How TikTok can benefit your business

There’s an audience for every business on TikTok, says Heather Claycomb, and the benefits in reaching a younger audience are significant.

TikTok is not just for Gen Z, and businesses who do it well are reaping huge rewards, according to the director of Hamilton-based PR agency HMC.

Heather says “if your business isn’t on the platform yet, now is a great time to be first and capture a loyal audience, because others will follow. 

“TikTok is not a trend, it is a platform that has changed the face of social media permanently. Our team believes most businesses will be on it within the next five years.”

HMC has helped several businesses lean into TikTok and overcome any pre-conceived perceptions they may have about the platform.

Hamilton Central Business Association (HCBA) general manager Vanessa Williams started using TikTok to promote the many and varied shops and businesses in Hamilton’s CBD. She admits she knew very little about the platform before she started but says its short-form video content has been a game-changer for the organisation.

“When TikTok crossed our radar as a tool to promote the CBD’s businesses, I felt lost. But even then, I could see it was a hand-in-glove fit for our objectives. Short, snappy videos seemed like the perfect way to showcase these businesses to a new audience of younger digital natives,” she says.

“HCBA promotes a diverse range of businesses, so we must attract a variety of people of different ages and interests. We were already leaning heavily into Facebook and Instagram but felt that we lacked a good channel to reach a younger audience. TikTok plugged that gap for us and was where we could post punchy, engaging compilation videos.”

Finding your audience on TikTok

Can other businesses find their audience on TikTok? With over 1 billion monthly active users around the world the answer is most likely ‘yes’. Although many assume it is a platform for teens, research shows 61.6% of users are over 25, and 170 million users are aged 35-44.

HMC’s social media expert Jamie Batters says most businesses can benefit from TikTok, and it pays to do your research first.

“See if your competitors are on the platform already. If they are, have a look at their content and the amount of engagement they’re getting. That’s a quick way to see if TikTok has an audience you can capture,” she says.

Providing value to your audience on TikTok 

Reaching an audience is one thing but turning them into customers is another. The key is deep engagement – getting them to watch your videos then seek you out for advice. How do you achieve that? For Jamie, it’s about giving them something valuable first. 

“TikTok lends itself to quick explainer videos, light-hearted how-tos, life hacks, “day in the life” videos, and educational tools. If you’re a lawyer or accountant, what great advice can you give for free?

Younger users are turning to the app for discovery purposes in place of Google. Nearly 40% of Gen Z members prefer TikTok over Google for online searches, and we are experiencing a shift of users utilising the platform as a search engine.”

Work to a plan 

TikTok success comes from playing a longer game, which puts an emphasis on consistency and frequency of content. That may sound daunting, but Vanessa insists it’s well within reach of most businesses, provided they get one thing right. 

“Planning is everything. That’s one of the early things Jamie did with us – we sat down with her and laid out a 3-month map of the content we wanted to capture on video. Working to a plan freed us from the weekly stress of ‘What now?’”    

How difficult is it to create video content? 

A cursory look on TikTok will show you that most of the best content has been created with a simple point-and-shoot of the phone video. For Jamie, keeping things simple is better. 

“Bring it back to basics. The key is giving your audience something they’ll find valuable. That’s how you become a resource that people will turn to when they need your product, service, or advice.” 

To learn more tune in to HMC’s podcast CRUNCH. In the latest episode, leading CEO and marketing manager Vanessa and Vicky share how they are leveraging TikTok to boost reputation and relationships and social media expert Jamie breaks down what TikTok can achieve, and how to do it well – using a real success story. https://www.wearehmc.co.nz/ep-2-the-pr-power-of-tiktok-using-short-form-vid/

Photo: Heather Claycomb (left) with HCBA’s Vanessa Williams.