Joel: Hello, and welcome back to the TikTok Marketing Podcast, I'm your host Joel.

Sam: And I'm Sam.

J: We are so thrilled to have you today. Before we dive into today's episode, a little bit of background on ourselves: Sam and I both have a combined 20-plus years in digital marketing, and we also have a love for TikTok. That's because we're both creators on the platform with over 1.2 million followers. So, Sam and I decided to combine our marketing background and our TikTok knowledge and form TikTalk Marketing Agency, an agency entirely devoted towards TikTok marketing. It also led us to start TikTok Marketing Podcast where we share new information all about TikTok for creators, for advertisers and for brands. If there's something happening on TikTok, we're talking about it on this show. 

S: That's right. We cover everything TikTok for marketers right here, and we've got a great episode for you today. We did one like this a while back about the biggest myths of TikTok, but we are doing a continuation because it's been some time now. We want to do that again with the biggest myths on TikTok that we are still hearing. To dive in, we hear all the time, especially from brands, that TikTok is only for Gen Z. Now why is this myth there? When the app first started, yes, it was made up of young people. However, that is the case for every social platform. It starts with young people and then it ages up. That is exactly what has happened with TikTok. Yes, it started mostly with Gen Z. But that is not the case anymore. More than a half of users are above the age of 20, and that just keeps aging up. The fastest growing segment is even older than that. That is a wonderful sign for a social platform and shows the health of the platform. So while it's important to pay attention to the younger demographics, because the younger demographic is still particularly dictating the different trends on TikTok, every age is on the platform. I know my family: my dad, my mom, they got on TikTok, and now they are addicted. There's so many new creators that are much older, and every type of person is now on TikTok. Do not think that it is only for one type of person. Pretty much every demographic is now on TikTok. The question is not, should I get on TikTok because my demographic is there, it is what type of videos do I make to reach my demographic that is already on TikTok.

J: I think those are all great points, Sam, and it honestly still amazes me that brands are still hesitant to be on TikTok because they say it's just for Gen Z. I think that is truly the most common misconception, and the brands that are not on there because this is their belief, are just losing so much business and this needs to stop. 

S: Absolutely. The next myth is that TikTok content is too short to get engagement. Now, let's break this down a little bit. The typical TikTok is between 15 to 60 seconds. Yes, that is shorter form video, which the whole app is based around, and yes, people swipe through videos. So a lot of times you're not even watching the whole video. You might just watch a couple seconds of the video. That is totally true as well. So people think because you have the short video, sometimes people aren't even watching through the whole video, that engagement is just not there, and that is not true at all. First of all, if we look at some stats, the average user is on the app 52 minutes a day, and the average user is also opening the app eight times a day. Now, that's a lot. And with somebody spending nearly an hour a day on the platform, there is so much opportunity there. The trick is making engaging videos, making sure that yes, people do have a short attention span right now. But how do we grab their attention fast? How do we provide value very fast and make them watch, maybe make them rewatch? We want to make them realize who we are and what our brand is about in a short video. I argue when you can do this in a short amount of time, you are going to be able to grab so many more people and bring them to your brand and from there, they'll learn more from it. But, figuring this out is about being able to reel them in right now with short pieces of content that hook them in and then from there, engage them more and more.

J: Yeah, I think what's actually awesome about the TikTok video length is it's not so much about a short video, but the video that's able to accomplish something and provide value in an amount of time that I think other social media platforms haven't been able to do so. So if providing value can be done quickly for our brand, that's great and that's what TikTok allows for people.

S: The next one is that TikTok is only for silly content. Yes, there is a lot of silly content out there. And yes, there's a lot of silly content out there from brands, but there's also so many other types of content: educational content, for example, is the fastest growing one on TikTok. So, don't think just because there's a lot of silly content out there, that yours has to be silly. Stick with your true voice, your brand's voice and whatever that is for your brand. Go with that and go with that wholeheartedly. Now, can TikTok be a good place to show some other colors of your brand? There's not many opportunities for you to have a little bit more fun on social media but TikTok might be the perfect place to loosen up a little bit and test that out. A lot of times users really love seeing ads being a little less polished and just seeing a little more what's under the veil. So don't be scared to do that if it still fits within your brand. The next one is that TikTok is only for dancers. Now this one has been around since the beginning. Yes, it is very true that when TikTok started it was very much a lip syncing and dancing type of app. And yes, TikTok still has a bunch of dancers. But that is far from what TikTok is all about. It exploded and I would say that most people that are on TikTok aren't even watching the dances at this point. There's so many other types of content such as how to’s, art, and education. It's about finding your interests, and dancing is just another one of the thousands of different interest types on TikTok at this point.

J: I think dancing certainly helped to make the app very popular. And I think it's a very easy place for people with no knowledge of TikTok when they are told they should get on TikTok for them to say well, I don't want to dance on there. That's the easiest, oldest go to for anybody that hasn’t spent more than five minutes on TikTok. They can quickly tell you that there is so much more than dancing. So for anybody out there that ever tells you TikTok is just dancing, they clearly have never spent more than five minutes on the app in their life.

‍S: Absolutely. And our last myth is TikTok doesn't make you money. There's this thought that the content on TikTok is very entertaining, but as entertaining as it is, is it good to really advertise your brands? People think because it's not the typical advertisement space where you're hitting them over the head with what your sale is or what you're trying to get them to do, that it's not going to work. I would argue the opposite. I believe there's this new wave of marketing that you want to intertwine the entertainment with your ad messages. You don't want to advertently hit them with, buy this, do this. When you can make it entertaining, when you can provide value, when you can tell a story and then intertwine that with your brand, that is the most powerful marketing. And that is what TikTok is all about. Now, when people say it doesn't make you money, that's just not true. And if we look at TikTok’s ad platform, it has seen increased spending by brands since it began. So why is that important? Because that's telling you brands have continued to spend more and more money on the platform, and I'll tell you they are not spending more and more money because TikTok is not working for them. It's because it is working for them. They are seeing the value so they will spend even more. And guess what? It's going to continue to go up. So it is crucial if you are a brand to make sure you're figuring out how to leverage TikTok and how to make it work for you. If you have any questions about these myths, or have other myths you've heard about, or questions in general about TikTok that you want us to answer, possibly cover in an upcoming episode, please reach out to us. If you're interested in working with us or hearing more about what TikTalk Marketing Agency does, please reach out to us.