From “What I eat in a day” to “Get ready with me,” influencer marketing campaigns, dances, vlogs, glow-ups and glam-ups, makeup reviews, a day in a life, and everything in between, TikTok trends are taking social media by storm. What is now the fastest growing social media app, this platform provides users with endless streams of content at the swipe of a finger. But why does TikTok have such a grip on users, and how exactly can these video streaming apps be leveraged for digital marketing purposes?
Many individuals are spending increased time on their phones in search of entertainment. Users turned to TikTok, which quickly became a popular source of entertainment for Gen Z and millennials alike. Even with TikTok’s bans and legal challenges, the platform still dominates the digital space. The app could experience as many as two billion users by 2023.
With TikTok gripping so many users, this begs a few questions: What’s all the buzz about, and what makes this app so popular? The rise in popularity of video streaming apps like TikTok presents a unique opportunity for digital marketers. But before we can take advantage of these video streaming apps and adopt them into our marketing efforts, we need to understand why they have become so popular and how we can leverage them.
If you’ve ever spent time on any social media channel before, you know that time can slip through your fingertips, and before you know it, you’ve blown hours on the simple acts of scrolling, liking, and following.
According to App Annie’s The State of Mobile 2021, social media users spend an average of 4.2 hours per day engaging with their mobile devices and platforms. In fact, mobile recently surpassed live TV viewing for the first time ever, and mobile ad spend projected to grow over 14% to $156.38 billion.
TikTok users, on average, spend 26 hours a month on the platform, while Facebook users spend only about 19 hours on the app monthly. Given Facebook’s dominance in the social sphere, TikTok’s ability to overtake this online giant is notably impressive.
If you’re unfamiliar with TikTok, this short-form video-sharing app is still new to the social media space. The app instantly took off as users began creating 15- to 30-second videos, from “Get Ready With Me” to “What I Eat In a Day” to dances, DIY projects, makeup tutorials, and more.
With a simple TikTok search, users can discover new creators and popular hashtags. A TikTok video’s rankings are largely influenced by the number of followers and comments, so if you want to know what’s trending, search for videos with the highest number of followers and comments.
While people were working and attending school remotely, their daily lives and technology use certainly changed. Many individuals sought ways to spend their time in altered living situations and searched for channels through which they could gain information or entertainment. With this new dependency on the virtual world, consumers looked more and more to social media. App Annie’s data indicates that 40% more hours were streamed on mobile devices throughout 2020 when compared to the year prior.
YouTube took the lead in 2020 by far, bringing in more than six times the number of hours spent than its nearest rival Netflix. Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Twitch all competed against each other at rather fair rates, bringing in between two-and-a-half and five hours spent on each per month.
The pandemic accelerated the growth of eCommerce brands many times over, ushering in a flood of online consumerism that otherwise might’ve been a more gradual shift. Today’s social media can mean big things for their bottom lines. This is particularly true because it’s unlikely that people will go back to their entirely in-store shopping habits, especially now that eCommerce has extended to grocery delivery and other basic needs.
From the new app-on-the-block TikTok to old-school Facebook, our team at ZGM is well-versed in all things social media. If your brand is looking to incorporate social media into your digital marketing strategies, we’re ready to lead the way. Learn more about our approach to social media marketing today, or contact us to work together.