A charity’s guide to understanding and mastering TikTok

3 August 2021  |  Neil Hocking

Every social media platform has its unique culture and audience and TikTok is no different. As 2020’s most downloaded mobile app, TikTok is a great choice for reaching younger donors.

We look at how charities and nonprofits can get to know TikTok and use it to benefit their cause.

What’s on your FYP? Getting started with TikTok

Before diving headlong into the world of TikTok it is a good idea to download the app and use it for a few days. When you first explore TikTok you will notice two tabs at the top of the page: Following and For You.

These are two separate video feeds. The first is populated by videos from TikTokers you have chosen to follow. The second is your ‘FYP’ or ‘For You Page’.

Your FYP is a customised, algorithm-generated feed tailored to your interests. Every video you watch and positively engage with (share or like) will be used as data to be crunched by the TikTok algorithm. Users indicate that they like a video by double tapping the screen. There is also a ‘Not Interested’ button.

Video descriptions will often include hashtags. As with Twitter and Instagram, these are used to categorise content. You can tap hashtags directly or search for them using the ‘Discover’ button at the bottom of your feed. Using certain hashtags can help you to align your FYP with TikTok’s different ‘sides’.

Sides are TikTok’s subgenres. The popular, trending videos are classed as ‘Straight TikTok’ with alternative content coming under the name ‘Alt TikTok’.

Within these broad divisions, several popular sides have emerged including LGBT TikTok, Gaming TikTok, Celebrity TikTok and CosplayTikTok. Each side has its own popular influencers and trending hashtags.

Best practice for charities on TikTok

So, how can charities create the kind of content TikTokers will engage with?

First and foremost, Tiktok is a short form video-focused mobile app. Whatever cause your charity supports, you are going to need to be creative. Still images and text are unlikely to cut it.

With that in mind, we recommend considering someone young to take ownership of your charity’s TikTok presence. They will already be familiar with the type of content teens appreciate and the language they use.

On the whole, videos featuring music, dancing and cute animals tends to fare well. Your TikToks will also need to hit a fine balance between protecting your charity’s reputation and playing things too safe.

To succeed on TikTok you will need to have a fast approval process. While you will want to vet content for suitability, it is important to release posts on a frequent basis. This will lead to more followers and increased engagement. Eventually, your charity may earn the coveted blue ‘verified’ tick which will help reassure potential donors that they can trust you.

On the subject of donations, how do you ask for support via TikTok? Again, you need to find a balance. If TikTokers find your approach to aggressive or insincere they are likely to hit the ‘Not Interested’ button and will never see another video from your cause.

On the other hand, there is no point in creating funny or amazing content with no call to action. Fortunately, there are tools that can help boost your conversion rate on the app.

Tiltify donations and TikTok for Good

Since 2020, TikTok have partnered with the charity donations platform Tiltify. If you are signed up with Tiltify, you can embed donation stickers directly on your TikTok posts.

If you are not on Tiltify, you can still request donations but you will need to place the links in your bio, adding more steps to conversion. Many charities link to their GoFundMe pages or other external fundraising platforms via TikTok.

TikTok For Good is TikTok’s own initiative to support charities and nonprofits. It includes account management, analytics and promoted hashtags.

There is no doubt that TikTok offers charities a golden opportunity to connect with a young audience, building trust with them and securing future support. The learning curve may be steep but the rewards could well be worth the effort.

Have you used TikTok in your marketing mix? We would love to find out how your campaigns performed.