Since the advent of MySpace, social media has blossomed into a veritable arsenal of marketing tools.  From YouTube to Facebook, there are more ways for companies or influencers to interact with clients or followers than ever before.  What confounds the usage of social media further is that different platforms have risen and fallen over the years, either falling out of their primes or becoming completely defunct, like Vine.  Facebook and Twitter have enjoyed years of dominance, but their lifetimes have betrayed their novelty.  People want more, especially members of Generation Z, who grew up in front of digital tablets in a way that even Millennials didn’t.  Facebook, Twitter,  and YouTube continue to be valuable assets for any marketing firm or team, though this doesn’t mean that marketing teams can’t tap into newer social media of equal value.  In particular, with its Vine-like 15-second videos, TikTok offers much in the way of boosting the appeal of a product, company, or influencer.

What Does TikTok Offer in the Way of Visibility?

Like other social media outlets, TikTok offers users a homepage where they can see content from accounts to which they’re subscribed.  However, it also features a “For You Page,” a series of videos that an algorithm recommends in reference to a user’s history and interests.  What is FYP, exactly?  By advertising entertaining content, the FYP keeps users engaged.  In fact, users spend almost 24 hours a month watching TikToks.  Those 24 hours may include your 15-second clip, as long as you observe the following.

A lot of a video’s success can depend on the hashtags in its caption.  If a user searches for a specific hashtag in the “Discover” section, then any video whose caption contains the hashtag will appear among the search results.  Generally, placing a plethora of relevant hashtags in a caption makes one’s video easier for users either to search for or to stumble upon while browsing an FYP.

The hashtags you should use depend on both the current day’s trending topics and the content of your video.  If you’ve made a video for a new IPA, and you want men from the ages 21 through 28 to drink it, appropriate hashtags may range from #IPA or #Hops to #HappyBirthday or #Finally21.  Whichever hashtags you think are best, they should each demonstrate relevance to your brand, your audience, or your product.  A quick search among your Discover section’s hashtags may shed light on what hashtags might give your video the most visibility.

What Else Should My Caption Have?

A hundred and fifty characters isn’t very many, and hashtags will take up enough space themselves.  Simple ways to make a caption catchier without transcending 150 characters are asking questions, using the on-screen text capability to provide real-time explanations of a video’s content, or making jokes.

When Should I Post?

You ought to post your content when your audience is most active.  Different audiences will require different times, but a general breakdown of user activity across all age groups and demographics suggests that large influxes of activity occur each morning and each night, except for Tuesday, which is exclusively busy in the early-to-late morning.  Uncovering when your target demographics are most active isn’t so easily informed by those demographics.  If you have at least 100 followers, you can obtain a free TikTok Pro account with which to determine your audience’s most active hours.  If you lack the requisite followers, you can at least stick to the general times during which most users from all demographics are active.

How Long Should My Video Be?

TikToks may be as long as three minutes, but especially for budding influencers, 15-second videos will probably pull the most weight.  Having users watch your whole video from start to finish will make it exceptionally likely to appear in the odd FYP.  You don’t have to make 15-second videos exclusively, but you ought to realize that three-minute videos are inherently more likely to become boring to most users, and every successful influencer is always sure to propagate shorter videos among any longer ones.  While keeping a video short is important, this doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t invest in a video’s quality.  Among other examples of clever editing, transitions and filters can provide your videos with a more professional appearance.

Other ways to strengthen your video include establishing your niche in the interest of more effective hashtagging: What kind of TikToker are you?  A fitness one; a cooking one?  You can also tie your niche to general trends by noting overlapping hashtags.  As a last resort, you can use TikTok paid advertising to boost your presence on FYPs.  

Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics, you can get started on your productive TikTok account and start to make some videos.

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See below updated stats about:

• TikTok has acquired more than 1.7 billion monthly active users globally.
• USA takes the lead with 150 million active TikTok users.
• As of 2023, TikTok has approximately 834.3 million users around the world.
• Around 53.4% of the users on TikTok were female. 46.6% were male.

Source: : https://viralyft.com/blog/tiktok-statistics

From Esme Powell – Content Specialist