The Rise of TikTok
Whether it’s the latest dance craze, challenge, trend or recipe, we’ve all seen the viral TikTok videos going around. Even if you’re not an avid user of the platform, it’s hard to ignore the impact on social media and current marketing trends TikTok has made. So what exactly is TikTok? How did it get started? And why should your business be using it? We’re sharing answers to these questions and more!
What is TikTok and How did it Get Started?
TikTok is a social media app that allows users to create short-form videos. The app has taken the social media world by storm since its inception in 2017 and quickly become one of the most used social media platforms.
The app started as a widely popular app named Music.ly, a short-form video-sharing app that allowed content creators to create entertaining videos using music and dialogue voice-over. In 2018, the Chinese company, ByteDance, merged with Music.ly, and all of its users were automatically moved over to the new app, TikTok. The newly formed TikTok app differentiated itself from Music.ly by having a much broader scope of content and focusing on more than just music and lip-syncing.
What Makes TikTok so Popular?
With over 1 billion active monthly users, TikTok has risen to position itself as a leading player in social media applications. How has the company continued to grow its audience and take the user experience to the next level? What differentiates it from other social media apps and makes it so popular?
TikTok’s ‘For You Page’ algorithm constantly serves users new content based on what they’ve watched and engaged with, curating a user’s experience to exactly what they’re looking for.
With an abundance of sound effects, songs, filters, and interaction tool, creative opportunities are plentiful for users.
Ease of use is a large reason for the app's success. With simplified video creating and sharing, users record and share anything and everything in their day-to-day life and can post it instantly.
While it started as a short-form video platform, TikTok now supports longer videos, up to 10 minutes in length, unlike some of its competitors.
With TikTok’s autoplay feature, videos automatically start playing when the app is opened and moves to the next video on your feed once the current one has finished, providing an even more seamless experience and ease of use for viewers.
Why Your Business Should be Using TikTok
Businesses can no longer ignore the marketing opportunity TikTok provides as it positions itself as a leading, dominant tool for creativity, marketing, branded challenges, and advertising.
As one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world and an advertising haven for businesses, it’s a great opportunity to showcase your products and services in video format.
Since the app is not yet completely flooded with sponsored posts and paid ads like some of its competitors, businesses have a great opportunity to take advantage of the developing platform not being completely oversaturated.
This provides businesses a significant amount of uncharted territory to explore and (BONUS!) at a lower rate! As a result, brands can avoid ad fatigue and garner greater impact if they engage on the platform while the tide is still rising.
According to Forbes, businesses that see the most success on the app are ones that post fun, light-hearted, and visually pleasing videos and that follow popular trends. If used correctly, TikTok is the platform with the most opportunity for a business to go viral. Content created by and highlighting your team typically garners more engagement. Try showcasing your team by being authentic, showing the audience your faces, using a little bit of comedy, and being relatable.
5 Tips for TikTok Success
Add captions (and closed captioning) to your videos. Videos with captions saw an increase in impressions by 55.7%. Adding closed captioning ensures your video is accessible to all users at any time.
Keep it short and sweet. Videos between 21 and 34 seconds long are the highest-performing on the app.
Use trending audio. By using trending songs, the TikTok algorithm is more likely to serve your videos to others. According to TikTok’s What’s Next Report 2022, 93% of top-performing videos use audio.
Use hashtags. Like Instagram, TikTok users utilize clicking on hashtags to find similar content that they’re interested in.
Post at optimal times. According to SocialPilot, the best days to post on TikTok are Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with 6 am to 10 am and 7 pm and 11 pm being the optimal time.
TikTok by the Numbers
Below are some hard-hitting stats published by Hootsuite showcasing just how impactful TikTok is on the social media and marketing industry.
TikTok is the top app for consumer spending, spending $2.3 billion in 2021 - a 77% increase from 2020.
TikTok ads reach nearly 18% of all internet users 18+ (that’s 884.9 million people)
73% of TikTok users say they feel a deeper connection to a brand they interact with on the platform.
With over 656 million downloads, TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2021.
TikTok has been downloaded more than 3 billion times.
As of January 2022, TikTok is the 6th most-used social media platform in the world.
With 37.3 million users compared to Instagram’s 33 million, TikTok is now more popular than Instagram among Gen Z users in the US
An average TikTok user spends an average of 10.85 minutes on the app, making it the most engaged social media app - by far!
Get Started Creating
Now that you know exactly what TikTok is, how it started and why it’s crucial to your business’ success, reach out to The Sampson House for help creating one for your business! Who knows, you might even become the next viral TikTok star!
