Integrating TikTok into Your Social Media Marketing

Adopting a new social network can be challenging. You not only need to learn about the platform’s functionality, but you also need to understand the nuances of what attracts users to it and how they engage on it. Plus, you need to translate that engagement into tangible results that help grow your business.

Adopting TikTok as a new place to market your company can prove especially daunting. The short video-focused social network, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is as popular as it is controversial. While some see TikTok as a security risk, many businesses and individuals are finding success promoting and selling on the platform.

Before you add TikTok to your regular social media marketing routine, here are some steps to take.

Step 1: Determine if TikTok is right for your brand and your target market.

While social media experts often say TikTok is best used to reach a younger audience, the truth is it appeals to a wide range of people in different age brackets and geographical locations. Once you confirm the audience you are trying to reach is on TikTok, you need to learn how people use TikTok, what content appeals to them, and what topics, hashtags, and video styles are trending.

TikTok videos – usually referred to simply as TikToks – cover a wide variety of topics, from travel and dining to fashion, makeup and DIY projects to books, movies, and entertainment, not to mention self-help and relationship advice, just to list a few. Trending content includes choreographed dances, off-the-wall challenges, and "Get Ready with Me" aka GRWM videos where a person does a skincare or makeup routine while discussing either the products they use or a completely unrelated topic.

Getting familiar with the TikTok style of videos is an important part of determining if you can reach your specific target market through the platform. Consider surveying your current customers, asking them if they are on TikTok. Then do your homework to make sure having a presence on TikTok is on brand for your company.

Spend time watching TikToks.

If you have not been using TikTok personally, set up a personal account to become familiar with the platform to help you make more informed decisions about how to leverage the platform. Browse the TikTok feed to get started. Conduct searches for topics related to your business and search for your competitors to see which ones are using TikTok and how they are using it.

TikTok, like other social networks, uses a proprietary algorithm to serve videos to you based on what you have searched for and viewed. Keep that in mind as you are assessing what type of content is on TikTok since the feed will eventually show you videos based on the algorithm.

To easily identify trending videos, visit the TikTok Business Creative Hub where you’ll find not only a current selection of what’s popular, but also tips on developing TikTok content.

Set up a business account on TikTok.

If you decide to integrate TikTok into your social media marketing mix, set up a business account and not a personal one in order to take advantage of additional features that can help you promote, sell, and measure the results of your activities on the platform.

A TikTok business account will provide you with features such as:

• Creative tools including an extensive music library
• Access to the Business Center and Ads Manager
• A TikTok shop to selling products online
• Advanced analytics

Other features for business accounts include engagement tools to help drive traffic to your website such as Action Buttons.

Plan out your TikTok content.

A way to ease into posting on TikTok is to examine the types of content you are already creating for other social media platforms. Chances are you will have to modify that content to work for TikTok. If you’re not making videos in the vertical 9:16 aspect ratio (1080 pixels x 1920 pixels), then you’ll need to redo them in the correct format. In some cases, you can post videos you’ve produced for Instagram to TikTok and vice versa. Using the correct dimensions is not the only criteria for TikTok videos.

The content and video style of your TikTok videos should be on brand but also match what is popular on the platform. Therefore, a better approach to TikTok is to start making videos for it from scratch, using the platform’s best practices, instead of repurposing what you have created for other platforms.

Get familiar with TikTok hashtags and add them strategically to your videos. For example, #FYP and #ForYouPage are two popular tags that people use hoping that it will help them get onto the For You Page, a feed of videos that are recommended to users. While this may or may not be true, adding them can’t hurt but make sure to also use ones that are relevant to your brand and the content you’re posting.

While it is tempting to adopt a new social network because it is popular, always make the final decision based on sound business criteria to ensure your efforts are in line with your brand and goals. Be prepared for a potentially steep learning curve when it comes to using TikTok or find someone within your company - or an outside consultant – to handle it.