Although still in its infancy when it comes to the platform’s advertising availability, TikTok’s broad and rapidly expanding global user base has musicians and their marketing teams eager to get in on the ground floor. Here we look at some creative ways to promote your music on the rising video platform.
____________________________
Guest post by Randi Zimmerman of the Symphonic Blog
With 500 million users worldwide, TikTok offers the potential to expand your business’s reach exponentially. Although the platform’s current advertising offers are in a sort of trial period, marketers and musicians alike are eager to secure a seat at the table.
Whether you’ve downloaded it or not, TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world. Could TikTok be the next step in your social media marketing strategy? 
Here’s what TikTok has to offer:
You can capitalize on the platform in three ways:
1. Create your own channel and post relevant content.
2. Paid advertising on TikTok.
3. Consider working with an influencer.
To clarify each of these, here are some examples:
Hashtag Challenges
#Challenges are a huge part of the community on TikTok. Users can choose a challenge to tackle and make videos corresponding to it. Because each challenge is given a #name, they’re easy to find within the platform, reaching a ton of users who’re also looking through the same tag.
One of the best-known challenges to hit the platform is Jimmy Fallon’s #tumbleweed challenge. He challenged users to share videos of themselves falling to the floor and rolling around like tumbleweeds with western music playing in the background…The challenge got over 8000 submissions and generated over 10 million engagements.
This method could skyrocket your presence on the platform if it’s a hit with your fans. It makes it easy to engage with your fans and strengthen your community of followers in a fun, highly interactive way.
If you don’t have a significant following, your best bet is to collaborate with another artist/influencer who shares a similar audience with you. This point brings us to your next option, user-generated content.
If you’re already lost, learn more here: What Is TikTok?
Paid Advertising
To get into paid advertising with TikTok, you’ll need to create an account.
Once you’ve done that, you have a couple options:
- In-feed native video ads
- Brand takeover
- Snapchat-style 2D lens filters for photos (…and more)
Advertising on this platform is still very new, so the opportunity for growth is big. As the platform streamlines this process, they’ll start to include more features and custom tailor different options for different purposes.
Influencer Marketing
If you’re thinking of yourself as a business, your target market needs to align with the influencer’s audience. Working with influencers can be great if it’s the right fit for your audience but it has to be genuine – you know your fans can see right through advertising nowadays! If you’re working with an influencer that really believes in you, they do all the work by simply praising what you have to offer.
The key to success with influencer marketing is setting concrete goals and making sure to target the appropriate audience for you.
If you’re trying to promote your hardcore death-metal album with an influencer who mostly produces puppy content, you’re probably not going to have much success. If you’re into soft indie rock, choose to work with someone who also likes soft indie rock.
Depending on the stage you’re in as a professional musician, you might be able to afford a large campaign to meet your goals. However, don’t stress it if you can’t. This creative platform fosters a space for users to be uniquely themselves, and utilizing it for yourself to simply interact with your fans directly is a great way to start.
If you’re a Symphonic client, you’re in luck.
We’ve recently partnered with TikTok to give our clients the opportunity to deliver their tracks onto the platform for creators to use in their videos. This is an amazing opportunity for our clients to spread their music through one of the most popular apps in the world.
Learn more: Symphonic Joins Forces with TikTok
—————————————————-
All in all, there’s a lot to gain from this platform. What you decide to do with it is up to you. Look into your options and choose a strategy that works for your goals in mind, and you’ll be going viral in no time.
Good luck!