Tiktok is currently the #1 entertainment app on the Apple store, with over 9.8 million ratings.
With over 3 billion downloads, the app has become the first non-Facebook-owned app to reach this number! Having exploded onto phone screens around the world in 2016 the app has seen significant growth over the past 2 years.
With an addictive infinity scroll display, the app absorbs users’ attention for up to 13 hours a month. Given that most videos are 15 seconds long, that’s a lot of screen time amassed!
Popular brands like Netflix and children’s TV channel Nickelodeon are taking the app by storm, with a 30% engagement rate from their 11.3 million followers. This article from Hootsuite, a leading content scheduling platform, shows that TikTok has 700 million daily users.
High user interaction rates with, a global audience of millions, and it’s free to use! It’s a marketer’s paradise…isn’t it?
Well, sadly there is a catch. There are a few caveats to using the app to advertise or market your brand, actually.
Short-form video content isn’t for everyone.
Videos of 15 -30 seconds are most common on the app, however, a new 3 minute video feature was unveiled this month. Short content like this isn’t an effective way to reach every audience. If your target demographic is over 30, it isn’t likely many of them will have an account. TikTok mostly reaches people between 7-30 years of age.
It’s important to remember to meet your audience where they are. For an older target market, Facebook remains the dominant social platform. You can find our advice on how to reach your audience by making the most of online communities,
Trend cycles in user-generated content are short.
On TikTok, sounds or video styles become popular and users jump on the trend to join in. They quickly go viral and then disappear. The trend cycle is so short, creators who make a living from the app often have to use a separate app to alert them to emerging trends e.g. when a song has over 1,000+ uses.
Their focus is on staying relevant, which makes it hard to predict what users will respond well to joining new trends as they arise.
It is a demanding and time-intensive platform to stay on top of, and many businesses simply don’t have the time to invest.
For ideas on free or affordable advertising for your business, with minimum effort, click
TikTok Algorithm is unpredictable.
The algorithm is so unpredictable you have to be making content constantly, that is on-trend, to show up on people’s feeds. Unlike other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, there doesn’t seem to be any discernible theme or hack to the algorithm, and regardless, it seems to change week to week.
The app evolves with user interaction, showing a more tailored and increasingly relatable feed to every single user based on what they engage with. This means it often throws randomly categorised content onto screens. Your content will likely get lost, or show up in irrelevant circles to your brand’s target market.
Furthermore, the app only allows you to schedule one post at a time. The short nature of the trend cycle means that content scheduled even a week in advance wouldn’t perform well, anyway.
Couple this with the fact that it’s hard to hold people’s attention when they watch 4-10 videos a minute, and it turns out that it’s actually very difficult to use the platform for marketing.
We understand that running social media and staying on top of the industry updates can be overwhelming.
Let us help you take the reigns: our 1:1 training sessions can give you the confidence to take control of your socials.
Have a chat with us about how we can help you: 01904 863511 or drop us a line at info@pickandmixms.co.uk