Twitter has just released – as promised by owner Elon Musk – the source code for its recommendation algorithm, and there's already been a very interesting discovery in the code.
After pouring through the code, multiple people found at least one really interesting portion of the code that shows Twitter is specifically tracking metrics for users broken up into four different groups:
"power_user"
"republican"
"democrat"
and
"elon"
That's right, Twitter is specifically tracking how Musk's tweets are performing, and it's been coded right into Twitter's algorithm.
A screenshot of one of the relevant portions of the algorithm released by Twitter.Credit: Mashable Screenshot
Following the release of the algorithm, a Twitter Spaces audio chat was set up by the company. Musk and a few of Twitter's developers took questions from listeners. A couple individuals brought this particular part of the algorithm up during the conversation.
"This is the first time I'm seeing this," Musk said when asked about the code that tracked accounts in these four groups including one just for his tweets. "There’s a ton of stupid and embarrassing things being shown by making the code open source."
While Musk claims he did not know about the metric tracking portion of the algorithm, he has previously admitted that Twitter was reviewing his account's analytics. He did so in a tweet last month in order to push back against reports that he called an emergency Twitter meeting to boost his tweets in the algorithm, after a Super Bowl tweet from President Joe Biden performed better than Musk's own tweet about the game.
When a guest speaker on the Twitter Space shared his concerns about grouping accounts into the categories "democrat" and "republican," one of Twitter's developers explained that this code was just for collecting stats. A note on the algorithm source code, however, states that the metric collecting was being used to ensure that changes to Twitter did not negatively affect any of these four groups.
According to Twitter's own explanation of how this metric tracking is being used, if an algorithm change benefited an entire group of users, but negatively impacted the group made up solely of Elon Musk, it would not implement that algorithm change.
Zoë Schiffer of Platformer reported that Twitter actually removed part of the source code that affected the reach of Musk's and other user's tweets before releasing the algorithm to the public.
During the Spaces chat, Twitter explained that the metric tracking code was first developed into the algorithm years ago under the old Twitter regime. However, it was not explained why Musk's tweets were specifically being tracked, a part of the code that seemingly would've been added much more recently.
Musk did respond that Twitter would remove it.
"It shouldn’t be there," Musk said. "Consider it gone."
Musk also shared in a tweet following the Twitter Spaces chat that the company would make changes to the algorithm based on user feedback every one to two days.
Elon Musk did deliver what he said he would on Thursday. The owner of Twitter previously promised that the social media platform would be more transparent. Musk said Twitter would share its recommendations algorithm on March 31 at 3pm EST, and the company did just that.
But, the release of this source code also comes days after Twitter forced Github to take down other parts of Twitter's source code that was allegedly posted by a former employee without the company's permission. So, clearly, there's still plenty of Twitter that Musk still doesn't want us to see.
The 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, has officially been "INDICATED."
Well, at least that's what he said in a rant on his social media platform, Truth Social.
What Trump really means is that he's been "indicted."
On Thursday, March 30, 2023 a New York grand jury voted to indict the former president. The charges have not been unsealed at this time. Trump has been under investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office for his alleged involvement in a "hush money payment scheme" involving adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaigns.
Trump has been ranting about a potential indictment on Truth Social for weeks after rumors spread regarding an investigation into the alleged scheme and subsequent cover-up. So, when the news of the indictment came through, it was only a matter of time before the former president delivered with some more posts.
"This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history," Trump opened with his first Truth Social post of the evening, in an attached screenshot of his usual press release statements.
Trump goes on to mention the opening of his first presidential campaign when he "came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower." He attacks Manhattan DA Bragg and predicts that the "Witch-Hunt" will backfire on Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.
He then followed up the press release with a more classic Donald Trump-esque social media post where he misspells the word "indicted."
Donald Trump rants about being "indicated" on Truth Social.Credit: Mashable Screenshot
"These Thugs and Radical Left Monsters have just INDICATED the 45th President of the United States of America..." Trump posted. "THIS IS AN ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE."
"SO SAD!" he continued.
The news of his indictment comes ones day after Trump predicted in a Truth Social post that he would not be indicted.
"I HAVE GAINED SUCH RESPECT FOR THIS GRAND JURY, & PERHAPS EVEN THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM AS A WHOLE," he posted on March 29. "THE EVIDENCE IS SO OVERWHELMING IN MY FAVOR, & SO RIDICULOUSLY BAD FOR THE HIGHLY PARTISAN & HATEFUL DISTRICT ATTORNEY, THAT THE GRAND JURY IS SAYING, HOLD ON, WE ARE NOT A RUBBER STAMP, WHICH MOST GRAND JURIES ARE BRANDED AS BEING, WE ARE NOT GOING TO VOTE AGAINST A PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE OR AGAINST LARGE NUMBERS OF LEGAL SCHOLARS ALL SAYING THERE IS NO CASE HERE. DROP THIS SICK WITCH HUNT, NOW!"
With his indictment, Donald Trump makes history as the first former president to face criminal charges.
Read Donald Trump's press release response in full
This is the statement Trump issued after his indictment was announced:
This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history. From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats the enemy of the hard-working men and women c this Country have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement. You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax;
Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this.
“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ’Get Trump; but now they’ve done the unthinkable indicting a completely innocent person in an act blatant Election Interference. “Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done. The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before. Ever.
"Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who was hand-picked and funded by George Soros, is a disgrace. Rather than stopping the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, he’s doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on. This is how Bragg spends his time!
I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden. The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party united and strong will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Twitter has officially announced its brand new API plans for developers. And looking over the details, it's clear Elon Musk sees indie developers as acceptable losses in Twitter's latest cash grab.
Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, a slew of indie developers have already announced they'd have to shut down their Twitter-based apps due to the new pricing. After all, how many indie developers can afford $42,000 per month?
On Wednesday, the official Twitter Developer account shared details regarding pricing of its new API plan. The API basically provides third-party applications and developers with access to the social media platform's data and features. The company also emailed details of the new AI plan to developers.
According to Twitter, free access to the API will only allow developers to write 1,500 tweets per month. The new free tier of the API no longer includes the ability for developers to access tweets, only create them.
To compare, Twitter's old free plan, called "Elevated," currently allows developers to access 2 million tweets per month.
Twitter offers two plans at wildly different price points
As for the paid plan, there is one tier called Basic, which Twitter classifies as being for hobbyists or students. This plan costs $100 per month and only allows access to 10,000 tweets per month. One can also write 50,000 tweets per month with this plan.
Again, this new paid plan is much less than the previous free plan's limits. Most apps using the Twitter API that have a few regular users are going to exceed these limits rather quickly, if they aren't already.
