If you’re trying to decide whether or not to use TikTok to market your business, you should absolutely consider it. Although there is a hefty list of to-do’s to consider before committing to using TikTok for your business, if the process is not taken seriously, it can end up costing you a lot of time and money.
If you have the time to dedicate yourself to learning about creating content on TikTok for your business, you should certainly consider investing the effort to use it. Learning how to consistently create high-quality TikTok content has the potential to exponentially increase online traffic and sales to your business.
The Hits
TikTok is exceptionally great for reaching target audiences between the ages of 16 and 24. If your business offers services or products for this demographic, you will definitely want to look into building a business profile on the platform. The best way to market to this audience is through two primary types of content: humorous or educational. If you don’t deliver content in one of these two ways, your profile’s performance will stagnate, if not decline completely. Remember, you aren’t married to only creating one of these content types, but mastering at least one is key.
Using my own dentistry business, for example, I try to provide a mixture of both. When I first got started on TikTok, I predominantly created content that was comedic. I quickly grew a lot of followers and eventually obtained a captured audience, which allowed me to start posting more educational content. This often looks like answering questions my followers have about my job and also providing tips on best hygiene practices at home for anyone.
The primary component to understand when starting to utilize TikTok for your business is how much time it requires to create content. Because TikTok is a video-only platform, content planning and creation can take hours, and determining the best time to post it can require a lot of strategic thinking weeks in advance. This is where effective content calendars and content management software will become crucial.
When it comes to content ideation, its difficulty changes every week, if not every day. Depending on your business’s niche, you can monitor trends for ideas and mimic other users’ posts by adapting the core elements of the content to something more specific to the type of content you post. However, in a niche like music, for example, you may face a higher intensity competition, where posting content inspired by a trend isn’t enough. In this case, it may be that the trend-inspired post will only perform well if you deliver it better than anyone else, which won’t be known until after it’s posted. But it only takes one post to gain enough popularity or go viral for any profile to gain a massive increase in following and engagement.
The Misses
Business accounts on TikTok — or any social media platform for that matter — that don’t post daily, or at least weekly, are statistically prone to perform poorly and become a marketing flop. Still, “quality over quantity” is still the rule of thumb in this game. Some brands post up to three times a day, whereas others only post up to three times a week.
This is where a well-managed content calendar is crucial. Typically, content creators dedicate an entire day to content planning and creation. Some creators take one day for planning and one day for creation, but not everyone has enough time for this approach. There will come times when trends may occur after you have already planned and created a set of content, but trends on social media rarely last longer than a few days or weeks. Capitalizing on a trend requires immediate action; sometimes, waiting even one day can result in a missed opportunity to increase engagement or followers.
The other difficulty for businesses using TikTok is finding a way to deliver content that authentically represents their brand. Successful profiles on TikTok require three key overarching elements: relatability, personalization, and authenticity. This is where brands reach out to influencers to partner with because they can deliver all three of those things without having to establish one official face for the brand. As a business, you may not have the resources or capacity to produce content consistently, so partnering with content creators may be the better option, though this strategy can quickly become expensive.
Partnering with influencers allows businesses more flexibility and opportunities for producing content. While it could initially cost a large payout or a complex collaboration agreement, it may be more affordable than hiring a social media manager or building a team. If coordinated carefully — and correctly — influencer marketing can afford businesses the social media marketing they need without having to risk investing precious resources.
About the Author: Corina Layton is a 2020 Dental Hygiene graduate currently practicing full time in Philadelphia, PA. She started out working at the front desk of a dental office, and kept progressing to a dental assistant, orthodontic assistant, and is now a Registered Dental Hygienist. She is projected to complete her BSDH in the Spring of 2023, and looks to use her degree to continue educating the general public as well as other dental professionals. Corina has been able to grow a large following of 2.3 million on TikTok and 80.6 thousand on Instagram as a Dental Hygienist by educating people about dentistry and sharing tips and tricks on how to have an overall healthy mouth and body. She enjoys networking and continuing education courses, as she believes the future in dentistry is always changing.
