Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had the pleasure of delivering a couple of TikTok based webinars for the CMA. Now you lucky readers get to see everything I said, without all the “Umm”s and “Err”s.
Oh and just for fun, for both of those webinars I was wearing a smart(ish) jumper/t shirt on top, and pyjamas on the bottom. I’m currently praying no one that tuned in is also reading this and that, in their eyes, I’m still a remotely serious businessman.
TikTok. The reason you’re here. Where do I begin?
It’s fun, it’s ridiculous, it’s full of opportunists, it’ll capitalise on your natural intrigue and desire to procrastinate. It’ll both ruin and make your day.
But what can we actually gain from the byte-sized video sharing platform that kinda looks like Vine, but also we’re assured every day that it’s wildly different, other than translucent fame?
To fully harness the value of the app, we need to know what to do, and what not to do. Let’s take it back to basics.
Things To Avoid
1). Doing it because “I think I have to”
Marketing 101. My name’s Professor Harry, welcome to my class. You know this already but I’m going to tell you again because there are people at the back that just aren’t listening. If you don’t know why you’re doing it, don’t do it.
Just like every other social platform, we need a reason to be there… a purpose. Without it, we’ll get lost in the depths of cute hedgehog videos and people exploiting their elderly relatives.
Authenticity is key in any form of social activity for a brand, but more so with TikTok I believe. That’s because it revolves around people. There’s far less fake and far more real. People that aren’t actors trying to act. People that aren’t dancers trying to dance.
That’s the nucleus. It’s fun and fast and, whilst you can sky-rocket overnight, you can also be one of the millions filling the void.
Consider who your audience are. You probably already know the answer. Hopefully you answered this when you made Twitter or Instagram. Are they on TikTok? What are they watching? How will you reach them? Find a purpose, and your audience will find you.
2). Large followings, little influence
Onto my next class, Influencer Marketing 101. This is an issue across all social platforms when it comes to the cloudy realm that can be influencer marketing.
However, the issue is more prevalent on TikTok because of the fact that you can become an overnight sensation due to incredibly generous algorithms and huge levels of content consumption.
Followers do NOT = influence. Haven’t we heard enough horror stories to learn this yet?
When looking at an influencer to partner with consider the following:
What is their content?
When watching it, do you feel like it creates a relationship between you and them?
Is it crafted round a niche/demonstrate expertise in anything?
How long have they been creating?
Have they successfully transferred their audience to other social platforms?
That last one is really key. I’ve seen accounts with 1M+ on TikTok but only 5K on Instagram. Are they a popular TikTok creator? Or are they a popular creator? This is a great indication of influence because it proves their audience wanted to be more involved with them specifically.
3). Don’t expect results
Weird one, I know. Isn’t that why we do anything? Obviously, you’re going to get reach and engagements. Don’t get me wrong, I fully believe in the power of brand awareness. I sell campaigns that focus solely on it, sometimes. But tangible, business results. Forget about them for now.
Do you think these gigantic TikTok creators blew up because they focused on monetisation and selling things? Absolutely not. They created value amongst their audience first, and likely for a very long time.
Social media is a long game. A marathon not a sprint. TikTok is no different. Don’t think you can be salesy here, it won’t fly. Unless you have an aesthetically stunning product, or bizarre quirky contraption that demands attention, it’s very unlikely you’ll even be able to integrate the product into your content in an obvious way.
There aren’t even CTAs on TikTok organically. The best you’ll get is an Instagram/YouTube link and your email address slapped onto your profile.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom because….
Things To Do
1). Advertise.
… Paid advertising exists! We’re even beta ad partners. Shameless plug, I know, but life’s too short not to plug yourself on the CMA when you get the chance.
Paid advertising with competitive CPMs, specific targeting and actual Calls To Action. Crazy, right?
However, there are a few things to be wary of. Back to the ‘P’ word for this one. Purpose. Why are people on TikTok? Not to check out your e-commerce store that’s for sure. You need to cater to them. You can’t re-purpose your TV or Instagram Story ads – yes H&M, I’m looking at you.
So, radical idea. Why not involve creators given that they know what actually works in this bizarre, lip-syncing world?
You know who’s caning this right now? Sunny. They’ve done everything I tell people to do every single day. They’ve taken a creator, commissioned the content with the audience in mind, then chucked it into a paid ad and targeted it. There’s even a Call To Action to take you to purchase it from the Boots website.
Admittedly, they’ve not targeted it too well because I’m not too fussed about shaving my legs and I’ve seen it a few times this week already. But it’s a start!
2). Make Creator Relationships
This is something we did almost a year ago now and I can’t even begin to tell you how handy it’s been. Without a doubt, this has saved us weeks of communication and thousands in fees for one particular, bold client of ours Adrian Flux Insurance.
They let us higher a London skyline venue and essentially host a gigantic party for a load of teenagers. Total reach in the room was over 25 million at any one time. The majority of the attendees were TikTokers.
They didn’t present a huge amount of value to us then, but they do now. Some of them have even gone to present at the Brits, Nickelodeon etc. Their influence has grown exponentially, and we’re friends with them.
We took them seriously when no one else would. We gave them the influencer treatment they always dreamed about but never received because they took to TikTok instead of YouTube.
Now we’re getting mates rates and have direct lines of contact to them for all of our TikTok needs. What’s not to love about that?
3). Showcase Your People
The final point, yet we find ourselves at the start. I mentioned people when I mentioned purpose.
Even if you aren’t a business that sells people/service. Even if you are product based. A product seldom creates a relationship with an audience, but your people will. Champion them. You’d be surprised, even in smaller teams, how diverse the skillsets are and therefore how many challenges you could partake in.
Like I’ve said throughout this blog, create actual value for your audience, entertainment value, before trying to create value for yourselves with sales. It’ll take time, but it’ll pay off.
If you have any questions, fire them my way. I’m only an email away. Unless I’m on TikTok, in which case I’m on hour 9 of watching cats jump over 5 toilet rolls stacked on top of each other and I’ll get back to you sometime in the next few days – [email protected]
