TikTok Social Commerce Guide
TikTok has come a long way from being the dancing app that was created in 2017. It has become a platform where people, from all over the world, are free to express themselves in every way possible. With over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok is the most engaging social media platform, with its usual session length averaging 10.85 minutes, according to Backlinko. For business owners yearning to grow their business TikTok may be one of the best things to have ever happened to you.
TikTok has allowed major brands like Kylie Cosmetics, Rare Beauty, Levi’s and more to grow their businesses by reaching an increase in market. However, this not mean that one must be a celebrity, or even have an existing customer base to grow a business on TikTok. To grow your business on this rapidly increasing platform, you only need to do one thing. Go viral!
Trends on TikTok can be come and go like waves. As reported by MSN, TikTok trends are relatively brief, most lasting for only a week or a few days. In relation to expanding or developing your consumer sales, participating in trends can help in increasing awareness of whatever goods or services you plan on selling. The way you approach a trend can vary, it could be using a trending sound or showing your product entwined with the latest dances. Whatever the trend might be, once you approach it, you are one step closer to becoming viral.
While becoming viral using trends seems to be a simple approach, it may turn out to be useless if the right demographics are not targeted. When planning on how to reach your intended audience, the answer is simple, use hashtags. #EasyRight? Hashtags are used in order for TikTok to know the type of users to push your video to. For example, imagine a sports oriented user seeing your makeup based product from your video. Now picture this happening a thousand times. You see that you are getting views, however your product sales remain stagnant. This is what hashtags avoid. Once you cultivate the power of finding the right hashtags to use, you have unlocked a new feature. #Let’sgoviral.
The power of sharing is highly underestimated, however, it shouldn’t be. Once you enter the realm of TikTok with the purpose of selling, you have also entered the realm of persuasion. You have 15 seconds to 3 minutes to convince millions of people to do three things: Continue watching your video, buy whatever you are trying to sell, and share it.
It goes without saying that your video needs to be interesting, hence it needs to be shareable. Instead of using your time frame, giving your viewers the benefits of your products and reasons why they should buy it, engage with your audience by showing instead of telling.
Companies like Walmart, display their products in such a way that whoever watches their video feels the urge to purchase it. In addition to making your video shareable, it is also essential to make it easy for your audience to be able to engage with your video by liking, commenting and even watching the entirety of video as it helps the TikTok algorithm in pushing your content forward.
In 2020, TikTok partnered up with Canadian e-commerce company Shopify. This partnership has become a game changer for every business owner using TikTok. It has allowed people interested in expanding their brand to set up stores on TikTok. The process to do this are so simplified it takes no time at all!
The first steps would be to install the Shopify TikTok app and then set up your TikTok business account. For those who do not have a business account, Shopify gives you the option to create a new one.
After you finish creating your Shopify account, your access to TikTok users has become limitless. However, for business owners looking for the cheapest way to promote their brands, Shopify does come with a cost.
Additionally, unlike other platforms it is very easy to skip a TikTok ad, seeing as it appears like a normal TikTok video. Nevertheless, if your video is captivating enough, less people will skip.
In summary, seeing as TikTok is still trying to make its mark with viewers older than 24, most viewers would be from generation Z. This means that whatever content you make should appeal to them and not the minority. Every hashtag should be relevant as well as trendy in order to increase the chances of going viral. When creating your business bio, use links to take potential customers to your website or other social media platforms to avoid restricting yourself to TikTok solely. TikTok became a game changer for an app that is still somewhat new to the social media game, but because of that any business owner using it can become a game changer too.