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On Thursday 10th September, our expert student marketing panel hosted a TikTok masterclass all about how education institutions can use TikTok to supercharge their virtual open days. At the end of the session, the speakers held a Q&A session where attendees had the opportunity to ask any questions that they had. A huge thank you to everyone who attended our TikTok masterclass and submitted a number of thought-provoking questions…we’ve rounded them and our panel’s responses up so you can digest them at your leisure.

If you want to watch an on-demand recording of the TikTok masterclass, we’ve embedded the YouTube video below.

Question 1

How can we make TikToks if we aren’t allowed on campus? There aren’t as many people on campus at the moment, so it doesn’t look as appealing. What do you suggest?

Firstly, we recommend having a loose plan for your TikTok content so that you are being both proactive and reactive. If safe to do so and in line with local/national lockdown restrictions, we suggest putting in a request to your SMT to access campus which will allow you to shoot footage and build up a new bank of content for your paid and organic campaigns. This way when you are on campus you make the best use of your time and can get the footage required for an ongoing strategy.

If this is not an option, we suggest making use of your current bank of content and editing it with TikTok in mind. Think, short bursts of varied content, animations and ways of embracing humour from home with students, staff and academics. If your buildings and campuses are empty, use this to your advantage and play on this idea…use humour as TikTok is a platform that appreciates that.

Question 2

What impact will Instagram Reels have on TikTok?

We are looking very closely at Instagram Reels (keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming blog post). It is a direct competitor to TikTok, there’s no doubt about that. Its impact on TikTok will highly depend on whether Instagram Reels gains traction and matches the look and feel of TikTok. Watch this space. You can’t currently buy advertising inventory on Instagram Reels, so you’re unable to run any paid campaigns at the moment. Once they start releasing advertising products onto Instagram Reels and once it gains traction, as we expect it to, this will be a platform to add to your organic content and paid advertising strategies, in addition to TikTok.

Question 3

How would you explain to stakeholders that TikTok will help with conversion, or would you say that it’s better suited to brand awareness?

When TikTok first started, it was pushed and promoted as a brand awareness tool. The introduction of conversion tracking capabilities means that it can be used for awareness, engagement and conversion. It’s great to use TikTok to increase the volume of returning website visitors who’ll complete that all-important conversion.

Question 4

How do we choose our brand ambassador on TikTok?

At Arke, we asked the team to nominate themselves if they would like to be our Ambassador along with a statement of their ideas and how they would meet our objectives. The shortlist was narrowed down and ultimately the decision was made when we held a socially distanced dance-off!

It can seem daunting if you haven’t been involved in TikTok before, so look for someone who has an interest and enthusiasm and is eager to try. It doesn’t matter if you are a pro or not, an eagerness to be involved will go a long way! Whilst it may sound demanding at first but think of The Washington Post examples – just because you’re the brand ambassador doesn’t mean you have to feature in every single TikTok. Just provide a narrative – familiar faces will aid with brand association and affinity. It’s really important to know your target audience and students, every education institution is different. Put out content that your students and, more importantly, your prospective students can see and will want to be a part of and relate to.

Question 5

Is there a reason why you didn’t show any TikTok ads from the education sector?

Simply put, there aren’t many! It is a very untapped channel for this sector and there aren’t many institutions using it in a noteworthy way. There is organic content that prospective students are making – #resultsday took off on TikTok. We suggest doing a little research and seeing what the community is already like. Case studies from our education TikTok campaigns can be provided upon request.

Question 6

In regards to advertising, are you able to target via location and demographics – or just categories they have previously interacted with?

You can target based on a location and this can be done by radius and postcode. You can also layer other targeting options on top of this to further narrow your audience.

Question 7

Are all 4 types of advertising paid, or are any available for free?

All of the advertising types are paid methods…we have seen many brands benefiting from TikTok’s organic posting features with their own self-made content, however, success without a budget can be more difficult.

Question 8

Like Facebook and Instagram, does TikTok have business account options?

TikTok has recently rolled out something called ‘TikTok For Business’, which allows you to create a business profile, and gain tips for content creation. It works in a very similar way to ‘Facebook Business Manager’. As they say on the ‘TikTok For Business’ website: don’t make ads, make TikToks.

So that’s a wrap on our Q&A session, as promised the full TikTok masterclass is below:

If you’re interested in advertising on TikTok, we’ve developed a special offer to help kickstart your TikTok activity and supercharge your virtual open days.

Our introductory £1,995 package includes:

    • £1,500 – TikTok media spend
    • £495 – campaign planning, existing student data profiling, lookalike audience building, campaign build, reporting and optimisation
    • Free – content production (making existing content TikTok ready)

Click here to find out more and register your interest, or click here to get in touch with our social media experts today.

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