How To Use Tiktok for Business in Kenya
In today’s guide, will talk about TikTok for business in Kenya. Now TikTok is a fairly new social media platform and all of the people don’t actually understand.
And that is why today, we’re gonna be diving through the basics of TikTok marketing in Kenya and how you can actually use it for your business in 2022.
Let’s go.
Like many of you, I’ve only recently discovered TikTok in Kenya and even started posting a few videos here and there.
What I was basically trying to do was figure out what TikTok does and what it is and explain it to you guys.
Table of Contents
What is TikTok in Kenya?
They have over 500 million active online users monthly.
The app was launched by a Chinese company called ByteDance 2016.
Now, imagine Twitter and Instagram having a baby🤣.
That’s TikTok.
How does it work?
With over 500 million monthly users, the app allows you to create short-form videos music related.
It also allows you to edit filters and use Augmented reality (AR) features on the app. It pretty much works like most social media platforms in Kenya where your followers can like and comment on your content and search for hashtags based on a theme.
The app consists of 15 to 60-second videos where you are able to edit inside the actual app and it integrates with your other social media platforms in Kenya like YouTube and Instagram.
TikTok Users in Kenya
So TikTok is now a tale of two apps.
Most of TikTok’s western audience originated from Musical.ly and then the eastern audience is from the original app which still runs in China as a separate app called Douyin.
The largest demographic of TikTok’s users is the aged between 16 and 24 and they call themselves “TikTokers.”
But if you think TikTok in Kenya is just another fad for Generation Z, think again.
How Brands are using TikTok in Kenya
Big brands like GYMSHARK, Chipotle, NBA, etc, are already on the app and experimenting with the app’s promotions.
a). TikTok Challenges
Most of these promotions take advantage of TikTok’s challenge concepts. So they create their own challenges or even provide their own amazing clips to go with these challenges.
Some challenges even allow the users to win some big prizes.
For example;
McDonald’s Malaysia worked directly with TikTok to create a challenge called the #BIGMACTIKTOK challenge.
The entire TikTok users would dance to the pre-recorded beat math TikTok music clips already uploaded onto the site.
After creating the video, users were required to submit the entries by the official McDonald’s mobile app.
All the entries one a Big Mac;
And then a selected view actually danced their way off with a cash prize.
b). Branded Hashtags
Fashion brand Guess also had a crack at TikTok and partnered on a campaign that targeted millennials and generation Z during early September 2018.
Users once they open that they were encouraged and directed towards creating a video or doing a post using the #inmydenim.
Guess actually promoted the challenge using the support of the popular TikTok content creators.
Unlike the McDonald’s example, there weren’t any cash prizes but that actually didn’t stop users from posting and dancing away to the videos using the hashtags #inmydenim.
How can TikTok in Kenay fit into your marketing strategy?
For businesses in Kenya, this can be a great time to increase your userbase and use authentic advertising and organic growth to show off your products and services on TikTok in Kenya.
If you can create videos that appeal to the demographics on TikTok, it can be a very powerful form of advertising.
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TikTok is viewed as a social media platform in Kenya where you show your real side.
And authenticity is a really good marketing strategy.
TikTok in Kenya is a place for fun visually-appealing content. It is not a place for sit-down hard numbers and hard selling or sales pitches.
What You Need To Do Now
Now that you know TikTok is all about fun, it’s time to create your own fun and creative content on this app.
Creating your own content is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to promote your business on TikTok in Kenya. Plus the benefit of TikTok is that you don’t actually need to record really polished edited videos.
Just take out your smartphone and start recording.
One thing though, while weird and wacky videos are really popular on TikTok in Kenya, don’t create those videos if that’s not style.
Another way to promote your business on TikTok in Kenya is by launching a hashtag challenge.
1). Launch hashtag challenges
The hashtag challenge is when you invite the TikTok users in Kenya to recreate their own content using your hashtag.
A good example is the GUESS example that I mentioned earlier.
Another example is Chipotle’s really successful #guadance campaign.
The promotion resulted in Chipotle’s biggest guacamole date ever with 800,000 sides of condiments salt.
A fun hashtag not only promotes your business on TikTok in Kenya but also drives engagement and user interaction as well.
2). Work with TikTok influencers in Kenya
Work with TikTok influencers in Kenya.
TikTok influencers may not be huge yet but they will be and you can use them to widen your reach on the platform.
Generation Z these days is typically opposed to anything that looks like traditional marketing.
But I think the TikTok influencers in Kenya can really help you build that connection and reach the audience in that generation.
Speaking of Chipotle again, there she partnered with a TikToker influencer for David Dobrik for a paid marketing campaign of the Chipotle lid-flip challenge.
Got more than 100,000 submissions and over two hundred and thirty million views.
To get results from TikTok influencer marketing in Kenya, just make sure that the influencer’s target audience is the same as the audience that you want to reach.
3). TikTok Advertising in Kenya
It took a while but TikTok has finally introduced ads on the platform. So TikTok offers four different types of ads;
- In-feed native content – this type of ad is similar to Snapchat or Instagram story ads and supports multiple features like web clicks or app downloads
- Brand takeovers – this lets brands take over TikTok in Kenya for the day. They can create images gifs and videos with embedded links to landing pages or hashtag challenges
- Hashtag challenges – instead of trying to make a hashtag challenge go viral on your own, you can use promoted hashtags to get more engagement
- Branded lenses – these are like the Snapchat 2D and 3D lenses for face and photos.
As with any social media platform in Kenya, ads can help you reach a ton of audiences.
TikTok also offers precise targeting so you can make sure that your ads go to the exact users that would be interested in what you have to offer.
Why Join TikTok now in Kenya?
Still thinking about why you should join now?
TikTok is relatively new to the business world in Kenya, therefore less noise than saturated things like Instagram Facebook, and LinkedIn.
It is also a lot cheaper to advertise on TikTok in Kenya because the influencer community is not that strong at the moment and there are far fewer people competing for sponsorships And ad placement.
It also allows you to explore different aspects of your business like what makes you fun and interesting and TikTok provides a platform where these fun and interesting aspects are welcomed and could even make you money.
Furthermore, it helps you take the first step into marketing to generation Z.
The notoriously difficult to market generation group, which is becoming more and more important as they gain a stronger foothold in our actual economy.
Marketing to this new generation does not have to be impossible just meet them where they are, play by their rules, and have fun doing it.
I hope TikTok marketing in Kenya makes a little bit more sense to you now.
If your users have a younger audience, TikTok is where you need to be right now to grab their attention use these tips to make sure you get the most out of your TikTok promotion strategies in Kenya.
