You can't miss the fact that TikTok is the fastest-growing social network in the last five years globally. That's only possible if you've been living in a cave or remote mountain hut during that period, with no cell coverage or connection to the outside world*.
Facebook is now for "old people" - that's what those born in the last century (including the writer of these lines) are like in the eyes of the new generation, which, full of energy, is entering socially active age. The generation that turned TikTok into a way of life.
Much of Gen Z's entertainment is connected to the social media platform in question, which once started as a simple lip sync app. So, given that we're talking primarily about entertainment, is it in the TikTok a place for serious things like business, for example? It turns out that not only is there such a place, but also that brands seeking promotion through the platform have been enjoying increasingly tangible success recently.
Advertising in TikTok plays an increasingly important role
And this is not empty talk, but data supported by statistics. For example, users who are excited about hygiene and appearance products follow such content in the social media in question particularly intensively. It turns out that one in four users interested in beauty items bought something after watching a promotional video on the topic . This is one of the bright examples, but it is far from the only one.
The beauty industry is particularly benefiting from the opportunities TikTok provides, but many other industries are also realizing that advertising and promoting businesses on the platform is playing an increasingly important role. It has long been more than just a mobile app for acrobatics and funny dances, but something far more impactful and large-scale.
According to Adobe data, over 50% of business owners in the US useTikTokto promote their business and brand . We're talking about an average of 9 posts per month - this social media requires constant activity, otherwise you risk ending up in the back rows, out of the spotlight.
Companies are intensifying the battle for a place under TikTok the sun
The competition, of course, is quite serious and will only get fiercer. We have seen it many times before, only with different manifestations - when a certain type and form of mass communication grows to a global scale, it invariably becomes an attractive place for manufacturers and traders.
Every business is looking for a kind of springboard to launch itself into the orbit of wider public attention. The “ancient” media such as the press, radio, television, as well as the earlier social media such as Facebook, Youtube, etc. have all gone through peaks of advertising and promotional materials. But with TikTok It seems like things happen a little differently.
We know that when you watch videos on YouTube, you get really stressed out by the commercials – you have to wait for the few obligatory seconds to pass before you can move on to what you're interested in. However, with TikTok, users themselves not only don't run away from commercial information, but they also somehow seek it out.
According to Statista data from last year, 38 percent of TikTokers are willing to watch an ad or engage with commercial content to access a free service or video. This is 4 percent higher than the average measured across other types of online media.
From a globally unknown brand to a well-known brand
According to data supported by Nielsen , 15% of customers learn about a new brand that was previously unknown to them from this platform . And a full 67% of users with a social media account say thatTikTok helps them gain knowledge and ideas about products they have never heard of before.
In this way TikTok can turn a globally unknown name into a brand known to the mass public in a relatively short time. It is faster and more convenient for the companies themselves to take advantage of the opportunities of this platform. It is already in Top 10 of the communication channels with the highest trust from businesses and will likely continue to climb.
Consumers themselves are active in promoting brands and products
Gen Z people have a different attitude towards product offerings and the way of shopping itself. To a much greater extent, the most active group of TikTok users relies on recommendations and guidance found within their community. And these groups are formed on the social network based on similar and close interests.
Users themselves are actually actively promoting the products and brands they like. According to a study by Adobe, the second most popular type of content on TikTok is product or service reviews, with nearly 40% of the platform’s regular customers interested in this type of content . This beats in popularity, albeit slightly, even personal stories (38%) and is second only to educational and training videos (so-called tutorials), which excite six out of every 10 users on the platform.
Buy something to lift your spirits.
Once again, we rely on statistics to note that TikTokers are 30% more likely than the rest of the audience to buy a new product to bring them joy. This in itself is not a one-sided positive or negative phenomenon.
From a negative perspective, we can say that the platform further reinforces consumerism – the search for happiness in purchases is often seen as a problem at the level of psychology and mentality. We are certainly talking about one of the problematic symptoms of modernity, but it was not created or generated by TikTok, nor from other social media - they rather play the role of a catalyst in its spread.
But once indiscriminate spending is controlled, consumers actually have a chance of being more satisfied with the product they paid for after a review, compared to traditional shopping. We have already mentioned how the opinion of the community of interests weighs heavily on TikTok. If the opinion of the majority, or at least a large percentage of a certain group, about a given product is taken into account, the likelihood that the purchase will bring disappointment definitely decreases.
So far we have only mentioned some of the aspects showing that TikTok It can be both entertainment and business. A platform with ever-growing potential is being opened up to manufacturers and retailers. Consumers themselves can become familiar with the commercial content that interests them, and thus filter the products and brands that appeal to them.
The trends already seem clearly formed and in the near future there are chances that they will strengthen, not change.
* In that case – congratulations! You “missed” an entire pandemic! But you are certainly returning to “interesting times” in which some explain how it is normal to allow themselves to use nuclear weapons because others don’t like the fact that the former allowed themselves to invade another country with their army.
