From singing to dancing, gardening to home décor, cooking or fitness – there’s something for everyone on TikTok. This social media platform has gained popularity at a crazy rate, and you may not have even downloaded it yet. But, as the most downloaded app of 2020, it’s no wonder users are calling it addictive.
When it comes down to working with TikTok influencers, it can seem unpredictable if the platform is new to you. However, the brands that have taken the leap have boasted incredible results.
Why does it work?
There are two main reasons why TikTok has become a great place for influencer marketing. Firstly, the variety of content available has resulted in different communities being formed on the app. This means that no matter what your personal interests are as an individual, or your product is as a brand – there’s going to be something on TikTok for you.
Secondly, the for you page algorithm seems to be so perfectly matched to each individual, meaning that videos will land on your screen that you most definitely will be interested in. What’s different from other platforms here, is that any video can end up on your for you page, whether you follow the account or not.
Top TikTokers
With many influencers here, they have often started off as, for example, Instagram influencers first and then gained their loyal followers on TikTok as a result. Although, many stars that have primarily risen to fame on the app, have subsequently gained popularity on other channels like Instagram and YouTube too.
The most followed TikTokers range from a variety of categories, with differing content. So, let’s take a look at these stars and what has made their content so interesting.
- Charli D’amelio
This 16 year old from Connecticut grew her following quickly after a video went viral of her taking part in a dance challenge. With over 100M followers in less than a year, Charli’s life has taken a totally different direction. Her content is popular with a younger demographic of followers, and typically involves taking part in dancing challenges with different songs and effects.
- Addison Rae
With 78M followers, Addison Rae falls in at second place. As a previous cheerleader and dancer at high school, it’s no surprise that she has gained popularity through her dance challenge videos too. Addison has gained a large following on Instagram too, becoming more of a social media personality and recently steering her content in areas other than dancing.
- Bella Poarch
Bella is one of the more recent TikTokers to gain popularity after one of her videos using a special effect went viral. Her content differs slightly, with her followers enjoying her lip-syncing videos the most. She has also become popular within the gaming community on the platform too.
- Zach King
Zach has been producing video content for years, getting creative with different types of content and video-editing skills on YouTube. He began to gain a huge follower base on Vine, moving to YouTube, and then to TikTok too. As well as taking part in current trends, he likes to create content incorporating magic, tricks, and pranks with his editing expertise.
The next most followed TikTokers are:
- Spencer X
- Loren Gray
- TikTok
- Dixie D’amelio
- Will Smith
- Michael Le
Branded opportunities
Over the last year or so, many brands have taken to TikTok for their marketing strategies and with such great success, others have quickly followed. It always takes a few to take the initial risk, but it has definitely paid off. Let’s take a look at some examples of brands that have worked with TikTok influencers on campaigns recently.
From left to right, we have Zach King posting an ad for Mercedes, Addison Rae partnered up with Amazon, and Bella Poarch working with Moncler. We can see looking at all three of these videos the high volume of impressions from likes and comments. Being three of the most famous TikTokers, these stars have gained numerous brand partnerships and with some of the biggest brands too. As the platform allows videos to appear for anyone, whether a follower or not, there could be a much higher chance of brand exposure to new groups here.
Bigger doesn’t mean better
Although we have spoken about the top TikTokers, this isn’t to say that brands should be looking to work with famous influencers only. It has definitely been some of the biggest brands and influencers to trial influencer marketing on this platform, but as TikTok has gained popularity with a much more diverse audience, there has been a bigger variety of brands making use of the app too.
As with any other social media channel, the key is to ensure that you are working with influencers that align well with your brand. You’ll want to make sure that you find influencers with audience demographics and interests that match that of your target audience. We can’t just rely on TikTok videos ending up on anybody’s home page, as this is just the bonus, and the video will always be seen by the influencer’s audience.
The number of followers is nowhere near as important as the engagement rates of their account, which allows us to establish the interaction that they have with their followers, which comes from being interested in the content.
Above, we can see how Heepsy lets you analyse the engagement rate of an influencer profile, comparing it to the average for influencers of this size. We would say that this is one of the most important things to assess before selecting influencers to work with. However, you should also look at the audience demographics and interests as shown above.
Check back in soon
As TikTok is such a newly emerging brand, influencer marketing platforms are still working on this area for their users. But with not long to go, this data will be available for users to analyse TikTok profiles very soon! In the meantime, we would recommend familiarising yourself with TikTok and understanding the different types of content and communities that are popular on the app. Make sure to check back in soon with Heepsy, where you can get started on your first TikTok influencer marketing campaign.