Being game-changers in the world of social media and marketing, Instagram has had a massive influence on how brands are building their presence. And now TikTok is following in the footsteps and has increasingly become more popular. But what’s the difference between the two in terms of marketing? And why might now be a good time for some brands to consider TikTok as a part of their social strategy?

The somewhat infamous TikTok may just be the key to the success for brands going forward. Created in 2017 by Chinese app developer ByteDance, it is a social video app platform allowing users to share and watch short videos. 800 million people have already got stuck in with the “app of the moment” and this is forecast to increase as coronavirus forces many to stay home.

But what are the benefits?

The benefits are in abundance for brands right now. The first of which is cost. Due to the ‘raw’ and ‘unstaged’ nature of videos that play like snapshots into real lives, it no longer needs to cost the earth to reach a lot of people. The second is the frequency of use. 20% of UK users use the app at least once a month, 90% of users click onto the app multiple times in a single day and the average user spends 52 minutes of their day scrolling, meaning there is a pretty large window of time to make an impression. The third benefit for your brand is localisation. The app spans 140 countries, but it is possible to tailor settings to target content at specific areas only, which will give you a much more precise reach. Lastly, the sheer number of local creators with under 10,000 followers means it is a great place to use micro-influencers. The app is first and foremost based on entertainment produced by ‘ordinary human beings’ so these individuals operating in small cities and towns make it relatively simple to access a more niche audience organically. So why is now the time? I don’t think anyone can (or should) say that there are advantages to the coronavirus crisis, but the stats are there.

The Tiktok platform saw a 27% increase in engagement from users at the end of March once the UK had entered lockdown compared to February, presumably because many were stuck indoors with little to do. So with this said, it could be the time to get your brand out there while the world is watching.

TikTok vs Instagram

Instagram is all about posting and showcasing beautifully created or curated visual content in a way described by experts as “performative reality”. This is essentially a construction of lifestyles that aren’t achievable for the ordinary person, and this is what makes it so effective for big idea advertising. The app is still in the lead with more than a billion monthly users, with 500 million bits of content bouncing around every day, the opportunities for large scale advertising and marketing are big. Other features offered by Instagram are post sharing, stories, and product shopping, which has most notably added a business element to the platform. Instagram’s boost feature works very similarly to the localization feature of TikTok mentioned above, allowing brands to target specific groups. Instagram is arguably better for product-based brands wanting to build long term relationships with new and existing customers because TikTok is based on trending challenges and so-called “fads” which can pass pretty quickly.

But for a much newer app, Tiktok is looking very promising. In the short three years it’s been up and running it’s managed to overtake both twitter and Facebook in user figures and is currently just behind Instagram. The TikTok landing page called “for you” is a dream for brands. While Instagram will direct users straight to follower content, and they can choose to look at the discover page if they wish, Tiktok works the other way. Therefore in theory, this means your rate of first exposure is likely to be much higher than on Instagram. Secondly, fewer brands are on Tiktok than Instagram which makes it relatively non-competitive (for now). Thirdly, as touched on above, the vibe on TikTok is a lot more laid back and raw, so brands using the platform don’t need to spend as much or work as hard to achieve perfection as they would on Instagram.

Things to consider

Thinking of jumping on the bandwagon? Here are a few things to consider before you do.

TikTok isn’t suitable for all brands. Typically, the platform works better for brands with an existing following elsewhere looking to increase engagement and extend awareness. This is down to the algorithm, which tends to favour content from accounts with high follower counts and interactions. In addition to this, Tiktok content is entirely different from that made on other platforms, so you can’t use it as a way of extending or repurposing Instagram across from Facebook or Instagram. This is for two reasons, the first being that users expect TikTok videos to be relatively unedited as opposed to the glossy and sometimes heavily filtered displays of perfection we see on Instagram. With this in mind, your brand should be willing to inject some humour and/or self-deprecation into the content, if you take yourself too seriously it simply isn’t the correct place for your brand. Secondly, the content is sound lead. It is what users care about and remember most, so you need to get it right. A great example of this from a big brand is the branded original song composed by Elf cosmetics specifically for Tiktok use. Users could make their own videos to the format laid out in the song and it was such a hit that it was later uploaded to Spotify as a standalone song. Albeit natural, TikTok content is not thoughtless and the creative bar is arguably higher than other apps so if you’re going to do it, you have to do it properly.

Credits: @brittany_broski /@martamie/@beasteater

Another thing to consider is something called ‘remix culture’. In simple terms this just means that users respond well to content in a repeatable format, that they can imitate and adapt themselves. A few popular formats for brands to use are brand relevant memes, behind the scenes videos, real-time product launches, and product demonstrations, all with a humorous and engaging spin on them. An effective way to tap into this is through creator partnerships, which seem to work a lot better than ads because they seem more authentic and less ‘branded’.

Where is the future of Tik Tok headed?

Assuming that TikTok follows the same trends seen on the Chinese version, Douyin, we should see a steady widening of the user demographic. In the introduction and growth phase the 16-24 age bracket were the primary users but this has slowly shifted towards 25-35. On top of this, all other age demographics have seen an increase in use too and in the UK the app is set to surpass 10 million users next year, which makes TikTok all the more worthwhile considering. It’s impossible to say exactly what the platform will look like in the future, but it seems like it’s here to stay.

The rise of TikTok and why should some brands be using it?