TikTok started as a fun streaming app but soon grew into one of the largest Social Media Platforms, with over 1 billion users. You, too, can monetize your business with Tiktok by using it as part of your social media strategy.
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Interestingly, although 47.4% of its users are under 30, it still has a diverse audience that spends an estimated $110 million monthly on the platform. Therefore, as you can see, it’s an entertainment platform and a wonderful place to market your business.
TikTok Statistics
TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms in recent years, with over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. Most TikTok users are between the ages of 16-34, with 60% falling within the 16-24 age range. This demographic presents a unique opportunity for businesses to reach a younger audience and build Brand awareness.
To stay on top of TikTok trends for business, companies can use strategies such as identifying up-and-coming trends, looking for movements around hot topics, and using branded hashtag challenges. Some industries that have found particular success on TikTok include fashion, beauty, food, and sports. For example, brands like Chipotle, Elf Cosmetics, and the NBA have all seen significant engagement and growth on the platform.
Regarding statistics, consumer spending on TikTok has surpassed $2.5 billion globally, and TikTok buyers in the US increased by 72.3% in 2023. Despite these impressive numbers, only 18% of marketers currently use TikTok, leaving a significant opportunity for businesses to tap into this growing market. By staying up-to-date with the latest TikTok trends and creating engaging content, companies can leverage the platform to boost their brand awareness and reach a wider audience.
Benefits of TikTok
Your niche may not have a younger audience, but having a presence on their preferred channel leads to them potentially choosing your product when making buying decisions later. Additionally, more than 50% of TikTok users are over 30+, so why not tap into that market?
The advantages of TikTok are that you can use several ways to increase brand awareness, promote your product, and enlarge your audience by tapping into other markets and attracting new customers.
Right Ways to Use TikTok
Like other social media platforms, having a presence on TikTok is not enough. Here’s how you can use its creative tools and features to monetize your business:
1. Make content that’s unique and relevant
TikTok users consume video content, so ensure your content grabs their attention. To do this, you need to make it unique and relevant.
You want to make your content entertaining to match user needs without compromising your values or brand voice. Remember to show the human side of your business by including your staff and day-to-day activities in your video content.
A good thing about TikTok is that with a bit of research, you can never run short of ideas. Just add your twist to trends and challenges.
You don’t need to spend a fortune when making videos for TikTok. You can use your phone, good ideas, and the proper lighting. Also, avoid formal videos that appear unauthentic.
2. Use its plethora of creative aspects
Take your TikTok content to the next level by incorporating its creative effects and trending or catchy music. It’s easy to add sounds or edit videos while recording or after on the platform, even to older videos with TikTok’s camera.
Here are some of its most crucial video creations and editing features:
- Video length for content up to 10 minutes
- Switch between the front and back cameras of your phone
- Adjust video speed
- Apply filters, including modifying facial features and branded ones
- Make a timed recording
- Reply to comments on any videos, including your own
- Control the flash
- Add effects overlays, face transformations, background, voice, 3D effects, etc.
- Premade templates to create eye-catching content with your photos or videos
- Join videos together
3. Take advantage of its content publishing tools
If you want your content to get attention, then TikTok has many helpful publishing features.
Write a TikTok description: You have a 150-character limit, so make the description short, eloquent, and engaging. Your descriptions can also help audiences with hearing and sight impairments to understand video context.
Add hashtags: Hashtags can help your videos appear to the right people. Adapt trending hashtags and make them specific to attract the right audiences.
Tag collaborators: Tag brands, content creators, or influencers you work with by adding the “@” symbol to give credit to the creators of user-generated content you want to share.
Add links to your bio: By adding a link to your TikTok Business account, you can encourage users to go to your website to browse or sign up.
Decide on your video privacy: You can make your videos available to everyone or choose who sees them. You can also enable duet/stitch to allow others to use your videos to create response content pt create something unique.
4. Use TikTok’s built-in analytics to your advantage
Your audience’s usage behavior statistics make engaging your customers easier because you can use the metrics to monitor your content and boost it when necessary.
5. Always share UGC on TikTok
In some industries, user-generated content (UGC) provides an easy and inexpensive way to acquire and share high-performing content that users create for your brand. UGC delivers engaging videos for your feeds while offering recognition to existing customers and attracting potential ones. You can encourage UGC in several ways, including starting a challenge (these have the most promising viral potential), asking an influencer to start a trend, or creating a branded hashtag.
You do need the permission of the person who generated the content!
6. Creating and promoting a TikTok challenge
Challenges provide highly entertaining videos and have incredible viral potential. However, your challenge will depend on your goals, such as increasing brand awareness, driving sales, promoting an upcoming event, etc.
Smaller businesses often don’t have the money to promote a challenge, but you can run it as a competition or ask influencers to endorse it. You can also “ride the waves” of an existing challenge.
7. Do advertise on TikTok
You can grow your following on TikTok by using ads that blend seamlessly with the platform’s content.
In-feed ads of up to 60 seconds will show up when users scroll. Use full-screen videos, interactive cards, display cards, voting cards, or interactive card formats and link them to the pages you want your users to land on.
The more expensive brand takeovers ads show when users open the TikTok app. These 3-second photos or 3.5-second videos are more expensive because only one advertiser per category can run a brand takeover ad daily.
