TikTok, Truth or Dare? · LAB

On September 21st, the Runroom studio was filled with brave individuals ready to take on the challenge of our Runroom LAB and delve into the exciting, and still unknown to many, world of TikTok.

These were some of the questions that served as our starting point:

• Is there room on TikTok for boomers and millennials, or is it a platform only for the young?
• Is there more to it than just dances?
• Did the pandemic boost its success?
• What are brands doing on this platform?

More about the speakers

To get the most out of this LAB, we had Nerea Román, Social Media Specialist at Runroom, always attentive to the latest trends, bringing a creative twist to the digital communication of major brands like Eroski.

From the Basque Country came Alberto Álvarez, Head of Press and Communication at C.D. Basket Bilbao Berri S.A.D, who in his spare time posts about mountaineering without pretense on his TikTok account @albertoak.

Also sharing her experience was Paula Lerma, journalist, scriptwriter, and specialist in digital content and communication, who experiments and shares videos about strange places and random topics on @curiouspau.

We concluded the quartet with Iratxe Álvarez Amor, Head of Social Media & Content at Runroom, who, in addition to providing her expert insight on TikTok, moderated the meeting.

Evolution of TikTok: from crawling to sprinting

After sharing how our first contact with this social network was, we analyzed its birth, its arrival in Spain, and its growth since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• 2016. The tech company Bytedance launched an app in the Chinese market that allowed sharing short videos, and a year later, they launched it under the name TikTok.
• 2018. It merged with Musica.ly, an app specializing in creating short videos with music and various filters. During this year, it experienced a significant boom in the United States and became one of the most downloaded apps. Although it accumulated 80 million downloads in the United States and 800 million worldwide, it was still unknown in Spain.
• 2019. It landed in Spain, with the first to join being TV networks and some TV shows, but undoubtedly, the main protagonists here were football clubs and some players, following the lead of other major European teams. Some NGOs like the Red Cross of Bizkaia also joined, gaining 24,000 fans in a month. As for content, challenges and dances were a constant in this first year.
• 2020. The pandemic, and specifically the lockdown, was crucial for TikTok to break out of its shell and reach 8.8 million active users. The main niche was young people, with 41% of users aged between 16 and 25, and it became the network with the highest user growth, going from +3% to +16% in a year. Among the content, humor and challenges predominated. The year ended with 14 million downloads in Spain, making it the social network with the most user growth. Although the audience remained young, an increase in the average age began to be seen, mainly reaching women under 40. TikTok became the sixth most well-known social network, although only 14% of brands considered investing in this channel. Regarding content, themes expanded, with recipes quickly going viral.
• Present. The platform has 1 billion users worldwide, and the age range between 45 and 54 years increased from 17% to 19%, although it continues to grow among young people aged 12 to 17. Now it is possible to find much more diverse themes, with a higher volume of views growing by +250% compared to 2020, and 38% of brands will increase their investment in TikTok.

The experience of Alberto and Paula

Although she claims to have been a TikTok skeptic at first, when Paula discovered that humor was one of the most popular themes on this social network, she dared to explore this world, initially seen as belonging to Generation Z. Once hooked, she decided to continue exploring from the other side, as a creator, and with her account @curiouspau, she began sharing videos about unknown, forbidden, or secret places featured in the book “100 Places You Will Never Visit” by Daniel Smith.

Some of these videos received many views, and she started gaining followers, reaching almost 35K currently. Besides explaining how her growth on the platform was, Paula shared some key aspects of the creator profile, such as the creator fund, the creator portal, and the statistics section, essential for understanding the follower community.

Alberto Álvarez also shared his experience from a dual perspective: personally with @albertoak, an account where he talks about mountain routes, and professionally, where he manages the Bilbao Basket account, which currently has the most followers of all the teams in the ACB league.

Alberto explained to attendees how his personal account about “mountain routes without pretense” was born accidentally, and everything that has worked for him, and what hasn't, until reaching the almost 19K followers he has. Here are some tips:

• Be natural and avoid pretense to connect with the real mountaineer.
• Find a unique signature. In his case, the initial greeting “aupa mendizales”
• Show original routes.
• Offer quality images.
• Show the making of.

It was also very interesting to learn about the strategy he uses for the Bilbao Basket account, which has helped them connect with the younger audience. For this, he uses the following techniques:

• Involve players in challenges and trends.
• Find content and trends that work and adapt them to their theme.
• Create opportunities to collaborate with sponsors.
• Leverage old content that fits perfectly on this social network.
• Use players who are already TikTok stars, like Elvis with +3M followers on his account.

Brands on TikTok: best practices

It's been a struggle, but finally, brands are starting to realize the potential of TikTok, but they must be aware that this social network is not Instagram. What does this mean? It means that TikTok rewards naturalness, spontaneity, and DIY. The best-edited video in the world might not get many likes, while a minute recorded behind the scenes can generate millions of views.

These are some of the best practices from brands that understand the language of this platform:

• It is the brand or product that adapts to the style and content of the creator in collaborations.
• Advertising is integrated and so organic that the user accepts it because they continue to receive quality content.
• Take advantage of trends and adapt them.
• If creating own trends, it must be done following the rules and style set by the platform.
• Talk about products from a user perspective, focusing on benefits, usage, real experiences, and leaving behind the commercial tone, without offers or promotions.
• Use humor with a hook and connect with the audience.
• Find key aspects of your niche's personality and appeal to them with empathy and humor.

“TikTok” Conclusion

This latest edition of the Runroom LAB ended with a conclusion that perfectly captures the spirit of TikTok content: the best content combo is the one that entertains, amuses, surprises, and educates.

And to say goodbye, the speakers provided some valuable tools for anyone considering becoming a TikToker:

• Tokboard: trending music.
• CapCut: add subtitles and editing.
• Audio Library: official audio repository.
• Newsroom.tiktok: TikTok press room, also filterable by location.

If you're eager for more LAB, you can already sign up for the next one on October 21st, which will be about squads and Product Design Teams. Don't miss it! More info and registration here.