TikTok for Brands

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06 MIN.

Did you Know TikTok Users Are the Most Engaged?

When it comes to social media marketing, engagement is everything. And TikTok users are the most engaged of all.

Nahla Davies

Nahla Davies

Did you Know TikTok Users Are the Most Engaged?
Summary

It’s true. When it comes to social media marketing, engagement is everything. And TikTok users are the most engaged of all. 

The most crucial metric that businesses look for is engagement. When users are engaged with content, they are more likely to visit web pages and serve up conversions. There are many options to distribute social media campaigns that connect and engage audiences. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have been top choices for firms that want to improve content engagement. But TikTok is quickly becoming one of the best social media platforms for brands to use for advertising. 

This is a deep dive into how TikTok enables user engagement and how marketers can improve engagement metrics using this up-and-coming app. 

Who uses TikTok?

TikTok used to be considered an app for GenZ, but now attracts audiences of all ages and demographics across the world. Parents, grandparents, teenagers, young adults, and even kids get on TikTok to see the latest from their favorite accounts, and discover new content. 

Unlike other social media platforms, a recent report revealed that people go to TikTok to be entertained, not to connect with friends. It was also noted that people spend about 50 minutes per day using Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Plus, TikTok users are spending 10x as many hours in the app than Reels users.

How TikTok engages users

User interaction plays a huge role in video rankings on TikTok, making it the perfect tool for marketing to users with specific interests. In the early stages of the app, the algorithm was largely a mystery to marketing firms and small businesses. Figuring out how to land videos on the For You page involved a lot of trial and error. However, TikTok has recently revealed how they engage users so that teams can use the app to target specific niches, test various video ads, and build their following. 

User interaction

In a similar vein to Instagram’s algorithm, TikTok shows users videos similar to those they interact with the most. 

For example, you’re scrolling through your For You page on TikTok, and you see a video where a person is explaining their experience at a particular restaurant. The restaurant has a low-key vibe and matches your aesthetic, so you tap the heart and leave a comment. TikTok then uses that interaction as an indicator to show you more videos about vibey restaurants, that restaurant in particular, and even more talking head videos on your FYP (For You page). 

But the TikTok algorithm measures more than just likes and comments. Video completion rate is another factor that indicates to TikTok a viewer’s level of interest in a specific video topic. The algorithm assumes the user enjoyed the video when a user watches a video from start to finish. However, if a user watches only a few seconds of a video before swiping, then TikTok will know to show the viewer fewer videos like that one. 

Video information

Another way that TikTok engages users depends on the information attached to a video. TikTok offers users a variety of sounds to add to videos, plus you can also write a caption and include hashtags so that users can find your videos via search. But that information is also used by TikTok’s algorithm to discover what kind of music or specific sounds a user likes, which hashtags they are most likely to enjoy, and what kind of written content a viewer is interested in. 

For example, if a user constantly searches for a certain sound, then TikTok will start showing them videos that contain that sound. Similarly, if a user spends a lot of time looking at videos with a certain hashtag, the algorithm will give them more content related to that hashtag. This video information tells users what a video is about and tells the algorithm what kind of content people want to see on their FYP. 

Knowing this crucial detail about hashtags and sounds, brands should incorporate popular sounds and targeted hashtags so that their videos reach the right audiences. 

Account settings

Finally, TikTok has said they also look at a user’s device and account settings to learn which content they might be interested in. Language preferences and country settings also tell the algorithm to show users more videos from people in their own country and in languages they can understand. 

Although these settings affect what videos will appear on a viewer's FYP, interactions, likes, and comments will have a more direct effect. For example, a user in Canada likes several videos posted by users in the UK and Australia and watches them all to completion. The algorithm will override the user’s country settings and continue to show them content from the countries they are interested in. 

How to grow your TikTok following

While videos from accounts with a large following tend to gain more views than accounts with fewer followers, the follower count does not affect the recommendation system that TikTok uses. That means every single video posted on TikTok has the potential to go viral. And since TikTok pays creators with loyal followings and viral videos, many users make extra money with TikTok.

A large following on TikTok can indicate high user engagement and give you a broader platform to run marketing campaigns. But it takes more than optimizing your TikTok content to grow your following. 

Here are some parting tips to help you grow your following on TikTok and make your brand stand out:

  1. Focus on security

Customer privacy and security is a top priority for consumers in an age where cyberattacks are common. It’s essential that your customer information is secure when you accept payments, or else you could be the star of a not-so-flattering TikTok trend. Brands must ensure PCI compliance, meaning that they abide by financial regulations that enhance their security profile. Customer privacy builds trust, and trust means more engagement. 

  1. Make engaging content

The best way to grow your TikTok audience is to create engaging content that your target audiences want to see. From beginning to end, your TikTok videos need to be aesthetically pleasing with sounds and filters that attract customers and make them want to interact with your videos. Who knows, maybe one of your ads will go viral.

3. Integrate VoIP

VoIP helps businesses engage with customers over the phone online. When marketers launch several ads and videos on TikTok, it's a good practice to attach a different phone number to call or text depending on the ad, hashtags, or other factors. This enables marketers to track the performance of TikTok videos so that they can enhance their targeting strategy. There are VoIP providers that are very affordable at under $20 a month, making it accessible to most businesses advertising on TikTok. 

Final thoughts

As you can see, TikTok is a powerful tool to help businesses boost engagement and build lasting relationships with niche audiences. Other popular social media apps indeed support video marketing, and 85% of businesses are already incorporating video into their marketing campaigns. But TikTok approaches video marketing uniquely that no other app can compare to. It’s unique algorithms that allow brands to expand the reach of their video content and ensure that it ends up in front of the right audiences. 

About
the writer
Nahla Davies

Nahla Davies

Contributor @Iconosquare

Worked on large scale enterprise projects and built compliance teams at multiple Fortune 500 companies.

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