TikTok for Business: What is TikTok Anyway?

If you already know about TikTok, you probably have a teenager somewhere in your life.

TikTok is the hottest addition to social media since Instagram. The numbers show that this platform is about to really take off as one of the world’s most popular social media apps.

What is TikTok anyway?

Formerly known as musical.ly, TikTok is a short-form video sharing platform that allows users to use songs, filters, lenses and augmented reality features. Imagine if Instagram, Vine and Twitter combined their powers so that they could become the Captain Planet of social media platforms; they would form TikTok. It’s a content creator’s dream, with its built-in cross-platform sharing capabilities for social networks including Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Pinterest.

"Ok, so this is for kids, right?" Wrong.

When Twitter decided to finally shut down Vine in 2017, it left a void in the market for the short-form video sharing apps that Gen Z loves: quick, usually funny and meme-worthy. In came TikTok and since, the platform has been steadily gaining the attention of young users and business owners. According to Investopedia, since musical.ly was purchased by their competitor ByteDance in November 2017 and rebranded as TikTok, the platform has expanded to more than 150 markets and is available in 39 languages. The app hit 1.5 billion downloads in February 2019 and just 1 year later, as of January 2020, they reached a whopping 2 billion downloads. It is growing at a rate comparable to the growth seen with Instagram.

"Ok...but, TikTok for my business?"  Yes!

Why would Tik Tok be interesting for your business? Two words: unchartered territory. TikTok's demographics are dominated by 18 - 34 year olds and brands are just beginning to take notice.  According to the 2019 Sprout Social Index, 89 percent of marketers added Facebook to their 2020 social media marketing plans, while only 4 percent added TikTok. This gap is a clear marketing opportunity that brands such as HP, the NBA and Guess are quickly responding to. The Washington Post, wanting to get in on the fun, went as far as hiring a TikTok expert to manage their account. Buzzfeed recruited teenagers to cover the U.S. election on TikTok.

Wondering if TikTok is the right platform for your audience? Curious about how businesses are using it for new marketing opportunities? Follow this series to learn more about TikTok's uses and trends then, download the app for yourself and check out Geneva Business News' new TikTok account.

@genevabusinessnews##disappearingact ##cheese ##whostolemycheese ##officehumor ##fridgehumor♬ Cheese - Tracy Newman

Further Reading:

Listen. Speak. Answer – understanding community management, by Stefania Capobianco

7 social media channels for small companies: 1 for each day of the week, by 

Sources:

Everything Brands Need to Know About TikTok in 2020, Hootsuite Blog

5 Reasons Businesses Need to Get on TikTok, Search Engine Journal

TikTok for Business: How You Can Use This New Social Network, Business News Daily

Wikipedia

What is TikTok, Investopedia

Sprout Social Index, Sprout Media (pdf)