The platform of the moment, TikTok: A simple guide on the workings of this trendy app and how you can use it to increase your sales

TikTok is the social network of the moment, its great statistics that include millions of registered users are surprising. Every day thousands of people join this platform and this is an alert for the world of marketing. Who would not want to be on the social network of the moment? But be careful.

Not all generations make use of the new application that has caused euphoria. Therefore, you must implement specific strategies to achieve engagement on this social network. So pay attention because at BlueCactus we’ll give you some tools so you know how to use this social network and increase your sales in the market.

For starters, This platform was created in 2016 by ByteDance. The app launched in China in September 2016 under the Douyin name and expanded to the foreign market a year later. To make the most of the young audience (main consumer of this platform), this medium joined forces with musical.ly in 2018 to extend the community and promote more videos. By the end of 2019, when its popularity reached unimaginable levels, it had over 500 million users worldwide.

What characteristics does it have?

It resembles the, now dead, social network Vine.

This was an app that consisted of 6-second long videos.

However, This platform has more features.

It allows videos of up to 1 minute, and it includes background music, some filters, augmented reality features, and speed adjustments. It has its own algorithm and uses artificial intelligence to find out what users prefer through their interactions on the platform.

Thanks to these characteristics, this app has been able to position itself as one of the social networks of the moment by attracting the youngest audience to the platform.

Likewise, This platform offers some simple editing tools to allow the user to exploit their creativity when making videos.

It’s like Instagram in terms of the interaction system. It allows voting, having a list of friends, followers, liking, and sharing videos.

How can I boost my brand with TikTok?

Companies often underestimate this platform because of its fairly young audience. In addition, such exponential growth in users on a social network has never been seen before.

Although TikTok isn’t for everyone, you can still increase your sales and promote your brand.

As it isn’t a suitable platform for many companies, we’ll give you some tips that you must remember when creating your brand-related content to promote it on this platform:

• Create the right content: Since this is an exclusive platform for creating videos, you will need to make attractive content for your brand. This way, you will get the audience to respond positively. Most TikTok users belong to Generation Z, so boring and uninspiring content won’t be well received by them. Keep in mind that you should take advantage of the short length of the videos. Synthesizing and condensing the content into short videos is essential for this platform. However, it’s a challenge to create a communication strategy that impacts young people. Therefore, if your content isn’t good enough, very few people will see it.
• Apply informality: Try not to plan a video to the point of giving the impression of being robotic. This situation is not the most appropriate. You don’t need a lot of tools to create authentic content. This is a simple task because the platform offers many resources to create content. Remember that to entertain your audience, you will need to be creative. Don’t forget your brand’s essence. Even though creative and weird videos thrive on this app, don’t create content that goes against what your brand represents. You don’t need to try extravagant things to increase your sales. You just need to show your product with some cleverness.
• Create alliances with influencers. Generation Z doesn’t respond well to traditional ads. Because of this, it can be an ingenious strategy to make alliances with influencers to sponsor your product. The only thing you have to assess is whether if the audience that follows the selected influencer, resembles your target audience. In this way, it will be easier to get new clients. To find the ideal influencer, you just have to use some tools that allow you to find their biography on This platform. This alliance search technique is like those implemented in other social networks such as Instagram.
• Get to know the platform. You must familiarize yourself with the platform to avoid failure. If you don’t know how the app works, you won’t get optimal results. This is because when creating content, you will make countless mistakes that won’t be well received by the public. We already mentioned that the best way to captivate young people on this social network is through creativity. You must create original content that helps you boost your brand. However, if you want to know for yourself, you only have to go to the trends section to confirm that seriousness does not go hand in hand 
• with This platform.
• Study your audience. This last aspect is the most important since if you do not know your audience it will be very difficult to successfully use a good marketing strategy. To get results, you must know who those people follow you and to whom you want to captivate so they consume your product. In particular, most TikTok users are in the age range of 16 to 24 years. Hence, Generation Z makes up the majority of users that use this application. However, every day more people are joining this app that isn’t part of this group. Remember the following data when implementing your marketing strategy on this social network if you want to get customers (especially if they are within this age range).

Why is it important to know Generation Z before using TikTok?

Generation Z is the one that has taken over the internet through these years.

It is important to know their needs and characteristics because not only are they more frequent on all social networks, but they also have unique skills and perceptions that they developed thanks to being born and credited in the digital age.

But who makes up this generation?

It’s mainly made up of people born between 1994 and 2010.

They are the relay of millennials, and many are even already immersed in the workplace.

If you promote your products through this platform, is essential that you know the most relevant aspects of this age group. You must know what the dominant users of this network are like.

Here are some important aspects of this generation that you should know before using the social network of the moment to promote your business:

• They use visual content instead of text.

Although they don’t discard writing, they do use media to express themselves, such is the case of the use of emojis and stickers. Thus, TikTok is the perfect opportunity to get through this market.

• They are more flexible.

The Z generation is more flexible in terms of time and often prefer working from home using tools that they handle very well since they were children.

