Why Writing TikTok Off is a Bad Idea
Businesses and creators have powerful tools to reach new and existing audiences in the form of social media. Sites like Instagram and Twitter are still unexplored as potential business opportunities, so with the rise of TikTok, it can be easy to write them off as yet another social media app and pile onto the hate and dismissiveness of the platform. However, upon a second look you’ll find that TikTok is shaping up to be an incredible tool for business and despite having 100 million daily active users (DAUs) in the US it’s still been unexplored. Here’s why you should use it for your business endeavor.
It’s so much more than Gen Z dancing to Megan Thee Stallion
First, to really understand the business potential, you have to get past the cultural impression TikTok has right now. If you’ve never downloaded TikTok for yourself, it works by personalizing your feed with videos from creators. Speaking just for myself, I’ve seen creative videos on personal finance, graphic design, music production, relationships, anime, pets, and everything in between. I find myself finding useful ideas and life hacks in addition to being entertained with the jokes and commentary of the moment. Yes, I also see dancing from time to time but this can be due to origins of the app in Musical.ly. I wouldn’t be surprised if this part of the app slows down within the next five years.
This presents amazing opportunity for anyone looking to bring attention to their work, business, or passion. There is a niche for everything.
They find the audience for you
To understand the value of this, place yourself as a creator in a dominate platform like YouTube. Your videos get shown to your subscribers and everyone starts off with zero. That presents a chicken and egg problem. How are people going to see your videos if you don’t have subscribers? TikTok accounts for this by making the main part of the app the “For You Page” meaning they tailor the videos on the platform to each user. No more texting all your friends to watch and like your new video upload on YouTube. TikTok will put in the work for you to show your video to new people, so creators can focus on the content and not the promotion. Sites like Instagram and Facebook will oftentimes make you pay to reach your own audience. With TikTok this will quickly be disrupted and makes sense why Mark Zuckerberg sees TikTok as such a threat.
It’s an incredibly creator friendly platform
Simply put, creators see more views and engagement than sites like Instagram and YouTube. TikTok also goes to lengths to solve creative ownership over the content that’s made. Have you ever seen a TikTok reposted to another site like Instagram or Twitter? You’ll see that the creator’s handle is in the video and once it’s over its front and center. Before the invention of TikTok, you’d read horror stories of bad actors reposting memes and viral videos and never giving credit to the original creator. With TikTok, creators don’t have to worry about people stealing their content.
Just Keep Uploading
With the cultural impression TikTok has made, it’s easy to write it off as this annoying app kids are into. Hopefully you’ll see TikTok can be used as a powerful business tool. It puts creators first by protecting their content, and promoting their work for them. To get the most out of TikTok, it’s important to know that you must keep feeding the engine that is working for you. By consistently uploading videos you are giving yourself more at bats for your content to reach the right people and follow your work. This traction, exclusively from TikTok, could prove pivotal to your business. So next time you think about piling onto the hate, take a step back and see the platform for what it is -disruption in the idea of social media and what it can do for people like yourself.
