TikTok, originally known as Music.ly, is a Chinese video-based social network. TikTok has around 500 million users, with about 41% of its user base between the ages of 16 and 24. Like Vine, it allows users to create short, original videos.

The NFL recently jumped on the TikTok bandwagon at the beginning of September launching an NFL account and announcing a partnership with TikTok. On the first day they unveiled the new account, they had gained 260,000 fans by midday. The NFL account also started the hashtag challenge “we ready,” which encouraged users to share videos of them preparing for opening day. Currently, the only brand ads on the platform are sponsored hashtags. Still, the NFL’s VP of digital media business development, Blake Stuchin, says they plan to create more elements that advertisers can sponsor.

Other brands like Guess and Google have seen success on TikTok as well. Even Jimmy Fallon from NBC’s The Tonight Show has been asking his viewers to participate in challenges that have earned more than 10 million engagements. TikTok has been rapidly growing since 2018, with the app downloaded over a billion times. In 2018 it was the 4th most downloaded app, beating out Instagram and Youtube. TikTok is the new big thing, and your business needs to become a part of it.

 Here are a few ways you can be marketing on TikTok:

Influencers

TikTok has already started to have some big influencers on their app with millions of followers. Influencers are a great way to bring awareness to your brand on TikTok. One in three consumers trusts an influencer’s opinion over what a brand says. Micro-influencers are a perfect way to get your product in front of new eyes and are often a lot more authentic and affordable than big-name influencers. Make sure you pick an influencer that aligns with your brand so that you can trust that they will best represent it. 

Original Content 

TikTok is home to many creative and original content, so if you want your message to stand out, it will take a lot of time and innovation. To make sure you get a lot of eyes on your video, you will want to create content that is entertaining and doesn’t scream ad. TikTok does not have a lot of brands on it yet, so it is vital that you keep your message authentic and focused on something other than pushing sales. 

Challenges/Hashtag Campaign 

Challenges are a great way to build awareness and engagement for your brand. When creating a challenge, you must make it something that TikTok users want to interact with. That means you need to have a good balance of difficulty and creativity. You want the challenge to be a little difficult so that it is something that people want to show off. Another aspect you should consider is making sure the challenge is flexible, leaving room for people to get creative. Although people like guidelines, you don’t want to tell them precisely what to do. The more creative they can get, the more TikTok users will participate. Creative challenges also have a greater chance of becoming viral and shared on other social media networks. To stay ahead of your competition, you must keep up with trends. Being one of the few brands on TikTok can help you stand out. It will also allow you to master advertising on TikTok before your competition even knows what it is.