Business
4 Tips for Building a Following--and a Robust Revenue Stream--on TikTok By Hannah Hall
SOME BUSINESS OWNERS still have a perception that TikTok is little more than a repository of videos of teenagers singing and dancing. But the platform--which now has an estimated 73.7 million monthly active U.S. users--can in fact be a vital tool for engaging with your customers and finding new ones. Given TikTok's vast audience and relatively novel format, getting started can feel intimidating. Later this year TikTok will be launching an SMB Academy to help small businesses with the app: Participants will learn how to properly use effects in their videos, find the best music, create clear objectives with TikTok campaigns, and implement other best practices. Until then, here are helpful tips from Danielle Johnson, the head of SMB account management for North America - global solutions at TikTok, as well as business owners who have found success with the app, on how you can grow your brand's presence and turn it into tangible returns.
and culture. At the same time, Sana began buying dyes from Walmart to create her own tie-dye hijabs, which she wore in the videos. Soon viewers began asking in the comments where she got her hijabs. That's when the light bulb went on to create a company. "We knew nothing about business, and e-commerce was completely foreign to us," Sana says. "When we saw the response from people, we sat down and were like, 'Why don't we go all in?'" Now, the Toronto, Ontario-based e-commerce business has become their full-time job, and they are aiming to open stores in U.S. major cities. The 1. Be a User Yourself Saleh family has received a total of 44.5 million Before joining the small business team at TikTok, likes for their videos, has 1.6 million followers, and Johnson was a user of the platform. Her first has gone from operating in a spare room of their piece of advice is to join yourself and see what's house to opening a warehouse. trending. Select some hashtags that are relevant to your business and see the types of videos that 2. Create Content Specifically for are trending for them. Compare your feed with a TikTok friend's to better understand how the site uniquely Forget about conventional, well-polished targets a customer's tastes and habits. "The more 15-second video advertisements. Johnson urges you know the community, the better," Johnson small businesses to instead design content says. specifically for TikTok's platform. Elements like LaLa Hijabs is a great example of this advice the music, the For You Page (the homepage for in action. Founders Sana and Will Saleh, a new video content), and community engagementsocial worker and aircraft maintenance engineer -users can, for example, respond to a video with respectively by trade, created a TikTok in January their own "duet" video--make it distinct from other 2020 to educate audiences about their Muslim faith
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March-April 2022
DAWN
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