TikTok has become more than an overnight sensation. Slowly, but surely, it has climbed its way to the hall of fame with the social channel big boys.
The social channel has the potential to reach millions due to how dynamic its infrastructure is, and requires a content strategy that is quite unlike the others. Typically, an Instagram content approach would often be to post an image along with some planned stories, or taking a step further, a short video, or even a reel. TikTok however, is built around driving engagement from the creators’ community as a whole. Simply put, it is a form of “word-of-mouth” framework that encourages everyone to be a part of it. Therefore, there are functions such as video stitching, responding to the video etc. All these are part of community engagement and tools to enable a viral video. This is also fundamentally why TikTok campaigns are so successful in driving engagement.
Here are some tips as to how you may get started on TikTok for your brand.
Beginning with the first “W” - WHAT do you want to do? TikTok offers a myriad of possibilities on how your campaign can take its form. Understanding What your brand wants to do will assist to narrow the genre of TikTok influencers you would want to work with.
One popular and easy campaign type is TikTok Hashtag Challenges. They are an easy way to reach out to a variety of users. All it requires is for the user to use a dedicated hashtag to recreate the original content. The hashtag enables the brand to track its engagement effectiveness and allows the platform to use it for their Discover page as a form of organic promotion.
Another engagement pleaser is Dance Challenges. An oldie but once a goldie, Ariana Grande’s “positions” was once a trending routine on TikTok, and this assisted her catchy song to receive the necessary traction. The song remains the most played song on her Spotify page, with 1,024,717,660 plays to date. Brands can leverage current trending tunes and integrate their messaging into it. With good timing on the bandwagon, the campaign could become viral overnight.
Learn about the Different Types of Content Creators
After addressing “What” you want to do, the next step is to find your message bearers, aka. TikTok Influencers. The industry is booming with overnight influencers of different kinds, and while variety is a good thing, it can be intimidating. Similar to how you would conduct your influencer research for Instagram, TikTok is just the same. Except that the platform has made it easier by allowing content creators to link up their Instagram accounts. This enables Brands to seamlessly hop onto Instagram to evaluate how aligned the influencer is. Things like reach, engagement rate, and type of audience will also be part of this evaluation.
Marketing agencies these days also offer a value-added service to assist Brands in pairing the best-suited influencer for their campaign.
After discussing and negotiating with your selected pool of influencers, it is time to roll out your strategy. It is advisable that weekly monitoring is conducted to understand if anything and/or the campaign mechanism requires tweaking. This is also the part where the brand may wish to amp up their engagement together with the influencer to keep the campaign’s momentum going.
Through weekly monitoring may the Brand be able to witness the success of the campaign strategy. At this stage, key performance metrics such as Reach, Engagement and Impressions will signal how the audience is receiving the message.
When Reach is high, but engagement is Low, it signals that perhaps, the participation mechanism is too much work for the audience. This is probably the time to either edit it or enhance its participation value. It could be as simple as a reward system being introduced to entice, or collaborating with other influencers for your campaign to optimize its engagement value. There are numerous optimization possibilities, and the easiest (and also the best way) is to discuss this with your appointed Influencer Marketing Agency to massage the campaign.
TikTok is here to stay. With its hold on today’s audience, almost all Brands are re-prioritizing their marketing dollars to the booming social platform. Its dynamism far surpasses Instagram, and when used hand-in-hand, Brands are able to optimize their marketing results. Just look at McDonald’s recent success with adding their local flavour into a current TikTok accent trend!
Find out more on TikTok Marketing Strategies in Singapore
Learn more about the Cost of enlisting an Influencer for your Campaign