TikTok 101- Learning More About Influencer Promotions

Jaxon Holmes
Apr 15
6 min read

Information in this blog post was obtained from the Social Media Examiner, the Content Marketing Institute, and Social Media Today.

A girl sitting on the floor looking at a computer. — Image from Wix Media

Introduction

If you have access to the internet, chances are high that you have heard of TikTok. A majority of you have probably downloaded the popular social media content sharing app yourself. With billions of users, many big and small businesses have found incredible success by incorporating this social media platform into their marketing. Some businesses even start out with TikTok being their first introduction into the social media landscape. This app has reached people worldwide, and thus, it’s important for anyone trying to grow their consumer base to be aware of its many perks and potential challenges that the platform may present when you are using it to promote your business, ideas, or products. Even if you are familiar with TikTok’s algorithms and how content is generated and shared, you may not know all the tips and tricks to navigate the site and use it to its fullest potential. Whether you are a business owner, intern, or just want to learn more about how to successfully use TikTok from a marketing perspective, this post has got you covered.

What is TikTok?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the platform, TikTok is a social media app and website that is primarily used for sharing photos and videos. TikTok will then use its algorithm to show you similar content to that you may have liked, shared, commented on, or reposted. This is called the “For You Page”. As you discover more content, the algorithm will continuously update to show you newer and more relevant posts based on what you like or ignore. There is always something new for the platform to show you. Video posts can range in length; however, most are between 5-60 seconds, giving users short bursts of content before they can scroll on to the next post. It provides users with a constant stream of new content so they never get bored or feel unstimulated.

Features for Businesses

TikTok has a lot of features for businesses, such as the “TikTok Shop” and promotional ads that you can pay for to boost your content depending on what you are looking for. If your videos are getting lots of views, but you are not seeing an influx of followers, there are promotional packs available for purchase to specifically target audiences who will be more likely to follow or subscribe to your profile. There are similar packages available for people who specifically are looking for likes, comments, or an increase in video views. You can set your own budget for how much you’d like to spend on promotions, allowing businesses to customize the length or intensity of the promotion. This allows smaller businesses to grow without breaking their budgets.

A phone screen showing the download page for TikTok — Image from Unsplash

Influencer Marketing on TikTok

Another popular form of promotion is to use influencers to promote products for you. Many businesses will pay an already popular content user to promote their products on their page to their already amassed group of followers. This has been wildly successful on TikTok, with successful partnerships being able to increase views, subscribers, and sales. People have shown themselves to be more trusting of an influencer who they have been following or watching for a while, and thus, place more trust into the products or services that the influencer promotes. Many people are more likely to buy a product or visit a website once they “know” someone else who has previously endorsed or purchased that said product. However, this can also be somewhat difficult for smaller businesses to do as it often costs a lot of money to have a larger influencer promoting for you. Marketers must be careful of choosing the correct influencer for their product, as many influences have a specific type of content they produce, and thus, a specific audience type they have. If your influencer promotes a product to a large group of people who don’t show interest in the type of product or service that you are selling, the partnership won’t be as successful. For example, if you are wanting to promote a new line of makeup brushes, choosing an influencer who has promoted beauty products or creates content around the beauty industry would yield better results than choosing an influencer who doesn’t create that type of content. Keeping in mind the age, gender, location, and other demographics of the influencer’s audience is important when wanting to create a partnership on TikTok. Another important thing to keep in mind is that influencers can lose trust and popularity with their audiences just as quickly as they gain it, and thus, if an influencer you choose to promote your product suddenly loses popularity, so will the products they have promoted.

Influencer Marketing Risks

The other struggle many businesses face when trying to use influencers to promote their products and services is that influencers can reject promotional offers. If your business has a negative reputation already, or is newer and doesn’t have many reviews or sales, influencers will be less likely to agree to a contract because they don’t want to participate in a business partnership, they would consider risky. Many influencers have made their living off promoting and partnerships, and thus, don’t want to accidentally enter into an agreement with a business that may be unreliable. This would cause their audience to lose trust in them, and that would then damage the influencer’s views, subscribers, likes, revenue, and other businesses interested in partnering with them would lose trust in them as well. It can be very easy for one bad business partnership to ruin an influencer’s credibility. This is something that many smaller businesses struggle with. It can be a bit of a viscous cycle for many businesses. A new, smaller business wants to gain traction and trust to sell their product, but doesn’t have the popularity to do so, which could be achieved through a partnership with an already established influencer. However, the influencers see that the business does not have a lot of credibility, and don’t trust the business yet, and will not promote their products and services until they gain more trust from the community. You must already have some established trust to gain trust from the influencer and the influencer’s audience. The smaller businesses struggle with getting that initial level of trust and credibility, and the cycle repeats.

Finding Your Audience

It may take a few tries for a business to find the right influencer and audience to really be successful with their promotions. However, this then costs the business more money in marketing and campaign expenses they may not have available. Many businesses may start out with a different promotional strategy that does not require the use of an influencer to gain traction and then start using influencers to help continue to boost the business. The use of influencers can be a very quick, successful way to promote, but the risks involved and cost often scare away business owners and marketers. Knowing exactly the risks involved is helpful for marketers to consider before jumping into a partnership that may not be a good idea. It is important to evaluate the business needs before picking influencer marketing as the go-to strategy and making sure you know exactly what kind of audience you want your business to reach.

Wrap-Up

TikTok has been one of the most innovative and influential social media platforms in recent years, with its large number of users and reaching people around the world. What seemed to be a small community of creators has exploded into billions of users over the past several years and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. Now considered one of the essential social media apps to have, TikTok is a unique platform that all businesses should take a closer look at when starting their marketing journey. TikTok offers many different types of ways to promote your business, content, and products, one of which includes the use of influencers, or social media celebrities, to promote your business for you. This can help businesses gain quick traction and popularity and reach new audiences in record time. However, there are some risks associated with doing so, and often, the use of influencers does not come at a cheap price. Before jumping in to influencer marketing, its important for businesses to evaluate the risks and rewards of this type of marketing, as it may not be the best fit for every type of business.