The meteoric rise of TikTok changed the course of the industry and altered the way people use social media. For those unfamiliar with the app, it is a platform for making and sharing short videos. It also assertively floods your feed with engaging content. Within five minutes, a user can watch enough content to lead a debate on a conspiracy theory, start a dance crew and learn how to make lemon meringue pie. TikTok’s user algorithm is the one every other social media company wants to beat, but it’s also the best-kept secret in the industry right now.
TikTok Users and Demographic Shifts
At first glance, TikTok looks like a world curated and occupied strictly by millennials and Gen Z. While those demographics are not necessarily wrong, if the evolution of social media has taught us anything – its that demographics shift. TikTok’s high level of engagement sets it apart from other social networks, and while the platform isn’t saturated with advertising (yet), many B2C companies have reaped the incredible results through product campaigns and challenges. Diving into the TikTok demographics, 48% of users are ages 18-29 and 22% are ages 30-49. And while you may be inclined to think that skews on the younger side, 74% of 21-40 year-olds are involved in buying decisions for their companies. The TikTok demographics feel much more favorable for B2B brands when you see it like this.
How B2B Brands Can Excel on TikTok
Despite it being one of the fastest growing social media platforms today, TikTok is still unchartered territory for B2B brands. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad platform for reaching niche B2B audiences. Like many platforms that came before the video-centric app, a brand’s social presence largely depends on creating the right strategy, approach and channels to connect and engage their target audience. B2B brands who have successfully “entered the chat” of TikTok have one thing in common: they’re not sharing the same content they do on LinkedIn and Twitter. Marketers have studied the entertaining features of TikTok and found ways to fit into conversations and trends happening on the platform to resonate with its users. Through experimentation and patience, B2B has found an entrance into a new social media landscape created for dance challenges and lip-syncing.
Examples of B2B Brands Making TikTok Work
Need some inspiration? Here are a few B2B brands who are making TikTok work for their marketing strategy.
- Sage provides software and solutions to manage accounting, HR, payroll, payments, assets, construction, real estate, and enterprise systems. They ran two campaigns on TikTok that encouraged user-generated content (UGC) by offering cash prizes to businesses who used their hashtags.
- Apex Motion Control is a full-service automation company that creates robots for the food manufacturing industry. They have taken advantage of pop culture trends and adopted a more humorous approach to sharing content to engage their audience.
- Zoom the video conferencing software you’ve almost definitely used this past year. They’re using TikTok to share updates about features, dispel myths and poke fun at the work-from-home life users have already been sharing.
- Square is a digital payments processing platform. They’re using TikTok to highlight small businesses who use their solutions to help raise visibility for those businesses. Their strategy makes it less about them and focuses more on UGC to show the variety of ways entrepreneurs could use Square while creating a supportive community for their current users.
The Future of B2B on TikTok
TikTok has been evolving its reputation as a source for quick entertainment. It’s becoming an educational platform that has helped people acquire new skills, get inspired and learn more. TikTok has allowed brands to appeal to their audience in a human and entertaining way. Establishing an emotional connection to an audience can help B2B brands appear trustworthy, reliable, and most importantly – relatable. Whether B2B brands create a TikTok strategy that focuses on creating informational content or choose to take more humorous approach, the key is to build focus on your goals and anchor your approach in your brand identity. The bottom line is that TikTok is an app worth experimenting with and with the right approach, your B2B business might find their key audience.
