In the last year, TikTok, the short video sharing platform, has got a lot of people talking about it thanks to its rapid market penetration. In January 2020 it was the most downloaded app in the world, while in Italy it reached 3.6 million users in a few months, an increase of 388% (source: vincos.it). This development has attracted attention from celebrities, influencers and brands and inspired them to join. In fact, the fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has recently started using the Chinese social network, with an Influencer Marketing strategy involving the best Italian TikTokers like Elisa Maino, the Lapresa twins, Luciano Spinelli and Marta Losito, also creating a special filter.
@dolcegabbana Are you ##DGEnough ? ##DGTiktok ##DolceGabbana @majno @valerio.mazzei @marta.losito
♬ DGENOUGH – Dolce&Gabbana
To avoid a simplistic approach to TikTok, we’ve decided to give you some tips to follow if you want to start collaborating with the new stars of the web.
1. Campaign objective
The first step, as in all marketing activities, is choosing the objective to pursue in line with your communication strategy. Several objectives can be achieved through a collaboration on TikTok, such as raising awareness, improving brand reputation, and increasing interactions with your fan base. The app doesn’t currently let you insert links in the bio or the post description, so it’s not possible to use it for direct conversion objectives.
2. Search for Influencers
To search for influencers, you need to identify the creators who can best interpret your brand’s values. You therefore need to simultaneously evaluate various factors like the topics covered by the profile, the communication style, the audience and the channel’s performance (engagement and views). For this reason, it’s best to rely on professional tools like Buzzoole Discovery that can speed up this phase and improve its effectiveness.
3. Rely on creativity
On TikTok, adopting a product placement strategy may not be effective. In fact, merely including products within a video makes it less genuine in the eyes of the influencer’s audience. Brands that want to start collaborating with a TikToker must therefore leave ample room for their creativity. Of course, the company should always have the final say in approving content before it goes online. In this case, using technological platforms also makes it possible to supervise and track the entire creative workflow.
4. Create challenges
Challenges are one of the platform’s differentiating elements, and this type of content is among the most popular with viewers. The challenges, which often end up in the “Trends” section, can be launched by TikTok centrally or by users and companies on their own initiative. So, to make your campaign go viral, it’s ideal to come up with new competitions for influencers to launch to promote user-generated content. As well as generating interaction and visibility on the platform, the brand could also use this content outside the platform for other promotional activities.
@thesharptwins Our twist on the ##danceAwesome challenge for @samsung ##GalaxyA ##Ad
♬ Awesome Phone Song(BLACKPINK Ver.) – BLACKPINK
5. Measure the results
Results shouldn’t be measured at the end of an Influencer Marketing campaign but as soon as it starts, especially when it involves new platforms.
Keeping track of KPIs from the start lets you calibrate your parameters and obtain historical data to optimise future activities. If, for example, the campaign objective concerns awareness, it would be good to monitor the trend of post views against influencers’ average performance, to get a comprehensive and detailed assessment.
These are just some of the tips to follow for successful campaigns on TikTok. If you want to find out more, our team of experts is at your disposal.