Let’s talk about TikTok
Remember Vine? If you do, think of TikTok as Vine 2.0 - new and improved to fit even smarter phones and no longer meant for Millennials, but for Gen Z (plus a few grandmas). Basically, it’s a social media platform where people can create and watch short videos, and it’s unbelievably popular.
How big is TikTok?
Previously known as Musical.ly, TikTok has quickly grown to become one of the world’s most viral platforms. Don’t believe me? Allow me to drop your jaw for you with some crazy numbers: as of February 2020, TikTok has been downloaded over 1.5 billion times worldwide and has over 500 million users, the average of which spends 52 minutes on it daily. Remember that one video is generally 15 seconds long, which means that every hour spent on TikTok equals about 200 videos.
Fun fact: TikTok is the only top 5 global app not owned by Facebook since 2019.
What do people do on TikTok?
”The sky’s the limit” doesn’t cut it for TikTokers. They are a part of the probably most creative platform in the world, and it shows. You can find anything from painting, dancing, acting and lip-syncing to comedy sketches, animals, cosplay, challenges and much more - all perfectly coordinated with filters, and music that matches the mood of the video. The content is generally either relatable, inspirational, cute or funny.
TikTokers usually aim to be featured on the for you page, which is the feed where you can endlessly scroll through videos by random accounts that the TikTok algorithm (which is extremely clever) has chosen for you. Trends and challenges are a very popular format that often go viral via hashtags.
TikTok loading screen/For you page/Discover
Engagement
If the users like something, they’ll let you know. Getting 10,000 likes on an Instagram photo might seem impossible (unless you’re an influencer), but getting 10,000 hearts on TikTok can happen to anyone in a heartbeat. You don’t even need a single follower to get millions of views and hearts if your content is on point.
People on TikTok love to interact with one another, both by hearts, comments and shares, both within the app by tags or DMs, just like on Facebook and Instagram, but also through various other media. The in-app share links work really well, you can share via Snapchat, text message, Facebook messenger, What’s App, Twitter, whatever you want. Another in-app way or sharing is to “duet” each other. Duetting is basically responding to someone’s video with a video of your own so that they are shown side by side, synced to the same sound.
Duets
Why do you need to know about TikTok?
So, how does any of this help you? Even though TikTok has been around for a bit now, it’s still growing at lightning speed. Because it’s still so relevant, it’s a great way to mainly get some exposure (and if you do well, a lot), which can lead to followers on other platforms as well. You want to be where your customers are, and if your demographic is young (~under 30), you need to be on TikTok. If you want more specific details, check out Flowbox’s article on how to get started on TikTok as a business.
For more information, contact:
Bianca Rior, Content Editor, Flowbox
bianca.rior@getflowbox.com
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