That's right. There's currently no announced plan between the $100 per month Basic tier and the $42,000 per month starting price for the Enterprise plans. As of now, if you outgrow the $100 plan, you'll need to upgrade to the $42,000 per month plan.
The email from Twitter sent to developers breaking down the subscription options for Twitter's new API plans.Credit: Mashable Screenshot
Elon Musk says the new API pricing is being implemented to kill off the bots, but looking at the reaction on Twitter, it's more like armageddon for any indie developer who runs actually useful Twitter apps. Numerous developers have already announced that the new API pricing structure basically forces them to shut down their Twitter-based apps.
"Updated my Twitter bio to reflect current events," tweeted @adamlyttleapps, alongside a screenshot of his new Twitter bio indicating he will no longer be working on his TopFollowers.io Twitter app.
Many apps will change or disappear completely
Developers running apps that use the Twitter API, but are not entirely based on it, also announced some major changes.
"This is sad 😓," tweeted @SimonHoiberg, who runs a social media management app called FeedHive. "To all of our Twitter users, I apologize for the inconvenience! $42,000/month is simply beyond what we consider financially viable or reasonable to pay."
The FeedHive founder followed up his post with a tweet from his app's official Twitter profile announcing that they would have to remove Twitter from the social media platforms that can be managed via its app.
As of Thursday afternoon, one Slack community for Twitter app developers to discuss these changes already ballooned to more than 700 members. At publishing time, only five app developers said they could afford to stay open under Twitter's planned API changes.
Killing off the third-party app ecosystem is a shortsighted move from Musk and company. Many of these apps encourage more usage of the Twitter platform by making it easier for users to create more content.
Some apps like @remotejoeclark's Twitter HP, motivated users to use Twitter more by allowing them to better track their analytics on the platform. Unfortunately, Twitter's new API pricing plan has now killed his app.
And unlike some others who are waiting to see what happens as Twitter closes the old API access over the next 30 days, @remotejoeclark was forced to shut down his app and issue refunds to customers immediately. Why? Because he upgraded to the new Basic API plan as soon as he could and Twitter immediately locked him out because the app already had exceeded that month's tweet allotment under the prior API offering. At that point, he already had to make a choice: pay $42,000 or close up shop.
How much do indie developers earn?
Many indie developers don't make all that much from their apps. On Twitter, you'll often find developers trying to hit a goal of making $1,000, $2,000, $5,000, or maybe even $10,000 per month from their project in the hopes of being able to make it a self-sustaining full-time job.
At $42,000, Twitter is not just making those goals unattainable for indie developers, it's also making its chances at a profitable future more difficult too. By killing the very tools that make people want to use the platform.
Third-party developers will now just move on to other platforms that are more friendly to their needs. And while there, they'll create the tools that users want, making Twitter's social media competitors more popular.
Want to take your Twitter marketing to the next level? Your organic efforts may work perfectly fine, but they can only go so far when you’re looking to grow your reach. At some point, you may need to turn to Twitter ads to boost your reach and maximize your brand’s growth.
Not sure how to get started? Look no further because this post gives you a complete guide to Twitter advertising. Here, you’ll find out all about the different Twitter ad formats, how much you can expect to spend and how to set it up for the first time. Let’s get right to it.
Now before you start investing in paid social for Twitter, you may want to know what’s in it for you. The platform has a lot of potential with improved targeting capabilities and new ad formats. As such, advertising on the platform could exponentially grow your reach. So let’s find out some of the top benefits of running ads on Twitter.
1. Potential to reach millions of users
According to the latest Twitter stats, the platform currently has 436 million monthly active users. Out of these, 237.8 million monetizable users use the app on a daily basis. That’s millions of people you could potentially reach through your Twitter advertising efforts.
2. Objective-based ad campaigns
Twitter lets you optimize your ads toward your campaign objective. You get to choose from a variety of campaign objectives and Twitter will only bill you for actions that align with your chosen objective. In other words, your investment specifically goes towards achieving your goals.
3. Robust targeting capabilities
The Twitter ads manager offers a number of campaign targeting options. This allows you to fine-tune your ad targeting to reach only the most relevant users. At the most basic level, you can use demographics targeting to reach users based on:
Geolocation
Age
Gender
Language
Device
Carrier
For more advanced targeting, you can choose to display your ads to users based on:
Conversations they participate in
Events relevant to your audience
Keywords they use
Whether they’ve engaged with a specific Tweet from your brand
The movies and TV shows they watch
What their interests are
Whether they share similar interests with your existing followers
Twitter even lets you create unique audience segments using off-platform customer information. The Custom Audiences feature allows you to create different audience groups to target, exclude or expand to.
4. Rise in Twitter ad engagement
Ad engagement on Twitter is growing. This speaks volumes about the impact of advertising on the platform. According to the latest reports, Twitter saw a 7% year-over-year increase in ad engagement in Q2 of 2022. If these trends continue, you can expect to launch ad campaigns that drive tons of engagement.
Types of Twitter ads
Twitter offers several choices in ad types. To run a successful advertising campaign on the platform, you need to decide which Twitter ad format will help you achieve your goals.
Promoted Ads
You might remember these as Promoted Tweets. They’re a lot like regular Tweets, except Twitter shows them to people who aren’t following your brand yet. They have a “Promoted” label at the bottom so users can differentiate them from organic Tweets.
The best part is that you can use a variety of media formats to create these Promoted Ads. In addition to regular text and image Tweets, you can create ads using videos, carousels and Moments.
Follower Ads
Previously called Promoted Accounts, Follower Ads let you promote an entire Twitter account. It helps you target users who might be interested in your brand but aren’t already following you. So it’s the perfect ad type if you want to grow your Twitter following.
With this type of Twitter ad, your account will show up in the “Who to follow” section of a user’s feed.
Twitter Amplify
With this option, brands can serve their ads through video content from highly relevant publishers. There are two ad formats to choose from:
Amplify Pre-roll, which lets you choose from 15+ categories of videos to serve your pre-roll video ad
Amplify Sponsorships, which involves a one-on-one partnership with one specific publisher. Note that this option is currently not available for self-serve advertisers.
Twitter Takeover
These types of ads put your brand at the forefront with exclusive ownership of the platform’s premium real estate. As you can guess, they’re a lot more expensive than other Twitter ad formats. You can choose from two Takeover placements:
Timeline Takeover, which ensures that your ad is the first one that someone sees when they open Twitter for the day
Trend Takeover, which serves your ad alongside trending topics. Your ad will show up among topics in the Explore tab to drive conversations. Or you can even choose Trend Takeover+ for an immersive video experience.
