First off: what is TikTok for business?
Yes, you guessed right: TikTok for business is a free function made for businesses to find their own voice and build cohesive marketing strategies. As we explained in our recent TikTok Shopping article, adding the social aspect to e-commerce has proven to have a very positive impact on the overall customer experience. And that has helped brands resonate with broader demographic segments, and engage people through casual interaction.
When you register your profile as a TikTok for business account, new features become available in the Business Suite – explained below.
Understanding subcultures
TikTok merges entertainment, discovery, education, and culture together. And when we talk about culture, we should consider the most technical way to define it.
Let’s say, sociologically: the set of ideas, practices, technology, customs, and all kinds of knowledge and creations made by a specific group of people.
Too generic? It is for sociologists too. Because today the term “culture” is too broad to include the differences within a culture. This is why “subcultures” is a much more accurate term to use when talking about TikTok. As we’ll describe below, TikTok has removed the cloak that concealed subcultures and uncovered previously unknown behavioral codes and patterns within subcultural niches.
In TikTok, there is room for everyone.
What is the Business Suite?
The Business Suite is an in-app instance to organize and manage your TikTok for business profile. From users, assets and finance to partners, metrics, and analytics. From audience insights to powerful creative tools.
Enhanced resources to discover current trends and potential market niches, and to create short but engaging content make TikTok for business a safe bet for brands to connect with formerly unknown or ignored segments. Especially thanks to its simplicity, and the little production cost it requires.
The Business Suite is composed of 3 pages.
Analytics
- Overview. Shows followers, profile views, website clicks, contact clicks, App download clicks and direct message
- Content. Where all the posted content is listed.
- Followers’ stats. Like gender, location, hour/day of connection, …
Promote
Where promotion is planned, and ads and campaigns are launched.
Business Creative Hub
The Business Creative Hub works like an agora where businesses meet user behavior for inspiration and content creation. By listening to what specific subcultures are interested in, the creative direction of a campaign can be better targeted.
Its creative tools allow to easily transform pictures into editable animations that help bring products to life.
In the Business Suite you can also find:
The Business content guide
With Inspiration on content strategy, storyline ideation, and video shooting suggestions. It also includes a help section for businesses, like the best time to post, content moderation, and traffic insights. And, if that weren’t enough, the Small Business Center is there to help rookies and newcomers.
A video showcase
The video showcase is constantly updated, which makes TikTok a fresh inspiration source. It has 3 feeds:
- Trending: business: Business accounts ranked by LIKES
- Engaging: Business: Based on the ratio of comments per video views
- Trending: community: Videos from all accounts ranked by LIKES
What do we know about TikTok’s algorithm?
However low the odds may seem, TikTok’s magic wand can make a new profile with no followers reach a million views with a single video.
Despite the fact that little to no information has been published by Douyin / ByteDace about TikTok’s algorithm, its widespread use allows users to share their views about how it seems to work. At least, when compared to Instagram’s.
Instagram’s algorithm works with the purpose of making users appear on their followers’ feeds. In turn, TikTok’s goal seems to be placing videos in the FOR YOU feed of new users and non-followers.
What can be deduced from this is a huge opportunity to find new people and new audiences every day.
Videos on TikTok have shown an undisputable success when they include trending sounds. That can be a voiceover, or a song from the Sounds library, also known as CML – Commercial Music Library, which counts over 500 000 royalty-free titles. Another insider-community insight is the fact that when users like a video with a specific song in it, more videos with that same song appear in their feed. TikTok progressively pushes videos into more users’ FOR YOU feed according to the song’s success – which explains a strange coincidence in the intensive use of specific songs.
And last, but not least, TikTok rewards creators (basically, whoever uploads content to it) who use their features, are engaged with the app, and contribute to other users’ engagement.
Using TikTok Ads
Brand takeovers
Brand takeover ads are the first things targeted users see when they open the TikTok app. These ads are played directly on the users’ feed upon launch and take the entire screen, which gives it a strong engaging power.
