Less than a year ago, our former editor at e27 released an opinion piece on how TikTok would never measure up to Instagram’s monstrosity, calling the China-born app “cringeworthy”.
But today, the app has grown so rapidly that even on Instagram, users are treating it as this FOMO-inducing trend that one simply has to try. Everybody from your former classmates to celebrities is getting their hands on it. That is certainly the case with TikTok.
I was feeling so tired that when my younger sister came for a visit, it became a welcomed distraction from my routine. She pulled out the app, saying that everybody was doing it, and the next thing we knew we were checking what the hype was about.
We started off from the obvious: The swirl. You do not have to understand why but it is quite big in Indonesia –and it is fun. The swirl is basically you putting your hands up in the air and letting the swirl effect twist your body from head to toe like a tornado or a blender. What makes it laughable is actually the song in the background, which brings us to why TikTok has become more relevant than ever in less than a year.
Live to create
When it comes to music streaming, there is not much left in the digital space except for online and video streaming. Spotify and iTunes are the go-to platforms, and there is always YouTube. But that is all. Also, these places are where artists with access to labels or music production thrive, not aspiring creators.
By aspiring creators, I am talking about the rest of us mere mortals. TikTok arrives just when we are all caught in the “create, don’t hate” virus. We create just to exist, to self-actualise.
So in a way, I get it. I see why it is easy to get hooked on dancing around to songs and be viral. Aside from having fun, the idea is to become creators –and doing it more easily. This goes from average Joes and Janes like the rest of us to content creators such as dancers, chefs, and craftspersons.
Also Read: [Updated] Mobile studio app Musical.ly, Tik Tok to merge into a new app
TikTok’s short duration also helps. Remember the heyday of Vine? How it died on us for lack of distinctive feature aside from its ability to produce snippets? Well, TikTok managed to resurrect it with a better version, completed with Instagram and Snapchat-like filter. It also comes with the option to go as long as one minute.
Let’s admit it, a better era for this kind of entertainment.
How powerfully early TikTok is
My first encounter with TikTok actually began way before it exploded into a phenomenon like it is today.
I read about it when Lil’ Nas’ became a huge deal for having excerpts of his song Old Town Road on a random user’s video, and how it caught waves. The article stated that “turns out, there’s a ‘new’ platform for previously unrecognised artists and how their songs have found a second life in TikTok.” Just like in the case of Lil Nas.
That was the first time TikTok caught my attention as a real, powerful marketing medium that was a novelty, and now it started to take form. We catch up, most certainly, and we can still be an early adopter to promote our content (a.k.a whatever it is we wish to sell online) on TikTok today.
Now I am not the one to advise on how to use TikTok properly (but then again that would be a good, fun content to have). But with the platform seriously growing users, and how it becomes even more relevant to all ages than what we guessed, it is here as the future of digital marketing platform and social media.
TikTok’s market
Social Report states in its article that “TikTok is largely used by people between the age of 16 and 24. This age group makes up 41 per cent of the total user-base. Unfortunately, the social network hasn’t released much beyond this, though it is safe to assume 24-30 makes up another large part of its audience”.
So with these numbers in mind, the Chinese ByteDance‘s most successful products, which acquired US-based mobile studio app Musical.ly at the end of 2017, can only get bigger with time as it started off as the online place where young demographics create stuff such as skits, craft and art, cooking, and lipsyncing videos. These youngsters will get older with time, but their way of finding their entertainment and content online will stick around for quite some time.
As of now, the platform has yet to monetise their contents with ads. But it will get there, just like the past social networks always did. So if you know you can get on board with the trend and your brands or anything you sell online can manage, get on board now –and get on board fast.
Create content with a viral intention first and foremost, as TikTok is all about the virality of your content, to the point others want to copy and recreate their own interpretations. Remember Lil’ Nas’ success on it?
Instagram vs TikTok
Another thing that makes TikTok so powerful is its ability to let people engage and share.
In the case of Instagram’s engagement, it has provided every option there is online for different types of engagement. From feed post and Instagram story to tell minutiae of a life that is more interesting than yours, to Instagram TV for longer, documentary-like videos. Instagram started off as an online gallery and slowly morphed into other things as well to keep up.
Also Read: Why Tik Tok is not a real competitor to Instagram
In the case of TikTok, people have long been predicting, suggesting, believing, and applying the relevance of videos moving forward –and TikTok came along. Unlike Instagram, it is a video-first platform, which leaves no choice for people but to pick themselves up, post their face, and try not think about it too much.
Turns out, spontaneity and short-span content is the future. And it starts today.
Would they be a match for Instagram? I believe the answer is still no. If anything, I think Instagram would add a new feature that has TikTok’s elements in it. Because that is what Instagram has been trying to do all along: To keep us in and not closing the tab on it, ever. So they will eventually come up with something similar, especially with TikTok’s user closing in at 500 million per last year.
In Indonesia, recent news emerged about how the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology resurrected its TikTok’s account despite blocking it once in 2018. The minister’s head of public relations Fernandus Setu has released a statement saying that they did block it but only for a week. It is safe to say that TikTok’s popularity has caught up even with people in politics.
There are different types of people on social media that I have seen. There are the more cynical ones who keep their Instagram posts to minimal; there are also people who just want to have fun and find out their level of influence online. The second group of people increases day by day. So let us do the rough count starting today.
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Image Credit: Harry Cunningham on Unsplash
The post I tried TikTok out and now I get why it is the future of digital marketing appeared first on e27.