Show Notes
TikTok has blown up over the past few years and recently businesses are taking a look too. Whether you’re a veteran or thinking about downloading the app.
In today’s podcast we are going to cover everything you need to know about TikTok and how you can leverage it for your business.
What is TikTok?
- First off, it used to be Music.ly, if that still doesn’t tell you anything. Thing about Instagram stories + Vine had a baby.
- It’s short form videos for fun and entertainment, think karaoke and short skits.
- There are over 500M ACTIVE daily users
- Most popular app in 2019 so far (Q4 2019)
- The demo is typically that teenage user 16-24
- 56% men 44% women
- The ability to go “viral” is easier on the platform because it is such a new app and a lot of people consume content, but not a lot are creators.
- The average person spends almost an hour on the platform
- They recently rolled out advertising to everyone to APPLY
- Adult TikTok users have grown 5.5x in the last 18 months
- More than one BILLION videos are viewed on TikTok EVERY DAY
What do you think about this episode? We’d love to hear from you! Share us your suggestions, comments or questions. And we’d love to include that on our next show.
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Hope y'all enjoyed this episode! We'll see you guys next week for another episode of The Marketing Natives!
Transcript
Christian [00:00:00] TikTok has blown up over the past few years and recently business are taking a look to whether you're a veteran or thinking about downloading the app. In today's podcast, we are going to cover everything you need to know about TikTok and how you can leverage it for your business.
Aaron [00:00:31] Hello, friends. This is actually going to be a really cool episode. We have some. Well, we have everything you need to know about TikTok.
Aaron [00:00:37] That's the whole point. It's why you click. We're not going to we're not going to hide this from you. Obviously, we're going to talk about those. But we want to tell you about our experiences. And I think we'll be very similar for a lot of business owners are experiences with TikTok. And I think Christian's been on TikTok the longest. He's been like a lurker for a while. Right.
Christian / Aaron [00:00:55] Yeah, for sure. Actually, I wanted to ask you about that because. Ask me about what? You been a lurker. Yeah. Well how do you feel about.
Christian [00:01:03] I was getting when it comes to musically I guess before. Before. TikTok was TikTok. It was musically. Right. And Garyvee. He was talking about musically for a long time saying oh you should be there. Well blood is where the kids are going. Yeah. And then musically sort of transform into TikTok.
Christian [00:01:21] And then Gary sort of double down on that same stuff. I mean, during that time of Garyvee talking about musically and talking about TikTok. Did you download the app or did you had musically? Because another thing like I downloaded musically and didn't do anything with it. Not even I wasn't even a lurker like you're saying or a consumer of the content or anything. I just. Nope, not for me, because it was strictly very music centered. Yes. So I was just like, OK, this is not my thing since I just got rid of it.
Christian [00:01:51] And then. TikTok came along and it took me a while, but I finally downloaded it and then started consuming the content like crazy. When?
Aaron [00:02:04] A year ago. Now, six months ago? Yes. OK, so to go back to musically. Yes. I downloaded the app. I also thought the interface was not good. Like. Yeah. It was like it was too hard to navigate things.
Aaron [00:02:17] And you never even even TikTok.
Christian [00:02:19] When I downloaded six months ago, it's very like they've sort of gone away from your typical social media app. You have these things. This menu at the bottom. Right. Like, think about Facebook, Instagram. They have this menu at the bottom where you click on that, you see your profile. You see this is like I feel like with the TikTok, when I fell down, it was like it just throws you into the for you page and you just have this swipe gestures to get to where you need to go. But it doesn't really give you right the way around the app or anything.
