TikTok best practises: for brands & influencers

TikTok is the world’s most downloaded social media app for short-form videos.

With its rising popularity, TikTok has presented a unique opportunity for brands who want to connect with their target audience on the platform.

Here are some best practices marketers and influencers on TikTok need to follow:

Write engaging descriptions

As we’ve recently witnessed, TikTok has now increased the maximum length of video descriptions from 300 characters to 2,200. As TikTok is quickly becoming the go-to search engine for finding information, the app is continuously testing features that identify keywords. The description serves a practical purpose and could be very useful for marketing.  Just as you would for your website and blog posts, ensuring you implement SEO and are including keywords in your description, determines which videos get placed at the top of TikTok search results pages and in turn allows your content to be more discoverable. Don’t forget to keep descriptions concise, meaningful and real-life to represent the home-grown feel of the app.

Harness influencers

Brand collaborations with influencers drive real results. It’s not about high production value or polish; it’s about being authentic and personable. Influencers are experts in creating content that truly resonates with their trusted and loyal communities, meaning they are a brilliant way to engage with your target audience. TikTok research shows that TikTok-specific branded content (user-generated, in partnership with influencers and created for TikTok) is watched +13% longer than non-TikTok specific content – and it’s preferred by consumers. More than half (54%) of TikTok users agree that influencers posting sponsored content or collaborations with brands on TikTok is what they want to see from brands, while 62% feel it is the best way for a brand to connect with consumers.

The power of storytelling

Storytelling has always been an important part of success on TikTok. But as the platform becomes more popular, this makes it a whole lot harder to get onto the For You Page.

Effective storytelling speaks to the heart and not just the head. Think about the creative freedom you allow influencers to have that will really hit home and connect with their audience. Longer- term you’ll see a significant impact on your brand equity.

Find a balance

Going viral isn’t something you can incorporate into your marketing strategy. Instead of trying to go viral, it is a much better strategy to strike a balance between entertaining and promotional content. 

The FYP experience means that you need to understand what makes your audience ‘tik’ and present content that captivates and engages those individuals. With each marketing campaign, it’s important to assess the key reporting metrics of the campaign and what the predicted vs the actual metrics show.

Keep it short and sweet

In general, TikTok videos should be kept short (around 15 seconds) as the audience on this platform already expects brief content. Ultimately, the length of your TikToks should make sense for the message you’re trying to get across, but as TikTok reported overall they see that shorter videos perform better. 1 in 4 top-performing videos have a duration between 21 and 34 seconds and see, on average, a 1.6% lift in impressions.

Want to find out more about how Flourish MGMT can help your brand on TikTok? Get in touch marketing@flourishmgmt.co.uk