Dynamic Product Ads (DPA)
These ads allow you to showcase your most relevant products to the right customers. With DPA Prospecting, you can acquire new customers by featuring products that are most relevant to them. Meanwhile, DPA Retargeting lets you feature products that people have engaged with on your website.
Collection Ads
As the name suggests, this type of ad lets you showcase a collection of product images in a single ad. Collection Ads feature a primary hero image on top of several small thumbnail images.
How much do Twitter ads cost
Fortunately for advertisers, the cost to run a Twitter ad campaign is customizable according to your budget. That means how much you spend largely depends on how much you’re willing to spend.
That said, it’s a good idea to get a sense of how much it typically costs to advertise on the platform. According to AdsTarget, you can expect to spend around $0.38 per action. However, the actual cost depends on the ad type. Here’s a quick look at the average cost to run different types of Twitter ads:
Promoted Ads – $0.25 to $2 per action
Follower Ads – $2 to $4 per follow
Twitter Takeover – $200,000 per day
Keep in mind that Twitter charges you based on actions relevant to your ad objective. This makes it much easier to stick to your budget because you’re not paying for actions that don’t align with your goal. Check out the different billable actions for each objective:
Reach – Cost per 1,000 Tweet impressions
Video views – Cost per view
Pre-roll views – Cost per view
App installs – Impressions or app clicks
Website traffic – Cost per engagement
Engagements – Cost per engagement
Followers – Cost per follow
App re-engagements – Cost per app click
How to set up a Twitter ad campaign
If you’re familiar with setting up Facebook ads, you should have no trouble launching a Twitter ad campaign. But if you’re completely new to the scene, we’ve got you covered.
Before you start, make sure you set up your Twitter ads account. For this, sign in to your Twitter account and go to the Twitter ads onboarding page. Then follow the steps to complete setting up your account.
Next, follow the steps below to create your Twitter ad campaign.
1. Choose your ad objective
What do you want to get out of your ads? Depending on your ad objective, Twitter will offer the best engagement types and actions for your campaign.
Choose from the following available ad objectives:
Reach–This objective displays your ad to as many people as possible within a set timeframe. And you only pay for every 1,000 Tweet impressions. Use this to raise brand awareness and improve brand perception.
Engagements– Drive more conversations around your brand by designing ads that people would want to interact with.
Followers – Promote your Twitter account and attract more followers.
Website traffic – Get more people to visit your website after seeing your ad. This type of campaign leverages Twitter’s Click ID to give you a reliable way to measure visits coming from your Twitter ad.
Keywords – Target users who use specific keywords relevant to your campaign. This is an effective way to narrow down an audience with high intent.
2. Create your ad
The next page lets you create your ad by adding text and relevant media. Twitter gives you the option to upload a new media file or choose from your existing media library. You’ll need to include a headline and a link to your desired landing page.
On the right-hand panel, you get a preview of what the ad would look like. Use this as a guide to fine-tune your ad design.
3. Customize your ad delivery
The next step is where you decide whom to target. First, select the key audience demographics you want to reach with this ad. You can narrow your targeting down based on gender, age and location.
Optionally, Twitter offers several targeting features to fine-tune your ad delivery. You can target users based on the keywords and devices they use and their interests and languages. It even lets you target people who follow accounts similar to yours.
4. Set your budget and schedule
Next, it’s time to decide how much you’re willing to spend on your campaign. When you set a daily budget, it gives you better control over your spend. That way, Twitter will stop displaying your ad once you’ve reached the budget limit.
Additionally, make sure to include a date range for your ad. This will ensure that your ad only runs for the specified time frame.
Finally, add a credit card to your Twitter ad account. Then once you’ve finalized everything, hit the “Launch campaign” button to go live with your ad.
Tips for using Twitter ads
Want to get more out of your Twitter ads? Follow these best practices and examples from top brands.
1. Stick to your brand voice
To make sure your ads resonate with your target audience, maintain a consistent brand voice. Your promoted content should be no different from your organic ones in terms of how you speak.
2. Write short and engaging copy
Twitter users quickly move on from one Tweet to the next. So stay far away from huge text blocks. Make sure your copy is short and to the point. Just because there’s room for 280 characters doesn’t mean you have to use up all that space.
If it fits with your brand personality and you don’t overdo it, consider using some emojis to catch attention. But don’t forget about accessibility considerations for those using screen readers. Your copy should be short enough to keep users engaged but not so short that it’s meaningless.
German Doner Kebab strikes the perfect balance with creative ad copy that cuts right to the chase. The brand keeps it fun and casual with a sprinkle of emojis to connect with the audience.
3. Use high-quality visuals
Eye-catching videos and images can make your ad stand out and stop the scroll, driving more engagement with your ad. They can get people to pause and engage with your ad. So be sure to use high-quality visuals that speak for the quality of your products/services.
4. Have a clear call to action
Let people know exactly what you want them to do after seeing your ad. Whether it’s to visit your website or download your app, your ads should have a CTA that clearly mentions the next step.
The following ad from Greyson comes with a CTA that explicitly tells the audience what to do. In this case, it’s to shop Justin Thomas’ championship looks.
5. Learn from your organic performance
How people respond to your organic Tweets can tell you a lot about how to run your Twitter ads. Find out what kind of content gets the most engagement and positive sentiment from your target audience. Then use the insights from your Twitter analytics to inform your advertising decisions.
Sprout Social offers Twitter analytics and reporting to help you with this. This lets you identify your best Twitter content based on reach, clicks and retweets.
6. Test and optimize
Of course, the best way to make sure your ads are working is to test them. Run A/B tests on different ad placements, messaging, ad format and post timings. Then use those data and insights to create highly optimized ads that will rake in profits.
Ready to hit the ground running with Twitter ads?
With stronger attribution and better targeting, Twitter is constantly evolving to serve brands. And with the right strategy, it can be a valuable advertising channel for your business. But the fast-paced nature of the platform means you have to perfect your timing to reach your audience when they’re most active. Check out our guide on how to schedule Tweets to get your timing right.
The future of digital out-of-home is brighter than a Times Square billboard. As uncertain economic conditions continue and technological innovations bloom, digital out-of-home is growing into a popular form of digital marketing.
According to the Digital Out of Home Advertising Market report, the digital out-of-home market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 10% to reach a market size of more than $33 billion in 2026. This growth is partly fueled by the data opportunities digital out-of-home offers brands looking to create well-informed decisions that better protect their investments.
