TikTok Marketing

 TikTok is one of the biggest platforms at the moment for me. It certainly can suck you in and hold you in for hours, because the videos are so short. I catch myself getting on TikTok constantly, whenever I have a few minutes of downtime. The algorithm on TikTok seems to be one that is not very clear. While it seems to be straightforward, I notice myself getting on sides of the platform that I am not usually interested in. You have to be very careful about the videos you interact with, or you may end up with your For You page filled with videos containing the same topic. Once your on that side, it is very hard to get off. Sometimes, I talk to my friends and their pages are nothing like mine. There are entire trends that only some people see. Certain sounds may have millions of views, but only the people who interact with those videos will understand that it is a trend. I think this could be very helpful to brands who want to target a specific audience. Using a trending sound would be a smart way to do this. It would work with the algorithm to get your video onto people’s pages, and they would see your ad. I think TikTok works best for brands that don’t take themselves too seriously. Everyone I know that is on TikTok is on it for a laugh, and I have interacted with smaller brands that make skit TikToks that end up being an ad for their brand. It is very easy to track a specific group, even if you feel like it doesn’t belong on your page. Even using specific hashtags could help target the audience you want. Recently, the ONU Theatre page went viral for a few TikToks about Beauty and the Beast. The clips were quick and showed some of the most iconic moments of the show, and they did really well. After a while they stopped gaining as many views, but it seems a bit random which ones went viral and which did not. The algorithm makes sense on paper, but sometimes I don’t feel like my videos are something I’ve interacted with in the past. Because the videos are so short, I usually don’t even catch an Ad until it’s over. It doesn’t stick out as much as Ads do on other platforms, and if you don’t want to see them you just keep scrolling.