How Brands are using TikTok

As most of America has been quarantined by COVID-19, we’ve entered a period where boredom is at its peak and content is helping the sanity of the many. TikTok has been on the social media scene for quite some time, but only now is it really shining in the light of sheer boredom. While we were talking with a client this week, the topic of TikTok came up and we felt it would be helpful to share some tips.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a social media platform that is all about organic, creative, “viral” videos. The app was derived from Musically, but also has a very “Vine”-like feel. You’re able to use and search by popular music along with hashtags.

How should your brand use it?

Now, as I’m typing this… there could be a brand as we speak paving a new path for TikTok that’s not listed below. But for now, brands can look to utilize TikTok in the following ways…

Direct paid media campaign
Organic brand page
Influencer partnership
Hashtag Challenge
Branded music or recording

Direct Paid Media Campaign

Like almost every media platform on the planet, money can always buy you ad space. TikTok is no different — outside the fact that ad space is tight with a max of 15 seconds. Through parts of this quarantine, any time you opened the app you could be subject to an ad. My advice is do the market research on your demographic before heavily investing in this financial commitment. TikTok’s ads can get pricy real quick.

Organic brand page

The next most popular statement a brand might say is: “We’ve got to start a TikTok page.” Well, the answer is no you don’t. And honestly, not every brand should be getting their own page unless they really invest time, money and plan to do it right.

Here are some brands that are on TikTok and what they’re doing.

Chipotle

What teenage kid doesn’t love Chipotle?! Their brand really has a young feel to it, and it’s actually not all about the chain restaurant. There isn’t one particular voice, but there seems to be a common theme that includes either the restaurant or guacamole. They utilize their products in some videos, and even have dancing with no products involved in others.

The Philadelphia Eagles

What can an NFL team do on TikTok without football? Look no further than the Philadelphia Eagles. Although their content is a little all over the place, their common theme is all Eagles. They use this platform right now to show off Eagles fandom at home, show off what the players are doing right now, and call upon their dancers for some challenges. They also use this platform to showcase some old footage along with some news coverage.

Netflix

Netflix’s approach to TikTok is definitely a little different than their approach to other platforms because their content isn’t JUST about their programming. They actually do use some UGC content and specifically produced TikTok content to fit the platform. For example, instead of putting out a clip from the popular show Tiger King, they used a TikTok created spoof for their page instead.

Influencer Partnership

Another lesson in social media, most social platforms are the same…again. TikTok is no different. You can always pay or work with an influential partner in the space. There are big differences here because the platform is so new. One of them being that the influencers might be much younger than your average Instagram influencer. Some high school and college kids are rising to their 15 minutes of fame, and some are just really good dancers. These influencers might lack the experience of working with any brand, which could be a good OR bad thing. One of the other problems you might have with wanting to run an influencer campaign is that it might be a little more difficult to find one…unless you’ve got some outside help. There are influencer finder websites like https://hypetrace.com/ that can help identify influencers given specific parameters. If you’re looking for a big investment in influencer strategy, look for an investment in one of these websites. Ask for the free trial period before actually putting money into one of them.

An example I’ll highlight is between the NFL & Charli D-Amelio. Charli is probably the most popular TikTok influencer right now, and the NFL started their relationship by asking her to do a dance challenge. From there, their relationship has deepened and they were able to capture content with Charli at the Super Bowl in Miami. As you can see from Charli’s profile below, almost every single video she publishes gets over a million views.

Hashtag Challenges

TikTok’s rise to fame is really within trendy videos. Whether they’re hilarious or ridiculous, they are trendy and easily trackable nonetheless. This is probably my favorite BUT it’s totally hit-or-miss on whether or not it will actually pick up. A hashtag challenge is basically a call-to-action using a specific hashtag… like most social platforms. But with TikTok, you’ve got to do more than just tweet or tag a friend. You’ve actually got to do the work to be involved.

One hashtag challenge came across my eye a few weeks back, and it ended up being a huge success with 8.1M total views from JanSport. JanSport doesn’t have a brand page, but reached out to many influencers (big and small) to release their #unpackthatchallenge, which promoted that they would give away a backpack with school supplies to those in need with every video created using the hashtag.

Branded Music or Recording

This is probably a strange new concept to most people, but TikTok really stands out with respect to music and the search-ability of it. In it’s simplest form, you’re able to see content that’s created using a specific piece of music or soundbite. You can see who’s made videos using a Drake or JLo song… or even specific trend.

A perfect quarantine example is from Curtis Roach who just rose to TikTok fame with his Bored in the House tune that he created using the snap of his fingers and a table. His catchy tune got over 3.6M plays and even some famous faces like Derek Hough to join in on his music-turned-trend.

If you are questioning how you or your brand can fit into TikTok, let us know and we can help.

If you’re looking for more insight into TikTok, our CEO Heather Pink interviewed TikTok influencer Denver McQuaid on her podcast Social Media Unlocked.

Listen now