TOP 10 TIKTOK TIPS FROM OUR MASTERCLASS
TikTok is the buzzword of the moment in influencer marketing. Whether you like or loathe it, if you haven’t spent enough time on TikTok for the For You page (otherwise known as “FYP”) to start serving you content it understands you want to see – for me it's currently brass cleaning – then there’s so much to discover. TikTok holds immense commercial, behavioural and acquisitional potential – but it does take some practice and research to understand it.
Leading on from clients asking us for support with their strategies, we created our TikTok Masterclass to give informed, clear advice to help them get started. It went very well with great feedback from those who joined us, so we’ve already set a date for the next one which you can find the details for here. Below are our leading ten points from the session.
Image Credit: @bubblyaquarius in a One Roof Social campaign
Understanding the Platform
1. App Layout. The main feeds are divided into the Following and For You verticals. Both are orientated towards TikTok’s key goal, which is retaining user attention – this is clearly working as the average user watches a movies-worth of content every day (three times the time spent on Instagram, which is 30 mins). The Following page is self-explanatory, but the For You page (also known as “FYP”) is a content graph, not a social graph, and is tailored for each user’s interests.
2. The Algorithm. The key takeaway is that there is no confusion on how the algorithm works, as TikTok are very open with the factors that up your chances of being served on users’ For You pages. Video indicators (caption, sounds, hashtags), User Information (how a user engaged with their feed, such as liking, sharing and commenting, along with what accounts they follow and what kinds of videos they post) and Device & Account Settings (language, location, device type) all contribute to how content is served to users. When people engage, content gets rewarded by being served to more people, regardless of following size.
Understanding the Purchase Funnel
3. TikTok is a top funnel marketing option. TikTok works best at the top of the funnel as an awareness opportunity. It needs to be remembered that there is purposefully not a clear way for you lead audiences from the platform to your own website. TikTok makes a conscious effort to keep audiences with them; hence content being positioned in a similar way to how someone might binge a Netflix series. You should plan for users to remain in the app and continue consuming content rather than navigating away. You can’t link out from specific videos (you can have a hyperlink in your profile bio), although this is something the platform have hinted at adding in the near future.
4. What does success look like? Because reach isn’t dependent on a profile’s follower base, instead TikTok looks at the relevance of an individual piece of content for each user. It is seeded to those relevant people, the behaviour is monitored and if all goes well the content is put onto the For You page for wider audiences they feel would like to view it. Whilst difficult to plot, what this does mean is that success comes from taking the time to consider what an audience wants to see, and serving them exactly that.
Radical growth and exposure is possible for users (including brands). TikTok is the platform many users are choosing to spend time on due to ad fatigue on other social media sites, so it’s an opportunity to show a different personality or side of a brand to connect with new users. If done well, there is an entirely fresh audience base there – half of TikTok users are not on any other social platform.
Strategising for Brands
5. Make sure videos fit the eco-system of TikTok. This means shooting in full-screen vertical and keeping videos quick and concise. To engage content has to be short, visually impactful and authentic with music. Recommended content length is 15-30 seconds to quickly capture attention, and remember that audiences need to be captured in the first 2 seconds of the video. So, this isn’t the platform for wide angle introductory shots – you need to get your message in quickly and clearly.
6. Experiment and be reactive. TikTok’s editorial team don’t plan the trends, sounds and effects that will appear on the Discovery page more than a week ahead, so there isn’t an annual calendar to follow. Instead, use the Discover page to see what organic trends users are posting about, along with the trends boosted by the internal teams. You can also sign up to the monthly Creator Newsletter here for a regular reminder of what’s happening in the TikTok universe, and inspiration for creating content.
Sourcing Influencers
7. Manual works best. With an understanding of the platform, you are more likely to be able to spot talent for the right reasons, and manual search is definitely the best way to find influencers to work with on TikTok. There isn’t a third-party tool that can skim all current data from social media platforms (including the Meta group), so approaching the influencers and asking for their audience’s information is the best way to qualify influencers for campaigns.
8. Consume TikTok content yourself. This will help you to understand what works, along with what sets influencers apart. Recognising what makes content successful is also the best way to up your chances of success on TikTok – as the platform are so candid about how the algorithm works it’s literally down to you and the influencers you partner with to make something that has the potential to go viral.
9. Brief influencers effectively. Influencers on TikTok are creators, rather than curators, so always view content as a collaboration. Help guide your influencers so they can communicate what the brand needs to say through a creator’s own visual style. Remember that success comes from a brand looking to what an audience wants to see, rather than what the brand themselves want their audience to absorb.
Brand Content
10. Who is doing it right as a brand, and why?
Glossier While Glossier’s digital marketing content has always been reactive, smart and tailored to their audiences, their adaptation to TikTok shows that you don’t need the most elaborate content studios to produce videos. Their recent video of a PR launch mailer for influencers shows how audiences love behind the scenes content. When you’ve put so much thought into the little details, showcase them to help new consumers discover the brand and get to know you.
Ryanair The team are very responsive, constantly creating content with trending sounds and memes. They’re also not afraid of leaning into criticism, which goes down even better with their audiences and stops the channel feeling overly manufactured or inauthentic.
National Geographic While people outside of TikTok don’t necessarily associate the platform with educating audiences and spreading brand messaging, National Geographic posts content that speaks to their core audiences, as well as cross-topic posts to draw in a more general TikTok user. You can also see how taking lots of 1-2 second clips and stitching them together can create quick-fire, beautiful content. It’s an accessible way to start making posts if you don’t want to film long, single shot videos.
Duolingo The app’s TikTok has gone stratospheric recently for positioning their green owl mascot Duo as a morally questionable, chaotic character. Content does also occasionally talk about their free language education. Their recent rapid shift in strategy has brought wild growth for the company, and is a great example of letting the stranger, less curated side of social media out.
These are just some of the points that we touched on during the workshop – we also answered audience questions to delve into specific scenarios to give attendees tangible strategies they could use, as well as myth-bust some of the misconceptions and prejudices many teams have when it comes to TikTok.
We have put another date in for January 2022 to help start the year off thinking about TikTok. For more information, and to secure your tickets for the January workshop, click here.