- The supported formats include image, GIF, and video.
- They allow clickable links to redirect users to websites, landing pages, or hashtag challenges.
But, because they temporarily take over the user’s screen and there is only one per country, category, and day, their impact can be very strong. Brands can suddenly find themselves under the spotlight for large segments of people, which makes them expensive.
Top view video ads
Although we are listing Top view ads as a separate TikTok for business type of ad, they are a variant of Brand takeover ads. What makes them different is that, instead of being invasive and impossible to avoid, they become the first in-feed post after 3 seconds of scrolling.
That makes Top view video ads almost impossible to miss, although they can be skipped by simply scrolling down.
Native video ads
Native video ads appear in between user videos as you scroll down, just like an Instagram or Facebook ad does in the FOR YOU tab. That means users can simply skip them or leave them unseen.
- 9 to 15 seconds long
- They allow CTA’s and links to a website or a landing page.
Being scrolled past is so easy that the ad’s impression may easily count, so it’s important to have a clear goal and make a strong impact from the very first second.
Sponsored hashtag challenges
We all know how TikTok’s hashtag challenges have penetrated into society. And not only younger generations – a myth that’s been rapidly debunked.
Sponsored hashtag challenges are a very good option to get both organic traffic and sponsored views. On the one hand, they stimulate user-generated content, which helps brand awareness. On the other, they allow brand collaboration and integrate brands with communities.
When someone clicks on a sponsored hashtag challenge, they’re directed to an in-app landing page with a challenge description and a feed of popular videos using that same hashtag. That makes it extremely important to, again, have a very specific goal.
Bonus!
Hashtag Challenge + is a new function launched by TikTok for business, for brands to sell their products directly in the app.
This function is still in its test version. But still, it seems to confirm TikTok’s strategy to become the biggest social commerce platform out there. We will need to keep our eyes on it and will let you know as soon as news about it appear.
Branded AR filters and lenses
Just like Snapchat or Instagram integrated lenses and filters to their apps (which require permission to use the camera and access galleries), TikTok includes a powerful set of filters and lenses. But a distinctive feature is the possibility to create and design your own custom filters, which can stay online for up to 10 days for followers to use them.
10 tips to make your TikTok profile kill it!
The basics of posting TikTok videos include:
- Shooting vertical videos only
- Being brief and concise.
- Starting strong to hook your viewers up.
- ALWAYS using sounds.
Unlike commercial short videos, TikTok videos don’t need much production. Instead, they need to remain casual and personal to connect with people.
- Watch plenty before posting and stick to what works.
- Define clear goals before starting shooting. And, if necessary, make different versions of the same video to adapt it to different segments.
- Keep testing and adjust your content to what your viewers like the most.
- Use high-quality images and shoot high-resolution videos to make sure filters, effects, and animations elevate your product and engage your audience
- Post frequently and use hashtags to categorize your posts.
- Whatever you post, use trending songs.
- Use captions and place them in a way that does not affect a clear view.
- Consider working with renowned creators and influencers. They already have an audience of their own and can become a great ally for your brand’s popularity and your videos’ viralization.
- Don’t be afraid to try new things. Remember TikTok is more about authenticity than about aesthetics, and viewers appreciate getting to know a brand’s real life and personality.
- Be grateful to your followers. Offer perks, prizes, or rewards to those helping you out, be it through loyalty or tipping.
A few final words
When it comes to products, TikTok can be just as profitable as any other Social Media platform. Maybe even more, when used properly.
But that ultimately depends on being at the right place, at the right time. That is probably TikTok – and everyone else’s goal: making people stay in the app and keep consuming videos.
The more you use it, the better you will know your subcultural audiences. Content2Sell knows how important it is to keep audiences engaged, and all marketing specialists agree that poor image quality is one of the top deterrents to conversion. So, should you need curated content to make the most of your product on TikTok, you can simply get in touch with us and GET A FREE CONTENT AUDIT.
