Should your Brand Really have a TikTok Account?

It’s no secret that TikTok has exploded onto the cultural scene in the past few years. The short video format famous for its dancing, entertaining, educating… and its natural, no-filter style, has well and truly disrupted how we use and interact with social media (and I don’t use the word ‘disrupted’ lightly).

TikTok users have seen their accounts grow like wildfire. ‘Going viral’ is very much attainable. And its video-first approach has opened up a whole new creativity that its users (and early adopters — mainly Gen Z) relish.

It’s the reason Instagram panicked at the competition and introduced ‘Reels’, and why we’ve seen YouTube pivot into ‘Shorts’. It’s the social media platform that every brand and marketing team worth its salt has either tapped into, or has its eyes firmly on.

But is TikTok right for your brand? It could be, but not always.

When it comes to deciding whether you should dive into another social media platform, think about your business goals and your audience first. Also think about what you, as a brand, represent, and what message you want to give.

If you’re a B2B business offering educational CPD (continued professional development) content, your audience will benefit from webinars, ebooks and white papers (and you’ll generate more leads as this content is often gated). Your audience will likely spend their social media time on LinkedIn, so that’s where you should show up too. Is your audience looking for that kind of content on TikTok? Probably not.

If you’re a skincare brand, your audience will benefit from educational ‘how to’ videos that detail the steps in a skincare routine or show how much to use of each product. They’ll also want advice on what product to use if their skin is dry or sensitive, for example. Is your audience on TikTok? Yes, probably.

Always think about who your target audience is and where they spend their time. What content are they sharing? How do they talk about the topics or products they’re sharing? Keeping them and their behaviours in mind will help keep your content efforts focused.

Parts of this article are taken from my book, ‘Making Content Work: Tips, tools and templates for your brand or business’. Available now on Amazon, in paperback or Kindle.