For a social media company, it can be argued that we are a bit late with the TikTok game. But while we only launched our official TikTok strategy in July 2021, we’ve been hiding behind TikTok for years before then.
We watched, followed, learned the language, and then dived into the most exciting thing that has happened to social media since the invention of the selfie. We’re only a few months into our TikTok journey, but how exquisite it has been so far, and it’s taken us to 11,800 followers in less than a year.
We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve danced, we’ve gone viral, we’ve failed spectacularly, and we’ve battled other owl brands (we’re looking at you, Duolingo). First of all, we have learned a lot of lessons that we want to share with you in order to make using TikTok for your business a little less intimidating.
How We Developed Our TikTok Strategy
Like it or not, TikTok is getting harder to ignore. With over 2 billion downloads in total, it’s growing at a fast pace. It was the most downloaded app of 2021 with 656 million downloads (more than 100 million more than its closest competitor, Instagram).
TikTok wasn’t going anywhere, so we knew we needed a presence there. But like most brands, we were apprehensive about the role TikTok would play in our broader social media strategy. We didn’t just want to jump on the bandwagon for this, so we did our research.
- We looked at what other brands are doing on TikTok and how the successful ones are engaging with their audience.
- We looked at the comments and realized that tiktokers speak a different language. Words and emoticons have different meanings. (e.g. 💀=😂)
- We’ve learned that trends come and go at breakneck speed, and if you wait too long to react, you’ll be labeled “vulgar”(that’s what they say on TikTok to stay out of trend or outdated).
- We realized that TikTok is a unique and terrifying platform. But it gives an incredible opportunity to try something fun and be real.
We created a TikTok account for our brand in February 2021, secured the @Hootsuite handle, and developed our initial strategy. We included a content plan with five key elements aligned with our overall marketing goals and agreed to use a “test and learn”approach.
We launched our strategy in July 2021. We’ve gone viral; we were an instant success; Ouli has been crowned king and queen of TikTok; end.
Just kidding. They were crickets.
@hootsuite Don’t worry, we’re still trying to wrap our heads on this one as well 🙃 #socialmedia #instagram #reels
Why we threw our strategy out the window
One of our biggest takeaways in the early days was that the content we used on other social networks didn’t have a place on TikTok.
While our goal was to make sure that our content is as focused as possible on social marketers, we realized that this is not the only thing people want to talk about on TikTok.
We have learned that there is an opportunity to reach new audiences, increase brand love and humanize our organization by bringing our Owl mascot to the forefront. We changed our bio from “our friendly social media experts 👋” to “just a TikTok owl asking the internet to love me” to reflect this shift.
What didn’t work for us
We made the classic mistake of creating professionally crafted video content for our early TikTok videos. They performed well, but it quickly became clear that the TikTok style was out of place.
A TikTok study confirmed this: 65% of TikTok users agree that professional-looking videos from brands feel inappropriate or weird on TikTok, according to a study (Marketing Science Global Community and Self-expression Study 2021).
So we threw our strategy out the window and started over.
We have ditched our original core content elements and introduced updated content elements that built on TikTok trends, adopting a more flexible short-term strategy better suited to the platform’s rapid pace of development.
To create more authentic content on a budget, we approached some TikTok influencers to create shareable user generated content (UGC). User-generated content performed very well and filled a gap in our content, however with so many different people in our feed, we started to lose our brand voice a bit.
That’s when we realized we needed our own TikTok content creators.
What worked for us on TikTok – spectacular
Brand battle
When we first introduced our Owl mascot to TikTok, we discovered they weren’t the only owls in town.
They were quickly dubbed the “Walmart version”of the popular mascot of Duo, Duolingo’s language learning app. We could take it to heart and send the Owl to their nest.
Instead, we saw an opportunity to have some fun.
@hootsuite Reply to @duolingo this you???
We sparked a “battle of the brands”- a growing trend on TikTok – and made a little joke about Duolingo’s video style on TikTok. People liked our spicy tone and started making up their own stories around Owly and Duolingo – some wanted us to fight each other; others wanted us to fall in love.
Our “battle of the brands” approach resulted in a 5,205% increase in subscribers. One video even went viral with 647,000 views in a week!
