B2B Enterprise And The Early Adoption of TikTok App
TikTok! No…we’re not talking about a clock. TikTok is the world’s fastest-growing social media platform and its numbers are staggering. 500 million users and 1.2 billion downloads make the app ripe for user engagement. However, is it possible for the B2B ventures to adopt this TikTok? Let’s see how they can tackle this Gen-Z app.
This Chinese born app scaled globally and now has users in 150 countries and with 75 different languages available. Facebook launched an app called Lasso that measly failed to compete. Ultimately, Lasso’s monthly downloads averaged less than 1% of TikTok’s downloads.
TikTok’s success is Irrefutable. It’s not a question of the app to deliver high levels of user engagement. Rather, the question at hand is whether or not B2B companies and businesses, in general, should use TikTok to form relationships and increase brand awareness.
B2B Doubt Concerning TikTok
Peak age demographics for TikTok range from 16-24. For most companies in the B2B cycle, the idea of using TikTok is met by a good amount of skepticism. Would it even be useful to advertise, brand and produce content to engage audiences that can barely drive? How are they supposed to buy our products? Do they even have jobs?
We’d like to play devil’s advocate and meet your skepticism with a plethora of opportunities that this app exhibits.
Every piece of technology, platform, and software endures the 5 stages of technological adoption. This is more common in the marketing cycle. Innovators (in this case 18-24 year-olds) take hold of the app in its earliest stages and as the cycle evolves it will eventually get into the hands of older audiences, more relevant to your marketing demographic.
The Dawn of Something New
While the app in its initial stages was known as an oversaturated Gen-Z playground, we’re now seeing the earliest changes in the app’s demographics. In an almost satirical fashion, blogs and news outlets covered the mothers migrating to the app with humorous titles coined like, “The unstoppable rise of TikTok moms.” However, this change shouldn’t surprise us much.
Think back to the dawn of MySpace (yes, quite near the beginning of time) and then slightly after that (if you can manage) to the rise of Facebook. Innovators and eventually early adopters began using the platform. Eventually, mothers, businessmen, and entire corporations migrated to the platform. Today facebook has its digital marketplaces. No one could have anticipated these changes. And as history often repeats itself, perhaps we should expect the same for TikTok.
Using TikTok In B2B
We are still in the earliest stages of growth for TikTok. According to online sources,
Maybe it will eventually do the same for brand names, startups, and corporations.
For now, we suggest using the platform as a window into the company culture. Follow hashtags relevant to your business–have fun with it too! Participate in viral dances and showcase the camaraderie that exists in your office space. Using TikTok’s internal features you can attach music and other effects to the videos you upload. Who knows…you might be the next viral trend.
As TikTok releases software updates we are likely to see an expansion of features that welcomes entirely new audiences to the platform. As late adopters and laggards move into TikTok’s space, your B2B enterprise has the potential to interact with a diverse age range of global audiences. Consider this app in your marketing plan for 2020 and as always, see how Robotic Marketer could devise the perfect marketing strategy for your business.
