TikTok is growing fast, and it is set to dominate this year in 2022.
If I could give you one single piece of advice for social media, that would be: start using TikTok RIGHT NOW!
With relatively little competition on this platform, growing TikTok is pretty much accessible to everyone. Building a following on Tik-Tok might just be the key to skyrocketing your sales, especially when you lack the capital to invest in Facebook or Instagram ads
Just look at the massive impact that the challenge of the dream had on ocean spray sales.
But the rules for success on Tik-Tok are a lot different than any of the other platforms and that’s why in this blog you’re going to learn marketing tips and strategies that are going to help your business go viral.
Here are the benefits that you can expect from being on TikTok
1. Reach a massive audience
Firstly and probably most importantly.
You can take advantage of exponentially fast growth. Reaching a massive audience and growing your following is easier than on any social media platform right now.
So if you’re looking to be an influencer, industry expert, or business owner, this is a very great place to start.
2. Grow your other social channels.
TikTok allows you to link out to your other social media profiles, so if you’re looking to grow on Instagram or YouTube, then TikTok is going to be that perfect gateway to do so.
3. Getmore sales.
Expanded reach is going to lead to more sales, so if you have an e-commerce business or maybe you sell services, then tick-tock is the best place to reach your niche audience.
4. Make content quickly & easily
Tick-tock is liberating, because people come onto the platform expecting to see content that isn’t overly produced, so that means you can quickly and easily make videos that aren’t perfect and still be successful.
How to go viral onTik-Tok
1. Tell a story
Start your video off with a problem, give clear steps about your journey, and then end off with a solution.
Let’s say you sell handmade vegan apparel, you can start the video by saying: at first, I thought it was impossible to make handmade vegan apparel, but I did it, and here’s how. Then you could show some behind-the-scenes footage, and then at the end, you would just wrap it up all in a neat bow with your final solution.
If your story is unique or inspiring, you’re not only going to grow your TikTok audience, but you’re also going to gain some loyal followers that are emotionally invested in the backstory of your brand. So if your aim is to sell products, these types of videos that tell your brand story will really help you make sales as well.
2. Provide Value
Alright, so the next tip that I have for you guys is to provide value.
So while Tik-Tok trends can be fun for a short while. I think eventually viewers are going to get bored. There are only so many times you can watch the same dance done by different people.
So what does this mean for you as a creator? You’re going to need to provide value.
People are coming to the platform either to be entertained, inspired, or informed.
You need to ask yourself by the end of this video: what did the viewers gain?
Did they laugh?
Did they learn a new skill?
To grow on Tik-Tok, you’re going to want to lead by providing value first, and then secondly you’ll want to promote your brand.
Going back to our apparel example.
Let’s say you create a video explaining how you were able to make your handmade vegan apparel. The heart of the video is going to be educational, it’s really only at the very end of the video that you’re going to be fulfilling your own needs as a brand and take those couple of seconds to plug in your call to action.
Your call to action could be to check out our online store, or it can be to stay tuned for this collection to drop, but you’re only taking the last few seconds of the video to plug your products.
The type of content that we create on Instagram is pretty much just shameless advertising.
A video on Instagram might just be like a bunch of models wearing your apparel, laughing, smiling, and there’s no real value there, but that’s pretty much normal for Instagram.
However, that type of content does not really fly on TikTok.
So make sure that you are providing value and that there is a takeaway for the viewer.
3. Use viral sounds
Using trending sounds is extremely important to get discovered especially on Tik-Tok.
So if you’re not using trending sounds you’re gonna be far less likely to be featured on the ‘for you page’. And the “for you page” is where you’re going to gain most of your followers. So this is extremely important.
What you’re going to want to do to find your viral sound, is you’re going to want to click “add song” as you’re creating your video, then you’re going to go under the playlist and then you would look under the “Tik-Tok viral” playlist. If you’re creating an explainer video or content that does need sound to make sense, what you can do is you can drop the volume on the added song, and then you can raise your own volume on the original track, and in that way, the viewer can hear what you’re saying in your video, make sense of the video, but you’re still getting discovered for that viral sound that you’re using in your video.
4. Use hooks
You’re not only going to want to hook people at the beginning but you’ll also want to hook your audience every 5 to 10 seconds. This increases your video average watch time and we do care about our average watch time, because if Tik-Tok’s main incentive is to keep people on their app longer and your content is hooking people, your average watch time is long, then Tik-Tok is going to reward you with added exposure.
Now, I find that adding captions or words to your video is going to get people to stick around longer. It’s definitely happened to me and I’m sure it’s happened to you before as well. So make sure you’re adding captions and words.
Another great tip is to ask a question right at the beginning of your video, and then use the rest of your video to answer it. This works, because people want to see things, through to completion.
Going back to our apparel example, we could start our video by asking: “Are vegan leather apparel really more sustainable than actual leather apparel?”
Now this question works, because it’s controversial, and it hits on sustainability which is a pressing topic. Of course, we’re asking a question and using the rest of the video to give a solution.
And the final tip for hooking an audience is to make fast-paced videos, quick-jump cuts, and flashing text, and that’s going to continue to hook people throughout the video.
5. Find a niche and stick with it
So you’ll notice that some of the most successful Tik-Tokers are making one type of content and one type of content only.
They cycle content by presenting it in slightly different ways and these are the videos that go viral.
This is efficient, because not only is it less work for you, but it’s also effective, so it’s a complete win-win.
For example, the KakaClo makes content around fashion products and We’re making videos about how can a small business find apparel products. So dropshipping or wholesale in the fashion industry is our niche, and here we are, with more than 600k followers.
So you might be asking yourself, how am I gonna find the type of content that works for me. Well, if you have no pre-existing audience, then you’re gonna have to experiment a little until you find the type of content that really hits.
But once you do find that winning type of content, you have to keep creating content exactly like that, but with different variations.
6. Make Stand-alone Content
So the next tip is to ensure that your videos can be watched on their own.
So on Tik-Tok, there’s a little bit less of an emphasis on follower loyalty.
When you log on to YouTube, for example, you can easily watch every single video that your favorite YouTuber has posted. So series of content, like part one and part two, are more appropriate on YouTube, but with Tik-Tok, it’s definitely much easier to miss videos even of the people that you follow.
Make sure that you’re creating videos that can be watched alone. For example, take the series Inside No.9, let’s say I started watching right in the middle of season seven, I could pretty much pick up what’s going on because each episode is an independent story. But if I jumped into the middle of Euphoria or Peaky Blinders in the middle, I might be a little confused, right?
Go for No.9 type content, that is just easy to understand and stands alone, rather than in a series.
All right, in the span of this blog, you just learned the basics of using the TikTok platform, and you learned how to go viral.
I’m telling you it does not take a rocket scientist to go viral. It is accessible. All you really need is the drive to do it,
Make sure that you’re following the steps in this video and I promise you, you’re going to gain some real traction.
