
Getting Started: Set Up Your Account and Optimize
- Create a Unique Branded Hashtag
What makes you different? What is your branded hashtag that you use across all social media platforms? Once you have that hashtag, add it to your profile bio! - Convert to a Business Profile
Converting your TikTok Business Profile gives you access to all the analytics you need to tailor your strategy, learn about your followers, and access to insights into leading KPIs we spoke about above. - Add Your Website To Your Bio
Although TikTok is a brand awareness play, having your website on your profile gives your users an opportunity to click out of TikTok to your website to learn more about your brand or products. - Connect Your Instagram
TikTok has an Instagram integration on business/creator profiles that let you link directly to your Instagram page. Adding this integration gives you credibility to showcase if you have a smaller following on TikTok that you are legit and invited them follow us across all platforms. - Upload a Profile Picture
We recommend using a similar profile picture to what’s used on your other social profiles when choosing one for TikTok. This gives the user an easy way to recognize your brand on digital platforms.
How to Get Your Brand’s TikTok noticed
Influencer Partnerships – Just as is the case on Instagram, Influencer Partnerships are the bread and butter when it comes to getting your brand out there to new users. A third party source of social proof gives the user the extra push to follow your brand.
Trending Hashtags – Incorporating trending hashtags into your captions is the easiest way to target a certain audience that is most likely to engage with your video / brand.
Conduct Outreach – Conducting outreach is crucial to start your community on TikTok. Although it looks a little different than what you may be used to, you can conduct outreach by going into trending hashtags and interacting, commenting, messaging, asking questions to different users that are engaging with similar videos. By doing this, you are getting your brand out there to have your videos show up in their algorithm and eventually give you that follow.
TikTok Creation for Beginners
When getting started, everyone needs a little guidance when it comes to DOs and DON’Ts, and that’s why we’re here to help.
Here are some TikTok Best Practices:
Create Lifestyle Videos – Create videos either in the app or on a high definition camera with professional edits.
Consistent Posting -We recommend posting every day or at least every other day!
Hook – Have an attention grabbing intro to hook the user within the first five seconds to get the maximum value out of the viewer.
Caption – Keep it short and concise. Be witty, be funny. Correlate your caption to intrigue your audience.
Song choice – Make sure the song goes with the video’s vibe. If you have a business profile, you will not be able to use copyright music and will have access to TikTok’s Royalty Free music database through the app before choosing a song.
Hashtags – Use these wisely but sparingly. Best practice: use only 3 – 4 hashtags TOTAL. One should be your unique brand; one should be trending.
TikTok is still on the rise and evolving every single day. As more and more brands start to pop onto the platform, we will begin to see which ones quickly rise to the top. We are here to help brands and creators find the ability to express themselves and have a more casual conversation with their community through mobile videos that everyone wants to swipe through.
Does your brand need help with TikTok? Contact us for a free nova appraisal and learn how to get started today.
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