TikTok has taken the social media world by storm, becoming one of the most popular platforms for sharing short-form videos. With its massive user base and viral content potential, TikTok offers a unique opportunity for companies to engage with their target audience in a creative and entertaining way. The platform shows no sign of slowing down either - since 2020 alone, the number of users have nearly doubled, with a forecasted total of 955.3 million users worldwide by 2025.
Source: Statistica
In 2022, we at Hurree saw the opportunity to reach a whole new crop of users with TikTok. Since then, we’ve seen some great success with our channel, growing our following to almost 3000, over 500k likes and well over 4 million views across our videos. What we’ve been most pleased with is the engagement across our videos, especially the ones that focus on our product and life at Hurree. It really has driven brand awareness and engagement for us in the millions.
So, if you're considering starting a TikTok channel for your company, there is certainly a massive opportunity to get your business in front of hundreds of millions of users. In this blog, we’ll give you some proven tips to make a successful debut and maximise your brand's presence on the platform.
The TikTok Algorithm
Every TikTok user wants their video to go viral, and it's every marketer's dream to know the exact formula. Sometimes it’s the videos you spend the least time on that do the best, but the overall success of a video comes down to a few different factors that are determined by the TikTok algorithm. While the algorithm is a closely guarded secret, and one that is ever changing, it generally operates based on the following:
- User interaction: The algorithm takes into account user interactions, such as the videos they like, share, comment on, and how long they watch particular videos. It analyses the user's preferences and behaviour patterns to curate a personalised content feed.
- Video details: The algorithm considers various aspects of a video, including captions, hashtags, sounds, and effects. It evaluates the relevance and engagement of the video's content to determine its potential reach.
- Virality and engagement: TikTok's algorithm emphasises the potential for a video to go viral based on its initial engagement. If a video receives high engagement shortly after being posted (e.g., likes, comments, shares), the algorithm may push it to a wider audience by featuring it on more users' "For You" pages.
- Similarity and diversity: The algorithm aims to strike a balance between showing users content similar to what they have engaged with before and introducing them to diverse content. It seeks to avoid excessive repetition and create a varied user experience.
- Trending and popular content: The algorithm identifies and promotes videos that align with popular trends, challenges, or topics that are gaining traction on the platform. It considers the velocity of engagement and the overall popularity of specific content themes.
- User preferences: Over time, the algorithm refines its recommendations based on a user's ongoing interactions, learning from their preferences and adjusting the content feed accordingly. The more a user engages with content on TikTok, the better the algorithm becomes at predicting and delivering personalised recommendations.
So now you have a rough idea how the TikTok algorithm works, let's take a look at some top tips to consider when starting your channel.
Top tips for starting your TikTok channel
1. Set clear goals
Define your objectives for being on TikTok. Is it to increase brand awareness? Drive traffic to your website? Generate leads? Conversion? Having clear goals will guide your content strategy and measurement of success. For example, as a tech start-up, our primary goal on TikTok was to establish our brand presence in the B2B SaaS arena, so we set ourselves a target of 1000 followers. This was achieved using trends to highlight what life is like at Hurree and by poking fun at corporate life in a tongue-in-cheek way that a large section of the workforce finds relatable. that has helped us grow our follower base to nearly 3000.
2. Do your research
Make sure you research whether or not your target audience are actually TikTok users. Not every social platform is a fit for every target audience, so make sure you establish this first before investing a lot of resources into the channel. Create your own personal account first and have a browse to get some insights before setting up your company account.
If you decide that TikTok is a good fit, it's crucial to understand your target audience and their preferences. Research the demographics that dominate the platform and align them with your brand's target market. This understanding will help you tailor your content to resonate with the right audience and increase the chances of your videos being discovered and shared.
You can also take some time to research what other businesses are doing, especially your competitors. It can serve as a valuable insight into what types of content work best and give you inspiration for your own content.
Recommended reading: 9 Brands that will inspire your TikTok strategy
3. Define your brand identity
Define your brand's personality, values, and tone of voice to create content that aligns with your overall brand image and is consistent with your other marketing channels. This consistency will help you build brand recognition and loyalty among TikTok users. Don’t forget however that TikTok is designed to be fun, so you can afford to be a little bit more laid back than your other marketing channels.
4. Create engaging and relevant content
TikTok thrives on creativity and originality. Develop content that is not only entertaining but also relevant to your audience and industry. Experiment with different video formats, trends and editing techniques to keep your content fresh and engaging. Leverage trending sounds to convey your message, and incorporate storytelling techniques to capture attention and deliver your brand message effectively.
