TikTok: Big Money for Big Businesses?
- sugandindesilva
- Mar 13, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 6, 2021
TikTok, the short video mobile platform, was birthed in 2016 with the intention to shoot, publish and share content. Its explosion among particularly Gen Z, the trend setters, saw 1.1 billion monthly active users in early 2021. Yet, according to Yellow Social Media Report 2020, only 2% of Australian small businesses leveraged this site.
Kaplan and Haenlien (2010) advises that businesses be active on social media to allow for consistently fresh content and to engage in discussion with their customers.
TikTok performed better on the engagement front at all follower levels compared to Youtube and Instagram in March 2021. The engagement rates of micro-influencers were 17.96% on TikTok, 3.86% on Instagram, and 1.63% on YouTube. The same conclusion was reached with mega-influencers where TikTok saw an engagement rate of 4.96%, surpassing the 1.21% on Instagram and 0.37% on YouTube.
So why the hesitation with TikTok, the world’s 7th most used social network?
The demographics of the users may have something to do with it.
It is true that last year in the US alone, 32.5% users were aged between 10 and 19. TikTok appears to have taken the place of Vine as the go-to outlet for creative expression particularly among young people. However, data is promising that even as users age, their fondness for the app remains. There was an increase in the use of Douyin, the Chinese version of the app, in people aged 31-35 in 2020 compared to the previous year (15.6% vs. 20.6%). And small increases were also seen in the older age categories.
The recent global pandemic also reaffirmed the need for greater human connectivity. Messaging and text were no longer sufficient. If we couldn’t see each other face-to-face, we at least need to see each other through our electronic devices. According to VP of global business solutions and head of sales at TikTok, different generations came together to enjoy the mobile platform during COVD lockdown as parents, grandparents and children viewed their favourite TikTok accounts during bonding time.
Big brands such as PROCTOR & GAMBLE, Under Armour and Cheerios appeared to be ahead of the game having already used advertising campaigns to uniquely spread their messages via TikTok.
It maybe time for other big businesses to jump on the phenomena that is TikTok. The creative, fun, joyful twist to market their brands maybe the boost they need to reach not only Gen Z that would eventually grow up, but also other age groups, who are slowly but surely warming up to the prospect of the short mental relief offered by TikTok videos.
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