How to Find and Work With TikTok Influencers

TikTok has become one of the leading social media platforms to change how brands are connecting to customers over the past year and a half. Since TikTok hit social networks in 2018, it has had over 2.3 billion downloads and over 800 million active users who are tuning in to watch the trendiest bite-sized clips from their favorite influencers and brands. TikTok is a light-hearted platform that engages and entertains its users with short videos showcasing the latest dance craze to the perfect baked feta pasta. As more celebrities and influencers have joined the TikTok world to promote their latest products and partnerships, it has become the premier place to collaborate and advertise for companies all over the world.

 

The first step to promoting your brand across popular social platforms like TikTok is to identify and partner with TikTok influencers who can accurately represent your company’s products and services.

 

What is Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a marketing strategy that has become popular across several social platforms, which now includes TikTok. Influencer marketing focuses on using celebrities, influencers, and online personalities to promote specific products and services through endorsements, sponsorships, and collaborations. Businesses use the influencers’ social following and online presence in order to market their brand and cement their social presence online. This strategy has become a vital component to a business’s success because it provides social proof and authenticity to its brand with current and potential customers. TikTok influencer marketing has been on the rise because it specifically targets the Gen Z audience through creative and interactive content.

 

How TikTok Influencer Marketing Helps Your Brand

TikTok’s unique algorithm and short videos make it easy for videos to go viral and get your content in front of thousands of eyes without you spending too much time creating your content. Influencers are discovering that TikTok is the place to quickly grow a following and connect with new people, which can create a profitable partnership for all parties involved. Let’s go over a few ways that TikTok influencer marketing helps your brand:

1. Increasing brand awareness: Partnering with influencers helps to create brand awareness for your business by exposing you to a brand new audience who aren’t familiar with your products or services. Influencers put your business front and center with your target audience and can help you to foster trust between your brand and the potential customers deciding whether or not to invest in your business.
2. Getting creative is easy: TikTok has become the hub for creatives whether you like video editing or sound mixing. The TikTok ad campaigns provide several options to make your ads look less like product placements and more like native ads. These options provide flexibility for you to test out different campaigns according to your goals and budget.
3. Create an authentic connection with your audience: Influencers remain tried and true on TikTok because of their ability to create a real connection with their audience. In the world of #linkinbio and #ad, people crave authentic and relatable influencers who they can trust. TikTok influencers have proven to build a quick and reliable relationship with their followers who easily digest their bite-sized content. 

Working with influencers puts your brand in the position to create high-quality TikTok content that has the potential to increase your brand awareness and lead to more sales as you grow your audience. In the sea that is the world of social media, you want to identify TikTok influencers that are a suitable match for your brand.

 

Identifying The Right TikTok Influencer For Your Business

Now that TikTok has proven to be a formidable social platform for brands to establish themselves and reach new audiences, finding influencers that are a perfect match for campaigns is a top priority. With so many different types of influencers on the app, you may be wondering how to identify who to work with. We’re going to break down a few tips to help you find an influencer that works with your niche and budget.

Know Your Demographic

Before you can start working with influencers you need to know who your target audience is and how to engage with them. Just because an influencer is popular doesn’t mean your audience is going to connect with them. Once you can identify who your target audience is, you can start researching influencers that speak to that audience. 

Consider Your Niche or Industry

You should always work with influencers who represent the industry or niche you are in. Whether you are in the beauty, makeup, tech, or food industry, chances are there is an influencer who represents that industry and has the same target audience that you do. Make sure you are carefully researching who the top influencers are in your industry or niche and make a running list of who you would like to potentially collaborate with. If you need help finding influencers, try using an influencer search tool to help you hone in on groups of influencers you can partner with.

Use The TikTok Creator Marketplace

As we previously mentioned, using an influencer search tool is always a great way to help connect with social influencers and you can do it using the TikTok Creator Marketplace. As the official platform for brand and creator collaborations on TikTok, this marketplace allows you to search and filter through influencers through analytics like demographic, geography, and more!

 

How to Connect With TikTok Influencers

In the world of social media, connection is everything, but making that jump from someone’s profile to conducting business can be tricky. As TikTok influencer marketing continues to grow and stars are made overnight, more and more brands are looking to connect with creators and get their brands seen on the app. TikTok prevents the user from seeing your message if they aren’t already following you on the app so we’ve provided a few alternative methods to connect with TikTok influencers.

Connecting Through Email

Email should always be your first attempt to reach out and establish a connection with an influencer. Most influencers include their business email in their profile and this is a professional method of communication that allows you to properly introduce yourself and your brand. Make sure that your email is specific to the influencer you are connecting with, you want to add a personal touch that shows you aren’t just mass spamming a generic message to everyone. You should also include comments about their work, what you like about it, how the collaboration is mutually beneficial, and what your expectations will be.

Reach out via DMs or Comments

If you’re unable to find an email address, reaching out via direct message or comments is the next step in communication. Direct messages are shorter than emails but allow you to go straight to the point and get a form of communication going. Don’t forget to introduce yourself and include an alternate form of communication like an email or phone number for the influencer to contact you. Additionally, you can leave a comment on their latest post to let them know you sent a message.

Target Smaller Creators

The biggest influencer is not always the first fish you want to catch when working with influencers. Targeting small creators will not only ensure you establish a good rapport but can help you understand which campaigns are best suited for smaller audiences. They also may be easier to connect with, collaborate with, and get your current campaign off the ground in a timely manner. Don’t nix out micro-influencers, they can still have a big impact on your brand.

Use Their Other Social Platforms

If all else fails and you are dead set on working with a specific influencer, try connecting with them via another social platform. Most influencers have at least 1 other social media account and this may be an easier way to contact them for a potential partnership. This could also be another way to cement your genuine interest in collaboration since you are going the extra mile.

 

Are you ready to start building your brand presence with TikTok influencers? Iron Roots provides social media and influencer marketing services to help you strategize and connect with people online.