If you’re not on social media yet, you must get your small business on TikTok. Why? About 90% of TikTok users access the app on a daily basis, spending an average of 52 minutes per day on the platform. That's a lot of potential exposure for your small business! At Slam Media Lab, we’re digital marketing experts with 30+ years of experience combined, who have worked with small businesses, nonprofits, and tech startups to grow TikToks. Seeing all the large accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers can be intimidating and discouraging at first, but if you put enough effort and have a strategy behind, you’ll watch your small business TikTok profile go from zero to hundreds of thousands following your business!
We’ve done it already, and we’ll share how you can leverage, grow and use TikTok for small business! Read on..
Using Tiktok for Small Business: Why You Should Invest in This Platform?
TikTok is one of the hottest social media platforms out there right now. It's all about short-form videos, typically around 15-60 seconds long, where users can showcase their creativity, products, ideas, and sense of humor. TikTok’s biggest flex is its power to make things go viral much more quickly than any other social media platform. TikTok is all about discoverability. If you use it properly, your brand will be found by thousands of people who wouldn’t have been able to discover it otherwise.
Take Baked by Melissa as an example, a New York-based bakery that specializes in bite-sized cupcakes. Melissa started off by posting short TikToks showcasing her bite-sized cupcakes in an extremely aesthetically pleasing way, You just couldn’t look away! But it wasn’t her awesome content alone that took her account from a few hundred to over 2 million followers. She also partnered with other creators and started posting content every single day! Her follower count skyrocketed pretty much overnight.
How to Promote Your Small Business on TikTok
First things first – you need to create an account and set it up properly before you start posting content.
Imagine if your first post goes viral and you don’t even have a profile pic, or a bio yet! Try checking out similar accounts first.
Find some inspo, decide what kind of content you want to create, and how you want to talk to your audience. Then comes the fun part: start creating!
Here’s what’s gonna help you succeed:
- Create content consistently
- Use Hashtags
- Partner with TikTok influencers
- Encourage your followers to engage
- Use TikTok ads
Create TikTok content consistently
TikTok's algorithm rewards creators who post regularly. The more often you post, the more likely your content will be shown to new viewers and potentially go viral. When people discover your content and see that you're consistently posting new videos, they're more likely to follow you to see more of what you have to offer, keeping.
Slam’s recommendation: Post 3-5 times a week.
You can post anything from trends and humorous videos to tutorials and Q&As talking about your business and products. Remember that quality is more important than quantity so make sure you share videos you’re proud of! you top-of-mind.
Use TikTok Hashtags
Let’s start by saying it's important to use hashtags strategically and not just throw them in haphazardly.
You want to use hashtags that are relevant to your content and that people are actually searching for. And remember, you don't want to overdo it with the hashtags, as that can actually hurt your reach. Stick to a few relevant hashtags per video and you should be good to go!
There are countless ways to find the perfect TikTok hashtags for small businesses, but to most users it’s just a matter of exploring your niche, seeing which ones are the most frequently used, and which hashtags worked best for you.
Partner with TikTok influencers
When you partner with an influencer, you're essentially tapping into their existing audience. This means that your content will be seen by people who are already interested in the influencer's content and are more likely to be interested in your product or service as well.
A great example of partnering with influencers to grow your business is the case of Item Beauty, a small makeup brand that decided to send beauty products to different TikTok content creators as a strategy to gain visibility. These users would make videos testing the products and reviewing them. They even got to partner with Addison Rae, one of the most popular TikTok influencers, taking their small business TikTok account to the next level.
Encourage your Followers to Engage
It might seem obvious, but sometimes all you need to do is ask. Always end your videos inviting your followers to like, comment, and share your videos. A simple call to action can go a long way in getting people to engage. Try phrases like “Tag your bestie in the comments” or “Stay tuned for part 2!” and watch those interactions soar!
Another key technique to getting your followers to engage with your content is to respond to their comments. If they see that the creator is responsive, they’ll be much more likely to comment, knowing they’ll get noticed.
Use TikTok Ads
If you’re thinking of investing in social media, TikTok ads might be an excellent option. It offers a range of targeting options that can help you reach the right audience for your business.
You can target users based on factors like age, gender, location, interests, and more. This means you can ensure that your ads are reaching people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service.
Its Creative Center also allows you to see top ads and how they perform, search ads by type, and even use it as inspo to create your own scripts.
Compared to other social media platforms, TikTok ads can be relatively cost-effective. You can set a daily or lifetime budget for your ads, and TikTok offers a range of bidding options to help you get the most bang for your buck.
Tools You Can Use to Take your TikTok Account to the Next Level
If you liked what you read so far and gained the motivation you needed to boost your small business tiktok profile, you’re going to need the right tools. Here are the tools we recommend our clients and partners to use:
- Airtable
- Notion
- SproutSocial
- Hashtag research tools
- Canva
Airtable for Content Planning
Content planning is mandatory to ensure consistency. You need to keep track of what you post and when. In fact, running a calendar doesn’t only help you ensure a steady frequency, but also control what topics you discuss in your videos and how often, so you don’t repeat or neglect any aspect of your business.
Our favorite social media calendar tool is Airtable. Although some creators use Trello, or even Google Sheets, we love Airtable because…. Plus, you can also automate your social media posts.
Download our Airtable Content Calendar for Free!
Notion for Scripting
Once you decide what you’re going to talk about in your videos, it’s time to put together a script so you don’t beat around the bush, or take ages to come up with the right wording on the spot.
The tricky aspect of making TikToks is that it’s never just a person speaking to the camera, but also doing or showing something else. TikTok has really powerful editing skills and allows users to achieve pretty much anything!
Notion is an amazing resource for creators when it comes to scripting their content and putting together TikTok ideas for their small business.
If you struggle to organize your thoughts, download our free TikTok Script planner on Notion.
SproutSocial for Analytics & Competitor Research
If you use TikTok as a marketing channel for your business, using a social media analytics tool like Sprout Social can help you track the performance of your content, monitor engagement, and identify trends. Here’s what it tracks:
- SproutSocial can provide you with a wide range of insights and metrics, including audience demographics, engagement rate, impressions, and top-performing content, among other things.
- It also provides a general view of your competitors.
- Followers, views, impressions, and engagement.
- Lastly, it analyzes the effectiveness of the hashtags you've used in your TikTok videos to reach a wider audience.
With these insights, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your TikTok strategy and improve your overall social media performance.
Hashtag research tools
Hashtag research tools are software programs that help you find relevant and popular hashtags for your social media content.
These tools use algorithms to analyze social media platforms and identify hashtags that are relevant to your content, based on factors like keyword relevance, popularity, and engagement.
Hashtag Generator, TokUpgrade, and All Hashtag are among the most popular, although you can also use any artificial intelligence tool, like ChatGPT!
Canva for Designing Graphics
If you create content often, you'll likely need to design something at some point. If you're not a graphic designer, you'll need a tool that is user-friendly yet allows you to create professional-looking designs.
Canva will be your go-to option if you lack the skills to use more complex software such as Illustrator.
The best part is that is free and you can use it all across your channels and even print your designs!
Growing a successful TikTok profile for a small business can seem intimidating. It’ll be time-consuming in the beginning. But the reward will be amazing. At Slam, we have everything you need to get your small business started on TikTok.
Found this useful? Check us out on TikTok!
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