TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media platforms in the world. As the leading destination for short-form mobile video, it is the number one downloaded app of 2020. The platform has skyrocketed in popularity and boasts 800 million monthly active users worldwide.
TikTok’s growth shows no signs of stopping. In Q1 2020, the app surpassed two billion downloads doubling its number of installs in just over a year. It generated the most downloads an app has ever received in a given quarter, garnering more than 315 million installs on the App Store and Google Play. Furthermore, TikTok has remained the most downloaded app on the App Store for five consecutive quarters demonstrating its ability to maintain a strong user base while also evolving to attract a new and growing user base.
I believe that TikTok has become a global viral phenomenon and will stick around for years to come. It holds many advantages over competition namely that everyone has the opportunity to go viral whether they have a large following or none. In their blog post, the company states “while a video is likely to receive more views if posted by an account that has more followers, by virtue of that account having built up a larger follower base, neither follower count nor whether the account has had previous high-performing videos are direct factors in the recommendation system.”
As a platform that encourages everyone to be a content creator, the mission at TikTok is to “inspire creativity and bring joy.” The app has become a form of entertainment allowing users to create and share funny videos on an easy-to-use interface while singing, dancing, or lip-synching to their favorite songs. TikTok is a creative outlet where personalities shine, and younger generations can express themselves.
Key reasons behind TikTok’s surge in popularity include celebrity endorsements, localized content, and easy content creation, sharing, and viewing. Celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon that like and use the app have landed paid partnerships and helped drive its popularity. In November 2018, he encouraged viewers of The Tonight Show to take part in the #TumbleweedChallenge and post a TikTok of themselves rolling like a tumbleweed. Fallon took the challenge himself to kickstart the trend and the hashtag #TumbleweedChallenge racked up 38.3 million views on TikTok. In addition to creating buzz around the platform and bringing followers to the app, celebrity partnerships are a key tactic to the brand’s geographical expansion strategy. Many celebrities not only post content on TikTok, but also cross post and promote TikTok on other social media platforms. On a smaller scale, TikTok focuses on localized content through local contests and challenges. To suggest content ideas to its users, the app also uses local trending hashtags to “capitalise on local trends and generate viral content for the platform” (Influencer Marketing, 2020). As for user interface, TikTok has made it extremely simple to record, edit, and share videos created on the app. Their For You page is revolutionary and serves a continuous feed of entertaining and addicting videos personally customized to each user’s interests.
The For You page is one of the defining features of the TikTok platform that keeps users coming back. Your For You feed is an endless stream of videos tailored to your interests and powered by a recommendation system that delivers content that reflects your unique preferences. Recommendations are based on a combination of factors including user interactions, video information, and device and account settings. User interactions such as the videos you like or share, accounts you follow, comments you post, content you create, and time you spend watching a video along with video information including captions, sounds, and hashtags are strong indicators of interest and receive greater weight in the recommendation system. Factors such as device and account settings including country setting, language preference, and device type are included to optimize performance but receive lower weight in the recommendation system.
Should your brand jump on a new social media platform such as TikTok?
Yes, TikTok is the place to be if your target audience is present on the platform. With many young people abandoning Facebook (a Pew Research study showed 44% of users between the ages of 18 -29 deleted Facebook on their phones), TikTok has become a go-to platform. It boasts more than 800 million monthly active users, more than LinkedIn (722+ million), Reddit (430+ million), Twitter (340+ million), Pinterest (322+ million) and Snapchat (218+ million) (Hines, 2020).
At its start, the creators of TikTok chose the under 18 segment as their target audience. As of June 2020, users aged 10–19 accounted for 32.5% of TikTok’s Android users in the United States and users aged 20–29 were the second largest age group accounting for 29.5% of TikTok’s user base on the Android platform. “With their target audience specified from the start, they’ve understood the habits and preferences of this age group which has led them to create a social media app that gives their audience exactly what they’re looking for” (Mohsin, 2020). Due to its fast growth and rising popularity, TikTok is a perfect place for brands to experiment with their marketing campaigns. TikTok users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app and marketers can strategically use this information when examining paid promotion because the more time people spend on the app, the greater the chance they will see advertisements. Brands are leveraging hashtags to promote their marketing campaigns along with utilizing techniques like TikTok challenges and contests to call for user generated content.
TikTok is a perfect place for youth-focused brands looking to further expand their social media marketing reach. The platform has the ability to capitalize on brand engagements and has a great potential for growth. In addition, TikTok offers audience targeting options, allowing a brand to use its customer contact data, website traffic, app activity, or ad engagement in a brand’s ad group targeting. This level of customization will allow a brand to see immediate results.
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