Can TikTok Work for Influencer Marketing?

in Influencer Marketing

It may be hard to believe that anything could overtake Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, but there’s a new kid on the social media block that is taking Gen Z by storm. TikTok is a music-based app that seems to have replaced Vine as the short-video app of the next generation.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a short-form video social media app that allows users to sing, act, and lip-sync with added music, sound effects, and other sound bytes in a 15-second clip. According to their site, TikTok’s “mission is to empower and share the world’s imagination, knowledge, and moments that matter. The platform is a home for creative expression through videos that create a genuine, inspiring, and joyful experience.”

Along with uploading videos, TikTok users can also add their own sound effects, reply to other TikTok videos (which creates a split-screen view of both videos), and more–delivering on their mission of creativity and fun.

Market Growth of TikTok

This mission for fun has helped TikTok grow over the last 2+ years of global availability. TikTok is available in 150 markets and in 75 languages and has 500 million TikTok monthly active users.

According to venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, TikTok users spend 52 minutes per day using the app. In Statista’s list of top social media platforms, TikTok outperforms Twitter and Snapchat. After achieving these numbers in just ~3 total year of existence and ~2 years of global availability, all signs point to TikTok continuing to grow. All this means it has a huge reach for potential influencers and brands.

Influencer Marketing and TikTok

Because the platform is still fairly new, there are many popular TikTok creators who fall into the micro-influencer category (though there are definitely influencers on TikTok with millions of fans). For brands looking to brand into the short-form video app and utilize influencer marketing strategies, micro-influencers are an easy way to test the waters in new social media territory.

Just like micro-influencers who got popular on Vine, TikTok allows regular people to showcase their creativity and performance styles.

Popular micro-influencer creators range across many genres on TikTok including the following:

@leonabboud is a fitness coach and garnered popularity as the “Jump Rope Mentor”
@leticiafgomes is popular for her makeup transformations into celebrities, characters, and more.
@soxsoul performs stunts and fitness exhibitions on this TikTok channel.

Brand Study: Guess #InMyDenim

Another way brands are reaching Gen Z on TikTok is through sponsored hashtag campaigns. “As TikTok users open the app, they are directed to the #InMyDenim challenge that urges them to post videos with the hashtag” according to Mobile Marketer.

Along with the promoted hashtag, Guess is utilizing influencer marketing with the support of popular TikTok content creators including @ourfire, a couple known for their colorful hair and fun videos, and @madison_willow, among others.

Coca Cola #ShareaCoke

To revamp the #ShareaCoke campaign, Coca Cola replaced the names on cans and bottles with lyrics from popular songs. The perfect place to promote song-themed soda seemed to be TikTok–where users can lip-sync to 15-second clips of their favorite tunes.

This allowed Coca Cola to be a part of the creative process for TikTok creators and promote their rebranded bottles. “In total, more than 900,000 videos from the target group were submitted with a combined range of 200 million views,” according to TikTokCreators.com.

Reach Gen Z on TikTok

While TikTok continues to grow globally, the majority of its users are between 16-24 years old. Research shows that Generation Z comprises 32% of the world’s population, making it the largest generational grouping right now.

As such, Gen Z influences $600 billion in family spending. It’s a generational cohort that will soon be breaking into the job market, increasing the amount available to invest in brands they stand behind, which is why it’s crucial that brands meet them where they currently are online and build relationships.

To learn more about new ways to use influencer marketing, check out our latest ebook or schedule a demo of Sideqik’s all-in-one influencer marketing platform.

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Nancy Rothman

Nancy is a passionate, results-driven marketing executive with more than a decade of experience in building robust integrated marketing programs for brands of all sizes, with specific expertise in the martech space. Prior to Sideqik, Nancy held roles at four successful martech startups, each of which received multiple series of fundraising and included two acquisitions. At CallRail, specifically, Nancy served as the director of marketing where she built the company’s brand and established it as a leader in its space. She also held roles at MeetEdgar, where she oversaw the entire sales and marketing practice, increasing the company's user base and annual recurring revenue, as well as PureCars, which was acquired by Raycom Media in 2015. As vice president of marketing for Sideqik, Nancy is responsible for developing and executing on the company's marketing strategy to drive overall business growth.