A guide to TikTok for the over 40s

If you’re reading this then you are no doubt aware of TikTok, the video sharing site that hit the (UK media) news this week with the revelation that it accounted for 3.5% of all adult video viewing in 2020 – that’s 11 minutes of TikTok a day for every 16+ in the UK. Facebook, by comparison, managed a paltry 2.8 minutes. 

That TikTok viewing average is driven primarily by 27 minutes for 16-34s, and no doubt by much longer watch times for under 24s. TikTok, like all successful social platforms, is initially a young person’s platform.

But not exclusively. As this 40 something is discovering having been introduced to it (and then immediately blocked – thanks Amy) by one of our agency TikTokers, it is very easy to hit 11 minutes per day on TikTok. In fact I averaged 27 minutes a day last week according to my ever-watchful iphone (and zero minutes of Facebook and Instagram).

So what is the deal with TikTok? Well, here’s my guide for those 40 and over.

1)     TikTok is what you make it

This is an obvious statement, but with TiKTok it is absolutely true. The algorithm is their product, and it is very good. It will find your content niche within a relatively short time and ensure that you can flick effortlessly from video to video finding entertaining clips. For me that has become a stream of recipes and food content, comedy/ stand up, survivalist tips, military history, Scottish and Irish patter, rugby, cricket and dogs. Lots of dogs. Dog training, dogs being funny, dogs being bros, dogs literally just being dogs.  Apart from maybe the dogs, your feed will be NOTHING like mine.

Side note – I have already cooked two recipes I saw in sub-15 second videos on TikTok. I don’t think I ever made a recipe from any other social network?

2)     You WILL find it a bit creepy

TikTok will serve you a lot of scantily clad young people dancing. Those videos do millions of views so they’re high up the algorithm. If you flick past them pretty quickly, eventually they decrease in volume. If you watch them, well, if you’re over 40 then you’re a bit creepy and you’ll probably see an awful lot more of them. But you won’t see nudity - TikTok is quick to ban anything properly inappropriate and most TikTokers know that.

3)     TikTok moves very very fast

Remember Sea Shanties? The internet sensation of 4 weeks ago? I haven’t seen one on TikTok for a fortnight. The kids have moved on. And the record labels lining up Sea Shanty albums with Scottish postmen for late summer release are in for a shock. Trends in TikTok spring up fast and die down just as quickly. So if you’re going to commercialise a trend, you better be rapid.

4)     The advertising is good, but the model may not work

Like Snapchat before it, TikTok is serving video ads in-feed. At the moment they’re entirely skippable which means they’re mostly skipped. This is fine for advertisers on a CPV model – and with TikTok’s volumes so high it’s fine for TikTok too… for now. But the mega money in social comes from finding an ad format that consumers don’t mind engaging with. Like Facebook images and YouTube 6” mid roll. So TikTok will need to improve this and they’re hiring lots of smart people, so I’ve no doubt they will.

5)     You absolutely should be advertising on TikTok

We served our first TikTok ads in early 2020 and use it extensively to reach under 24s with Scottish Government pandemic messaging, as well as for many other clients. If your audience is under 30 and you want to increase your brand favourability or awareness (which, hot tip folks, is the point of advertising), then get yourself a good creative agency and buy some TikTok ads.

But before you buy the ads, spend a little time on the platform. Give the algorithm a couple of days to figure out what you like, and you might find you zip past the 11 minute average pretty quickly.