In this article, we’ll dive into the benefits of using digital out-of-home advertising and stand-out examples of campaigns to help inspire your strategy. We’ll also dive into how social media can reinforce and amplify digital out-of-home campaigns.
What is digital out-of-home advertising?
Digital out-of-home advertising refers to electronic signage found in high-traffic, publicly accessible spaces like malls, universities, gyms, gas stations, etc. It includes, but isn’t limited to, digital billboards and in-store displays, elevator screens and electric vehicle (EV) charging displays.
Out-of-home (OOH) traditional media has focused on static signage such as vinyl billboards and posters. Digital out-of-home media is dynamic, presenting unique avenues for omnichannel strategies that incorporate smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.—so there are a lot of screens for brands to use to grab attention.
Benefits of digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising
More brands are investing in digital out-of-home because there are a heap of benefits.
1. Automation and technology streamlines execution
Many digital out-of-home platforms and the software that powers them are automated, removing a number of challenges marketers face when planning, contracting and launching campaigns. Marketers can manage strategy, activation, reporting and optimization in a single location while using automation and data to drive decision-making. And instead of working with multiple vendors, marketers have the option of using one platform to plan for content for a variety of screen types and sizes.
Essentially, digital out-of-home automation makes omnichannel campaigns much easier. For example, if a retail brand wanted to combine mobile campaigns with digital out-of-home, they could place an interactive display in a mall. After interacting with the display, the consumer could scan a QR code that sends them to a landing page or a mobile ad call-to-action.
And thanks to today’s technology, marketers can remotely schedule and manage digital out-of-home campaigns across locations in a matter of clicks.
There are many programmatic digital out-of-home platforms, but Volta is a great illustration in terms of the type of services these types of vendors offer. As an industry-leading electric vehicle charging and media company with over 5,000 screens, Volta is a popular platform of choice for DOOH activations.
In October 2022, the company announced 3D creative campaigns, along with QR code activations and dynamic creative options like real-time weather triggers that allow brands to employ ads based on the weather. They also offer mobile retargeting so companies can reconnect with consumers after they see an ad on a Volta screen.
2. Makes tracking relevant KPIs and direct business impact easier
Since digital out-of-home combines the physical and digital realms, brands have access to a wider range of metrics. Along with engagement and conversions, marketers can use a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure DOOH campaign effectiveness including sales lift, app downloads and conversion (web conversions, in-app actions, downloads, etc.).
Since many platforms are automated, tracking upper and lower funnel metrics is easier. With access to a range of metrics, illustrating performance and direct business impact becomes clearer. By reviewing data on consumer trends, brands can make informed decisions on their placements because they can pinpoint the best time and place to engage their target audience.
For example, an athleisure clothing brand could view peak hours for locations frequented by their target audience (gyms, health food stores, yoga/pilates studios, etc.) to optimize publish times for a campaign.
3. Drives the innovation and personalization your audience craves
If the metaverse was 2022’s buzzword, 2023 is the year of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). With the influx of AI, ML and other emerging technologies like extended reality (XR), brands can make more engaging, personalized ads that improve brand perception. As technology and consumer needs become more sophisticated, brands will need to lean on innovation to stay ahead and meet consumer expectations. Brands are already incorporating digital OOH in metaverse environments, further blurring the line between online and real-life experiences.
Smart examples of digital out-of-home advertising
Let’s cover some of our favorite excellent examples of digital out-of-home campaigns:
McDonald’s
McDonald’s “Deals Stuck in Time” campaign in Sweden was a creative response to helping consumers deal with inflation. The campaign used Google Street View to allow people to step back in time and view old out-of-home ads from 2009 until 2022.
Billboards were digitally altered on Street View to show the old ads. Once a customer identified when the ad was first run, they could claim the deal via the campaign website or the McDonald’s app.
Sea-Doo
Digital out-of-home platforms can help brands take advantage of weather-based marketing by using triggers such as temperature and precipitation to provide relevant, real-time ads to target audiences automatically.
Sea-Doo, a Canadian personal watercraft and boat brand, partnered with Vistar Media to create a weather-triggered digital out-of-home campaign.
By using Vistar Media’s point of interest and weather targeting tools, Sea-Doo’s campaign generated an 80% increase in purchase intent and 43% lift in consideration for the brand. The campaign was so impactful that it was nominated for “Best Use of DOOH” by the Drum Awards for Digital Advertising 2022.
Dole
Dole partnered with Volta to drive sales during the winter holiday season. Based on the case study, the food company used Volta’s front of store placements to highlight various Dole products to convert shoppers. Dole earned an 8% sales lift, 13% new buyers and increased 8.5% category share.
How can digital OOH and social complement each other?
We’ve covered the benefits of digital out-of-home campaigns and some interesting brands to model, but how do you stand out in the sea of screens? The key is social media insights.
Extend your organic social content in targeted spaces
Marketers are leaning on holistic, omnichannel campaigns, especially in the current economic climate, which means they need to reach large target audiences with intention and precision. Take advantage of your paid media budget by pushing content that’s already proven effective on social media.
Within Sprout, you can identify top-performing posts for TikTok, Instagram and other social media networks all within one platform so planning for omnichannel DOOH campaigns is even more efficient.
By using Sprout’s paid performance reports, you can view which content resonates the most and assess the next steps for repurposing content in a physical space.
Use social data to make better digital OOH investments
Along with automation, the beauty of digital out-of-home is that brands can get incredibly precise about which messages they display across specific locations. But you can leverage social data to further support your decisions of what creative content to push.
Sprout Social’s Listening tools are built on smart workflows and AI-driven technology so you can gain the business intelligence you need to improve your strategy and make wiser DOOH investments.
For example, insights from the Locations Overview can uncover trends and events unfolding in specific countries and cities, making it easier to pinpoint a digital OOH ad buy.
The future of digital out-of-home
As we peek into DOOH’s crystal ball, there’s massive opportunity for more creative, innovative activations. Using data and research to back up your investment decisions is a key way to ensuring your DOOH investments have a bright future.
Looking for more ways to support your marketing and business decisions with data? Continue your journey with our Marketer’s Ultimate Data-Powered Toolkit—it’s packed with resources so you can plan with confidence.
GIFs are a great way to increase social media engagement by drawing attention to your social posts. These short, frequently humorous, looping, silent, animated clips are easy and often free to make. They are used to express emotion, reaction, and personality. But they can also draw attention to something, such as a product or brand attribute.
Animated GIFs can also help your audience understand your data and concepts. Using GIFs to explain facts or liven up statistics can be a vital component of your overall social strategy.
