Brands on TikTok: For Once, Don’t Advertise

Written By: Jackson Borman, Copywriter

2019 was, in many ways, the calm before the storm. Corona was just a beer, masks were reserved for Halloween and to everyone but your teenage cousin and the earliest of social media adopters, TikTok was just the sound a clock makes.

The pandemic changed all that. Lockdown boredom coupled with a collective desire for human interaction, even if only digital, launched TikTok into household-name status. In Q2 of 2020, TikTok exploded to gain 25 million new users in the U.S. and never looked back. Today, the video sharing app has surpassed Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Reddit in global popularity to join the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as a social media powerhouse. Brands are recognizing this, yes, but many continue to drag their feet, or jump in without an understanding of how to operate within the app’s entertainment-first ecosystem.

If you haven’t spent much time on the app, TikTok can be intimidating. Many are scared off initially by its ‘Gen Z only’ reputation (perhaps accurately, as nearly half of TikTok users in the U.S. are under the age of 30). A stuffy brand joining the platform has the potential to be roasted by high schoolers everywhere.

One week it’s all about #CouchGuy, the next Taylor’s Version. If you aren’t up to date, you’ll fall behind.

Equally intimidating, TikTok is constantly changing. Every day, users are creating new trends and inside jokes that only avid TikTok consumers understand, which makes it challenging for brands to get on board and stay relevant. There is no such thing as evergreen content on a platform as fluid as TikTok. But don’t let these things scare you away! The magic of TikTok outweighs these obstacles.

When you launch the app, the first page you see is called the For You page (or colloquially, the FYP). Here, the app’s algorithm immediately serves you a feed of videos that it thinks you might like. The more you use the app, the better the algorithm gets at sharing videos that you like (it selects content that aligns with things you’ve liked, shared, commented on, or simply watched for a certain length of time).

Because of this framework, entertainment will always come first on the app. The videos that are genuinely interesting, funny, or make you want to watch until the end will garner the most engagement, and as a result, be shared with more people by the algorithm. This system essentially flips how many have approached social media for years: TikTok is not about having a massive audience to feed content to, it’s about creating content that attracts a massive audience.

This content is not trying to sell anyone on City University of New York, in fact you could argue that it paints their students in a negative light. However, the team of students that run the account have tapped into a relatable and entertaining truth about remote schooling, skyrocketing the video to over 450K views, most of whom are likely students (thanks to TikTok’s algorithm).

A handful of brands have maximized their TikTok strategies to perfectly align with this framework. A popular strategy has been hiring Gen Z social media professionals and giving them full control of the brand’s presence on the platform to create content that their peers can relate to.

This style of brand TikTok content is loose, charming, and doesn’t take itself to seriously. Its goal is not necessarily to pitch the viewer on the brand, but rather to genuinely entertain in an effort to get the video to as many FYPs as possible, building name recognition and recruiting real fans of the brand along the way.

Another way brands have been able to effectively use TikTok is by recruiting their mascot to recreate trends that are popular on the platform. Again, unlike traditional advertising, the goal is not necessarily to speak to the product’s value, or convince a viewer to purchase something. By putting the brand’s mascot in front of potentially thousands of eyeballs, you can really build a following. Check out this example from the language learning app Duolingo:

The moral of the story is that TikTok is a real opportunity for brands to build awareness, but IS NOT the place to make sales or spam users with CTAs. TikTok IS the place to make your mascot do a funny dance, poke fun at your competitors, spill some tea about your industry, or respond directly to commenters with witty comebacks and jokes. A place to be authentically human. So, get out there and make the most of what TikTok has to offer, and don’t forget to have fun!

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