Grow Your Brand With TikTok For Business
TikTok is a short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to create and share 15-second videos on any topic. Where TikTok shines is in generating brand awareness and engagement. So, it’s no surprise that TikTok For Business can drastically help your brand or company acquire new customers and clients.
Create a TikTok for Business Profile
Creating a business profile for TikTok is relatively straightforward. The key consideration when putting this profile together is brand consistency. Your profile photo should be consistent with other social media platforms, and the bio should match your brand standards.
Here are the simple steps for creating a TikTok profile for your business:
- Download the app to a mobile device.
- Log in with an email and password that’s meant to be shared with your team (not a personal account).
- Once you’ve added an account, you’ll get a prompt to create your username. Choose a name that isn’t already in use by another brand, and get it as close to your brand’s name as possible. The app will let you know when you’ve landed on an available username. Click Sign Up to move to the next step.
- If you have an existing personal account but would like to start a business account, navigate to your Manage Account screen and click Add Account.
- Next, you’ll get a view of your brand-new, empty profile. The basic screen layout displays your name, username, profile picture, number of followers, number of accounts you follow, likes, and videos. Click the three dots in the upper right corner to get to your settings–you’ll need this to set up a Pro account.
- Once you’ve made it to the Manage Account menu, tap “Switch to Pro Account” to create a business-specific account that will allow you to monitor your analytics.
- Then, you’ll be asked to select an account type. You can choose between Creator and Business. Creator accounts are great for public figures, influencers, and personal brands that are geared toward the arts and content creation. Business profiles are best for service providers, organizations, retailers, and brands. Once you’ve decided which profile is best for you, tap the icon to move to the next step.
- Now, choose your category. You’ll see a list of industries and niches to choose from. Select the one that fits best with your brand. If you don’t see a good fit, just tap Other.
- Under your Settings and Privacy menu, you’ll now see an option for Analytics. You can return to this screen to view your video stats at a later date, once you’ve begun uploading content and gathering followers.
- Now, you can start making your profile your own. If you’re setting up a TikTok profile for a corporate business, use your brand’s logo for the profile picture. If you’re a personal brand, opt for a professional headshot.
Once you’ve set up a profile, take some time to go through the feed and interact with brands or individuals within your niche and network. This process will help develop the algorithm for your needs and build awareness. Follow other prominent brands on TikTok, suggested social media influencers, and develop a realistic content strategy with your social media manager.
If you want to start sharing ads on your business profile, you’ll need to set up a business account. The ads platform allows you to reach the right followers based on a variety of targeting options. To ensure that your ads have sufficient budget, the minimum budget at the campaign level is $50, and the minimum budget at the ad group level is $20.
Hashtags Aren’t Just for Instagram
Hashtags help you reach a larger audience and are great for branding. Create a unique hashtag for your business and ask your followers to use it whenever they post something on TikTok about your brand. This is called a branded hashtag.
Branded Hashtag Challenges
A branded hashtag challenge is when a company creates a hashtag and asks followers to submit videos that are related to that hashtag and that feature the hashtag. There are many reasons why branded hashtag challenges are effective as a TikTok marketing strategy.
#1 – Branded hashtag challenges have the potential to attract a lot of attention and go viral.
Elf Cosmetics was able to get over 3 million user-generated videos and over 4 billion views for its #eyeslipsface branded hashtag challenge. This challenge encouraged people to submit their own videos for a song called “Eyes, Lips, Face” that went along with the challenge. This branded hashtag challenge became the most viral campaign in TikTok US history.
#2 – In addition to having viral potential, branded hashtag challenges are an excellent TikTok marketing strategy because they create fun experiences for followers.
They also engage followers in a highly effective way.
#3 – Branded hashtag challenges can help draw people to your brand who may not have even heard of your brand.
They can come for the hashtag challenge and end up following your company because they discover that they like your brand after checking out the hashtag challenge.
In addition to branded hashtags, you’ll want to use relevant trending hashtags. TikTok makes it pretty easy to know which hashtags are trending. When you search for hashtags, TikTok will show you how many views each hashtag has and indicate which ones are currently trending with a little fire icon🔥. Use trending yet relevant hashtags in every single TikTok caption to increase your video views.
TikTok Do’s and Don’ts
- Do be candid. Keep it light and fun. Businesses should stick to lighter, more humorous videos. The idea is to jump straight to the point since you are limited on time. You also want to make sure that you are showing the fun side of your brand in the process.
- Do use music. Music is and has been a huge part of TikTok. The original purpose of the app was to create fun or humorous music videos to popular songs. While it has come a long way since then, it’s a good idea to incorporate music into your videos.
- Do use a challenge. Create a campaign that challenges users to create and upload TikTok videos related to the challenge, using the hashtag #HashtagChallenge, and tag three of their friends to also attempt the challenge.
- Do respond to other brand challenges. In addition to kicking off your own challenge, also participate in challenges established by other companies.
- Do collaborate with influencers and partners. Tapping into the established following that a TikTok influencer has built can boost engagement and awareness quickly.
- Don’t make a hard-sell ad. Anything that feels like an overt ad is not going to perform well on TikTok. Incorporate your product or service into your video but try to avoid the obvious call to action we’re used to in traditional marketing.
TikTok For Business is where you can unleash your brand’s creative side. No matter how big or small your business, it may definitely increase your brand awareness. Chipotle is one of those brands killing it on TikTok – with 1.5 million followers. They recently created a contest that went viral. Check out the video below and you may get some great ideas to create your own challenges.
@chipotleThe chipotle is my life kid is back, and sponsored 🤝 (via @yungsofi ) ##chipotle ##chipotleismylife ##stitch ##viral ##trending ##fyp♬ omg I love chipotle by roy murray – Chipotle
Need Help Growing Your Brand Online?
At Social Creative, we help businesses creatively use social media to help build their brand. We don’t believe in inconsistently posting ordinary content. That won’t work. We strategically develop a social media plan for your business. We create highly effective visual content – photos, videos, graphics – to share on your channels. We help you connect with your followers and build lasting relationships.
‘Project TikTok’ coming soon! Stay tuned.
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