In this article, we’ll explain how to make a GIF in a number of ways, including with Photoshop and iPhone. And we’ll show you how to use your GIFs on social networks from your PC or phone. You will also learn how to make a high-quality GIF, and we’ll review several of the best GIF creation tools.
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is an image file that can hold multiple images, which can then be animated, much like a flipbook. Steve Wilhite invented the GIF format, and it has survived since 1987 in essentially the same form. The World Wide Web didn’t come along for two more years.
GIF’s 8-bit format only supports 256 colors, whereas other, newer image formats support millions. This limitation in the range of colors can cause the images to have poor resolution. And, every time a GIF is shared, saved, or re-uploaded it will look worse because it gets compressed. Still, GIFs remain wildly popular on social media, web pages and in emails.
How to make a GIF
Making a GIF is not a complicated process so long as you know the steps for whatever device you wish to use. Let’s begin with how to create an animated GIF on your phone.
How to make a GIF on iPhone
There are three ways to make a GIF on iPhone. The first is to turn your Live Photos into GIFs. Live Photos record 1.5 seconds before and after the shot, so they can create a GIF effect when set to loop. Open the Live Photo you’ve chosen for your GIF, tap on the Live Photos button at the top left of your screen, and at the drop-down menu, tap Loop.
Unfortunately, a GIF made in this fashion will not play on non-apple devices.
To be able to use your GIF wherever you want, you’ll have to use a third-party app, which is the second method to make a GIF on iPhone.
These apps will help you create a GIF from your video or pictures and download it to your camera roll. Some examples of apps are GIF Maker-ImgPlay and EZGIF for iPhone and Android.
The third method to make a GIF on iPhone is to use iPhone’s Shortcuts app. With this app you can convert Live Photos, images and videos to GIFs without the need for a third-party app. To do so, follow these steps.
Open Shortcut and go to the Gallery tab
From here you have four choices depending on what you want to do. You can search for the Make GIF, Convert Photos to GIF, Video to GIF or Burst to GIF. The Make GIF shortcut will allow you to make GIFs from Live Photos and videos. The Convert Photos to GIF shortcut allows you to make GIFs from a number of your selected photos. The Video to GIF and Burst to GIF shortcuts do as their names imply.
Once you’ve selected your shortcut, tap Add Shortcut. This will add it to your MY Shortcuts tab where you will then tap on it.
With the Convert Photos to GIF shortcut, select your photos then tap Add on the top right of the screen. You’ll get a preview of your GIF. Don’t tap Done yet or it won’t save. Tap the Share icon in the top right and select Save Image. This will save your GIF to your Photos. Also, you can send it to others through Messages or apps like Messenger.
With the Make GIF shortcut, select a Live Photo and tap Add as before. This shortcut will send your GIF to your photo album. These GIFs will play automatically, even on non-Apple devices.
Use the Burst to GIF shortcut the same way. You’re likely to get a smoother animation using pictures taken in continuous shooting or burst mode. This is because the movement will be less jerky than if you use photos taken farther apart.
With the Make GIF shortcut, once you’ve tapped OK to give permission to access your Photos app, you will see all the videos in your library.
Once you’ve chosen the one you want to make into a GIF, use the sliders to crop the part of the video you want for your GIF. Tap Save.
A preview will be available within the Shortcuts app. Tap Done.
How to make a GIF on Android
Making a GIF on Android devices depends largely on the device. For instance, following these steps, you can make a GIF on a Samsung Galaxy device from the Gallery app.
In the Gallery app, long press on an image to select multiple photos.
Tap the 3 dots at the bottom right of the screen.
Select Create.
Review and edit your GIF. Then tap The GIF image that appears in your Gallery app.
To make a GIF on Android phones with the Google Photos app, follow these steps.
In the Google Photos app, at the bottom, tap Library > Utilities.
Under Create New, select Animation.
On the top right, tap Create.
You can also use third-party apps to make GIFs to save to your Android devices. Some free options are Ez GIF Maker and GIF Maker-GIF Editor.
How to make a GIF in Photoshop
Learning to make a GIF in Photoshop is a little more complex than the above methods. You have to work with layers. Follow these steps.
Copy and paste your chosen photos into a new folder.
Select File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack
Choose the folder you made, open it, and the photos will come out in different layers.
Choose Window > Animation or Window > Timeline
The Animation, or Timeline panel will come up at the bottom of the screen
Select Create Frame Animation.
Select Make Frames from Layers in the Timeline panel.
You can adjust the playing time of each frame as well as the speed. To do so, choose Select All Frames in the top drop-down menu. You can adjust by clicking on the dropdown menu at the bottom of each frame.
Choose the Repeat menu in the Timeline panel and select Forever.
You can preview your GIF by hitting Play on the Timeline.
To save your GIF select File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy).
There are free alternatives to Photoshop if you want this level of control without the cost. GIMP, an open-source image editor, is one such alternative.
How to make a GIF from a video
Making a GIF from a video isn’t much different than from photos. iPhone has a specific shortcut for that function: Video to GIF. On Android, the process may differ a bit according to your hardware and software.
Open Gallery
Open your Videos folder
Select the video for your GIF and tap Play Video
Tap GIF, which will start creating your GIF
Then you can adjust both the length and speed of your GIF
Tap Save, and it will save to your Gallery
Now your GIF is ready to share.
However, it’s essential to understand that videos are subject to copyright laws. Using them without the creator’s or actors’ permission could cause problems, especially if your GIF is for commercial use. There are exceptions such as creative commons, of course, but it might not be worth trying to rely on the somewhat nebulous “fair use”.
First, it’s important to understand that size matters when it comes to GIFs. If a GIF file is too big, it can cause pages to load slowly and even have a negative effect on SEO. So, there is a balancing act between optimizing your GIF for size and optimizing its quality.
For instance, you may need to meet the size requirements of a particular network. In that case, you can do several things to retain quality while reducing the size of your GIF.
The quality of a GIF diminishes in two ways. First, by getting compressed each time it is shared, saved, downloaded or uploaded. And second, by using too many colors in the GIF.
So, one of the ways to improve the quality, and reduce the size, is to reduce the number of colors used in the GIF. Play with the presets available in some of the more advanced GIF-making tools to help reduce the number of colors used in your GIFs.
Another way to optimize the size of your GIF file is to reduce the number of frames in the animation. You don’t want to reduce them too much, or you’ll make the GIF choppy. You can use an online GIF compressor like EZGIF to reduce the size of the GIF file by 30–50%.
Best GIF creation tools
We’ve already talked about some of the ways GIFs can spice up your brand’s offerings on social. Here are seven more of the best free and low cost GIF creation tools to help you in building social media presence.
