Should your Property Business be on TikTok?

A few years ago, TikTok hit the digital world by storm and now boasts over 1 billion active users. The emergence of this new, booming platform has many businesses scrambling to jump on board in order to stay relevant in the ever-evolving sphere of social media.

But should your property or real estate business jump on the TikTok bandwagon?

As content marketing and social media experts in the property industry, here are some of our thoughts.

Key Insights and Advice

1.      Benefits of TikTok

There are a number of benefits associated with having a presence on TikTok:

• Increasing brand awareness

• Building customer loyalty

• Building brand image and reputation

• Increasing sales (when linking to an online store)

• Reach customers conversationally/casually in a way that feels more authentic and less salesy

2.      Know your audience

The most important thing to consider, is if the customers you’re trying to reach are using the platform. 47% of TikTok users are between ages 10-29, so it could make sense for property businesses to use TikTok to target first home buyers.

3.      Do you have the time and resources to dedicate to the platform?

In order to be successful on TikTok, a regular and consistent strategy is required -

• Posting at least once a day

• Constantly monitoring and implementing trends

• Quality video editing

Because TikTok is so fast paced and driven by challenges and trends, the best way to stay relevant on the platform is to have a dedicated TikTok champion, who is responsible for creating and editing videos, and monitoring and implementing those trends.

4.      Lower competition can present great opportunities to stand out

A significant 74% of marketers do not plan on using the platform in the next year; however, 30% are interested in learning more about TikTok. Because there is less real estate industry competition on TikTok versus other social media platforms, there is an opportunity for property businesses to step into the space, provided they have the time and resources to dedicate to the platform.

TikTok Specifications and Best Practices

• 150 maximum characters for video captions.

• Maximum video length is 10 minutes.

• More than 63% of videos with a high CTR have a strong hook, feature a key message or product within the first 3 seconds.

• The ideal length of TikTok videos is considered between 21 seconds to 34 seconds.

• Record videos in vertical format.

• Use 3-5 of the most relevant hashtags in your captions, including trending hashtags.

Tips for Creating Engaging Videos

• Understand what you want your TikTok business to be (funny, entertaining, educational etc).

• Write your video scripts based on your objective and identity.

• Be consistent with your brand’s image and tone-of-voice.

• Analyse what’s popular on the platform.

• Use competitor content as inspiration, and adapt it to your own businesses and key messages.

• Educational content is effective (tutorial-style videos).

• Lead with humour.

• Teach your audience something new.

• Join a conversation happening on the platform.

• Entertain with a good story.

• Always include talking, sound or music.

• Use captions to make your videos accessible.

6 Things You Must Know About TikTok Trends

1. Understanding TikTok trends and being able to jump on them quickly is essential for success on the platform.

2. Trends usually have to do with some type of challenge, routine, music or sound.

3. Essentially, everything in the ‘discover’ section is currently trending.

4. Using the trending elements in your videos allows your videos to become featured in the recommendation section and gain maximum exposure.

5. You must be continuous in implementing TikTok trends into your strategy.

6. Analyse your feed recommendations to see what trends are relevant for you.

7 Video Ideas for Property and Real Estate Businesses

If TikTok is the right platform for your property and real estate business, here are some video ideas to get you started:

1. Property/display home walk-through

2. Expert tips and advice for homebuyers

3. Happy customer testimonial

4. Interior design tips

5. Neighbourhood highlights

6. Market trends and predictions

7. Collaborate with interior designer/landscaper/finance expert to deliver a series of educational videos