Beyond Entertainment: Using TikTok as a Marketing Platform

TikTok is one of the most popular apps today. It presents the users with an odd mix of micro-videos, lip syncs, and music. It may be confusing to understand for newcomers who have never used apps like this. However, the platform’s target audience is gradually growing, going beyond just Generation Z, striving for Tik Tok money, likes, and fame. Recent studies demonstrated that more than 38% of the app’s US users are over 30. Therefore, the platform tends to become a suitable channel for brands to market themselves. So, before it becomes too late, buy tiktok followers from a legit seller now and boost your online presence to the tee!

Using TikTok For Marketing

Promoting business with TikTok is not about sales but rather promoting your brand’s recognition and demonstrating its “personality.” In this context, a suitable concept for the very first videos in the brands’ profiles is to tell about themselves and introduce their products. It should primarily be about establishing trust between the brand and the potential customers. Therefore, the more personal the video feels, the better. It could be about the team, the values, or the ways in which business aims to help people. In any case, the content should be sincere.

In addition, brands can always promote themselves on the platform through cooperation with influencers. At TikTok, this category of users has a significant impact. Their opinions are important to followers; therefore, if influencers promote a particular business, the chances that their audience will be interested in its increase. In this context, branded hashtag challenges can be helpful for companies both as a tool for identifying creators suitable for collaboration and as a means of promoting their brands. These challenges are sponsored by companies so that influencers can create content on a specific topic that relates to their business. Given TikTok’s huge target audience and the support, it provides to content creators, working with influencers seems to be a highly effective method of business promotion.

At the same time, it is important for brands not to lose with the amount of rewards offered. For companies, it is best to use a TikTok calculator to determine the sums of money that best match the profiles selected to promote the products.

How Brands Use TikTok

One of the first brands to resort to TikTok for promotion was the NBA. With more than five million followers, it started sharing game highlights and player cameos. Another athletic league to follow its example was the NFL, which gathered over 1.2 million followers on its account, with the numbers still growing.

As for the non-athletic brands, Chipotle and McDonald’s were some of the platform’s early adopters. Besides, media conglomerates, such as NBC and the Washington Post, were using the app to upload previews of their upcoming content pieces, as well as behind-the-scenes videos providing insights on their work and their reporters’ personalities.

How to Advertise Your Products on TikTok

In 2019, TikTok started to roll ads to some of the platform’s viewers. This strategy proved itself to be successful. In the fourth quarter of the year, the platform’s revenue increased 300% in comparison to the same period of the previous year. The ads demonstrated in the form of pre-rolls skippable within a few seconds were similar to those used by YouTube. Currently, there are three types of TikTok advertisements:

  • Brand Takeover Ads (short videos launched when the user opens the application and leading to a TikTok account or a web page when clicked)
  • In-Feed Video Ads (full-screen advertising videos showing up between the pieces of user-generated content)
  • Branded Hashtag Challenges (a collaboration between content creators and brands, in which the former promote specific business-related hashtags through challenges due to the sponsorship of the latter)

How to Make Money on TikTok

At the moment, TikTok does not provide its users with a direct way to earn money on their content. The platform allows them to integrate links to other sites, such as YouTube or Instagram, which creates significant opportunities for cross-marketing. Also, concluding brand deals for promotion is always an option for creators who can be noticed by businesses.

The profits that influencers can receive from such deals depend on the number of followers, likes, and some other metrics that can be determined using TikTok Money Calculator. However, TikTok does not yet have such a developed monetization system as YouTube and similar platforms. At the same time, given the trends of its development, it is likely that such a system will emerge in the near future. Such a scenario will make TikTok even more popular, giving its users the opportunity to monetize their content effectively.

Is TikTok Safe?

Undoubtedly, the promotion of brands and products on controversial platforms that can pose a danger to users is irresponsible and ineffective. Therefore, business owners often wonder if TikTok is safe. To this question, we can answer that TikTok is no less and no more dangerous to use than any other social media app. The only problem in this regard is posed by the fact that a significant portion of this app’s users are kids, meaning that they should visit the platform with adult supervision. Initially, parents should set the parameters of a child’s account as private since the profiles are public by default. It is necessary to make comments, reactions, duets, and other aspects available to “Friends” only. Besides, these features can be turned off completely. Meanwhile, when an adult person uses TikTok, he or she should just adhere to general security measures similar to those inherent in any other social network.

Another potential problem that worries TikTok users and their parents is the availability of unacceptable content on the platform. In this regard, the app owners are deeply committed to creating the safest environment for young users. Moderators are concerned about the absence of unacceptable content. They take decisive action against behavior that may lead to abuse or exploitation of children.

As a demonstration of their commitment to young users’ safety, in February 2020, TikTok introduced the so-called “Family Safety Mode,” which allows parents to monitor their children’s activity in the program and set limits on the time spent in it. Therefore, it can be said that the program is relatively secure and, in particular respects, even less dangerous than some other social media platforms.

Bottom Line

The business potential of TikTok is almost inexhaustible. With its broad audience, phenomenal popularity, and handy ancillary tools such as the TikTok Calculator money invested by companies in promoting their products on this platform will not be wasted. The sooner brands understand this, the better it will be for both them and the creators, who will get even more opportunities to monetize their content.