Aaron [00:02:50] Like it's just like auto play. And I guess there's so there's two things for that one. You don't have to actually download the app to see the For. You play like placement, like you can just watch the videos without ever giving. You can be a real lurker and not ever download it. You can never create a profile. And I think that's what's also interesting is that. Do you watch it with sound on? Yes. Yeah. So this is one of the only apps that I'm like, oh, there's a video in here. Like, I want to hear it. Like, I want to hear the sound and I'll turn the sound on. And I don't know what the statistics are. But as a business owner, one thing that we get into with Facebook is like, you got to have captions, you've got to have this because, you know, they'd like, I don't know, 30 or 40 percent of the people are watching without sound while a TikTok. I would have I would assume that in a very good chunk of those people are actually watching with sound because it is music and because it is dancing and it is songs. So it's like you almost have to have the music to really get the full experience. Like some of them are funny. You're like, oh, I can watch without it. But most of them, you have to have music and it just makes them much better.
Christian [00:03:53] Yeah, I mean, it would take 10 percent. You can actually watch without sound, but majority, even if it's like a comedic skit or whatever, like you have to have a sound on to really get the full joke or experience or whatever it may be.
Christian [00:04:08] Anyway, I want to get that off and see, you know, I guess when you downloaded TikTok and started really using it.
Christian [00:04:16] Because even me, like we both of us, we heard about, you know, Garyvee saying, oh, musically, this musically that we both I guess we both downloaded, it wasn't our thing. And then TikTok sort of came along and it was still we didn't really pay attention to it. And then I got introduced to it. And I think it's mainly because of Megan's little sister, such as a teenager in high school. And she was using to talk a lot. And I saw some of the videos. I was like, OK. That's kind of interesting. And there's actually more funny stuff than there is, I guess, dancing, maybe even more so now. I believe there's more and more skits, sort of like Vine and there's actual businesses in there now. I seen some real estate guys. I've seen a a car salesman. Awesome guy. And he gives like awesome tips on buying cars on this, on that on how to, I guess, win against him. You know, when you're coming in to negotiate, that's all stars. And so. So there's a really, really good content in the app. And I got turned into it, I think, because of that, you know, sort of the people that you hang out around with, you know, kind of introduce me to that. Why didn't you, I guess, get into it earlier when Garyvee was like.
Aaron [00:05:38] So I I I lurked. I like I didn't download the app, but I looked at it. I feel like I download the app, which has never created a profile. And you look at your home screen on your phone you like, there's just so many apps. And I think it was just a busy time at that point. I'm like, OK. Like, does it really make sense? And it was probably six or seven months ago, too. So it's probably around the same time here. But I just never created an account. And then I did create an account, probably I'm two or three, maybe two months ago or something. And I was like, wow, this is actually like funny. Like, this is interesting. This is this is what I liked Vine for. And I remember finding and I was like, well, let's see if there's actually anybody on here that I think is noteworthy to pay attention to. And then I found Zach King and I remember I found Zach King on Vine and it was like 2012 or 2013 early on. I was like, wow, this guy, like, is really cool. So I followed Zach King for a long time. And I we actually got a meeting which is pretty cool. But I was like, is there anybody who's actually paying attention to it? And because of that, because I saw Zach King on there and it was a couple other people is like, well, maybe this is something to pay attention to, because I remember him getting on finally and because he got on the vine early, like he just kind of took off. Great. And he's a big talent. But it's like these people aren't stupid. They know where to spend time and they know how to make effort. And he was putting out a TikTok video every single day. And I'm like, that takes a lot of effort and time. And you don't just do that to, you know, play around. So it's like, OK, maybe this is something to be thinking about. Maybe we're five years removed as a business trying to use it or use it to advertising. But if it is the future, I want to make sure we're still in business for five years. So I was looking at it at that kind of and I needed to understand the app.
Christian [00:07:12] Yeah, yeah. I think to me it was a lot of understanding. And then you just kind of get hooked with the way the app is set up. The ease of view of finding content, I guess that's one of the biggest thing. Is that the for you page, it's a it's amazing that the content that it gives you. It's just good stuff. It's good come viral. Funny stuff that you want from your other social platforms. Right. Yes. Which all the other social platforms has sort of converted into, you know, people yelling at each other, you know, political stuff. And like this is is fun.
