Kseniya I. Content Marketing Expert

What should brands do on TikTok?

How to make viral videos and should you do it at all? Algorithms, promising directions for development and what a promotional strategy on the platform should include.

TikTok has one of the highest engagement rates of any social media app, which means brands that sign up for the app can grow a more engaged audience.

For example EA Games and L'Oreal, who caught the first wave of growth, have developed specialized hashtags and videos for the platform that have already gathered tens of billions of views. And these are just two of the many cases.

The main feature of the platform is the need to create a unique marketing strategy: you cannot reuse posts or videos from Telegram or Facebook. To promote a brand on TikTok, you need original content that has only one goal - to go viral.

TikTok algorithms and popular topics

TikTok tests users’ preferences by showing them videos of different topics. It simultaneously finds out the users’ tastes based on likes and "not interested" marks, as well as what audience will be reached by your content. The videos that get the most likes, shares and revisits are shown in the recommended ones for a long period of time. The most popular on the site are videos about sports, dancing, cooking, animals, creativity, humor, and beauty. Promising topics for development: storytelling, expert content and edutainment (education in the form of a game).

What kind of video can go viral?

Let's talk about the characteristics a viral video should have, and which techniques will help it "go viral".

The size of the video. You have a few seconds to grab the target audience's attention among the millions of other videos vying for users' attention. Try to hook users right away, such as with a vivid title, a question, an interesting detail, or even make a clickbait in the first 5-10 seconds of the video. Video size is 15 seconds if it's an entertainment content and up to 75 seconds for educational or expert content.

Trends. Trends are natural for any social media platform and TikTok is no exception. Keep an eye on the "Trends" tab in the app more often. If you see a popular hashtag or challange, use it as soon as possible before the trend bores your audience. This is usually the first 1-2 days. Trending videos gain large views because TikTok shows them in priority order. This is a great way to get the attention of an audience that wouldn't otherwise be interested in your product.

Creativity. TikTok is home to billions of videos and millions are added every day. If you want your work to stand out, it's important to think outside the box. Follow trends, but make sure you put your own spin on them. A brand has a unique identity and social content, and should always reflect that. Sometimes the riskiest ideas are the most successful, so don't limit your creativity, especially when it comes to TikTok videos.

What if there is no creativity at all? TikTok isn't just about memes and silly dances, some of the most popular videos are about sharing useful or informative content. Tips, how-to's, expert and even product content is gaining a lot of popularity. Your brand can create a video that quickly and easily teaches viewers how to do something, such as throwing pizza dough or any other action that is relevant to you. You can start by adapting your business' content plan from another site to TikTok. See what topics are resonating with your audience on other platforms and take videos on them.

Hashtags. Prepare a list of frequently used hashtags in your topics. By using them, you can get additional traffic to your videos.

Opportunities for the brands

In 2020 the platform launched TikTok for Business, bringing together all the advertising tools and solutions for brands and marketers to interact effectively with the platform's community. For major brands, it is possible to create and launch their own Challenges with special placement and the connection of famous bloggers.

For example, car brand KIA added its "Choose Kia" audio track to TikTok and its own effect (mask). Users are invited to record their own videos using them and win valuable prizes.

What a promotion strategy in TikTok should include

It's one thing to create great videos and quite another to know how to sell them. It's important to have a clear strategy.

So, these are the elements of a successful strategy:

Goals. You should have clear goals for marketing in TikTok, whether it's to attract leads, increase sales, grow your social media followers, or anything else. Having goals will help you focus and measure your success.

Regularity. Create a video upload schedule that helps you keep your audience and attract new subscribers. The recommended number of posts per month is about 30. The channel takes a long time to develop, so don't start if you don't plan to develop it seriously.

Resources. Like any other marketing channel, TikTok has serious potential to increase profits, improve brand reputation and grow awareness. Make sure you allocate enough resources to promote it.

Analytics. You can always find out if your TikTok strategy is right by checking stats on views, interactions, audience of video viewers, traffic sources and time spent watching your videos.

Definitely, TikTok is not for everyone. You need to understand what objectives and goals you're going there for. So before starting to promote your brand on TikTok, build a marketing strategy for this platform and outline your nearest plans according to the strategy.

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