TikTok has taken the world by storm and only continues to grow in popularity. Although most users are from younger generations, there’s still a wide range of people creating, discovering, and sharing content on the platform.
Tania Nikitenko is a founding member and product lead at Viral Moment, a social listening tool and app that helps analyze trends in videos. If you’re a brand looking to make your TikTok debut, here are some tips from Tania on how to get started!
Identify your niche
Unlike more traditional social media platforms, which emphasized demographics such as age and gender, TikTok centers around communities of people who’re united by a common interest. These communities range from real estate agents to cat lovers, and it’s crucial to recognize where your brand falls and what your niche is. If you use Viral Moment, you’ll be able to analyze what content, sounds, hashtags, and creators are trending for your niche specifically.
Although the app does only have preset topics to follow, if you choose the more extended enterprise solution, you’ll be able to customize your experience. Tania recommends following four hashtags – two generic ones related to your brand, and two that are more specific.
Many brands have created multiple accounts that each focus on a specific niche in order to cater to different interests. Because your feed is constantly updating based on the videos that you watch, it can be difficult to filter content and get a good variety manually.
Pay attention to timing
Viral Moment generates a trend impact score based on the momentum and popularity of a trend. The momentum of a trend shows the speed at which it’s growing, and the popularity can tell you if a trend is too small or if it may already be oversaturated with content. The trend impact score ranges from 1-5, with 5 being the best score and indicating that a trend is small but growing very quickly.
Most TikTok trends last between 3 to 5 days, but some are seasonal and may reemerge around the holidays, for example. If you look through your Discover page on TikTok, you’ll be able to see what videos are trending, and you can also search trending sounds, although you won’t be able to filter by specific niches. This can help you determine which trends are the most ripe for you to hop on and maximize your reach!
Be creative
Many people are under the impression that TikTok is all about dancing. However, that’s definitely not the case! As long as you’re creative with your videos, you’ll be able to connect with your audience and keep them engaged and interested. This means keeping your videos short, and looping them so that users are more likely to keep watching them. You should also try to change your screens – having more variety in your videos helps get people’s attention.
It’s important to note that reusing content is a cost-efficient way of getting the word out there! You can use the raw videos from your TikTok to create reels for Instagram, for example, and use another sound or song instead. Trends are constantly changing and evolving, so don’t be afraid to be creative and try something new!
You can find this and all of our previous Social Media Breakfast Houston videos at our new website, SMBHOU.com. See you there!