TikTok Industry Trends & Demographics Research

Industry Trends Social media marketing for beauty and skin care is prominent across most major social media platforms but performs especially well on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, with Instagram being the most commonly used platform – in a 2022 study that ran from May until August by Upfluence, it was found that there were a total of 1,288 beauty influencers on Instagram, 1,090 on YouTube, and 167 on TikTok, but that nearly all influencers on TikTok simultaneously ran an Instagram page (Geyser, 2022). This implies that TikTok may provide the strongest opportunity for growth considering the much smaller number of competing influencers as compared to that seen on Instagram (1,288) and YouTube (1,090). The same Upfluence study found that in the United States, while Instagram and YouTube contained the highest number of beauty influencers, the average number of followers was highest on TikTok at 767,651, substantially higher than that of Instagram (431,310) and YouTube (417,134); however, in Canada, TikTok actually provides the least number of followers, at an average of 150,677 compared to Instagram (300,449) and YouTube (419,078) (Geyser, 2022). Since I’m aiming to target individuals in Canada specifically, it’s worth considering supplementing an Instagram account with my TikTok channel to increase potential cross-over followers from Instagram to TikTok. Within the TikTok skin care community, there are a number of trends that are currently gaining attention – for both positive and negative reasons. Some previous trends have actually been found to be dangerous and cause damage to the skin, sometimes permanently. This includes the trend of over-exfoliating (burns/compromised barriers), at-home microneedling (open wounds/infections/scarring), and “SPF contouring” (sunburn/melanoma) (Burwell, 2022)(Ross, 2022). The positive, dermatologist-approved trends that are growing and circulating currently are skin cycling (Rovenstein, 2022), “glass/jello skin” routines (Kilikita, 2022), and informative/educational videos on skin care – these are the types of trends that I will be sticking to. Industry Best Practices To successfully build a TikTok following and keep my followers engaged, there are a number of practices that are recommended by Hootsuite that I plan to follow. Before positing content, these practices include defining your target audience, performing competitive audits, and setting SMART goals. Once these have been determined and it’s time to create content, the recommended practices include creating a content calendar to ensure content is being posted consistently and regularly (link to calendar template here), monitoring your growth and engagement, and monitoring and replying to comments (Hirose, 2022). When it comes to the content itself, it’s important to ensure that videos not only fit within TikTok’s allotted time limits, but also don’t drag on unnecessarily long and lose the viewers’ attention. TikTok suggests an optimal length of 21-34 seconds for best results (TikTok, 2022). For universal best practices, TikTok recommends using high quality resolution videos (720p+) since they provide an approximate 5.4% boost in impressions, as well as including sound of some sort (i.e., music, voiceover, etc.) to gain an additional increase in impressions. They also highly recommend using a vertical format for videos to fit the platform’s margins, as well as using the full 9:16 aspect ratio; it’s been found that the 9:16 ratio videos attain 60.5% more impressions than smaller formats, and that vertical videos attain a 40.1% increase in impressions over horizontal videos (TikTok, 2022). Target Audience A Statista report reveals that in Canada, the 25-44 years age group is the largest segment of the population, containing 5.19 females within this bracket out of the 38.23 million total population in 2021 (Statista, 2022). This amounts to around 13.6% of the entire population. According to another 2022 Statista report on TikTok in Canada, women make up 54% of the total number of users, and there are more users between 18-29 years than on other social media platforms at 38% of the total population. This is followed closely by the 30-39 age bracket at 34%, indicating that a target audience of Canadian women aged 25-35 should be fairly attainable considering their large share of the platform (Statista, 2022). From the same Statista report, points of interest for Canadians on TikTok include health/fitness at 38% of users showing interest, and fashion/beauty, with 32% of users showing interest. This implies that there is likely a sizeable amount of interest toward skin care, since it’s able to fall under either/both categories in many instances (2022). Tech/Tools The physical tools that I’ll need will include my phone to record videos, a ring light to hold the phone/provide lighting, my computer for editing/monitoring analytics, and all products/accessories needed for the video content (i.e., cleansers, toners, headbands, cotton pads, face cloths, etc.). Most of these I already have; in some instances I’ll need to purchase new products to review/demonstrate, so I plan to use products that I can use outside of the project. The technology/software that I’ll need to use includes TikTok Analytics, TikTok’s video scheduler, and CapCut’s video editing app – all of these are free to use (Christison, 2022). Time Cost Judging by videos that I’ve had to record and edit previously, I expect each video to take between approximately 30-60 min to prepare and record, and then approximately another 2-3 hours for the editing and uploading to take place. This can vary widely however and I plan to account for some extra time for the creation of each video. Potential Contacts Before starting my project, I can speak with a close friend of mine that works in social media marketing and ask for her opinions on best practices and what issues she has run into. Another potential contact is another friend that runs a freelance marketing business, and ask what her experiences have been like and any potential recommendations for tools/software that might help me. References Burwell, L. (2022, July 1). Dermatologists warn about Tiktok's dangerous skin care lies. HuffPost. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tiktok-skin-care-lies-misinformation_l_62b46c93e4b0cf43c8611f69 Christison, C. (2022, May 27). 16 of the best TikTok Tools to improve your marketing. 16 of the Best TikTok Tools to Improve Your Marketing. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-tools/ Geyser, W. (2022, September 21). The state of influencer marketing in the Beauty Industry. Influencer Marketing Hub. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-beauty-industry/ Hirose, A. (2022, May 26). How to create a successful Tiktok marketing strategy for 2022. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-marketing/ Kilikita, J. (2022, May 25). How realistic is our new obsession with 'Jello Skin'? How Realistic is the New Obsession with 'Jello Skin'? Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/jello-skin-trend-problems Ross, A. (2022, June 26). Why you should absolutely not be "sunscreen contouring". Byrdie. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.byrdie.com/sunscreen-contouring-dematologists-weigh-in-5185382 Rovenstine, R. (2022, September 7). For once, a tiktok skin care trend that dermatologists actually like. HuffPost. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/skin-cycling_l_631225cde4b09e34c394cc07 Statista. (2022). Demographics of Canada [Countries and regions]. https://www-statista-com.gbcprx01.georgebrown.ca/download/MTY2NDc0NDM1MCMjMTg4MDMxMCMjMTA4NjE4IyMxIyNwZGYjI1N0dWR5 Statista. (2022, August). Social Media: TikTok Users in Canada [Consumers & brands]. https://www-statista-com.gbcprx01.georgebrown.ca/download/MTY2NDc0NzQxMCMjMTg4MDMxMCMjNzI3MzAjIzEjI251bGwjI1N0dWR5 TikTok. (2022, September 21). Creative best practices: What Tiktok's top-performing ads have in common: Tiktok for business blog. TikTok For Business. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.tiktok.com/business/en/blog/creative-best-practices-top-performing-ads