It costs them a little more to commit to jobs with strict schedules.

• They are more careful.

This generation grew up seeing all kinds of online deception. Therefore, before making a decision, they will think about it deeply. They know the benefits and risks of exposing themselves to digital platforms. Don’t worry if they are indecisive at first since this was influenced by early exposure to the digital world.

• They change constantly.

Being immersed in so much content and managing so many social networks these people can easily get bored and jump from one place to another in seconds. It became a generation of constant changes because of the dynamics in which they grew up.

TikTok Marketing Strategies

Once you know the most important characteristics of this platform, we will have to think about what type of promotion you will do to your product and it could be more suitable for TikTok.

For this, you must take into account that the visual impact must be positive enough to be striking.

Therefore, not all kinds of content are best suited for this application. 

For this reason, we leave you a list of the strategies that might work more for this social network:

• Use challenge hashtags.

This platform offers some strategies to ingeniously increase the visibility of your product. One of them is through the famous hashtags or “tags”, with a slightly different use than what is usually given on Instagram or Twitter.

In this application, you can find hashtag challenges, which aims to make users respond to your brand’s content with their personal touch. 

These challenges are important within the community of this application and although it’s free to get started, involving influencers in this strategy is an excellent way to make your tag viral.

This is a factor that will involve a commercial agreement between your company and the influencer.

This is a fun way to sponsor your product and to interact with your audience by creating a special bond.

• Take advantage of advertisements.

They introduced this option on the platform in 2019. As it becomes a social network with so much growth, you cannot ignore the advertising ads. However, being a new platform, it continues to make improvements in ​​advertising. Because of the particular format that TikTok has for content, the platform allows the inclusion of different types of ads, some of them are:

1. Brand lenses. It is like those found on Snapchat, these will be available for 10 days. It consists of creating a filter related to your business. Users can choose your lens, and so it includes your advertising in a list of trends.
2. Brand acquisition announcements. You can use still images or videos. At TikTok, you also can link your ad on your website or a hashtag challenge. This platform offers you some tools to measure the reach of your ads: impressions, clicks, and unique reach.
3. Native video. You can make a video showing your product. The measures that this app implements for this strategy are like those of Instagram. With differences like the use of impressions, clicks, video views, average reproduction, viewing time, comments, among others.

What are the brands that have had many followers on TikTok?

Sometimes it’s difficult to gain followers on a new social network.

However, it is not an impossible task to accomplish.

Next, we show a list of 5 brands that have conquered numerous followers through this social network:

• TikTok: Well, as expected, the brand that has the most followers is TikTok itself. It has over 43 million followers that increase daily. Furthermore, LiveTV, Musical.ly’s corporate account (the platform that teamed up with This platform) has over 23 million followers. There are also accounts like TikTok_India and Global TikTok that have 24 and 4 million followers, respectively.
• Flighthouse: This account with 25 million followers, ranks among one of the most followed. This entertainment company has succeeded in this platform, its entertaining and spontaneous content seems to have paid off.
• NBA: The United States Basketball League also has a large following, over 11 million. It bases its content on the plays of the matches, and summaries of the highlights of sports matches.
• Nickelodeon: The account has already passed 8 million followers. The dances and throwbacks of the most famous series on the channel are some highlights of the account. In this way, the TikTok platform has been an excellent means by which Nickelodeon has reconnected with the young people who grew up watching their TV shows.
• FC Barcelona: This is a curious case since the Blaugrana football club has increased the number of followers very quickly on this platform. Even though the difference in followers concerning Instagram (87 million followers) is still large, everything shows that its followers on TikTok (4 million) will be increasing. Statements, team trips, goals, training sessions, and even some fan videos are examples of the content that we can find in this account. Without a doubt, Barça has implemented excellent strategies on this social network. Their most popular hashtag, #fcbarcelona, ​​has more than 930M views.

Final recommendations to start on TikTok

Now you know how you can promote your brand with this social network and how is the generation that dominates TikTok.

With this knowledge, you can take advantage of the opportunities this app offers you to sell and grow your business.

Our final recommendation before you include this app in your list of platforms to promote your brand is that you remain honest with yourself and with your business.

Remember that this platform is not compatible with all companies.

Therefore, it’s important that, if you want to sell by penetrating that specific market.

You must first evaluate if the application is compatible with the objectives you have in mind and if you can satisfy the needs of the public with your brand. Only in this way will you be successful in TikTok.

Although adapting to new social networks can be difficult, it should be noted that it is also positive to venture into them and get to know them, since in the not too distant future they may even become indispensable.

What we cannot deny is that TikTok is the new social network of the moment and will continue to give something to talk about for some time.

You already have some tips that will help you decide if this social network is the best option for your company.

By following these recommendations, you will undoubtedly have a greater chance of success when selling.

At BluCactus you will find this and other strategies that will help you increase your sales and reach your marketing objectives.

If you want us to manage your marketing campaign on social networks, please contact us to provide you with a free quote for your project.

Tell us, did you already know the potential of this social network for the world of sales?