Harnessing the Power of TikTok for Your Business
Boasting over 1 billion users, TikTok as many of us have already recognised, is a powerful platform to reach your audience. In the recent years, many corporations have made the shift towards social media and have established their presence online. TikTok has been a platform that many organisations have moved to or are eagerly hopping on. What makes TikTok such an alluring platform for them?
Firstly, TikTok is an entertainment platform which specialises in short-form videos. With an endless scroll, its addictive content keeps 90% of its users coming back for more daily. There are a few reasons why TikTok is highly useful for brands.
1. Authenticity and Relatability
Traditionally, corporate social media accounts have leaned towards more conservative content and language. Post captions have always been crafted meticulously in perfect English and grammar to look professional. TikTok has changed things up and has nudged corporate accounts to use more user-friendly, relatable language because that’s what works on the platform. Now, trending phrases which break away from the traditional corporate professionalism have made their way into captions.
Take for example the video below from Aura On Earth, a brand selling crystals, which utilises the trendy phrase “understand the assignment”, referring to knowing what needs to be done, to humourly indicate that their crystal bottle backfired.
Such content is relatable to the demographic on TikTok, boosting engagement with the brand and likeability.
Authenticity has been another aspect that has been introduced in corporate Tiktok. For one, the struggles of those who run corporate accounts have been pointed out in an honest and hilarious fashion, with other corporate accounts jumping in to agree. From the comments and the confession by the original user, the general public not only delights in the humorous admission, but also gets to better understand the struggles that content creators face. Instead of toning down struggles or hiding it, TikTok has allowed content that was perhaps previously deemed as “unprofessional” to admit to be seen by the general public.
2. Relevance
TikTok moves fast, just as trends do. When corporate accounts hop onto TikTok, leveraging on trending audios, dances and video filters can allow them to appear relevant to their target audience. This often leads to entertaining creations which are more palatable to target audiences than a traditional advertisement which may not resonate with them as much in the moment. Korean skincare brand Medicube’s use of their “CEOppa”, a combination of the words CEO and Oppa which draws upon the popular K-drama trope of handsome, romantic male leads with high positions in a glamorous company, has brought them viral success. They continue to deliver similar content featuring their CEO and their target audience has expressed support and amusement.
Hopping onto trending dances while putting out content relatable to others also increases the relevance of brands. In this video, production company Crio Collective put out a video that would resonate with other creatives in the industry.
3. Interaction
The interactivity of TikTok also allows for corporate accounts to easily be able to pick up on the type of content that their audience enjoys. This can range from user-generated content like inside jokes and memes to questions which can be easily answered through another video. Duolingo is a language-learning platform which successfully leverages organic, user-generated content. A running joke within the online community is that the Duolingo owl mascot is always there to remind you to study the language under all possible circumstances. The Duolingo TikTok account has acknowledged this running joke with a video that has been viewed over 1 Million times, attesting to the success of user interaction and insight that is possible on TikTok.
TikTok has broadened the possibilities that businesses on social media have. With social media becoming increasingly integral to the ability of businesses to reach out to potential clients, it is important for brands to be open to new ideas and adaptable.
At BCD, we’re always keen to try something new. No idea is a silly one and if you’ve got something new to bring to the table, don’t hesitate to contact us. Together, we can grow and push the limits. At BCD, our focus is YOU.
