TikTok has become a huge social media platform, with more than a billion monthly users; it reaches a massive audience of mainly (but not only) younger people, and it’s still growing fast.
It’s very relevant to FBA sellers for several reasons. First of all, one of the prominent hashtags on TikTok is #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt – influencers often share their favorite finds with this tag. Another really strong hashtag is #amazonfinds, with 26 billion views so far. About 20% of Amazon buyers now start their journeys on TikTok, so it’s a great place to advertise.
It’s also worth noting that users’ engagement with TikTok is way higher than with other social media platforms, particularly for micro-influencers. It’s particularly good for beauty and fashion, DIY and home decor, life hacks and pets. There are plenty of recipes, too, and there’s even a tag devoted to videos about how to get things really clean. You guessed it, #CleanTok!
So using TikTok will really increase your brand presence, and should help you win sales.
It all started by being about remixing, using TikTok’s extensive a sounds library; for instance, kids made lip-synch videos of pop songs, and Barbie doll or Lego re-enactments. Memes and crazes spread really fast on TikTok.
It has really strong personalization algorithms, so users will get content relevant to their demographic and age, and according to their interests. That means if someone gets your video, it will be someone who actually wants to see content about your product sector.
Before you make any videos, do a little research to find out the popular hashtags and trends. Take a look at popular videos to understand what makes them tick. Find out if there are any challenges, tunes, or memes you can use in your videos. And find out who are the major influencers in your space.
Then you can start putting videos together. Keep your videos short and snappy. You need to get your audience’s attention in 8 seconds and finish in well under a minute to have a good chance of going viral.
You need a good, simple storyline, whether it’s “before and after”, “how I fixed this”, or showing how a life hack works really quickly. Or you might run, very simply, how to make a cocktail – measure, shake, pour. If you can’t put the storyline in two or three words or images, it’s too long for TikTok.
Use the right hashtags. Use trending hashtags, as well as ones which work for your product. Look for challenges that you can join, or viral ideas that you can work out a unique twist on. Use popular Sounds to get your videos into the fast stream.
Engage with viewers, particularly if you can encourage user generated content (UGC). For instance, if you sell dog stuff, and you have a smart pooch, get him to do some tricks, then ask TikTokers what cool tricks their dogs can do. Think about how to get the ball rolling.
Part of that engagement needs to be making videos every other day, at the very least. You can’t do one a month like you can with Youtube. And although it should go without saying, don’t make your videos too salesy. The key to TikTok is to entertain or enlighten; either get a laugh, or show your users a hack they’ll really want to use.
The best thing of all is that this is all free; you just need your smartphone. But if you want to have links to your Amazon pages, and get loads of analytics on how your videos are doing, it can be worth upgrading to a Pro account. You can also use paid advertising on TikTok, but you’ll get much better results from it if you engage with TikTok as a user for a while first.