Topview ads are the more enhanced and expensive versions of brand takeover ads. They can run for 5-60 seconds, allowing your audience to engage with likes, comments, and shares.
8. Take advantage of TikTok influencer collaborations
Countless influencers have a presence on TikTok. Depending on your business, you can choose from those with millions of followers for more reach or nano-influencers with a smaller but loyal following. Influencers can reach out to people who follow and trust them to help attract new audiences to your brand.
Don’t waste your resources on an influencer until you determine your objectives and how they fit your brand. Then, let the influencer you decide on know what you want to realize with the campaign and give them some control over how they present it to look authentic and credible.
Always track these collaborations’ performance to ensure the campaign meets its objectives. If not, make the required changes.
Wrong Ways to Use TikTok
Here are some things you cannot afford to do when using TikTok to Monetize your business:
- Never ignore the platform’s culture and style that calls for authentic content that resonates with its community.
- Always create your content for TikTok. Don’t reuse other creative assets from other platforms. Once you use it on TikTok, it can drive performance elsewhere.
- Make your point early in your message; otherwise, you will lose the attention span of your audience on TikTok, who come there for entertainment.
- Avoid posting overly-polished and stiff content because your audience wants realistic and original videos. You don’t need a production crew to create your content; whip out your mobile and give it that authentic feel the platform’s users crave.
- Don’t always post promotional content because your TikTok audience perceives this as spamming. Instead, give your audiences the entertainment they seek as often as possible.
- You don’t need to follow a specific trend if it doesn’t fit your product. If you want to look cool, rather stick to your brand’s voice, values, and personality.
- Omitting to boost your content.
- Posting irrelevant content to your target audience and brand will retract the authenticity you want to create, getting a negative response.
- Not inspecting the engagement metrics and audience fit of influencers.
- Using a hard sales pitch deviates from the principles of TikTok’s audiences.
- Insisting on having a presence on TikTok without considering if it’s the best place to showcase your campaign.
Final Take
TikTok’s potential to monetize your business stems from its ability to increase brand awareness and engagement. Tailor your message according to its users, and you cannot go wrong!
FAQs
What kind of content should I post on TikTok to monetize my business?
You should post content tailored to the platform’s culture and style, authentic, and resonates with its community. Your content should be original and creative, and you don’t need a production crew to create it; whip out your mobile and give it that authentic feel the platform’s users crave.
How do I choose influencers for my brand?
When choosing an influencer to collaborate with, consider your objectives and how they fit your brand. Let the influencer know what you want to achieve with the campaign and provide them with some creative control so they can represent your brand in a credible, authentic way. Always track the performance of these collaborations to ensure they meet their objectives.
What should I not do when using TikTok to monetize my business?
Some things you should avoid when using TikTok to monetize your business include: ignoring the platform’s culture and style; reusing other creative assets from other platforms; posting overly-polished and stiff content; posting promotional content too often; insisting on having a presence on TikTok without considering if it’s the best place to showcase your campaign; omitting to boost your content; and using a hard sales pitch.
Should I follow trends when using TikTok?
You don’t have to follow a specific trend if it doesn’t fit your product. Instead, stay true to your brand’s voice, values, and personality.
What metric should I track to see if my campaigns are successful?
You should track the metrics that are most pertinent to your goals for the campaign. This could include impressions, views, engagement rate, website visits or sales. Tracking these metrics will help you understand how effectively your campaigns have met their objectives.
How often should I post on TikTok?
There is no hard and fast rule for how often you should post on TikTok as it will depend on your specific goals and budget. However, regular content posts every couple of days or so can be beneficial in building an audience and keeping them engaged.
What types of content should I be posting on TikTok?
The best type of content for your business will depend on the product or service you are trying to promote and the platform’s culture and user behavior. Generally speaking, it is best to post authentic, original content that resonates with TikTok’s community. Avoid reusing other creative assets from other platforms, and keep it fresh!
What kind of hashtag can I use to boost my brand awareness?
Your hashtags should be related to your brand’s message and should have an association with the content you are posting. Additionally, creating a unique hashtag specific to your campaign can help build engagement around your brand – make sure to promote it on other social media platforms. Additionally, researching top TikTok hashtags and using them in your content can increase visibility.
What else should I consider when using TikTok?
When creating content for your business, always be mindful of the platform’s culture and user behavior. Additionally, keeping up with your brand or industry trends is essential. This could include researching new features on the app or watching influencers’ videos for inspiration. Finally, make sure you respond promptly and positively to comments from followers – this will help build trust and loyalty with your audience!
Using Tik Tok to promote OnlyFans
When using TikTok to promote an OnlyFans account indirectly, it is essential to adhere to the platform’s rules and regulations. Keep in mind that explicit content is strictly prohibited on the app. You can use creative strategies such as posting funny and entertaining videos, using call-to-action messages asking viewers to visit your OnlyFans page for more content, or creating a hashtag related to your page that users can follow. Additionally, you should avoid apparent references to adult activities or explicit language to comply with the platform’s guidelines. Ultimately, leveraging other social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter might be more effective for promoting adult content than TikTok.
The post The Right (and Wrong) Way to Monetize Your Business with TikTok appeared first on StreetWise Journal.
