TikTok for business - should I care?

The Symetric Team

Social Media Marketing

TikTok has taken the world by storm, and its popularity is growing every day. But how can brands leverage this social network to improve their business? In this post I'll give you everything you need to know about TikTok for business and how it could help grow your brand.

It's huge.

You may not be aware of it, but TikTok has over 1 billion users. It is currently the most used video app in the world.

TikTok is a social media platform and video app owned by ByteDance, which also owns other popular apps such as Musical.ly and Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok).

It's young. They skew towards people ages 16-24.

The first thing to understand about TikTok is its popularity with young people. In fact, it's the most popular platform among teens. According to a survey from Piper Jaffray, 45% of 13-year-olds in America use TikTok daily and they spend an average of nearly two hours per day on the app.

That said, while TikTok may be popular with younger audiences, they don't just appeal to teens: according to another study by eMarketer, the majority (61%) of users are between the ages of 18-24! These numbers are important because as a brand or business owner you're going to want to know who your audience is so that you can tailor your content accordingly.

Average users spend 52 minutes a day on the app.

The average user spends 52 minutes a day on TikTok.

This is more time than they spend on any other social media platform, including Instagram and Twitter. The average user spends about 5-6 times as much time on TikTok than on Facebook, YouTube or Snapchat.

It's sticky. Users are 4x more likely to repeatedly open the app 10+ times a day than any other social media platform.

It's sticky.

Users are 4x more likely to repeatedly open the app 10+ times a day than any other social media platform. This means that if you're posting on TikTok, you have a very high chance of getting repeat views from your audience! The average user opens TikTok 11 times per day, so it's definitely worth remembering this number when planning out your strategy for posting on the app.

Users are active creators - they make 3x as many videos as Instagrammers and 6x as many as Twitter users.

The average TikTok user creates three times as many videos as Instagrammers, and six times as many videos as Twitter users.

Why is this important? Well, it means that an active creator is a highly engaged audience member who cares about what you have to offer. They are the perfect people for your brand to connect with in order to increase visibility and build your business.

However, if you’re looking at TikTok simply because you think it will drive traffic back to your site or product page, I urge you not to jump on board just yet! You see…

64% of users discover new products on the app, but only 13% of them use it to directly engage with brands.

One of the biggest takeaways is that TikTok users are more likely to discover new products on the app than on any other social media platform. In fact, 64% of them say they've discovered a product or service on TikTok and then decided to buy it in real life.

That's great news for brands who are looking for an easier way to connect with their audience. But it's also an indication that many people might be using TikTok as a passive, rather than active platform—which means there may still be room for brands to offer more relevant content and drive users to engage directly with their business.

TikTok is a compelling platform for discovering products, but brands need to work harder to engage consumers there.

TikTok, the short-video app owned by Chinese company Bytedance, has become one of the most popular social media platforms in the world over the last year. In May 2019 it had more than 350 million daily active users (Facebook and Instagram combined have 1.62 billion), and it’s growing at an astonishing rate: TikTok added between 30 million and 40 million new users per month in Q2 2019—and those were just on its app; another 80 million people watched videos on TikTok through Facebook during that same time period.

In addition to being wildly popular with teens (it's even overtaken Musical.ly as their preferred social network), TikTok also offers something that traditional media outlets don't: discovery of new products from both companies you know about and smaller ones you don't—thereby making it appealing for businesses looking for ways of reaching consumers directly with content about their brand or product line without having to pay big bucks for advertising opportunities on large platforms like Facebook or Instagram.*

Conclusion

We know, it can be hard to keep up with the latest and greatest in digital media. But if you’re looking for a way to connect with younger audiences, TikTok may be your best bet. It’s fast-paced, entertaining and—at least so far—not overrun by advertising like Facebook or Twitter. If you want an audience that is engaged with their smartphones 24/7 (and all the data they generate), this might be worth exploring as a marketing channel.