With Make a GIF, you can make animated GIFs from images or URLs from YouTube or Facebook videos. You can also make them from your own webcam videos. And, like several GIF makers, they have an extensive collection of premade GIFs you can share.
This is a simple-to-use, free GIF maker and image editor. It can flip an image, reverse, resize, crop, optimize and apply effects and text. You can adjust the animation speed and frame order of the images you upload. With videos, you select the part you want by entering the start and end times. You can control the frame rate.
This tool will convert GIFs to MP4 or WebM videos, which, as stated above are of higher quality. You can also use this tool to edit, shorten or merge existing GIFs. Best of all, it doesn’t apply a watermark to your GIF as some GIF makers do. This is great for making GIFs for your social media content.
This unique, free, open-source GIF creation tool allows you to record your screen and make a GIF from all or a piece of it. You can do the same thing with the drawings on your sketch board. In fact, it will capture your drawings as you draw them.
Additionally, you can make GIFs from your webcam videos. When you edit, you can manipulate individual frames and images. You can apply captions and text. Share directly to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Reddit.
This creation tool has both video-to-GIF and image-to-GIF capabilities. You can use photo or video files from your devices (PC, iOS or Android), or you can paste in the URL of a video.
You can customize your GIF with text, images, stickers, drawings and animations. But, Imgflip will put a watermark on your GIF unless you purchase a Pro account.
Like Make a GIF, they have a whole library of GIFs for you ready to share.
Making GIFs with this tool is pretty straightforward. You can either make a GIF from images or from a YouTube Video.
If you’re using a YouTube link, you’ll wait for the video to load, then enter the start time and duration for your GIF. That’s it. There are several effects you can apply, including swirl and zoom. Finally, you can reverse a GIF from your device or from a URL. Quite simple.
With GIFs.com, so long as you have the URL, you can make GIFs from videos from just about anywhere, including YouTube, Vine and Instagram. And you can drag and drop images or select them from your PC.
Of course you can add captions and stickers to your GIFs, or even make them black and white. You can also make animated stickers. This tool maker has an embed player that you can install to play your GIFs on your website.
Giphy lets you make GIFs from images or videos, as well as from URLs. These URLs can be from YouTube or many other sites, including from Giphy’s large library of GIFs. You can apply a caption, text, filters, and other effects, including freehand drawings. And, it can produce GIFs in the WebM format for higher quality GIFs.
You will be able to add tags to your GIF as well as a source URL to give credit to the original source. And, as recommended by Giphy, you can change your GIF from Public to Private so no one but you will be able to see and share it. You can share directly to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit and more.
Many of these GIF making tools allow you to attach tags to your GIFs. It is good social content strategy to tag them with keywords your audience uses to search your brand or product. Then, when people search for those, your GIF and any related content will pop up.
How to use your GIFs on social media
Each social media network is a bit different. Some have embraced GIFs, some have not. Most at least have the ability to use integrated GIF content to share in comments and sometimes posts.
How to use your GIF on Instagram
Instagram doesn’t accept the GIF format yet. So, you do need to know how to get your GIFs on the network. And let’s face it, it isn’t always easy to get your audience’s attention on Instagram when everyone is posting images and videos. But with the popularity of GIFs, you can stand out and increase your Instagram engagement.
To get your GIFs on Instagram, they must be MP4 files. You will have to either create your GIF as an MP4 file within any of the GIF creation tools that support this, or convert it to MP4 later. There are plenty of converters out there, like VideoPro Converter. Once you have it in the correct format, you can post it to your Instagram Stories, Profile or Newsfeed. Some mobile apps, like Giphy’s, will convert your GIF and save it to your camera roll so you can post from there.
Don’t forget to add those keywords as hashtags to your GIFs so people will find your GIFs and content in searches.
How to use your GIFs on Twitter
There are two ways to add a GIF to your Tweet. But first understand that you can’t add a GIF to a Tweet with more than one image, or one with another GIF. You may, however, add a GIF to a Direct Message. Twitter also has an integrated collection of premade GIFs you can use in your Tweets and DMs.
The first way to attach a GIF to your Tweet is to paste your GIF’s URL at the end of the Tweet. You can get the URL from the site where you created and uploaded your GIF. Remember to always mark your GIFs as private so no one else can see or use them.
The second way to add a GIF to Twitter is to start by downloading it to your PC or phone. Then add it to your Tweet in the same manner that you would add an image. This method is most helpful for those who haven’t uploaded their GIF to a creation tool’s library.
How to use your GIFs on Facebook
On Facebook, it is simple to upload your GIF to a post or comment. Use the photo/video options for each. This works for both PC and mobile. You only need to have your GIF downloaded to the appropriate place, i.e., the camera roll for mobile.
You can post a GIF by its link (URL) as text to your post. Once the GIF shows up, you can delete the link and add other text and it won’t affect the GIF. Do the same thing with comments, except remove the link at the image preview stage.
Facebook also allows you to use GIFs as your Profile Picture, Cover Video, and as Facebook ads. Your Profile GIF may not play automatically for all users. So, choose a custom thumbnail. You even have the option of making your GIF Profile temporary.
As with Twitter, Facebook has an integrated library of GIFs you can use by selecting GIF from the More option of Add to Your Post.
How to use your GIFs on LinkedIn
As of February 2023, LinkedIn does not support GIF files for Logo Images or Cover Images. But, you can add them to your posts, articles and article thumbnails. And, if you add them before your title, the GIF will display at the top, catching attention right away.
You can add GIFs to LinkedIn like images or by pasting the link into your post or article. Add a GIF to a comment by adding it as an image. LinkedIn also has premade options available for your use in comments and DMs.
How to use your GIFs on YouTube
It is possible to add a GIF to your YouTube video at a site of your choosing. But, you will need a video editor to do so. There are both paid and free options available on the web.
Your brand’s ability to post engaging GIFs on social media networks is only growing. You can greatly benefit from an effective content calendar to help you plan and implement your social posts. With Sprout Social’s comprehensive Social Media Publisher you can plan, compose and post your social content across all social networks from a single tool. It will even determine the optimal send times for each of posts with ViralPost®.
Imagine what GIFs can do for your social media engagement
GIFs have become an integral part of the social media landscape. They bring laughter and fun. This is something from which even the most serious posts can often benefit.
You can use GIFs to promote your brand, or get your point across in a few seconds of carefully curated images. And because GIFs are so simple and inexpensive, it’s easy to incorporate them into your social media marketing strategy.
Yes, it’s true that GIFs are often humorous or even silly. But they can also be thoughtful and informative. And, they are indisputably eye-catching. Can you afford to ignore this phenomenon?
