With about 30 million monthly users in the US, TikTok provides businesses the opportunity to reach new audiences with engaging video content. However, with the emergence of a new app, comes a major learning curve. No worries — we’ve got you covered! Springwood Marketing has created a beginner’s guide to using TikTok for business:
Identify your niche
TikTok isn’t for everyone, but can be profitable for a variety of industries. Before creating an account, identify your niche. Can your products and services be highlighted in brief, engaging videos? Are your competitors using TikTok? Asking yourself these questions is a great starting point for determining whether TikTok is a suitable platform for your business.
Many marketers will tell you that you should use as many social media platforms as you can, but it is important to only invest your time and efforts into platforms that will allow you to effectively reach your target audience. If your audience is not on TikTok, using the platform could be a waste of your time.
Create an account and analyze trending content
A platform like TikTok can be intimidating for beginners, especially those with very little experience in content creation and video editing. The first step to mastering TikTok is to create an account and follow some of the platform’s top creators, including creators within your niche.
Observe and analyze these creators’ content. How frequently are they posting? What are they posting? What challenges are they participating in? What are their highest performing videos? What hashtags are they using? What sounds and effects are they using? Use these results as inspiration when curating content. Creating trending content will increase your engagement, and once you gain a following, you can create original content.
Get comfortable with editing and effects
When it comes to TikTok’s video editing software and effects, there is a major learning curve. Once you are familiar with what’s trending on TikTok, you can begin playing around with TikTok’s video editor. We recommend recording a few practice videos and trying several effects.
You’ll notice there are a variety of options for customizing your videos. TikTok’s editing software allows you to add music and sounds, text, audio and visual effects, and more. Once you are comfortable with the editing software, you can begin posting content.
Create and post content consistently
Now that you are well-versed in what’s trending on TikTok and how to create content, you can begin posting! The trick to remaining on everyone’s FYPs (“For You Pages”) is to maintain a consistent posting schedule. Dedicate time each week to recording and editing new content, save these videos in your drafts, and post these throughout the week.
Create content or challenges that others can engage with
If you’re looking to increase your engagement on TikTok, create content that your audience can engage with! Enable your comment section, so your audience can share their thoughts and opinions on your content. The more your audience engages, the more the TikTok algorithm pushes your content to others.
TikTok also allows users to “stitch” or “duet” videos. “Stitching” a video allows you to share a snippet of the original video in a video of your own and share your thoughts. “Dueting” a video allows you to split-screen react to someone else’s video. These features are forms of user-generated content and can be beneficial for the original creator. When one creator “stitches” or “duets” another creator’s video, the original video can reach new audiences. Therefore, it is important to create content that is engaging and can be shared.
At Springwood Marketing, our professionals specialize in content creation. Our professionals will curate content that engages your target audience and creates interest in your products and services. Interested in learning more about what TikTok can do for your business? Contact us today!