7 second challenge
In early 2022, the creators of TikTok started reporting incredible engagement by simply posting multi-text, seven-second videos with popular audio clips to beat the TikTok algorithm.
We experimented with the seven second call trend and it worked! We posted our video on February 2, 2022 and it went viral with 700,000 views.
@hootsuite try this hack yourself 🙌💯
How to capitalize on trending audio
We noticed that people who commented on our posts fell into two categories: people who knew and loved Hootsuite, and people who had absolutely no idea what Hootsuite was.
To showcase more content about what Hootsuite does, we’ve featured product-focused posts, including a series of “product hacks”showcasing Hootsuite’s most loved (and often underrated) features and little-known tricks.
One post showcasing our new scheduler look in the Hootsuite dashboard used trending audio and was a huge success, generating a lot of positive feedback from our followers.
@hootsuite scheduling on social just got a lot better 😉
Dance challenge (we should have!)
Then, in March 2022, we worked with Brian Esperon – Cardi B’s WAP dance choreographer – to create a unique dance challenge for Hootsuite as part of our campaign at SXSW, a major technology and entertainment conference.
Owley and Brian took to the streets of Austin, Texas with their crazy moves and attracted a lot of different people. Overall, the campaign videos have received over 56,000 views on TikTok.
While the dance videos were successful, the way we ran this campaign didn’t match the way people consume content on TikTok. Ahead of the event, we launched a series of video teasers, consisting of several parts, which were created for sequential viewing. We’ve learned that offline videos work better on TikTok.
Why? In addition to being very fast paced, TikTok is not a particularly chronological platform, so you don’t know what will hit your audience’s #fyp and when. People may see videos in your series out of order or see only one of them, missing important details from other entries. Keeping your entire story in one video gives you the best chance of getting your audience to see the whole story, especially if you make that video as short as possible.
@hootsuite 🚨NEW TREND ALERT🚨 get ready to shake your tail feathers with these moves 🤪 dc: @besperon & Owly #WheresOwly
Key Takeaways for TikTok Newbies
The role of the social media administrator is changing
In the past, social media managers could sit behind the scenes, write texts, create graphics, and manipulate numbers. With the advent of TikTok (and similar features like Instagram Reels), our roles have the opportunity to become more versatile as we flex our creative muscles.
Understanding the ins and outs of creating a video can be intimidating at first. Not everyone is comfortable filming themselves or being on camera, but with practice it gets easier.
If you can, hire content creators or find people on your team who are genuinely passionate about TikTok and love working in front of the camera.
Our social marketing coordinator and inside TikTok fan Eileen Kwok crushes it. Follow us on TikTok to see how she strikes the perfect balance between capitalizing on TikTok trends and providing helpful, evergreen advice and support to our core audience of social media managers.
@hootsuite hootsuite always saving me time 😍
Authentic ones work best
When marketers think of video production, we usually think of costly or time-consuming production that eats up a TON of budget and resources.
TikTok doesn’t need such high performing content. In fact, authentic, raw, low-performing videos resonate much better with TikTok users.
Learn to speak on TikTok
TikTok has its own language and style. You can show your audience that you understand the platform by learning how to communicate better on it. See how other brands are doing it by reading the comment sections, or check out tips in our TikTok Culture Guide.
Comment on other brand accounts
The comment section of TikTok videos is an exciting (and surprisingly positive) place. Many users actually go directly to the comments before watching the full video to see what others have to say about it. (Comments are also a great place to learn how to speak on TikTok.)
We started actively commenting on other brand accounts and some of our comments got thousands of likes which brought tons of traffic to our account.
TikTok trends don’t wait
Leaning on various TikTok trends is the easiest way to gain followers. So if you find a trend that suits your brand, don’t waste time thinking about content creation.
Act quickly or the trend may pass you by. (Tip: If you’re late with the trend on TikTok, don’t worry: you can still be early on Instagram.)
Be selective with the trends you jump on
The humor on TikTok is very dark and NSFW (Not Safe for Work). Be careful what trends you choose (and what songs you choose for backing tracks).
Always keep your audience in mind when asking yourself if they will appreciate your humor or appreciate it.
TikTok trends are changing FAST. Stay up to date with our TikTok Trends Newsletter. Subscribe to get the latest updates, our recommendations on whether your business should use them, tips from brands doing cool things on TikTok, and hot tips.