If you’re not sure you should create a TikTok social media marketing strategy, we’re here to prove to you that you absolutely should.
TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform we’ve seen thus far, reaching 1 billion users in September 2021, a record four years since its worldwide launch. For comparison, it took eight years for both Facebook and Instagram to hit that milestone.
And while we don’t have more recent data on TikTok’s userbase numbers, there are other stats proving just how popular TikTok has become. For example, it was the most-downloaded app in Q1 of 2022 and the highest-grossing non-game app in both the Apple and Google Play stores. Find even more compelling TikTok stats in our 2023 roundup.
Throughout this article, we’re going to dig into what TikTok marketing is, how to create your own TikTok business account, provide six tips for ramping up your brand’s TikTok marketing strategy and more.
TikTok marketing is the process of using TikTok and TikTok content to promote your brand and its products or services. Easily build up your own online presence through the use of short-form video content that engages your audience and helps show off your business offerings.
While social media marketing creates a cohesive strategy for all social media platforms—TikTok marketing focuses just on TikTok.
You’ll want to ensure your overall messaging on TikTok is similar to all other platforms your brand has a presence on, but as a rule, TikTok content tends to be much different than the content you’ll publish on other channels. (Though you may end up repurposing your TikTok videos for Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts to reach even more viewers.)
Business accounts can use third-party tools to schedule and manage TikTok content
Business accounts can add a website link to their profile
TikTok business accounts don’t have access to the full sound library, but the additional tools far outweigh that. To create your TikTok business account follow along with these quick steps:
Step 1. Download the TikTok app and create a new account
Step 2. Go to your TikTok profile and tap the hamburger menu in the top right corner
Step 3. Tap Settings and privacy
Step 4. Tap Manage account
Step 5. Tap Switch to Business Account
Step 6. Choose the category that best corresponds with your business type
And voila! You now have a business profile and can get started optimizing your account to appeal to your target audience.
10 tips for building your TikTok marketing strategy
Ready to dive in and learn more about how to create a TikTok marketing strategy and build a large following on the platform? While you likely won’t be “TikTok famous” overnight, these ten tips will help you get on the best path to success. We’ve also summarized our best Tiktok marketing tips in this video.
1. Create and brand your TikTok account
We’ve walked through how to create your TikTok business account. The next step is to fully optimize and brand it so that it’s recognizable alongside the rest of your social media profiles.
To brand your TikTok account, tap Edit Profile, then fill out the following:
Profile photo or video: TikTok lets you add a video for your profile avatar. Make sure this is a high-res version of your logo if you choose to add profile photo. If you want to do video, consider creating an animated version of your logo.
Name: Your business name.
Username: This should also be your business name (if possible) with no spaces.
Pronouns: If you’re a sole proprietor you might want to input your pronouns.
Bio: You have 80 characters to give a quick synopsis of what your business does.
Email: Input your company’s contact email.
Nonprofit: If your business works with or supports a nonprofit, you can tag them right in your profile.
Category: You may have already done this when creating your business account, but if not, select the category that best represents your industry.
Social: Connect your Instagram and/or YouTube accounts.
Other options are setting up an auto-message when users DM you. You can do this by tapping the hamburger menu, then Business suite, then Auto message. You’ll also be able to add your website URL to your profile once you hit your first 1,000 followers.
Here’s an example of a fully fleshed-out business profile from Starbucks. They even have two videos pinned to the top of their profile to showcase new products.
2. Define your TikTok audience
To be successful on TikTok, you have to know who you want to target with your content. Otherwise, you might get great reach and engagement, but it won’t translate into sales or subscriptions—which is fun but means nothing for your business’s bottom line.
TikTok skews towards a much younger audience, with nearly 7 in 10 18-19-year-olds having a presence on the app and around half of all 20-39-year-olds using TikTok.
So while TikTok is definitely for younger audiences, you still need to dig a bit deeper than that. Think about the demographics you want to target. Conduct some of your own social media market research, then consider putting together a customer persona that showcases exactly who your business’s target audience is.
3. Create quality TikTok videos
Your next step is to learn how to make a good TikTok video. First, start by doing a bit of hands-on research. Unless you’re already an avid TikTok watcher, spend some time getting to know the platform and looking at the types of videos that pop up on your “For You” page.
Here, you’ll be able to see trending hashtags, sound bytes, accounts and more. It’s a great way to get a bird’s-eye-view of what’s popular at the moment, helping you discover inspiration for your own TikTok content. Then, take a look at other brands that are killing it on TikTok to see what they’re doing well and how you can emulate some of those tactics for your videos.
When it comes to TikTok, you need to test a variety of different video types to discover what’s going to resonate with your audience. Diversity across your profile is key. Try filming your team creating the product. Showcase your product in action. Create funny videos using popular sound bytes. Here are some additional video ideas to help get you started.
And make sure you post consistently. If you want to make a splash, you need to pump out new content regularly. Start by publishing at least twice a week, more often if you can. (In fact, TikTok themselves recommend posting 1-4 times per day.)
4. Use ads in your TikTok marketing strategy
If you want to reach an even wider audience, allocate some of your social media advertising budget towards TikTok ads. The cost for these is based on bids, just like how you pay for Facebook and Instagram ads. You’ll choose your target audience, create a fun video ad then promote it based on your specified daily or lifetime budget.
5. Tap into TikTok influencer marketing
Another popular TikTok marketing tactic is to work with influencers. There are thousands of influencers and content creators that partner with brands on TikTok to create fun, engaging video content that both spreads the word about new brands and also provides said brand with user-generated content to share on their own social media channels.
A few TikTok influencer marketing tactics include:
Sending your product to influencers. Brands with low budgets but tons of product can reach out to influencers and ask if they can send them free product. While this doesn’t guarantee a feature on their channel, if you reach out to enough influencers consistently, you might get a spotlight in an unboxing or merch video.
Collaborate on a video. Collaboration on a video or series of videos that spotlight your brand exclusively. These are more expensive, but you can always partner with micro-influencers with a lower reach until you have more of an influencer marketing budget.
Partner on a new product line. Partner with a mega influencer or celebrity and create a product line together that they’ll get a cut of and promote to their audience. This is a great win-win, but you’ll want to make sure you’re only working with influencers that are hyper-relevant to your niche. For example, beauty brands would only want to partner on a project like this with a highly well-known makeup artist.
6. Monitor TikTok analytics to track performance
Pay attention to your TikTok analytics. You only get access to this if you switch to a business account, and it can be a huge help in pinpointing your most popular videos and when the best time to post each day is.
