Think Before you Tok

Should my small business be on TikTok? This is one of the most common questions I'm hearing from clients right now. I've read a lot of blog advice on why your business should be, but I'm going to go against the grain and say, probably not yet.

It's easy to feel like you should jump on board the hottest, fastest-growing social media platform and join in on the excitement. But I caution small business owners to think big-picture. Most clients that I work with do not have a dedicated social media team. If this is true for your business, you need to invest your time allocated for social media very wisely.

Some questions to kick-off your decision making (on any social media channel really) should be:

Does my product or service perform well on this platform? Can I portray my brand in a visually engaging way that is expected by its users? Are the users of this platform going to engage with my type of content?

Is my target audience on this platform? Are the users who are engaging the people who are ultimately going to influence or be decision-makers of purchasing my product or service?

And finally, do I have the bandwidth to produce the content for this platform? Do I have the skills required to produce the type of content, and if not, do I have the time to learn and then keep up?

I advise my clients to choose the social media channels they are on smartly and just as importantly, to do them well. I see brands with presences on every social media channel, but upon further inspection, they aren't updating consistently or effectively. There are months, sometimes years, of no content. It's the logic of "let's have one for the sake of having one."

But social media is not set it and forget it! It takes a dedicated, proactive (and reactive) strategy, and then execution of consistently branded content to nurture prospective customers.

I do advocate TikTok for all businesses to be used in two ways:

To leverage the video-making capabilities within the app, and then to use that content on the social media channels they already have a presence on.

To keep an eye on competitors or bigger brands and make note of how they are leveraging TikTok. See what is trending, and glean content ideas and best practices that then can be applied to your own social strategy.

All this being said, I expect to update this article in a few months when TikTok inevitably evolves into a more business-friendly platform. It's important to be a fast follower. Here's a great article about doing just that.

But until then, take some time to think before you tok!

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