It’s no secret that recently, The Rise of TikTok has become a firm favourite amongst the younger generation. As per the company data, Tik Tok has 1.534 billion users out of which 1 billion are monthly active users.

Whilst TikTok is commonly known for its viral dance videos and pop music, recently the video app is increasingly a search engine, too. Generation Z are finding TikTok a great platform for looking up new trends, asking questions they can’t ask their peers and finding out things about the world that they wouldn’t necessarily know otherwise.

More and more young people are using TikTok’s powerful algorithm, which personalises the videos shown to them based on their interactions with content, to find information uncannily catered to their tastes. That tailoring is coupled with a sense that real people on the app are synthesizing and delivering information, rather than faceless websites.

Google’s Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president in charge of Google Search, said, “In our studies, something like almost 40 percent of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.” (Techcrunch)

So why is TikTok so popular amongst Gen Z and how can we incorporate it into social media marketing? The short explanation is that unlike many other social media platforms, TikTok allows users to customize the content appearing on their ‘For You’ page. Growing up with access to the internet, Gen Z have learnt to get exactly what they need from the internet. They know where to go for what, and when searching for something hyper-specific sometimes Google Search isn’t always their best friend. The Rise of TikTok can give both visual and detailed explanations of exactly what they are after.

This has given many companies a great reason to hop on the TikTok trend and incorporate social media marketing through the popular platform by using influencers that can target the exact audience they are after, and give them the extremely detailed feedback of who is watching and interacting.

With digital transformation growing rapidly everyday, keeping up with the latest trends is a key to success for any industry. It’s important to understand your audience’s behaviour and adapt as new platforms enter the digital space.

For more information on The Rise of TikTok or social media contact Iliana Olymbios at [email protected]