Tips for Organic TikTok Growth
It can be difficult to grow a specialty food brand’s social media presence organically when starting from zero followers; however, a few guiding principles can help nudge a brand in the right direction.
Snack influencer and food digital strategist, Dre Pao (@DrePaoOfficial), discussed proven strategies and tactics to help specialty food businesses thrive on TikTok in an SFA webinar titled, “TikTok Marketing Strategies for Specialty Food.” From creating engaging content to leveraging trends, Pao listed ways makers can build a captivating brand presence on TikTok.
Pao said that building a social media following requires discipline and that the brand to be active on the platform.
“A strong brand presence requires you to be social on social media. I don’t think there are any special marketing hacks or analytic tricks,” said Pao in an interview with SFA News Daily. He did, however, add there are many ways brands can optimize their usage on the platform to see success, but that community growth will often be incremental.
“If you post a high volume of content that truly brings value to an audience (i.e. teaches them something that they didn’t know before looking at your content), then you can build a real presence,” he said. Pao advocates for brands to create content that educates people and drives real value rather than simply focusing on trying to ‘go viral’ or push a product or brand too much.
“We can’t be obsessed with pushing products and making sure the product is front and center,” he said. “You want to educate the audience about something that will benefit them” and demonstrate that the brand is an authority in the space and that brand values are being communicated. He added that people will become interested in a brand as the following grows, so every post doesn’t need to be seen exclusively to drive sales. Instead, a loyal community base is the goal.
Pao showed a TikTok video to explain how brands can still talk about their product while driving meaningful value to viewers. The video shows a turmeric tea brand teaching how its summer blend product can be made into an alternative cough syrup. This turned the product into a shareable recipe video that can help the consumer save money and improve their health, Pao said.
He also gave five tips to creating a compelling vertical video (short-form media that are often shared on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Facebook Reels). They are as follows:
• Develop a strong hook
• Entertain the eyes by changing positions
• Use text to tell a story
• Keep it simple
• Understand cultural relevancy
The first two to three seconds of a video are used to capture the audience, said Pao. A strong hook typically achieves this by incorporating an element of mystery, urgency, shock, or anticipation. The most important part of a strong hook, however, is that it must also drive purpose by creating value or knowledge for the viewer.
“If you’re leading with shock and anticipation, you must provide a solution to what you are saying,” he said. Without it, “you become the boy who cried wolf. People do not trust that brand message.”
In the video below, Pao discusses other opportunities presented by the rise of vertical video, and how specialty food brands can benefit from recent changes to TikTok algorithms.
To learn more about how to grow a specialty food brand’s TikTok community, watch the webinar on demand in the SFA Learning Center. Watch now.