What is Influencer Marketing on TikTok and is it worth it??

Influencer Marketing on TikTok… Is it worth your time and energy as a South African business? What is an Influencer anyway? We clear this up.

TikTok has quickly become one of the leading social media platforms available to both individuals and businesses. 

Over the last year alone, it has gained a staggering amount of users. It has now reached between 750 million and 1 billion active users per month. It is almost a no brainer that businesses both small and large should be using the platform to increase their marketing efforts. 

A key way to do this – which has come out of the quick rise of social media marketing – is influencer marketing. 

But what about in South Africa? 

So often we hear that businesses should be using this or that – but the context is primarily American or European. 

Can Influencer Marketing work within the South African marketing context? 

Need help with your brand’s TikTok? Check out what our TikTok experts have to say

What is Influencer Marketing? 

Influencer marketing has been a ‘buzzword’ (or phrase) thrown around both social media and mainstream media for a while. It draws on a number of older marketing tactics, while also bringing completely new considerations to the table.. 

In traditional marketing, brands may rely heavily on celebrity endorsements and advertising to help raise awareness around their brand. The concept relied on the idea that celebrities endorsements carried weight and would result in increased sales from customers. 

Influencer marketing takes the concept of celebrity endorsement and brings it into the 21st Century. 

Rather than collaborating with celebrities, influencer marketing creates campaigns run by both brands and influencers. 

What is the difference between an influencer and a celebrity? 

While celebrities live their lives in the spotlight and are famous outside of the works that gave them notoriety, influencers are normal people who may not consider themselves to be famous offline. 

In fact, many influencers continue to live normal lives!

The difference between an influencer and a normal social media user? An influencer has an established level of authority within their niche and influence over the purchasing power of their followers. 

In other words, they have actively engaged with their community and followers and utilises the relationship with them to ‘influence’ their thoughts and opinions – and therefore what they choose to buy. 

Influencer marketing can even be compared to word-of-mouth marketing in that often influencers will only work with brands they support, believe in and use in their daily lives. 

This is an important factor as these influencers have spent time building their audience and creating the relationships necessary to have this impact. 

So how can South African Brands use Influencer Marketing?

A key difference between influencers and celebrities is that influencers can be anywhere. This is great for South African brands. 

Additionally, an influencer is not determined by the number of followers they have, but rather the engagement and influence over their audience. Which is also great for South African brands. 

With approximately 9 million South African users and short-form video being one of the most shared formats on social media – who wouldn’t want to jump on this bandwagon. 

It is however important to keep in mind that the demographics of TikTok users. Users on TikTok tend to be between the ages of 20 and 35. 

South African brands should make use of this marketing tactic by working with influencers to create short, attention-grabbing content relevant to your product and their niche. A key phrase in this marketing strategy is “working with”. It is important that brands do not impose too many restrictions on influencers. It is therefore important to work with influencers that line up with your brand message and that have influence within your industry. 

This, paired with a solid hashtag strategy, a clear goal-oriented plan and influencer marketing can be a powerful tool to help your brand reach audiences that you could only imagine. 

Some key benefits of TikTok Influencer Marketing

• TikTok videos are short, easy to consume and share
• Due to the TikTok algorithm, TikTok videos can have an exponential organic reach (with the right hashtags my cat gets over seven thousand views so why not use it for your business) 
• TikTok as a platform has grown and keeps growing at an exponential rate. 
• The platform does indeed have a global audience. 
• TikTok boasts some of the highest user engagement rates on social media.

Conclusion

TikTok Influencers are a powerful tool for any business. South African businesses are starting to jump on the bandwagon (as are the influencers). It is a great way for your business to reach audiences that are engaged and ready to buy.