Source: Social Insider
You can try a wide variety of types of content like how-to videos, behind the scenes, a day in the life of, life hacks, and educational content that provides value to your target audience. You won’t succeed on TikTok by being too ‘salesy’ and corporate, so the key is to try different styles and varieties to keep your content fresh and entertaining. From our own experience on TikTok, we’ve found that creating relatable content around the general concept of corporate life seems to work best for us, so we try and use trending sounds to reflect this.
5. Embrace TikTok trends
TikTok is known for its viral trends and challenges. Keep an eye on popular trends and adapt them to your brand's context to stay relevant to the TikTok community. It’s important to make sure that the trends align with your brand values and objectives before jumping on the bandwagon. Just because it’s popular and trending doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for your brand. We’ve found the most success with trends that allow us to showcase our brand identity and perhaps poke fun at office life.
6. Leverage influencer collaborations
Like most social media platforms, collaborating with influencers can significantly amplify your brand's reach and engagement on TikTok. Identify influencers who share similar values to your brand and who you think will resonate with your target audience. Partnering with influencers allows you to tap into their established fan base and leverage their expertise to create compelling and authentic content that promotes your brand. Influencers don’t work for free and can be quite costly, but if the influencer has a large enough follower base who could benefit from your product or service, the collab could end up paying for itself.
Source: Statistica
7. Optimise your hashtags
Hashtags are crucial on TikTok for discovery and categorisation. Research popular and relevant hashtags in your industry and incorporate them strategically into your video captions. Aim to use a mix of niche and more popular hashtags. The more niche a hashtag is, the less it will be searched for and the less content you will see under it. This isn’t always a bad thing though because there will be less competition. Using too many hashtags can also look spammy so keep this in mind too.
8. Visual appeal
Pay attention to the visual quality of your videos. Use good lighting, clear audio, and consider utilising TikTok's built-in editing features to enhance your content. That being said, you don’t need to invest in expensive equipment or videographers. TikTok is authentic, with the majority of videos being filmed ad-hoc on smartphones. We try not to over-complicate our videos so we just use an iPhone, a tripod and any willing volunteers in the office! And don’t forget to take your videos vertically. Additionally, consider incorporating audio editing tools to improve the quality of your videos further, ensuring clear and crisp sound that enhances the overall viewer experience.
9. Engage with your audience
Building a strong connection with your TikTok audience is key to building brand loyalty. Respond to comments on your videos, engage in conversations, and show genuine interest in what your followers have to say. Following brands and creators whose content you love and engaging with can also be really helpful in our experience. By actively engaging with your audience, you'll create a community around your brand and foster a sense of belonging.
10. Experiment with video lengths
TikTok format allows for videos as short as 5 seconds, 60 seconds or even as long as 10 minutes. Try a variety of lengths and see if any seem to be working better than others. Many successful viral videos are quite short as people now have a much shorter attention span than they did previously - it’s now less than a goldfish!
Source: Ambitions
11. Promote your TikTok channel
Don't limit your TikTok presence to the platform itself. Promote your TikTok channel on other social media platforms, your website, and email newsletters. Cross-promotion will help you attract existing followers from other channels and build a dedicated TikTok following. You can also reuse the content you create for TikTok across your other social channels.
12. Stay consistent
Consistency is key to building a successful TikTok presence. Commit to a regular posting schedule to maintain visibility and engagement. The more regular your posting becomes, the more likely you will be to spot trends such as the best day or time to post. We look to post at least once every day during the week, but might post more depending on the circumstances.
13. Analyse and adapt
Regularly analyse your TikTok analytics to gain insights into what content resonates the most with your audience. Pay attention to video views, engagement rates, and follower growth. A Hurree dashboard is a great way to do this as you can create highly visual ways to see trends, engagement and overall performance. Use this data to refine your content strategy and make informed decisions about the type of content that performs best for your brand.
Our early strategy was to post a little bit of everything and see what worked. To do this, we looked at the stats on our best performing videos, noting any commonalities in the types of content, sounds, hashtags that did well for us, then tried to replicate any successes going forward. This may change as the trends evolve, so that’s why we are constantly analysing our TikTok performance, to maximise it wherever possible.
While TikTok may not be the best strategy for every business, it presents unique opportunities for those looking to engage with a wide audience, showcase their brand creativity, and build a strong online presence. By leveraging the platform's features and keeping up with the latest trends, businesses can harness the benefits of TikTok to enhance their marketing strategies and drive business growth.
Analysing the data from your channel is an essential part of implementing a successful TikTok strategy. Did you know that you can try Hurree for free, no credit card required? Get started now.
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