Aaron [00:07:53] Yeah. Yeah, I bet I put on your like to give you guys a comparison like Instagram stories and Vine. If they had a baby, this would be like short stories or short videos. And the divine aspect is like how easy it is to consume and just watch over and over again, like the TikTok videos that I watch. If it's funny, like I'll watch it three or four times, I'm like, oh yeah, that's cool. I want to see it again. Like you just showed me one for Halloween. And I was like, Oh, that's cool. Like, you watch it like twice and then, you know, look over here and like, then you showed it to me. So it's like three or four times. And as a business owner, if you're listening to this, that's a lot of impressions by one person for pretty cheap right now. So we're kind of going at this is like let's let's talk about TikTok and in our experiences with it and what you should do and everything you need to know, but also kind of a business twist for you guys because you may not realize how powerful this could be. And to give you some ideas or get into a couple of stats will tell you that real quick. Right now, as of October, I think there's that. Yeah. October 2019, we're in November recording this. But there's 500 million active daily users. It was the most popular app up until this point in twenty nineteen. And the demographic is the 16 to 24 year old. So those are just some quick stats to have you think about is and I went over them pretty quickly. But five hundred million active users. There was a site actually I was gonna show it to you. Christian Oh yeah.
Christian / Aaron [00:09:18] The charts together, number one, top of charts. And I'm pretty sure they've been there for a while. What are the top five? Just to give people. So number one, TikTok. And this is where on the Apple App Store. These are the top free apps. Number one, TikTok. Number two, YouTube. Number three, Instagram. Numebr four Snapchat. And five, Google Maps. Google Maps. Interesting. Well, they recently did the update where they they put in the waste feature where you can alert when there was a cop.
Christian / Aaron [00:09:49] Oh, OK. This particular spot. Cops love that, I'm sure. Yeah. So now that's part of Google Maps.
Christian [00:09:56] So are a lot of people like, hey, look, yeah, you need this. This is kind of like the radar detector of 20, 21, 22, whatever. Wow.
Aaron [00:10:03] So number one app and I don't know, it's just something about it. Like, I think that at this point you can't say like it's still a baby. And it is. But I found a Website. I was like I was going to send it to Christian. And it's one of those things where like the it was show like a good example is like the companies most or most profitable companies in the world.
Aaron [00:10:24] And it's like one of those thousands like starts started like 1980. And then you see it at the very top. It's like Microsoft and it changes back and forth and it's like Facebook and it goes all the way across. And Facebook is like two billion. It's still number one. And then it goes on to number two and it's like, OK. YouTube almost to billions. Number two. And then like everybody else, just kind of went back and forth like linked in, we used to be way up there and then kind of dropped out. And then it was like Instagram is literally the fastest growing one. So we went up there and then just below that. Now, TikTok wasn't even on the scene for this time frame until like towards the end of it. And then you just started taking places like boom killed Snapchat boom past linked in. Boom past Tumblr. And for whatever reason, Tumblr is very big too. I didn't realize how big Tumblr was. But then it just like took over a huge, huge chunk of like how quickly it grew. And I was like, that's some really good comparison there to see how quickly it's growing. And I guess a fun stat if we were kind of in this is that in the last 18 months, the older adults have grown five and a half times, so. TikTok. TikTok. Yeah. Yeah. So it's it's actually a fast growing demographic is like the parents which you'll see some of those like, oh, my parents stole my TikTok.
Christian [00:11:41] Yeah. Now I've seen people go viral because they did a video with their parents. Yes. And then their parents end up creating their own account. And now their parents are bigger than the actual kids. Yeah. You know, as far as followers and viewers. And so that's kind of funny, that dynamic. But yeah, I do see. I think that's the how it goes usually. Right. You get the kids on the app, then you get the parents because they want to know what the heck the kids are spending that much time on. And then from that, you know, the parents kind of tell their friends and it just kind of blows up from there.
Aaron [00:12:12] Well, and then you get grandparents because they're like, hey, look, I want some more pictures of Suzy. And they're like, yeah. But she's doing them all on TikTok, well, I guess I'll download this thing. Am I do my grandma voice and download the TikTok app and they're like, oh, wow. OK. So this is a where I can see my kids and my family interacting in a way.
