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In one of his exhibitions at Moderna Museet, Sweden, the famous American artist Andy Warhol predicted that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes of short-lived media fame and publicity. But with the popularity of short video platforms like TikTok, even 15 seconds is far enough to transform a content creator into an overnight sensation!

Mostly favoured by Generation Z, comprising the youngsters and teenagers, TikTok has managed to surpass Facebook and WhatsApp to become the world’s most downloaded non-gaming application. It’s time to leverage the potential of influencer marketing with TikTok for bringing more engagement and vitality to your brand. But there are certain things that marketers should keep in mind.

TikTok Influencer Marketing

Just like other social media platforms, executing a TikTok influencer campaign is structurally pretty much similar, but creatively it’s quite different. Even though the skeleton is the same, the approach needs to be different. The platform is basically nascent and influencers or the content creators represent a relatively larger talent pool. The content creators who already know the potential of influencer marketing are genuinely enthusiastic to be approached by brands.

The users of TikTok are Gen Z. They are acclaimed for avoiding traditional advertising. A significant number of millennials are also part of the system aging around 35. You can expect them to be novice upfront and it is ideal to give coaching if required. Experiment with the influencers to understand the potential reach of the platform influencers. It is equally important to couple experimentation with the right content strategy to make a good impression among the audience.

Here are the basics of a TikTok influencer marketing strategy.

Understand your demography
Brands need to clearly understand the demographic of your target audience and their interests. If your brand is having more of the youngster segment audience, communicate it with the lined-up influencer partners. Don’t try to push too much of products or services upfront; just showcase minimal features of the product and how it will benefit the audience. Bombarding with products straight away will hinder your success in TikTok. The right method would be to keep them engaged in the right proportion.

First-time influencers
Your brand might have already been associated with influencers on other social media platforms. The same influencers may tend to have reasonable fan followership in TikTok as well. But the first time influencers in TikTok tend to have more engagement rates than the existing influencer in other platforms. These influencers will be cost-effective than established influencers as well. These native novice content creators will have a better understanding of handling viral and engaging content.

Be consistent
The algorithm of TikTok leads to much greater volatility than other social media platforms. Take a look at the opening dashboard itself – unlike other social media platforms, TikTok doesn’t have too much of a load on the first page. The algorithm just pushes new featured short videos for the users, rather than pushing the following or popular contents. What really matters is the results. For better results, brands need to create engaging content consistently and creatively.

More creativity
TikTok is all about creativity applied in the simplest formats. It covers almost all business segments – ranging from food to pranks and pets. It was a perfect fit during the lockdowns, when many of us were confined to our homes and we were in need of some desperate fun. Brands need to focus on adopting creativity in making the content for TikTok. What worked for Facebook or YouTube doesn’t work for TikTok. So give more wings to your creativity and understand the nuances while making the content.

Get influencer advice
Playing with an emerging platform is about proper planning. In the case of TikTok, the best experts can be the influencers themselves who are already part of the platform. They will be more familiar with the platform, know what will work for them or not, and help in creating an engaging and authentic brand message, rather than just being too corporate. Brands need to give freedom to influencers to share their thoughts so that they can actively collaborate for brand success.