Every social media platform seems to follow the same journey when it comes to adoption.
The younger generation begins using it, the older generations say they’ll never use it, and within a couple of years, everyone (at every age) has a profile.
It happened with Facebook. It happened with Instagram. And now it’s happening with TikTok.
Right now it’s generally accepted that Facebook is for everyone, Instagram is for the 20’s and 30’s crowd, and TikTok skews toward 12- to 16-year-olds. But we are going to uncover how even these basic metrics (and the opportunities they present), in actuality, are what is skewed.
So, let’s get real and break down some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding the world’s fastest-growing social media platform and why we all need to start paying attention.
TikTok’s Attention Is No Joke
Facebook launched to the public in 2006 and grew to just over a billion users by late 2012 —just 6 years. TikTok, on the other hand, achieved this one billion user benchmark in 2021 after just 5 years, revealing a more rapid adoption than Facebook. Not too shabby.
Granted, Facebook basically introduced the world to what social media could be (sorry, MySpace), but TikTok is obviously building something Facebook is lacking.
The REAL Demographics of TikTok
We said at the outset that we were going to crush that “only for young people” myth, right? Well, here we go.
If we ask you what percent of TikTok users were housed under that young demographic umbrella, what would you guess? Maybe 70 or 80%? How about less than 25%. Yeah, that’s right—less than 25%. In fact, we only hit the 25% user base number when looking at the 10 to 19 age range!
So, how do the rest of TikTok’s users break down? Well, the 20- to 29-year-olds hold a little over 22%, the 30 to 39 demo accounts for another 20%, the 40 to 49 age range takes another 20%, and the over-50 crowd holds about 11%. Not quite what you were thinking, was it?! In fact, there is a much more even spread as compared to what we have seen in the past.
This could simply be because the idea of social media is more accepted across the board than it used to be.
The Gender “Gap” on Social Media
Up until recently, every social media platform has been known to skew towards a specific gender—not necessarily by design, but this has been the natural evolution of these platforms. For example, Pinterest tends to lean towards the female demographic, with a split of 77% female and only about 15% male. With Twitter, on the other hand, these numbers flip, skewing 70% male and about 30% female. And as you can see below, most platforms tend to lean more heavily to one gender or another.
So what does this have to do with TikTok? Worldwide data shows us that the TikTok gender demographics are more evenly split, with 51% male to 49% female, meaning there is more of a balance on TikTok than other platforms. So, when it comes to who you are creating content for (or advertising to), TikTok is likely to have the audience you are looking for.
Ecommerce Opportunities on TikTok
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To satisfy (or in response to) the “TikTok made me buy it” trend, Tiktok launched a pilot program to select Shopify merchants, giving them the ability to add a shopping tab to their profiles.
With this ability for creators and brands to tag products on organic TikTok posts and sell directly, friction can be reduced and eliminates the need to “click the link in the bio.” With installs of Shopify’s social commerce channels swelling by over 75% from Feb 2020 to Feb 2021, and TikTok being the fastest-growing social media platform, this seems like a match made in double-tap heaven.
For the time being, this pilot program is only available to Shopify merchants in the USA, UK, and select areas of Canada. But if you are interested in seeing if it is available to you, you can click here to find out.
Advertising Opportunities on TikTok
What would all of this talk about demographics and social commerce amount to without diving into the marketing and advertising possibilities?!
Don’t worry. We won’t keep you in suspense.
TikTok advertising is actually one of the new services that National Positions is offering in 2022, so it is well worth checking out an overview of what is possible.
Currently, there are a handful of various engaging ad types on the platform including: TopView, In-Feed Ads, Branded Hashtag Challenge, and Branded Effects. So let’s break down the highlights of each.
TikTok TopView Ads
TopView takes advantage of the moment that users are the most primed to interact with TikTok content—the second they open the app. This is when TopView ads get to work, and, as TikTok puts it, “In capturing users’ attention—and allowing space for creative storytelling—TopView boosts brand awareness and triggers interactions throughout the community.”
The data provided by TikTok is encouraging as well, with over 70% of users indicating that TopView captures their attention. Additionally, when it comes to the CPG industry, TopView is shown to have 67% better sales effectiveness when compared to “total paid TikTok ads activity,” according to Neilson.
TikTok In-Feed Ads
Next up are In-Feed Ads, which are designed to be featured in TikTok’s “For You” feed. For those unfamiliar, the “For You” feed is dedicated to videos that are curated for your specific interests based on the types of accounts you follow and content you regularly engage with. What’s great about this type of ad placement is that it is being folded into curated content, designed for your target market.
In-Feed Ads also appear more like native content as to not disrupt the experience of the user and can be up to 60 seconds in length. It is also important to remember that TikTok gives you more real estate to work with (via a vertical video format by default) as opposed to what you might see in your Instagram feed.
TikTok Branded Hashtag Challenge
When you are striving for engagement, a Branded Hashtag Challenge might be exactly what you need. Designed as a way to provide more interactivity, these campaigns are a great way to harness the power of TikTok or even cultural trends.
We can hear you thinking, “Why do I care about engagement? I am here to sell my product.” And we totally understand, but those who engage with brands are more likely to purchase from those brands. Data shows that nearly 60% of customers who feel connected to a brand typically will increase how much they spend on that brand’s products and services, and 76% will choose brands they are connected with over a competitor.
TikTok Branded Effects
When it comes to filters, stickers, or other effects, you can actually create custom effects just for your brand—which, beyond the “coolness” factor, can provide more ways for customers to interact with your brand and facilitate even faster branding of your own TikTok content.
There is a term you have probably heard over the past decade or so—gamification.
This is basically the process of making things more engaging, user-friendly, and frankly “fun” to use and interact with, which is basically what these Branded Effects are.
With green screen, interactive, and even augmented reality filter opportunities, this can be a whole new approach to connecting with your audience and expanding your reach.
There are too many examples and possibilities to list them all out here, but if you are ready to dive in and see what you can do, this article from TikTok is a great starting point.
Open Your Brand to TikTok Opportunities
We get it, it can be really daunting attempting to keep up with all the options on social media, and this perspective on TikTok may have just flown under your marketing radar—until now.
But after reading this article we hope that the perception of who uses TikTok and the opportunities that surround it are becoming just a little bit clearer.
As we said at the outset, TikTok is not just for the younger generation anymore, and those demographics that were assumed to be outliers are in actuality the biggest group of new TikTok adopters. So, if you are ready to see what is really possible, go ahead and drop our team an email by clicking here, and we will be happy to help.
The year 2022 is full of possibilities, and TikTok might be a strategy you should start considering. Your audience is waiting.