Some small businesses are increasingly looking to TikTok to build their sales. The growing popularity of TikTok as a channel for small businesses to market their products and services reflects the growing number of people on the platform, with over 13 million active TikTok users in the UK.

So how do you know if it right for you, and how do you get started with TikTok?

Imagen Insights works with a lot of Gen Zs to gain qualitative and quantitative insight from the community to help and aid businesses. Jay Richards Co-Founder spoke recently at a business event where he explained having this community works with young people to help them shape their future, but also gives brutally honest insights about pretty much anything people want to know. “It is about wanting to make everything more human from our interaction with the community to the audio and visual files that the community respond with.”

What is a Gen Z?

A young person aged between 8 and 26, and this market holds so much consumer spending power as it equates to $4.4 trillion spending power. Gen Zs are made up of activists, co-creators, and digital natives – the market is so broad with so much potential.

Jay said: “Anything that does well on TikTok is collaborative. Something we call beautiful mixtures and remixes.”

Getting started on TikTok

So, there are a few basic things to remember if you are thinking of starting out on TikTok.

• Community first – this one speaks for itself, you need to make this is top of your priority list, you are always thinking of your community and engaging and interacting with them.
• Lean into hype culture without being cheesy – be relatable and current, without being cringey and too predictable.
• Don’t be afraid to live in the niche – if you can lean into your niche that will be your superpower as a brand.

The power of the internet and online can connect people like no ways we have ever seen before, and social media is taking this to the next level.

TikTok is not just for small businesses, it can be relevant for anyone – some of the bigger brands are smashing it on the platform, if you haven’t go check out Ryanair and Duolingo on there. Jay said: “What they are doing is so fresh, they don’t care and are just going for it. It’s about businesses having banter, and not taking themselves too seriously.”

Some points Jay highlighted included:

• Engage with heightened personality
• Have a clear tone of voice
• Be playful and reactive to trends
• Don’t be afraid to mock yourself (Gen Zs love this.)

Another trick Jay had up his sleeve was to: “Find a sound that’s being used a lot, go through and see what correlating trend fits with it and make content around this.” But don’t just make content for the sake of making content, and don’t use sounds and trends that don’t fit with the sort of message you are trying to portray.

On the type of content Gen Zs like to consume, comedy comes out on top, closely followed by content relating to food and beverages. With 56% of Gen Zs spending at least an hour on TikTok every day, it is important to make the sort of content they want to see.

The best way to learn and to familiarise yourself, is keep watching and learning on the app itself. The more time you spend on there the more of the algorithm you will pick up on.

In terms of the algorithm, there is no right and wrong answer o how many times you are posting and what times in the day. Jay said: “Once a day is fine, people that claim you need to post five to six times are crazy, you and the audience will lose the will to live, and you will be lost to algorithm. It is good to keep momentum so have some sort of routine – the best way to do this is building up a back log of content so you always have something to post.”

TikTok is not just for young people, in fact older people are doing really well on there too. Even grandparents have found a voice and are doing very well. Jay said: “The pandemic made people want to spend more time with their parents and grandparents, and TikTok is for everyone. Everyone can be cool.”

The bottom line is people love people and having a face to the business account is something people want to see. People will love falling in love with you as a human.