TikTok is a relatively new social media platform and it has exploded in popularity in the last year.

At the end of April, TikTok had over two billion downloads worldwide. TikTok focuses on short, 60-second videos, and has become one of the best platforms to use if you want to target the Gen-Z demographic.

The app can be part of your digital marketing strategy, though it is a different interface than the other social media platforms. Usually, if video is in a marketing strategy, it is planned and polished in some way. The problem is that TikTok’s content requires a more casual outlook; the users respond better to authenticity. Instead of focusing on being professional in TikTok videos, you can show off the lighter, more fun side of your business.

These tips can help you harness the viral power of TikTok to boost your digital marketing strategy.

Hashtags

Hashtags always play an important role in digital marketing, so you will need to implement them into your TikTok strategy. Similar to how hashtags help organize everything on Instagram, TikTok videos need hashtags to help categorize them. However, you should not treat your TikTok hashtags similar to your Instagram tags; less is more. And using 30 hashtags with your video can take away some of the impact of the video.

Using hashtags on TikTok can help you extend your reach, increase your followers, and find your competition. Keep in mind that just because a hashtag is trending, does not always mean you should use it.

Follow the Trends

As part of your hashtag strategy, watch for new trending hashtags. If the tags can fit into your brand in some way, create videos related to those trending hashtags. Try to make the video unique, avoid copying what other videos are doing.

Things that are trending change quickly, so you will need to be ready to change your content to fit with whatever new hashtag starts trending quickly.

Influencers

Working with influencers is often a good social media marketing strategy, and TikTok has a large pool of influencers to choose from. Developing a good relationship with the right influencers can make a significant impact on your TikTok marketing, and it will help you reach the audience you are aiming for.

Posting

It is always important to post regularly on your social media, and TikTok will reward you for posting often. The more you post, the more followers you get, because it will be easier to find your account when someone is looking up hashtags relevant to your industry.

With your video descriptions, since you are going for an authentic “unpolished” video, make sure they are not worded like ads. In general, it is best to make your descriptions clearly state what your video is about. You can do some little teasers in your description, but make sure even those are clear.

Your video description also needs to be written with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. Use important keywords in the descriptions, but make sure they fit into the post and are not “stuffed” in there.

Get Cute

Since Gen Z is the main demographic on TikTok, cute or funny videos with children or animals are likely to go viral. Depending on what your business is, this might be tricky to accomplish, but it worth a try.

If you have an office pet or mascot, include it in your videos. You could do a daily life adventures type video series of the pet, showing what it is doing each day, if it gets to do anything fun, and more. It is cute and can help build your brand awareness on the platform.

Video Effects

TikTok has some fun effects that you can add to your videos too, which will make them more interesting. You can replace the background in your video and add effects to your videos similar to the Snapchat image effects, like sparkles around the face, changing the color, and more. 

Engage

Engagement is always an important part of social media. Take the time to respond to comments and questions on your videos, and try to start a conversation with your audience. You should also take the time to make comments on other videos but make your comments interesting and meaningful; avoid comments like “nice video.”

TikTok Ads

You can create short video ads on TikTok. The platform offers three different kinds of ads.

Native Ads

These are a little more traditional. You can include links to landing pages and buttons to encourage viewers to “order now” or “learn more.” Remember to have fun with these ads; they are skippable, so if you make them interesting, you can keep those eyes on your ad.

Hashtag Challenge

TikTok offers an interesting and unique advertising option here; you can pay to have hashtags sponsored. In these sponsored hashtags, you can set up challenges for users to share videos using your hashtags.

This can help boost brand awareness, engagement, and sales. Encourage your users to talk about your product on other social media platforms and offline.

Branded Content

We all know that people are not always fond of ads, so they are likely to ignore them. Before you start using obviously promotional videos on TikTok, build up your credibility.

Instead of running an ad that clearly promotes your product, upload videos of people using your products. You can show videos of your products in action, how they impact people’s lives, and some of the benefits — this is a good place to share some of the more obscure aspects of your products that people may not notice right away without reading the literature that comes with the product.

Conclusion

It can take some time to become comfortable with the more casual formatting of TikTok, but Seattle Digital Marketing can help you with these ads. While TikTok videos need to have a more casual appearance than other marketing platforms, an agency can still help you strategize and plan out your TikTok videos. Contact Seattle Digital Marketing today to learn more!