7 Best Practices that TikTok Experts Follow

TikTok is a favorite platform among users under 50, with 39% of U.S. adults ages 30 to 49 and 62% of U.S. adults under 30 using it, according to Pew Research. Marketers have seen success by leveraging the platform. But what are the best practices for TikTok? By following these tips and collaborating with TikTok experts, you can set your brand up for success and maximize the impact of your campaigns.

TikTok best practices

Maximize your impact on TikTok with these tips:

1. Choose the right influencers.

Find influencers who share your target audience, regardless of their number of followers. Always vet your content creators — or work with influencer marketing experts to source influencers — to ensure their values align with your brands and that they don’t have any pending legal issues, controversial content, or scandals. 

Whenever possible, work with m and a diverse line-up of influencers to help your followers better identify with the messenger — and messaging.

For example, influencer Christine Lan, who often posts about sustainability, shared Acer’s eco-friendly laptop with her 175K TikTok followers. This campaign is effective because the content was shared with an audience already interested in reducing waste and taking steps to be more environmentally friendly.

2. Go live.

Live streaming can be an easy way to improve engagement. Post a video in advance letting your brand followers know when you’ll be live and encourage them to leave questions and comments in advance for your brand or influencer. Your audience will see the people behind your brand in real-time rather than through curated, pre-recorded content. 

Going live also allows your brand to create up to 60 minutes of content, some of which can be repurposed for other promotions on TikTok and other platforms or your brand’s website. 

3. Be authentic.

Gen Z is the first truly digital native cohort whose members can smell a sales pitch a mile away. To maintain this generation’s trust, lean into authenticity in all of your TikTok videos. 

TikTok experts share helpful or instructional information about products and often talk about their personal experiences with them.  

4. Respond to comments.

Have you ever been ready to purchase a product featured in a TikTok video only to see the brand ignore the questions in the comments? It’s a missed opportunity. 

If you’re fortunate enough to get engagement from prospects asking questions, always try to respond publicly. You may even learn more about what your customers want in terms of colors, sizes, payment options, and additional features.

Positive comments can be repurposed as UGC, and responding to negative comments shows your followers that you address problems head-on and are committed to customer satisfaction.

5. Post consistently.

There are significant benefits to posting regularly on TikTok. For your audience, it helps build and maintain trust and loyalty as they recognize your brand’s commitment to creating content. In addition, you’ll expand your reach because TikTok’s algorithm rewards consistent posting by showing your brand’s content more.

Cleaning product company Scrub Daddy posts its quirky and often outright funny content several times a week on its official TikTok account. Rather than focusing solely on hyping its products, the company makes entertaining videos that often reference current pop culture, like this clip featuring Moo Deng, the popular baby hippo. 

6. Incorporate hashtags and keywords.

Adding hashtags and SEO keywords to your TikTok video increases visibility by upping the content’s chances of being discovered in a search. TikTok experts consider hashtags and keywords a sort of smoke signal to inform your target audience that you’ve posted content related to their preferred topics and niches.

TikTok offers a Creative Center tool to help you determine the best hashtags for your content as well as a hashtag’s popularity by region, industry, and numbers. You can also type in Creator Search Insights in the TikTok search for keywords that are currently trending.

7. Balance promotional and organic content.

Not everything on your brand’s TikTok account should be promotional or pre-recorded. Look for opportunities to share organic and live content, such as non-branded UGC, employees performing trending TikTok dances, or a live behind-the-scenes tour of the company’s manufacturing facility. 

To ensure transparency, ensure that sponsored videos are clearly labeled as such, and look for content to share (or create) that showcases your brand’s values, sense of humor, and customer sentiment. 

Candy brand Sour Patch Kids love to toy with their audiences and create videos promoting fake products, like this Sour Patch Kids deodorant or this April Fool’s prank announcing that the treat had changed its name to “Sour Patch Adults.”

Need some help taking your brand to TikTok expert status? Check out the industry-leading results and next-gen technology available to our Managed Services clients.