How TikTok Grew Into Such a Powerful Tool for Brands

TikTok is a video sharing app where users create and share 15-second looping videos with different music and effects.  TikTok has risen in popularity in the last few years with over 1 billion downloads worldwide rivaling major apps like YouTube and Instagram. The app has mainly a young impressionable audience who prefers catchy videos. TikTok helps brands to reach their target audience through user engagement. Brands are gravitating to this app because of its long-term potential.

The TikTok Appeal for Commercial Entities
The rapid growth of TikTok since its introduction in 2016 as well as the social app's expected potential for mobile marketing, are two reasons why businesses are going all-in.
Marketers are driven to TikTok because it symbolizes a crucial social media trend for young consumers' creativity and collaboration. Users spend an average of 52 minutes per day using TikTok due to its fast-moving nature, which keeps them engaged for lengthy periods.
Celebrity endorsement helped the app to boost its virality along with the ease in content creation. With its simplified method of video creation and sharing users record whatever they want and post. The growth of TikTok is also because the app provides localized content. While being a global app, it often runs local contests and challenges and captures local trends using localized hashtags.

TikTok’s Popularity- Triggering a New Approach to Marketing and PR
Due to the increase in popularity of the app and the power to engage consumers, brands now realise how important TikTok can be for their PR and marketing strategies. To get the best from the app, brands should be mindful of a few things.
When using the app, brands should ensure the content created is relatable to ensure user engagement. When you make a post, it is shared with a small group of users then based on how well the content was received (number of likes, views, shares) it is then shared to a wider audience and so long as it is well received. Online users want a more personalized feel interacting with your brand to see that your brand is real.
It is also important for brands to not over think this whole process. Being authentic on social media is important and users receive the content more readily if it doesn’t seem too polished. Sometimes less is more. Take part in trends. By having fun with your posts makes a brand more relatable and personalized.
In addition, brands should establish a community following; having followers who not only like and share your posts on TikTok but who also become consumers. They then can give third-party endorsements increasing your reach to the wider public. Users can also become a part of your brand community by giving the audience a backstage view of company culture.
To capitalise on your TikTok success, brands should work with influencers to increase brand awareness. Creating promotional content on TikTok is like how it’s done on any other social media app, just within 15-seconds.Who you decide to partner with is very important to be strategic about your selection. Don’t just look at follower count, but who’s more likely to have a niche in your target area.
Also, using hashtags can set you apart from the competition. Instead of showing content based on who you follow, TikTok shows you content you’ve liked. Hashtags help the app to suggest your posts to users.
Advertisements on TikTok are also a good way to promote your brand. TikTok now has an advertising platform-TikTok for Business. This allows for “Brand Takeovers”. Brand takeovers happen when the app allows brands to take over TikTok for a day to increase brand awareness by creating video links to webpages

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