How to Use TikTok for Business

In the blink of the pandemic, TikTok has diversified from a fun social platform primarily for teens to a powerful business boosting tool. 

Teenagers and Gen Z will soon be the biggest consumer category, and millions of them are spending time on TikTok. How to get their attention, you wonder? Great content is the way to go. Building great content and gathering an audience with potential may take time, but with the right tactics and persistence, it will pay off. 

Here we explain the basic strategy of using TikTok for business and give tips on how to increase the chance of landing on your target users’ “For You” feeds. 

9 Steps to Implementing a TikTok Strategy for Your Business Goals

TikTok is surpassing major social media platforms in popularity, including Twitter and Pinterest. It’s a seemingly straightforward medium for posting and viewing short videos, but the amount of users and rising competition make the mission of attracting users anything but simple. 

We suggest implementing the basics and building from there. The following tips are all you need to get you started.

1. Open a TikTok Business Account

Like other social media, creating a TikTok account is free. If you want to use it to promote your business and grow a following of potential users of your product or service, you need to create a business account. The process is easy:

• Sign up using your email, phone, Facebook, Google, or Twitter account
• If you’re using email or phone, you’ll need to provide basic info (date of birth, email address or phone number)
• Choose a username that corresponds to your brand and your business goals
• Go to Settings → Manage Account → Switch to Pro Account (Business)

Note that the option of switching to the business account is only available on TikTok’s mobile app. 

You can use the platform’s metrics and insights about your users and your account’s performance only with the business/creator account.

Optimize your profile by uploading a catchy profile image that represents your brand and use a CTA in your profile bio. 

2. Determine Your Target Audience and Get Inside Their Heads

The key to success is to carefully research your target audience before starting any activity on TikTok. With over a billion active users in all age groups, you’ll likely find followers. However, you need to know your demographic to be able to provide valuable content. 

Backlinko has an excellent, comprehensive guide to TikTok user statistics for 2022 and it’s a good place to start gathering information about the platform’s users, demographics, growth rate, and user earnings. 

3. Analyze the Competition and Influencers

You also need to analyze your competition, popular creators, and influencers to understand what they’re doing right and find ways to offer similar or better content. Check out their videos’ length, format, what type of content they provide, which effects they use, and how they engage with users. 

4. Connect with Other TikTok Users

Connect with subcultures and categories that can help you engage with your target users. Comment on other people’s posts, and once you start posting videos, reply to users who comment on your videos. Users feel more connected with brands that engage with them and show their personality. 

5. Start Planning Content

Once you know who your audience is and what the competition is offering them, you’re ready to provide content of value. 

Start with videos that your potential followers appreciate, such as tutorials, product reviews, professional advice, etc. Experiment with different content types until likes start increasing. 

Go to the Discover tab, tap Trends, and research trending hashtags to get ideas about your audience’s interests. 

Hashtag challenges are popular with TikTok users, so make sure you include them in your content strategy. 

6. TikTok Video Basics

Basic facts about the type of videos that rank better than others will help you skip trial and error in this department. 

The allowed duration of TikTok videos is 5 seconds to 3 minutes. If you want your viewers to see the whole video, aim for shorter clips of up to 15 seconds. 

Videos shot in the 9:16 vertical format have the highest watch-through rate, so keep that in mind.

You don’t need a professional camera and studio for TikTok videos. Most creators use their phones. However, you need to have a decent phone camera, microphone that can record clean audio, and good lightning. Low quality videos or sound are not likely to attract likes and followers. 

Easy-to-use video design software can help you create high-quality, professional-looking content without much hassle or advanced tech knowledge. 

7. Keep the Videos Engaging

If you have experience creating Instagram video ads, you’ll see that the principles of engaging video creation are similar. 

Make sure the first few seconds of your content are attention-grabbing, whether through movement, a catchy tune, captions with a powerful message, or some other creative intro. 

Use TikTok’s built-in features because users like the “domestic” feeling of familiar video effects. 

Use the original sound recorded on your video if it is clean. Otherwise, find a popular theme for your video. Pay attention to tracks that play at 120 or more beats per minute because they have the highest watch-rate.

Show creativity in your content by using features such as Stitch or Duets where you can incorporate parts of other people’s content into your own or collaborate with other creators to promote the same interests. 

Always look for new ways to keep your audience inspired and engaged.

8. Post Your Content

If you did a good job researching your target audience, you know when they’re usually online and when is the best time to publish your content. Regularly keep track of their activities in the Video Views section in TikTok analytics.

If you’re just getting started and still don’t have enough information about your target audience, TikTok suggests that the best posting frequency is one to four times per day. 

The videos on each user’s For You page are usually not older than a few days, so it’s important to post regularly and when your target audience is the most active.  

Remember to check out your competitors’ videos that target the same audience as you, to see which videos have the most likes and when they were posted. 

You’ll need to experiment with posting times until you reach the desired performance indicators.

Some general guidelines include posting in the morning on workdays and in the afternoon or evening on weekends.

9. Analyze Your Success

Use TikTok Analytics to figure out if you’re on the right track regarding your business goals. 

The Overview section lets you see overall stats from the period you choose, e.g., last week or month. 

The Content section gives you information about each of your posts and videos, including views, likes, comments, shares, and more. 

In the Follower tab, you can learn more about your followers’ demographics and when they are active. 

The Live section gives you information about your live videos’ performance. 

You’ll need to spend some time learning how to track the right metrics in the analytics section and how to use the information to improve content to reach a wider audience. Just remember, it’s your best alley in achieving your business goals.