Some of the best metrics to track include:
Video views
Growth rate
Trending videos
Average watch time
You can also connect your TikTok business account to your Sprout Social dashboard to access analytics right inside Sprout as you measure your other social media platforms.
7. Jump on popular TikTok trends
If you want to increase your chances of going viral, pay attention to trending audio clips, challenges and video types. If you can use a popular trend to create a video that’s relevant to your business, do so!
Here’s an example of a small jeweler that used a popular trending video type to go viral.
Most of their videos of original content generate anywhere from 100-600 views and 2-20 likes. But the above video took a well-known trend and generated over 275,000 views and over 12,000 likes.
As we mentioned, you can use TikTok’s Discover page to find some of these trends; however, your best bet is simply to consume a lot of TikTok content. This will help you organically find popular trends—and see how various users are incorporating them into their content. (So the next time your boss finds you scrolling, you can tell him it’s work-related.)
8. Take advantage of TikTok’s editing capabilities
The best videos tend to be the ones that are shot and edited right within the TikTok app itself. This is because the app has a ton of editing features built-in, making it easy to create engaging content with just a smartphone and a single app.
Some of these features include:
Filters
Trimming video clips
Text overlays
Captions
Stickers
Visual and special effects
Voiceovers
Audio editing
Slow motion
Transitions
There are so many different ways to film and edit your TikTok videos right inside the app that there’s no need for additional video editing tools. Especially since the TikTok algorithm seems to prefer pushing TikTok-edited videos more than others.
9. Keep your videos short and sweet
According to the most recent data, TikTok states that the optimal length for videos is 21-34 seconds long (up from 11-17 seconds in 2020).
Mini scooplet: The sweet spot for video length on TikTok has doubled in the last year. Back in 2020, internal documentation provided to creators suggested 11-17 second videos performed best (left). This week, TikTok said 21-34 seconds (right) pic.twitter.com/tnRirJHbUS
— Chris Stokel-Walker ~ @stokel@infosec.exchange (@stokel) November 12, 2021
Although TikTok is still testing longer videos, videos over 60 seconds in length stress viewers out. This means you want to keep your video content short and sweet. Stick to an average of 30-second video content for optimal results.
10. Incorporate live video into your strategy
TikTok is one of the many platforms that offer a live-streaming feature on its app. Brands should take advantage of this as live videos pop up in viewers’ For You pages so interested users can tune in. Plus, TikTok allows viewers to send stickers and other accolades through live videos as a monetization perk, so your brand can add TikTok Live as an additional revenue stream if your videos get popular enough.
What are the benefits of marketing on TikTok?
So why bother adding an additional social media platform to your overall strategy—especially one as time-consuming as TikTok? Let’s cover three of the major benefits of marketing on TikTok.
People are using TikTok to find products
49% of TikTok users have said they’ve purchased a product or service from a brand after seeing it featured on TikTok. The hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has also been extremely popular, with users showing off products they bought fully due to the fact that they discovered it on TikTok.
If you’re wanting to increase sales through your social media marketing, TikTok is a great channel to do so. The platform is on track to gain 9.6 million social buyers this year, making it the third most popular social commerce channel.
You have a higher chance of going viral
Due to TikTok’s algorithm, the brand focuses more on content discovery rather than showing you content from your friends. There’s a separate feed to see content from those you already follow—but the For You page wants to help users discover new content.
This means TikTok provides brands with a unique opportunity to reach a wider audience than you can on other platforms. Get discovered by those interested in your content, generate more followers and increase chances of making a sale.
Influencer marketing opportunities are abundant
Influencer marketing is huge on TikTok, making it even easier for your brand to get discovered by new people in your target audience. There are creators galore on the platform, many in your industry, so finding the right influencers to work with is a breeze.
Plus, even micro-influencers can generate a lot of reach due to the flexibility of the algorithm, so you can get more bang for your influencer budget, reaching even more customers and building solid influencer relationships.
TikTok marketing brand examples to inspire your strategy
Get inspired by real-world examples of how brands have seen success on the platform. Let’s dig into a couple of TikTok marketing examples you can learn from.
Chipotle
Fan favorite southwestern fast-food chain Chipotle has made quite a stir on TikTok. They got a bit of help from TikTok food influencers reviewing some of their menu “hacks,” but Chipotle’s response to the hubbub is what wins them a spot here.
If you see people talking about your business and menu items, products or services at length, respond accordingly—and that’s exactly what Chipotle did.
It all started when TikTokers Alexis Frost and Keith Lee reviewed an off-menu meal—and gave it full stars. Chipotle customers flocked to their local stores to try the meal, causing some locations to fully sell out of certain parts of the order.
In response, Chipotle ended up adding the actual meal to their menu:
The brand has also continued to work with Alexis and Keith, with the two almost becoming TikTok spokespeople for the brand. Take advantage of viral moments when you can, and create long-term partnerships with your advocates.
Washington Post
The Washington Post, as a well-known newspaper across the U.S., has an arsenal of rather dry content to share. However, the paper’s TikTok team has turned their account into a fun and engaging way for followers to keep up with the news.
Take this TikTok video about France raising the retirement age:
Working conditions in France have deteriorated significantly over the past decades, opponents to the new retirement age say. Unions argue that instead of raising the retirement age, the government should increase salaries and address precarious working conditions among many young and some elderly workers.
On Friday, Silicon Valley Bank went from being a key part of the tech ecosystem to collapsing in a matter of hours. Then on Sunday night, the Biden administration announced that all depositors at the failed Silicon Valley Bank would have access to all their money on Monday morning, approving an extraordinary intervention aimed at averting a crisis in the financial system. #SiliconValley#bankcrisis#useconomy
These bite-sized videos explain complex and dry topics in a fun and engaging way—it’s no wonder they’ve grown the account to 1.6M followers.
Even if your business is in a drier, less engaging industry doesn’t mean you can’t make engaging TikTok content. Take a lesson from WaPo for your own strategy.
Duolingo
Duolingo’s owl mascot is famous on the app. While its long had a reputation of being an evil, persistent presence for Duolingo language learners, the marketing team really leaned into that for its TikTok content. Their content features the owl mascot in nearly every video—and it’s chaotic.
Here’s one video showcasing the owl’s various threats to get its users to do their daily lesson:
If your business gets a fun reputation, lean into it in your marketing content. Have fun with it and don’t take yourselves too seriously.
Get started with TikTok marketing today
Build up your TikTok presence using these six tactics. Start by creating your own TikTok business account, then create your own fun, engaging short-form video content. Learn even more about creating your own successful TikTok marketing campaigns so you can grow your audience and build your business.
