How to Use TikTok for Business: A Marketer’s Guide

Author: Kaitlyn Partington Category: Marketing, Social Media & Digital Date: April 15, 2021

Thanks to its reputation as every teenager’s favorite social media platform, many businesses are hesitant to add TikTok to their upcoming marketing campaigns. For many, it feels almost absurd to use the words “TikTok” and “professional” in the same sentence – and we get it. But in reality, using TikTok for Business is a really smart move in the current marketing environment. The platform has created such a buzz that users of all ages and demographics are starting to join, and it has become much more than just a lip-syncing video app for youngsters.

Over the last two years or so, TikTok has grown in popularity among content creators and brand marketers because of its exponentially burgeoning audience. The app has been downloaded more than 2 billion times since it launched in 2016, with 100 million current active users in the United States alone. (Worldwide, there are 800 million active users across more than 150 countries!) So if you’re looking for a new place to grow your audience, increase engagement, and potentially reach millions of people – you may have just found it…in TikTok, of all places.

As for the app itself, TikTok is a video-based platform that allows you, as a business, to create punchy 15- and 60-second clips aimed at bringing awareness to your brand, driving traffic to your website, or achieving just about any other social media marketing KPI your company is striving to hit.

How are businesses using TikTok?

One of the great things about learning how to use TikTok for Business is that the platform, by nature, promotes an atmosphere of fun, unique, and creative content. And while we would never encourage a client to share low-quality content on any platform, originality tends to make a bigger splash within TikTok than quality.

As you embark on the journey of learning how to use TikTok for Business, make authenticity a priority (in other words, just be yourself, and don’t be afraid to show off the personality of your brand), and then let these four tips be your guide:

1. Get to know the platform. If you’re new to the app, or if you simply haven’t learned how to use TikTok for Business yet, then take some time to familiarize yourself with the platform, how it works, and what types of content other people are creating (and getting noticed for). On TikTok, knowing what you’re doing is key. There’s no quicker way to get shunned than to post something that makes it clear that you’re clueless.
2. Participate in, create, or sponsor a challenge. When someone starts a TikTok challenge, they’re asking other users to recreate a specific video – often a dance or other physical challenge – and then share it with their followers, accompanied by a designated hashtag. By using TikTok for Business, you can create your own challenge with your own branded hashtag, sponsor someone else’s challenge (perhaps one created by an individual who is popular among your followers), or even find an existing challenge that may be meaningful to your target audience, and participate in it. All three are great ways to drum up engagement with your audience and get your brand noticed.
3. Collaborate with influencers. While you may still be familiarizing yourself with all things TikTok, there are some people who understand the platform so well that they’ve made a business out of it. They know what it takes to create content that attracts large numbers of followers, and they get paid by brands to endorse their products. These people are known as influencers, and they make great vehicles for getting your brand noticed.
4. Advertise. As with all social media platforms, you’ve got to pay to (really) play on TikTok. Creating a TikTok account is completely free, but to make sure your content is being seen by the largest possible number of users, you’ll need to put some money behind your ads. The cost of using TikTok for Business’s advertising starts at $10 per CPM (cost per 1,000 views).

So, to recap: Can you use TikTok for business? Yes. And is TikTok good for small business, mid-size companies, and large corporations alike? Yes, yes, and yes. As outrageous as it may still sound right now, using TikTok for Business is actually well on its way to becoming just as commonplace as using Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn for the same purpose.

If you’re ready for your company to start enjoying the benefits of using TikTok for Business, give us a call. One of our social media marketing pros will be in touch to help you set up and start promoting your TikTok business account.