Aaron [00:12:30] It's just a I don't know. People love to laugh and hang out and have fun.
Aaron / Christian [00:12:34] So that's why it's a cool app and why people spending a decent amount of time there when one of the first accounts that I followed was this old guy and I can't remember his name right now. I have to put this in the net so you can follow him. But this is an old guy in his barn, at his farm or whatever, and he's just like, how are you guys doing today? Ah, this is like very slow. And like he's given tips on like life and just little tricks that he he finds out on how to do things around the farm. And like it's entertaining and it's just like the super old guy is that he's kind of funny and he's very personable and charming. So it's it's I don't know. It was one of the first people that I found on on TikTok. And I was like, OK, I'll follow him. But it's super random. And like, that is completely out of the demographic. And people just love him, like in the comments, like people just love him. It's awesome. It's like, oh, that's my grandpa. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Aaron [00:13:41] All right. So this is the part of the episode where you guys get a little bit more information about us. Maybe there is a little spot for you to connect with us. But if this is your first time listening, please let us know how you feel. Make sure you don't. You could wait till the end of the episode, but make sure you go over to iTunes and subscribe or a subscribe on your apps that you don't miss an episode. One cool thing about this is that we're releasing this after we've released two videos. If you Google or go to YouTube and look for TikTokfor business, we're one of the top videos there. We'll also released a video about TikTok for business in 2020 and we'll link up both of those here. So I just want to encourage you to go out to our Website. BitBranding dot Co forward slash podcast in this episode is one twenty seven. Go find those videos or just Google them and you'll find them on YouTube and go listen, go watch those because we're talking about everything you need to know here. But in those videos, we talk about tactics and strategies and also what you should be doing specifically in your business and how you should be using it. And hopefully by the time you listen to this, we'll have another update with some things that will be very exciting for the business owner.
Aaron [00:14:49] So make sure you go over to our Website, BitBranding dot Co forward slash podcast, episode 127. And check it out. Or Google TikTok for business. And check out our video there.
Christian [00:15:02] We're back. All right. So another quick stat you put in here. Fifty six percent are men and 44 percent are women. I'll figure it would have been the other way around.
Aaron [00:15:12] Yeah. In most apps to give people an idea like 70 or like almost 70 percent of people on Facebook are women. Most people on Instagram are women. So the fact that take talk is actually slightly edged to a male demographic. That's also an advantage. You know, you you're focused on those 16 to 24 year old young men on that guy that you're talking about, a car salesman like that's prime spot.
Aaron [00:15:36] Yeah. So like getting in there and getting some affinities with the younger demographic if you're a male. Sometimes it's been harder and you're like, this is an app that they watch it for multiple times, multiple impressions and very inexpensively. And I get a B in front of this demographic with video. So, you know, I'm an entertained person like that is just cool. So I wouldn't do business with him because he's just cool.
Christian [00:16:01] Yeah. I wanna talk about this viral aspect and you get it.
Christian [00:16:07] Actually, you can talk about this more because you have a viral video. Yeah. Let us get to it. Aaron Pearson has a viral video on TikTok. Just one.
Christian / Aaron [00:16:18] Have you done any one that has like 30 something thousand and one that has like 180?
Christian [00:16:24] He talked about one hundred eighty thousand views.
Aaron [00:16:27] D Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And as. What's crazy about that is that I haven't looked at the numbers for a while, but it's like reached almost two hundred thousand people. Wow. Which is crazy. Mm hmm. So with that it's more of a we. OK. So the number you have to pay attention to, there's five hundred million active users like Kristen said and we call him a lurker. Really. It's not a bad name. But like that's most people I would say. Ninety five percent of people of the 500 million are just watching. They just love it. They want to go and consume it. They don't really care to spend all the time, create a skit, do something that's actually thought out like I was telling Brianna there. There is the like, if you know what I'm talking about, all kind of singing a little bit. It's like I used to be so beautiful. But look at me now.
