TikTok has taken the world by storm since it launched back in 2016, already at over a billion active monthly users worldwide. Usually, when social media platforms get into this number, there’s a caveat. Facebook has so many different avenues and sub-platforms that it can have millions of daily users who never use the social media features of the website. YouTube has become a content provider more than a social media platform, with big channels getting bigger and smaller channels staying where they’re at. In context, TikTok’s success is no small feat, but why is TikTok so popular?
Social media services have come and gone without ever making a splash. Other successful platforms that center around visuals like Instagram, have been successful, but not to the extent that TikTok is. There have to be several factors that have led to TikTok becoming so popular with consumers and businesses alike.
There’s never one thing, but there is a core tenet to TikTok’s success that plays a big role that other social media platforms didn’t have when they started. Something that other platforms have struggled with, something that touches so many facets of the platform, intentional and unintentional: ease of use.
What Does it Mean That TikTok is Easy?
Ease-of-use may sound specific, but it’s incredibly general when you consider what we could be talking about for a social media platform. Are we talking about the consumer experience? That it’s easy to watch videos and consume content? Or do we mean that it’s easy for content creators to create and post content on a regular basis? That’s just when we consider the two types of users TikTok has.
When we consider the money that goes into the platform, ease of use starts to mean something different. If a content creator is on TikTok, is it easy to contact them about a sponsorship? Is it easy for a content creator to connect their audience to what they’re advertising? On TikTok, the answer to both questions is yes.
Easy To Create
Compare and contrast how people used to make videos on other social media sites before they began to copy TikTok’s format. You couldn’t record a video from your phone and edit it directly on a platform as you do now. You’d have to invest time and energy with professional software tools or use unintuitive editing tools offered by YouTube.
Several social media platforms struggled to make easy-to-use tools before TikTok came along, but TikTok is truly the first. This is so important because it allows anyone who wants to be a content creator to easily and quickly record a video, make minor edits, and output content in minutes. YouTube, the most popular video streaming platform, will take twice the time just to upload and approve the video for its platform.
Anyone can pick up and start too. Some of the most popular videos are just people recording what’s happening around them. You can post footage of someone falling, cracking a joke, or doing a stunt seconds after it’s over with TikTok. Other social media platforms are catching up, but the odds of being faster than TikTok are slim. Even if they match TikTok’s uploading speed, everyone’s already on TikTok.
Easy To Watch
The one thing that most social media platforms have mastered is making their content easy to consume, and TikTok is no different. From the start, it’s been easy to watch and consume, building off the structure of Instagram.
Having one feed that you scroll up and down through makes it easier than ever to consume content. Also like Instagram, the platform has a high time limit for how long a video can be (10 minutes). This allows content to be as long as it should be in most cases. This keeps people engaged and leaves them with no desire to leave.
Unlike other platforms, TikTok is specifically geared towards video, which is so much more engaging than images and text. This allows interaction on the platform to fly past other social media platforms that offer videos in a similar fashion, but not as their main mode of interaction. This, in totality, makes it possible to get consumers to click on advertisements content creators push.
Easy to Interact
The ultimate goal any business or marketer has with TikTok is to advertise, and advertising on any platform is useless if they can’t reasonably push them down the marketing funnel. With TikTok, there are numerous ways that content creators can connect their audience to whatever they’re advertising with a click. Content creators can link to their sponsor under their profile or use one of the multiple ad types that link to the brand on or in the video. These ads include:
- In-Feed ads
- Brand Takeover ads
- Topview ads
These ads are typically the best way for brands to directly market to their audience. This includes working with a content creator to make the ad and pushing it themselves with paid advertising. This partnership increases the chances of success and outsources the production of the ad.
If you want to use more subtle advertising, partner with a content creator so that they push your brand in their typical videos with the link in their profile. Many brands find success doing this on video platforms like TikTok and YouTube. A video can convince someone to give a product a chance a lot quicker than an image or text.
Still Don’t Understand Why TikTok is So Popular? Contact ENX2 Marketing
TikTok’s popularity is nothing to scoff at. Its marketing potential and ease of use make it the perfect platform for just about any business. You don’t have to partner with content creators or spend hundreds of dollars on ads if that’s not what you want. Becoming a content creator on TikTok is possible just like on any other platform.
But being easier to use than the competition doesn’t make it easy overall. For some people, making content comes naturally, especially in marketing. If it doesn’t come naturally to you, or you don’t have the time to figure it out, you need a marketing team who can create TikToks that will build your brand.
ENX2 Marketing is that marketing team. We have experienced video experts who can create videos that capture what your team is about. We can also handle your other social media platforms so you can raise your brand awareness across multiple platforms. If you need help with your social media marketing, contact ENX2 Marketing today.