Is TikTok a Viable Platform for Entrepreneurial Success?

The post Is TikTok a Viable Platform for Entrepreneurial Success? appeared first on The Founding Moms.

Social media is crucial for any small business strategy today, but is TikTok a viable option? Entrepreneurs have many social media platforms to choose from today when promoting and growing their businesses. TikTok has a lot to offer, from in-app shopping to a fantastic algorithm. Should entrepreneurs use TikTok? How does it compare to other platforms?

Benefits of TikTok for Small Businesses

TikTok can be a great social media platform for building a business, particularly if you are trying to appeal to young people or women. Over the past few years, TikTok has added several new features to offer more support for small businesses, such as a shop feature and business accounts. TikTok’s algorithm is also a powerful marketing tool when used properly. 

Business Accounts

When you create a TikTok account, you have two options: a basic personal account or a business account. Entrepreneurs can opt for the second one and get some perks and features specifically designed for business owners. 

Business accounts give you access to a wealth of analytics about your audience and content, such as top performing videos, audience demographics, audience interests, and website traffic. If you’re a new entrepreneur still refining your strategy, this information is invaluable for getting a clearer understanding of who your brand most appeals to. 

You can also access advertising features through the TikTok Ads Manager. TikTok has several types of ads you can run in the app, including Spark ads and Reach & Frequency ads. Reach & Frequency ads give you more control over who sees your content and how often. Spark ads take the opposite approach, leveraging existing content and sending it out to anyone with interests in your niche. 

In-App Shopping

In 2021, TikTok added an in-app shopping feature so businesses can sell their products directly through TikTok. With the addition of this feature, TikTok became a top platform for entrepreneurs, posing serious competition for Instagram and Facebook. 

You can add a marketplace to your TikTok business account by activating the shop tab on your profile in the app. Of course, you are still free to link to your website on your profile, but the in-app shop tab has more capabilities. For example, you can link to products in your TikTok shop directly in videos and livestreams. 

For example, you can do an unboxing or demo video for one of your products and have a pop-up to buy that product right in the video. The convenience of this feature for viewers makes it more likely they will make a purchase. It works similarly to Instagram’s in-app shopping feature, which has been a hit over the past several years. 

Growing Your Audience

TikTok is best known for its incredibly powerful recommendation algorithm, which is often uncannily good at figuring out what viewers are interested in. The TikTok algorithm is a fantastic tool for entrepreneurs because it can allow you to grow your brand rapidly and gain a highly nuanced understanding of your audience. 

One of the best traits of the TikTok algorithm for small businesses is that it doesn’t favor large accounts over small accounts. Of course, having more followers is always helpful, but the algorithm won’t downvote you for having a small following. 

You can get on TikTok and potentially start gathering a significant number of viewers in a short amount of time. TikTok sends out videos to users in batches that get larger if viewers are interacting with your video. If the first batch of viewers like, comment, share, duet or stitch your video, the algorithm will send it out to an even larger batch of viewers in the next drop. 

As a result, you can have a video snowball within a few hours, even if you have no followers. With a business account, you can also see what kinds of people are interacting with your content the most, allowing you to tailor your next video for that audience. 

Of course, you do still need to practice good TikTok video editing to maximize your likelihood of a “snowball effect” video. Vertical, short-form content has its own unique style and trends you need to understand to be successful on TikTok. For example, including text and graphics in your video is a great way to keep viewers engaged. TikToks should also be short and unique and make use of trending sounds and songs. 

Do Users Actually Buy Things On TikTok?

It’s great that TikTok has an in-app shop feature, but whether or not it’s a viable platform for entrepreneurs depends on whether customers actually use that feature. After all, it’s hard to compete with Instagram, which has become the top platform for social media shopping. 

While TikTok is relatively new to this niche, the initial data on TikTok Shop is promising. According to independent research from InSites Consulting conducted in 2022, 82% of TikTok users report discovering a small business on TikTok. Additionally, 52% say they have purchased products from small businesses they found through the app. 

So, there is definitely potential for realistically running a business through TikTok. The perks of the in-app shop can help if utilized properly. For example, creating a pop-up link directly to one of your shop products in a video is a fantastic feature. It makes the purchase process quick and easy and removes the minimal but pivotal effort to manually find that product in your shop. 

The ease of making a purchase with one of these pop-ups may even help get past decision paralysis, which can affect business owners just as much as customers. Decision paralysis happens when someone overanalyzes a situation until they can’t make a choice on it and end up stuck. For customers, this can mean abandoning a cart or saving a product for later but never buying it. 

When a purchase is easy and streamlined, decision paralysis may be less likely to happen. Customers don’t have to worry about choosing between too many options or navigating through a complicated shop menu. TikTok’s in-video product links cut through all of that and let customers jump straight to the checkout. 

The TikTok algorithm can also improve your odds of converting viewers to customers. The algorithm is notoriously good at identifying viewers’ interests based on the way they interact with content. While every social media platform curates interest-based feeds, TikTok is especially good at it. When someone does see one of your product videos on TikTok, they are more likely to be interested enough in your niche to go through with a purchase. 

TikTok Compared to Other Platforms for Entrepreneurs

If you’re starting a business today, social media is going to be a core part of your strategy. The question is, should you use TikTok or another social media platform?  Your target audience is a crucial factor to consider. People of all demographics use TikTok, but it’s most popular among young people and tends to be more popular with women than men. 

If you wanted to market to people over 40 with a primarily male audience, Facebook might be a better choice. If your target audience is mainly young people, TikTok is the top choice, especially if your audience is primarily female. 

Instagram is TikTok’s biggest competitor. It is among the top three social media apps for young people every year and has a more established in-app shopping experience. Instagram also has a Reels content format designed to replicate TikTok’s format. Choosing between these two platforms is tricky. 

Ultimately, it comes down to a choice between static or video content. Instagram is still the best for posting static photos while TikTok remains the king of short-form video content. Successfully using social media for entrepreneurship is all about balancing efficiency and growth so you can make more out of less. Choose the platform that’s best at promoting the type of content you feel aligns with your brand. 

If you want the dynamic nature of video content, TikTok is definitely the best choice. However, if your products or services are better suited for static photography content, then Instagram is the better option. You can also post video content on both platforms if you’re not sure which one to use. 

Using TikTok for Entrepreneurial Success

Social media is a pillar of small business success today, so choosing the right platform is crucial. TikTok is a viable platform for entrepreneurs thanks to the addition of key features like in-app shopping and business accounts. Of course, finding success on TikTok requires having a solid short-form video strategy and a clear understanding of social media marketing. 

Joining entrepreneurship organizations can help you build those skills. There are even organizations geared specifically toward female business owners, such as the Founding Moms, which offers learning, networking and event opportunities for moms starting their own businesses. 

Eleanor Hecks is the founder and managing editor of Designerly Magazine. She’s also a web design consultant with a focus on customer experience and user interface. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dogs, Bear and Lucy. Connect with her about marketing, design and/or tea on LinkedIn!

The post Is TikTok a Viable Platform for Entrepreneurial Success? appeared first on The Founding Moms.