Chances are that you have heard of the social media app Tik Tok. Equally likely, if you are reading this blog, you don’t know what the craze is all about. You may have asked someone younger for an explanation. Or, you may have tried it and given up. Whatever the answer, Tik Tok is the hottest social media platform today. And, you should know about it.
What Is It
TikTok calls itself the “destination for short-form mobile videos.” TikTok is an app for making and sharing quick videos, usually 15 seconds. Hashtags play a large role on the app. Not in the sense of what is in the news or for anything trending anywhere but on the app. Instead, hashtags are only for “challenges” or jokes or repeating formats or other kinds of Tik Tok activity.
The app was designed to make it super easy to create videos. There is a tremendous library of music, sounds or short clips from TV shows. Users can use filters and a multitude of editing effects. This allows for videos showing the user lip-synching or dancing to a song. And while Tik Tok is famous for its more frivolous content users also discuss complex subjects such as campaigns for change, and educate their audiences in subjects ranging from healthcare to finance.
How Tik Tok Works
The platform algorithm builds a profile of what you like to watch. Based on your profile it sends personalized recommendations. This makes sure the user is always updated on the latest trending videos. At the same time, the app serves localized content. A user in Germany won’t be bombarded with American videos unless that is all she watches. The app runs local contests and trends through its’ hashtags, keeping content relevant.
Unlike other social media, success on the platform is not contingent on the number of “friends” or “contacts” the user has. Instead, it is purely based on the popularity of the video. If people like it and share it, the views will follow. First time users can get tens of thousands of views. Experienced users might create a video and get only a handful. This is not to say that celebrities and well-known Influencers won’t have much more consistent success. Their names alone will drive viewers. But, there is a certain democratization of the platform that does not exist on other social media.
Rapid Growth
Tik Tok started as the music app Musical.ly in 2014, a platform on which users created and shared short lip-sync videos. In 2016, Chinese tech company Bytedance launched a version of Musical.ly in China. The following year it was released overseas as Tik Tok. Bytedance then bought Musical.ly and it became the platform we see today.
Why do you need to know about Tik Tok? Because TikTok has been named the fastest growing social media platform of all time, making the shortlist as one of the most downloaded apps globally for the past two years. In Q1 of 2020 it had over 315 million installs. It currently has the ninth most subscribers of all social media at over 800 million. That puts it ahead of LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and Snapchat to name a few. Another way to view it is that it took Instagram six years to get as many active users as Tik Tok did in three years. It took Facebook almost four years. The phenomenon is real.
And the engagement is real too. Over ninety percent of active users are on the app daily. Its fast-paced nature keeps audiences’ attention. On average, viewers spend 52 minutes a day on the app. That is why Tik Tok has alerts to let the viewer know when they have spent more than a pre-determined amount of time on the app. Parents can also limit viewing time.
Tik Tok Advertising
Global brands have recognized the importance of TikTok as an important way to engage with young audiences, encourage user-generated content, and partner with relevant influencers. TikTok has seen both paid and influencer campaigns on its app from Nike, Skittles, Fenty Beauty, Pepsi, Calvin Klein, Sony, and FIFA, to name a few.
There are a number of ways to advertise on Tik Tok. And they lend themselves to a lot of marketer creativity. In-Video Feed ads are short form videos on the users News Feed under For You. They look like native posts, so they blend right in. This is the only kind of ad accessible on the self-service platform.
Another popular ad form is the Branded Hashtag Challenge. In a branded hashtag challenge, a brand asks TikTok users to videotape themselves performing something, like a choreographed dance, and then post it with a specific hashtag. These ads are placed at or near the top of the Discovery page, and a click on the hashtag takes viewers to all of the videos from the same challenge.
Brand takeover ads appear when TikTok users open the app. They completely take over the screen for 3-5 seconds before turning into an In-Feed Video ad. Top View ads are similar, but they can last up to 60 seconds but do not appear with the start of the app.
Your New Social Media
The current growth and engagement of Tik Tok is amazing. Beating records set by Facebook and Instagram is no small feat. It still has a way to go to catch Instagram and YouTube. Like other social media Tik Tok will have to find new ways to keep its audience enchanted. The current platform is not the most marketer friendly. Increasing revenue streams will be important. But for brands looking to reach a young audience in new and creative ways, Tik Tok must be considered. And, if you are looking to kill some time and have fun, download the app. Tik Tok will become your new social media.
