With the continuous rise of social media, many companies are considering which online sites to prioritise to benefit their business. Here we will be discussing the potential of TikTok, the world’s fastest growing social media platform, on the marketing of engineering and scientific companies across the globe.
At a glance, TikTok is filled with hobbies and conversations. However, with one billion active users every month across the world, the marketing possibilities for a company are huge, especially in the 18 to 30 age group. TikTok allows companies to get their point across quickly but efficiently, with video times ranging from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. The nature of the platform also means that companies can be more informal and show another side to themselves, enabling a reach of different audiences.
There’s a divide within the marketing world on how best to approach Tik Tok. On the business-to-consumer (b2c) side, many companies are using TikTok strongly to build sales and extend relationships with their customers. This is particularly true in fast moving consumer goods. For example, Coca Cola invests heavily to bring in customers through their extensive use of celebrities and film-like production quality to their videos. Unilever also invests to pay big names on TikTok to take part in advertisements.
However, though TikTok is widely used in b2c companies, it is less so in business-to-business even less for engineering and scientific organisations.
Having said that, delving more deeply into the engineering audiences of TikTok, it is apparent that bigger technology companies are making the commitment more quickly than smaller ones. However, that does not mean there are not small companies using the platform to their advantage.
For example, WGM Engineering Ltd (https://www.tiktok.com/@wgm_engineering), a Glasgow company, have gained followers on TikTok through their humorous behind-the-scenes content, with some of their videos gaining 1000 views. Their main message is sustainability.
Looking at some of the larger companies of the engineering industry, such as Balfour Beatty Plc (https://www.tiktok.com/@balfourbeattyuk), with 112 followers and up to 1200 views per video, it shows that TikTok can improve a company’s reach; big or small, every view is a potential new client.
Airbus (https://www.tiktok.com/@airbus) has 180k followers and up to two million viewers on the channel. This demonstrates that TikTok has potential as a marketing tool for technical companies.
Companies who are active on TikTok are not the only ones who get attention through the platform. Many engineering companies do not have accounts but are still being inadvertently ‘marketed’ by other people. For example, some companies are criticised or mocked, with damaging content – if you aren’t filling and controlling your space on social media, someone else may do it for you.
For example GKN Aerospace has had videos made about them such as this (https://www.tiktok.com/@avgeekcast/video/7247809212863057158?q=gkn%20aerospace&t=1702307134445). This, again, is unintentionally marketing the company to the world, this time with positive information about the business. You do not necessarily need to have an account to have a profile on the platform.
Overall, social media, including TikTok, continues to prove its importance within the marketing world. It allows increased reach to a plethora of audiences, can show a different side to your company and much more. If you want more information on this, or to explore more opportunities around TikTok and other social media, drop us an email- info@aroprandmarketing.co.uk or phone 01173790008.