Christian [00:17:13] I used to be so beautiful. But look at me now.
Aaron [00:17:17] So the skit is there's like they're like all their hair is all messed up or the guy's hair is messed up. And I'm like, look, horrible. And then it says, look at me now. And then it's like, boom, they clap. And then they like, look good. And I wanted to do a video with Brianna. I was like, hey, look, you should probably do this like not as you look fat now. But at the time she had had a baby two weeks prior. After that, I was like, oh, look at me now. And then we could actually get one where she's actually dressed up in very lucky by me. She didn't really gain a lot of weight during pregnancy, so she would look pretty decent. So I'm saying like Kristen shaking his head, but I'm saying like she go from like pregnant mom to like have a hole in the baby, whatever, and then to looking like decent. And I still probably will do that video. But it's just a lot of like you have to think and you have to plan a skit and then you have to record the video. And it's like it's a lot of work. So the amount of creators I'd say all that to say is that there's not a lot of creators. So if you are a business and you actually put in the effort and you actually focus on money and time and effort onto it, you could have a video that goes out to thousands upon thousands of people and you don't even necessarily have to pay for the advertising. Like you could just go and reach thousands of people and get followers just by putting that out there.
Christian [00:18:32] Yeah, it's yeah, it's insane to think about. And the fact that there is business owners, I've seen a few. I've seen a pizzeria in Florida, I've seen a couple lawyers, real estate, a car salesman. And I mean, they're getting huge they're being really, really successful with the type. And they're not necessarily doing like you're saying, like the funny video. No, they're little. They're just a friendly camera, given out really good content and people are loving it.
Aaron [00:19:04] Yeah, I've thought about because I think that what Gary does, too, he doesn't really do anything like that. There's like some. Sometimes he does. Very rare. But it just like just be yourself on there. And for whatever reason, like you will consuming that content. I was like, well, my guess I could use to talk to just talk about running or something like that or connect to the running community and that could potentially go viral like, oh, I'm out running whatever it is. Anybody else, like, you know, ran eighteen point seven miles and then how to get to 19 and is like all so relatable. So relatable like that.
Christian / Aaron [00:19:32] Exactly. And it's funny you have here. The average person spends almost an hour on the platform every day. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, I get on binges right. Where you just kind of. It's just hard time during work hours, obviously. You know, like during lunch. I do sometimes. And usually at night. Yeah. I don't have anything going on. And let me get see a TikTok. My mentality is. Well let me just Tik Tik Tok for a couple of minutes. You know it like it's daylight outside. And Alison. Like dark and you're like, what happened? Yes.
Aaron [00:20:04] Dead. And I feel like they used to be you. YouTube, right. You used to like find a bunch of videos and.
Christian [00:20:08] Yeah. And I still do from time to time, you know, just kind of. Yeah. Get in that grab of whole of the recommended. Yeah. YouTube videos.
Aaron [00:20:16] What's what's interesting to me is we talked about it and I can remember specifically of how they were how this was focused, but. There was a study done that said the videos are gonna be multiple ways, so there's gonna be a video like Tiktok. Where do you hold in your hand? And you look at it vertical. Then there's the type of videos like YouTube where you sit it down and you sit back and you watch it horizontally. And then there's gonna be the type of videos that like you watch on TV and it's you sit down, you sit on the couch and it's in it's over there. Like there's just different ways to view content and view videos. And I feel like TikTok is definitely the one where you're going to like it's now becoming that platform that you sit and watch the videos from your phone like that. I still don't think that YouTube is like you watch YouTube on your phone, like, hey, I got to fix something or like do something like that.
Aaron [00:21:01] But if you watch YouTube for the most part, you want to either watch it sideways and it's like, let's sit down and actually watch this funny video or let's go to desktop. Whereas tech talk is very much a like I just want to sit here. I can sit on the couch, I can relax and just put on my phone and just like play the video.
