We’ve all seen it, since everyone started spending more time indoors, TikTok has blown up! The question pending on many of our minds right now – “Is TikTok the next big thing?” Or is it just for teenage girls lip-syncing in crop tops?
Is TikTok the Next Big Thing for Influencers?
As I write this, TikTok has over 1 billion users. It has been downloaded over 165 million times in the United States alone! So, I invited Taylor Loren, of Later Media, onto the Podcast to share her two cents on the platform of the moment.
Taylor is a strategic marketer with over 10 years of experience in social media and content marketing for B2B SaaS companies. As the Director of Content Marketing at Later, the #1 Instagram marketing platform, Taylor teaches brands how to grow their business using Instagram. In 2016 Taylor was named a LinkedIn top voice of social media marketing and awarded best startup marketing in Canada.
Taylor joins the podcast to discuss whether you should be taking TikTok seriously in your business and tips for going viral and growing an audience on TikTok. We share our predictions on where the platform is going as it relates to influencer marketing. We also touch on the future of the influencer marketing industry amid the COVID crisis from Taylor’s unique perspective.
What does your work with Later Media look like?
“I am the Director of Content Marketing at Later which is an Instagram marketing platform,” Taylor begins. “I joined the company before we rebranded to Later. It’s been a really fun experience for me to grow a brand from 0 to where we are today.” Taylor shares, as she reflects on how she was doing all of the marketing things when she started. Now “I manage a lot of our brand initiatives; social, PR, influencers, managing our blog and newsletter teams (they weren’t a thing when Taylor started) and a lot of campaigns and fun events. It’s a really fun job!”
What is TikTok and how did it come about?
“TikTok’s like a grown-up version of Vine.” The low down? “It used to be called ‘Musical.ly’ and was a lip-sync dancing app. It got bought out and turned into TikTok; a video sharing platform. It’s kind of a mesh between what you would see on an Instagram story, but with the permanence of an Instagram feed post.”
Curious about the potential growth on the platform that we’re all hearing about? To give you a little context, Taylor shines the spotlight on Charlie Demilio, “she is like the Disney star of TikTok. Charlie has over 50 million followers, and in June of last year she wasn’t even on the platform!”
Is it Easy to Go Viral on TikTok?
Taylor and I both went viral on TikTok, I gained more than 10,000 followers in 4 days from one post. After going viral herself, with a video of over 3 million views, Taylor appears to have found her place as, well, a bit of a candle-queen on TikTok.
“I was making some TikToks for fun and made a video talking about the proper way to light a candle. So I made this super dumb video, and the next morning I woke up to half a million views. I was like WHAT!? The comment section was hilarious. I was just happy I could prove I was still relevant in some kind of way” Taylor jokes.
“The main thing about TikTok is the way the content conception happens. It’s really flipped when you compare it to Instagram,” Taylor explains. As you know, the main Instagram feed you see is based on who you’re following, and then you might click into the Explore Page. TikTok is the opposite. “People are depending on the algorithm to surface content for them that they’ll like. Sometimes people will click over to the following tab, but the majority of it is allowing the algorithm to spread content into the world.”
“That’s what’s cool about TikTok. You can be on the platform, have no followers, post one video, and get a million views. That happened to me. That happened to you!”
What are your best tips for growth on TikTok?
Taylor’s 3-mil candle video may have been for fun, but she’s the Director of Content Marketing for the #1 Instagram marketing platform. She knows her stuff! Taylor and the team have been decoding all things TikTok, so I wanted to ask her for some growth tips. Guys, she had sooo many! Here’s a few:
Hashtags: “The way TikTok works with hashtags is how hashtags worked with Instagram 8 years ago. People are very actively searching hashtags on TikTok to look at content and the categories are very broad.”
Keep people on your videos until the end. Tune in to the episode for our ideas to catch people’s attention and keep them on your TikTok videos.
Use the trends: “The main thing abound TikTok is that it’s really centered around trends. People are basically taking the same concept, like a dance or audio, and then repeating it, or adding their own little spin on it.” We both completely recommend adding your own edge to trends.
Taylor and I discuss many more tips and tricks for how to grow and go viral on TikTok, so listen to the podcast hear those. For even more, head over to my blog post How to Get Followers on TikTok next.
What are your thoughts on influencer marketing on TikTok?
“We’re definitely seeing branded content on TikTok. I’d say it’s mostly with the big brands and macro-influencers right now, I guess that’s how things start. It depends on the brands too, if they see the value of TikTok and what they’re going to do with that,” Taylor shares.
“I’ve been pitching a couple of candle companies,” Taylor giggles. “It’s crazy because I’ll send brands the videos that have millions of views and they just don’t care, because it’s this ‘TikTok thing’ that they don’t know about. So I think, right now, it’s a little bit early but in the future, it will be a space,” Taylor predicts.
“I think it has so much potential and I’m excited to see where it goes!”
You can really feel the stoke Taylor has for TikTok and it’s potential, it was such a fun chat! If you’re thinking about jumping on the TikTok train you need to listen in to this episode because I’m almost certain that if you do, you will convert, like I did.
Taylor shares so much helpful inside knowledge and predictions, like whether TikTok is here for the long game or if it’s just a Gen-Z phase, and whether Instagrammers and bloggers should be on the platform and why. On top of this Taylor shares her thoughts on what people in the influencer industry should be doing right now, and how she thinks the industry will come back post-pandemic.
For more tips on how to grow on TikTok, check out my blog post about how I grew over 10,000 followers in 4 days.
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relevant links:
Later’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/latermedia
Taylor’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/taylor.loren
Taylor’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@taylortoks
Later’s Tips on TikTok: https://later.com/blog/category/tiktok/
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