Why your brand does NOT need a Tiktok Channel

Oftentimes when meeting with clients a big question that concerns social media is which channels or platforms are most important to be active on.  Even more so, when a new platform starts to gain popularity many brands question if they should hop on the trend. After its world wide release back in 2018, TikTok’s growth has been absolutely viral. Just to name some key stats, TikTok is the  No. 1 downloaded app of 2020, can boast over 800 million monthly active users and can be used in 150 countries.

Just because Tiktok is wildly popular does not mean every brand has a place creating content on it. A standard rule among marketers, in particular social media marketers, is trying to be on every channel for the sake of being on every channel is ludacris. That is why Paranoid Internet digital marketing agency has outlined a few questions brands should ask themselves before including TikTok into their social media marketing strategy. 

  1. Is your target audience the right age for TikTok?

Just because TikTok has over 800 million users does not mean your target audience is on the app. TikTok has been championed as THE app for teens. Specifically those 13-17 years old make up to 27% of the total users. 18-24 year olds actually make up 42% of the apps user age demographic. However if you combine the 13-24 years that accounts for 69% of the apps total users. So if your target audience is 50 years old maybe TikTok is not the right place for your brand or product. 

  1. Does your target audience live in a country with a large number of TikTok users? 

Location, location, location! After age think about where your target audience is located: 

  1. China – 500 mn user
  2. India – 119.3mn users
  3. USA – 39.6mn users
  4. Turkey – 28.4mn users
  5. Russia – 24.3mn users
  6. Mexico – 19.7mn users
  7. Brazil – 18.4mn users
  8. Pakistan – 11.8mn users
  9. Saudi Arabia – 9.7mn users
  10. France – 9.1mn users
  11. Germany – 8.8mn users

Of course there are millions of TikTok users in other countries but if your target audience resides in these top 11, especially china, it is pretty safe there is an active TikTok community. 

  1. Does your content fit the medium?

There are a couple different ways a brand can be active on TikTok, 

  • A brand can start a channel of their own and upload videos.
  • Inluencer marketing is huge on TikTok and can help your brand reach their audience.
  • A brand can pay to advertise on TikTok

A great list of content suggestions from hastag challenges and more from different brands can be found here

Is TikTok for your brand?

A key to figuring out if your brand should be on any platform is to review if your target segment is there, if your content is there and if influencers for your audience is there. If the answer is yes to most of these questions then why not test out the new platform.