Take a look at a few different types of content on TikTok written by one of our Client Partner’s, Maddie Simpson Simpson
Ah, the wonderful world of TikTok. The newest and hottest platform in the social media game. How hot? Let’s put the platform into numbers: There are 800 million active monthly users who spent nearly 68 billion hours on the app globally in 2019, and this number is only growing. The average engagement rate is 8% per video and the reach per post is 118%. As a brand taking all of that into consideration, the simple conclusion is: if you’re not on TikTok, you’re missing out.
Where to Start
You might be thinking, but where do I even start? What is a TikTok and what is the point? Can't I just repurpose what I’ve posted on Instagram or vice versa? Honestly, when we started, we thought the same exact things, so we're taking the TikTok playbook for organic content and breaking it down for you here. Break out your pen and paper because we’ve got a winning strategy for you below.
TikTok Strategy
First things first, catching fire on TikTok takes dedication. Because of the number of videos posted each day, you’ll have to be posting your own videos and interacting with other videos frequently, too, in order to stay up to speed and relevant. (You might be thinking, “sounds like another job.” We’ll get into this later, but that’s where influencers and content creators come in, they can help make the content for you and you can repurpose the content made for the brand, anyways…). The trends change so quickly that the challenge that went viral this morning is already yesterday’s news. Your long-term strategy should be broken down into three parts, ensuring you’re posting content regularly, staying on trend and establishing your brand on the platform, but spicing things up every once in a while, for a big splash to help make a major scene. Get out that social media calendar…
Flicker Content
Per TikTok, that everyday content you’re posting or engaging for regular reach? That’s called “Flicker” content. There are two types of flicker content: videos and interaction, but their goal is always the same: reacting to daily content.
The video content should be easy to produce, quick and light, posted multiple times a week related to spiking trends on the platform like dances, hashtags, music, memes. Interacting and engaging on TikTok is a simple method to support CRM.
Pro tip: Tap into creators here to produce content at scale making sure the brand always has a full content library.
Flash Content
Now it’s time to turn it up a notch! Your flicker content and participation should have gotten you familiar with the “For You” page, viral hashtags and songs, maybe even a style of video that you’re seeing working well for your account. Have you thought about setting your own trend? Well now’s the time. Introducing: flash content. This is the content that you’re posting to help attract new followers and engage current ones. Shares are a huge part of the virality of a video on TikTok, so think in terms of creating a video for that purpose. These will take a little more effort, so should be launched multiple times a month.
Your goal with flash content is to introduce something new to your TikTok content that sparks engagement and is easy for the community to pick up and replicate.
Pro tip: Low-key tap into influencers to help fan these flames, which also gives you another opportunity to keep the content library full, as you’ll be able to repurpose all content created for you.
Flare Content
Finally, flare content. This is when you bring the team in and ideate a branded creative campaign for high quality production and large scale interaction. Flare content should be a few times a year, dedicated to supporting your brands most important product launches, events, or activities. This content should have a catchy feel from the name of the challenge to the interactivity of the content. This is where you can leverage influencers big time to help get others involved in helping the challenge/branded content go viral.
Some brands who are killing these challenges are: Chipotle, KoolAid, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Honorable mentions: Gushers, Dunkin Donuts, Calvin Klein, Levi’s and Gymshark.
The opportunity to make an impact on TikTok is as big as it is ever going to be. Highly visible content, widespread influence, and a low barrier to entry make TikTok the platform with a lot to gain and little to lose.
Today we support TikTok as a network on Pop Pays. Tomorrow we want to provide you, our customers, with insights specifically catered to TikTok, help you find TikTok creators and provide you with vetting tools to make sure that your TikTok partners live up to your brand’s safety requirements.
