Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock, there’s no way you can’t have heard of Tik Tok. If you’ve got kids under the age of 25 living under that rock with you, then you’ve definitely heard of it.
You know video consumption is on the rise
In fact, the stats on video consumption growth were big before Covid19. Did you realise just how big?
- 68% of consumers say the pandemic has impacted the amount of video they’ve watched online
- Unsurprisingly the vast majority (96%) say the amount has increased since last year
- People watch an average of 18 hours of video online each week. That’s up 2 hours a week on 2019, and up 7.5 hours over the last three years
- 94% have watched a video to learn more about a product or service
(If you want to read more stats like these, I recommend downloading the Wyzowl State of Video Marketing 2021)
So, if that’s the growth, surely your business should be on TikTok, right?
Four reasons you shouldn’t be on TikTok
Before you get carried away, here’s some things to think about:
- You don’t have time to get to know the platform, to see what works, what people enjoy and engage with
- Your customers are not on there
- Your brand doesn’t lend itself to lighthearted, humourous, entertaining content, or laughing at itself
- You don’t have the time to develop your skill, or a team member’s, to produce content people will engage with
Let’s look at each of those in turn
Have you got the time to get to know TikTok?
How many social media accounts do you keep going at the moment? Are you consistently putting out the kind of content that your customers are excited by and engage with?
Is your company blog is a wealth of useful content, and you’re able to promote it effectively in all your other channels?
Does your newsletter go out regularly and people open it, read it, enjoy it? They take the actions you hoped for. They share it with other people. Your subscriber list is growing.
If all of those things are true, and you can dedicate some time to adding another channel, then maybe you could consider TikTok.
Your customers are not on there
If I tell you Coca Cola have a TikTok account, but have uploaded zero content, do you feel better? Or that Heinz Baked Beans have only two videos? And there is no sign of Oatly (the business) on the platform.
Yet.
Remember Twitter and Instagram were once small, niche and the vast majority of people were not active on there. But there comes a time when a majority of people are.
Yes, there can be an advantage to being there early, but only if we can be honest about having the time to learn it and do it well.
At this stage, the vast majority of users fall into the 16 to 30 bracket. If that’s your target, then you might want to think about if you can find any time.
Your brand isn’t light-hearted
Kittens. Puppies. Children. Dance challenges. Food challenges.
That’s the kind of stuff that TikTok loves. It’s not a serious platform. It’s about fun, light-hearted, visually pleasing and following popular trends.
If you can do all that, and it be authentic to your brand, then it might be for you. Probably not right for you if you’re in the funeral business.
You don’t have time to learn how to make engaging videos
This is not just about quality of your video. Let’s face it, most phones should be good enough for this, but lighting might be something to consider.
It’s more about taking the time to plan out a video with a story to it. Even fun, light-hearted videos can be based in a story, particularly if they are going to capture people’s attention.
There’s plenty of inspiration on there, but do you have the time to spend looking at, thinking what your version of it would be, and then filming it yourself? Maybe you have a team member who would be up for this, but there’s still a learning phase to commit to.
How did you do?
If you had a yes to all four, then perhaps it’s time to dive on in. Maybe spend some time just lurking. Find a friendly teenager to show you round. They’ll probably also have some great ideas on creating the right kind of content as well.
TikTok have launched a Creator Portal which is a great place to start to learn the basics. Find some brands and other creators who make stuff that resonates with you, and seems to produce good engagement.
And maybe start brushing up on your sea shanties.
There’ll always be another one along
Anyone remember when Vine was the thing of the month? Or MySpace? These platforms can come and go, and not every one of them makes it to be as big as Twitter or Instagram.
I’ve written this about TikTok, but you might also be thinking about Clubhouse which is making a lot of noise at the moment. The four questions probably hold true for whatever platform you’re considering. Some of them will be here for the long term, some will disappear.
If you don’t have the resources to be good everywhere, then maybe it’s best to concentrate on being incredible in one or two places. Be of the most use to the people you want in your gang in the places they spend the most time in, even if that’s not the newest shiniest thing.
The best content is about them, not us.
