You Can't Afford to Ignore TikTok

I joined TikTok in 2019 and, at least initially, understood it no better than its predecessor Music.ly. It seemed like it was nothing more than a tween-centered platform where kids could lip-sync to their favorite new songs and perform tightly choreographed mini-dances.

That perspective feels like a millennia ago. By September of 2019, I was telling people to get ready for TikTok, to try it out, or at least become a TikTok content consumer. At the time, though, most people, especially Gen Xers and Boomers, scoffed at me. “It’s a platform for kids. Why would I ever join or waste my time on it?”

The pandemic gave us all nothing but time. Trapped at home with little but our families and phones to console us, millions turned to the nascent platform, and many started to create.

As I’m sure you’re aware, TikTok is now a cultural kingmaker. In the music industry, in particular, a viral TikTok song can easily become a chart-topping hit. But it’s not just music. People are turning to TikTok for real information and valuable tips.

Recently, I saw a TikTok where someone used Off bug spray to clean off their car’s fogged-up headlight plastic. TikTok is awesome because not only does it have wild tips like this, but it features almost instantaneous fact-checking. A popular duo called “PartyShirt” fact check wild TikTok claims by test-driving them in their own TikToks. It’s like the 21st Century version of a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

The Secret to TikTok Success Is There Is No Secret | by Lance Ulanoff | Debugger (medium.com)

When I told my daughter what I was preparing to do, adding that I saw it on TikTok, she groaned, but then asked, “Did PartyShirt fact check it?”

I told her they did and then she ran over to see the results. It worked like a charm.

We’re at, I think, another TikTok tipping point where small and medium-sized businesses and brands are deciding if they should tip-toe onto the platform, especially after the Biden Administration pulled back on Trump’s threatened ban (TikTok is owned by China-based ByteDance) and is now just taking a broader look at Chinese owned-tech firms. There is, as far as I can tell, little urgency to the current White House’s actions.

With that concern sidelined, the question you should be asking is, “Why TikTok?”

I think the current demographics, according to Omnicore Agency, make a compelling case for every marketer to get familiar with the platform and to start preparing some TikTok-friendly content. The stats:

• Male TikTok users: 53%
• Female: 47%

Global audience:

• Approximately 50% under 34
• 32.5% between 10 and 19 years old
• 41% between 16 and 24
• 21.7% are between 30 and 39
• Roughly 30% are 40 and over

TikTok is regularly the number one app in Apple's App Store and once people download it, they can't get off it. Most users spend almost an hour a day on TikTok (I bet many respondents are lying here and that they spend far more than an hour...okay, maybe that's just me).

Despite TikTok’s tween roots, it, like so many social platforms before it, is aging up. It’s now in the sweet spot of desirable demographics and essentially open to messaging that ranges from silly comedy to business ideas and even complex science and technology (especially with the new 3-minute video limit).

Plus, the TikTok algorithms that make it so addictive are the same ones that can help steer the right messages to the right people.

TikTok is not a perfect platform. It suffers from many of the same issues you find on other, more established social media environments. Still, I think TikTok is acting more aggressively to root out undesirable content (sometimes to a fault) than Facebook or Twitter ever has.

For you businesspeople, however, this is your moment of reckoning. Get on board, launch your TikTok channel, and hire someone who understands the platform to start creating excellent content. Or continue ignoring TikTok while your competitors eat your lip-syncing, dancing, tip-friendly lunch.