Christian [00:21:19] Another big thing for business owners and this is still sort of in beta is the whole ad's platform. Right now, you have to apply. Go to the website and apply. Yes. And then it's a not a huge forum. But I mean, they do ask you a few questions in there. And I do believe from what I was reading, it's, you know, a few days they'll give you a response, whether you know yes or no, I never got over to you. OK. So, Aaron, every everybody response to get on on the platform. So it's definitely still very much in beta and even we're talking about in the office. I don't get any ads on my TikTok, but you and Ryan both get ads on the platform. Yeah, I could be scrolling forever and never get an ad. So again, this is where this is, just to say that it's still definitely in beta on both ends at the user end and on the business side.
Aaron [00:22:11] Yes.
Aaron [00:22:11] So go get on the platform first. And if you're already there, then consume the content and figure out what you're gonna do and create an account.
Aaron / Christian [00:22:19] Yeah. Yes. The app allows you to just get on and watch content without creating an account. So I think that's like one of the first things to tell you, like, hey, Craig, your account once you start clicking on different things.
Aaron [00:22:31] Yeah, I'm like, oh, you can't go this far because you do need to create your account. So that's what's interesting, I guess, is that I don't know if those counties views or videos or any or you have views or not, but you don't have to. Like I said, you don't have to create an account. So I wonder if TikTok like, oh, like somebody did view this account and.
Aaron [00:22:50] It counsels a view from the app, even if they've never created it. There was one other thing that I wanted to to hit on here. Oh. Yeah, I lost my train of thought, basically, in a nutshell, what we're trying to say here is that you should not ignore TikTok. It may not be the best platform for you yet, but also don't try too hard. Like, just be yourself and go there and just look at is it a fun platform to be in front of people and, you know, don't don't look at it as a way that I'm going to monetize right away. Maybe you will. You absolutely will. There's something when I was doing research. If you heard about TikTok and Starbucks doing something now, it's like thirty thousand searches per month. And then I guess there's like maybe there's a guy who does tick tock videos and you like creates his own Starbucks drinks or something or like TikTok doing something. But it's like it's like thirty thousand plus searches.
Christian / Aaron [00:23:44] And and like I said, there's a hashtag or something on. No. Like I did some keyword research on like SEM rush. Well there is a lot of I don't know if you've seen these. But there's a lot of secret drinks. Yes. That people are doing on TikTok for like Starbucks like, oh, try this two pumps of unicorn candy with a little bit of ice and then sprinkle this dust, magic and ball. You know, it's so easy to do that is so funny. Just like our own like fake Starbucks. You. Yeah.
Aaron [00:24:15] That would be cool or we really go to Starbucks and we like the behind the scenes like, yeah, we don't drink coffee but can we get two pumps over here. I think we get a chai tea, half ice, half not ice and throw in so much to the pixel pixie dust put some and pixie dust and then put some black pepper. Awesome. Oh, OK. So I think this is everything you guys need to know, at least to this point. We talking about stats. We talked about active users. We told you some videos in our videos. We actually show you how to create an account, how to create your first video and what it looks like. Add in some music. So it's all hands on. Make sure you go check that out on YouTube. And if this is your first time listening to the podcast, please make sure that you subscribe. Make sure to follow us on TikTok, too. Yes, yes. Go to BitBranding and we're on TikTok there. Yeah. Follow us daily. Very cool. We will follow you back. Just let us know that you came from the podcast and you're not some random person. We'll follow you back. Make sure you subscribe to every new episode every Monday.
Aaron [00:25:22] And if you listen for a while, let us know what you think about this TikTok episode. Go to Instagram. Hit us on a DM and say, hey, that TikTok episode. That was a that was funny or that was great. Or hey, do more of those or hey, I don't like. TikTok, TikTok. it'll make you mad. I don't know. Just let us know what you thought of the episode and also make sure you go live as an honest reading review on Apple podcasts. This is how we continue to bring value to you. And we can't do that if we don't know what you want. So I hope you guys enjoy this episode and we'll we'll talk to you next week.
