With over 1 billion active users, TikTok allows small businesses to grow their brands. But to attract viewers, brands need to know their audience and figure out the types of videos they like.

By Genevieve Frucht

Since she began using TikTok in 2020, Sasha Tarnovsky, creator of Hoes For Clothes, has set aside time every day to make and post videos on the app. She predominantly makes screen printing videos as she discovered that is what her viewers enjoy, and they fit in her busy schedule.

She can post similar content every day because TikTok brings people back to her account who have interacted with her videos. While TikTok has been crucial in bringing in more sales, sometimes 100 orders per day, Tarnovsky acknowledges the challenges this can cause for small businesses.

“Most brands, when this happens to them, they’re not prepared for that sudden spike in sales,” Tarnovsky says.

TikTok is helpful for small businesses like Hoes For Clothes — an online shop that sells made-to-order tees, hats and more — because of its reach. TikTok launched in 2016 and now has over 1 billion active users each month, according to Wallaroo. TikTok has a unique algorithm that allows videos to appear on the For You page of users who might be interested in the video. It also allows certain accounts to be repeatedly shown to a user who has interacted with the account’s videos.

When the reporter scrolled through small business accounts, she saw a majority of them post the same types of videos day after day and continue to get an abundance of likes, comments and shares.

As of August 2022, there were 72 billion videos under the #SmallBusiness hashtag on TikTok. Photo by Genevieve Frucht

Chris Aarons, a marketing professor at The University of Texas at Austin, says it’s important for businesses to know the audience they are targeting on TikTok. If a company does not know who they want to see their videos, the content they post on social media appears random and doesn’t attract a certain type of viewer.

Chris Aarons, marketing professor at The University of Texas at Austin

“It’s important to show someone something so valuable that they're like, ‘Oh thank you for sharing this. This is awesome. I’m thrilled that you put this out there,’ and it gives them a reason to follow and engage with the brand,” Aarons says.

It didn’t take long for Victoria Fidalgo, creator of Jewelry by Victoria, to discover that videos where she shows the before and after of making a jewelry piece get shown to more people on the For You page and consequently get more views and likes. These videos also get more interaction from her followers who might have decided to follow because they enjoyed seeing the process of making jewelry.

“I’ve always stuck with the video method of the jewelry-making process,” Fidalgo says. “However, every so often I make a different type of video showing new jewelry that will be released soon. Those videos do well, but not as well as the others.”

On all social media platforms, especially TikTok, if brands post videos that are engaging and funny, they will resonate with viewers and make them want to see more of the brand’s videos. The more often a user goes on TikTok, the more the app will feed that user the types of videos they have interacted with, according to Facts.net. TikTok is advantageous for companies in this way because if a viewer sees a video and interacts with it, even if they don’t follow the account, the For You page will continue to show the viewer that brand’s account.

Making handmade products takes a lot of time, especially for small businesses that have few or no other people working with owners to produce products. So it can be hard to find time for marketing. However, both Tarnovsky and Fidalgo have put in the effort to figure out what types of videos entertain TikTok users, and they’ve reaped the reward of having loyal and active followers and viewers.

“Sometimes it is hard to find the time to make TikToks,” Fidalgo says. “But finding time has been crucial in gaining more business, and I am glad that I have taken the time to make content.”