You may think of TikTok users as very young and outside of the target audience of B2B marketers, but you may want to advertise on TikTok.

In this episode of AMP Up Your Digital Marketing, Glenn Gaudet speaks with Erica Weiss, Brand and Campaign Marketing Manager at SparkPost, an email intelligence software company. They discuss TikTok, how it’s used, who uses it, what the concerns are, and whether or not you should advertise on TikTok.

What you’ll learn:

* What are the TikTok privacy concerns? 

* What is TikTok, and how does its algorithm work? 

* What does it look like to advertise on TikTok, how does its targeting work, and should you do it? 

TikTok has exploded over the last two years, growing to over 800 million active users worldwide, according to Oberlo. Users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app. Roughly 90 percent of TikTok’s user base launches the app daily, watching over 1 million videos each day.

So, should you use TikTok? Should your marketing team advertise on TikTok? And what are all the concerns with TikTok you’ve heard about in the news lately? Erica breaks all this down for us in her conversation with Glenn.

What is TikTok?

TikTok grew in popularity over the last year and a half, so you may not be completely familiar with it yet.

Having said that, it is important to be aware of apps like this that are growing in popularity, even if you don’t think it’s right for you.

TikTok is very similar to Vine. It features short-form videos with very powerful video editing capabilities built right into the platform.

TikTok videos are typically anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute long, but people tend to binge videos on the app.

“It started out as a lip-syncing app, so because of that, TikTok licensed a lot of music,” Erica said. “Unlike YouTube, where [videos] get taken down because there was a song in it that you weren’t allowed to use, TikTok videos have staying power because their videos are legal and use legal sound. There’s also short-form comedy, and people telling funny stories.”

TikTok Privacy Concerns

Content on TikTok is primarily fun videos of people dancing, people acting out funny skits, and people telling funny stories, but there is a darker side to the app.

You may have seen in the news speculation and accusations of TikTok mishandling user data.

“The concern is there is something baked into the software that sends information back to the Chinese government,” Glenn said.

While this is an accusation that’s been made of the company and is concerning for users, many American companies have privacy concerns of their own, Erica said.

It’s no secret that some of the biggest companies and most popular platforms on earth are based in the United States and are not the most careful with user data. They’ll even tell you right in their privacy policies that they’ll sell and trade your information to other companies. This means that even if you don’t use services from a specific vendor, it could get your information from a service provider you do use.

As users of these platforms, it’s very difficult to protect your data. But TikTok seems to get more attention for privacy issues than other vendors.

“It’s interesting that this is coming to the forefront as it isn’t an American company,” Erica said.