Takeaways for TikTok: Non-Target Audience Perspective
What I Learned From One Year on TikTok: A Non-Target Audience Perspective
At the beginning of 2024, I made a decision: I was going to give TikTok a try. Not because I’m the typical target audience, and certainly not because anyone in my network was using it at the time (only 1 !). Instead, I wanted to understand this platform better—particularly how it can be leveraged for marketing.
One year later, I’ve learned so much and have a few interesting things to share starting with my stats:
Link to my channel
Videos posted: ~80
Total views: ~130k
Followers: ~1,300
Likes: ~6000
Top 3 video:
1. Tekken 8 cosplayer: 65k views, 5,5k likes
2. Wifi rush Tango Gstar: 24k views, 200 likes
3. Hyundae Avante N crash: 18k views, 73 likes
Here are some key takeaways from this experiment:
1. Content: I was expecting to see only teenage girls dancing, and there is a lot of that but not only. I think the main content are fun video, through jokes, couple meme videos. I did not see so much animal contents neither video games. TikTok thrives on raw, authentic, and relatable content. It gives an amateur image that feels closer to users. Overly polished videos don’t always perform well. Despite not wanted to engage more than 10 min to create my contents, I tried cats, video games, cosplayers, cars, trips, foods video.
2. Algorithms based content: it is possible for anyone to go viral—even with zero followers—if the content resonates. I got viral with my Tekken 8 / Jin / cosplayer video gathering more then 50k views in days. Using SMM doesn’t help (or I didn’t find the right way to use)
3. Cultural trends drive engagement: Staying in tune with trends, hashtags, and memes is critical to standing out. Being late to a trend can mean missing the moment entirely. So by period you could see so many Naruto dances, 911 emergency clothing show up etc. The same video concept but perform by different users ^^;
4. It’s not just for Gen Z: Despite the initial perception, TikTok’s audience is broader than I imagined, with many content done by 30’s sometimes 40’s.
5. Some ads are embedded on top of some user content. I am not sure how they do that, but it’s kinda amazing if done automatically.
6. Retention: Tiktok use a “dirty” trick to retain users. In normal apps, you push back and you can exit the app. In Tiktok it takes you to an ultra viral video and … even through I know the trick, I got tricked several times XD
7. Last week I got contacted by an official agency to coach me for my live and I signed (it’s free of course). So I have my official agent on TikTok as micro influencer lol
This year on TikTok has been a fascinating deep dive into a platform that’s enriching my idea on the way we can consume and interact with content.
I’d love to hear your thoughts:
Are you using TikTok in your marketing strategy?
What’s your biggest challenge or takeaway?
