When you think of TikTok, you might relate it to lip-syncing videos, laughing at funny trends, or even makeup and cooking tutorials. What you might not know is that TikTok is also a great resource for small businesses to promote their brand! With the social platform growing every single day, there are currently over 800 million active users. This gives you a great opportunity to connect and share your business in a fun and creative way that has the potential to reach the most people on any platform. Here is a guide to help you when it comes to Marketing on TikTok and why you should consider trying it out for your small business!

Let's start by breaking it down and explaining just what a "TikTok" is! A TikTok is a video that starts from 15 seconds up to 3 mins and can follow nearly any format. However, the most viral TikTok tends to include lip-syncing or dancing to a popular song or using recognizable meme formats.

TikTok offers a whole section just for businesses called TikTok for business. This division of the platform offers various solutions for companies/ small businesses to promote themselves. There are a few ways you can utilize TikTok for business, one of them being ads. TikTok ads appear in between videos on the app and are often creative and look similar to a regular TikTok video! There are other formats you can do as well, as long as you are able to create unique, short content to get noticed on the platform.

When it comes to engagement on this platform, TikTok is a naturally engaging social that can be used to attract the audience you want to turn into customers. For example, doing "hashtag challenges" how-to videos, or even trending song parodies are great ways to get your audience engaged and turn them into potential customers.

Working with TikTok influencers to make a video using or showing your product is a great way to approach marketing as well. Keep in mind that you pay for the influencer's time, but the ad content and reach will be 100% organic and can significantly pay off.

Keep in mind that TikTok's user base is mostly made of younger people, so as a business, you shouldn't miss on cultural and generational references and respect. If you aren't genuine with what you put out content-wise like language and memes, you most likely won't be as successful in your marketing effort. So take time to learn the trends and current jokes and "hip" words, and it will reflect well upon your content.

As always, the best advice I can personally give is to enjoy the content you are creating and people will see the genuineness behind the content and will more than likely flock to whatever you are trying to advertise or sell. Don't be afraid to have fun with TikTok and try new trends and music to seem more relatable to your audience! This social media platform is growing every day and there are endless opportunities and trends for everyone on there! Have fun and see what your creative sparks can create on the wonderful platform of TikTok!