GTMA’s Guide to Using TikTok for Multifamily
Whether you’re utilizing organic social media, paid social advertising, or both, GTMA campaigns are strategically designed to help you fill your leasing funnel on a variety of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok. We employ a hyper-local publication strategy to showcase your community as neighborhood experts by promoting it as the “right place right now” for your target audience. So, while we strive for a variety of topics and formats each month, your GTMA social media posts are best used to showcase your community in a way that reinforces the resident community yet also catches the attention and engagement of prospective residents. So where does TikTok fall into this strategy? Let’s first get a brief overview of the social media platform.
An Overview of TikTok
TikTok is a social media video-sharing app that allows users to create, watch, and share 15-second to 3-minute, vertical videos created from mobile devices or web cameras. It showcases trends, themes, and content categories to allow for content discovery from other users. The short format of its videos, integrated music lists, and algorithmic curation of the “For You” feed combine to put emphasis on entertainment, infotainment, and comedy. TikTok videos are known for their first-person, authentic storytelling and quirky music, sound, and video effects which produce addictively high levels of engagement.
The TikTok app was first introduced in 2016 by Chinese technology company ByteDance. Usage took off after its merger with a competitive app, Musical.ly. TikTok is now the 3rd largest social media platform worldwide, after Facebook and Instagram! 47% of TikTok users are under the age of 30.
TikTok Warnings & Considerations
- China doesn’t maintain similar privacy laws as the United States and does not require a court order to access users’ device settings including GPS location, data storage, contacts, or Wi-Fi connection.
- TikTok therefore has considerable privacy concerns regarding the collection & use of its user data including profile information, TikTok content consumption, internet browsing behavior, and more.
- Because TikTok is a video platform, it is crucial to have one or more designated representatives of your business on camera as the “face” of your brand. This has inherent brand & business risks, and any representatives should be selected carefully.
- Social media usage, including content published on TikTok, is subject to national and local laws and regulations. Do not post anything that would violate laws, Fair Housing regulations, community standards, or resident privacy.
- TikTok is one of the most popular “cancel culture” platforms. Review and vet every word used to ensure your content doesn’t put your business in this danger zone.
TIKTOK BEST PRACTICES
- The first 3-5 seconds of the video is equivalent to the “above the fold” section of a website. Make sure to try and grab the attention of the viewer within this time to discourage scrolling past the promotion.
- It’s important to keep in mind that a lot of TikTok’s “viral moments” play off of trends surrounding music.
- There are a lot of trends that may seem silly and irrelevant, but those are the ones that will get you noticed (i.e. “thirst traps”, a dance trend, a sarcastic video, etc.)
- Mix in some trending sounds and videos with legitimate videos of your community, so there is a good balance
- Shorter videos will get more plays. Think of “stories” that can be told quickly (<1 minute-1:30 max)
- One of the most powerful sections of the TikTok view screen is the “Comment Board”. If you are keeping it enabled, interact selectively with commenters to build a human appearance, however, there are some situations when it will be best to leave it disabled.
- Center any text or graphics so they don’t get cut off on different device sizes.
- TikTok recommends posting 1-4 times per day to have content distributed optimally by its algorithm and reach users at their most active times of day.
- GTMA will post to TikTok 1-2 times per week. We believe this should suffice for the goal of general brand awareness.
- To optimize engagement, follow the best practices noted above as well as make strategic use of hashtags, trends, music, and branding.
- Both TikTok standard and Business accounts have basic analytics available on the audience, post performance, and marketing dashboards. Mark your growth, engagement, and leads over time and optimize your content toward best-performing posts.
Although we recommend the TikTok account be managed by someone at the community, we do offer services that may help your team curate the content. Our videography, especially our Micromoments, can help you get professional, video-based content for TikTok.
TIKTOK CONTENT IDEAS
- Tours of available apartments/floor plans
- Tours of community amenities
- Community amenity walk-throughs – i.e. proper community BBQ & lounge space etiquette
- A sped-up (edited) walking tour from the community to a neighboring business (coffee shop, gym, park, etc.)
- Adventures just moments from the property, such as hiking, climbing, etc.
- At the end of the video, come home to your community
- A “day in the life” from differing perspectives – resident(s), maintenance team, property manager, leasing agent, etc.
- Glimpses of #unfiltered employee experiences
- Anything pet related
- Intro and/or adventures of resident pets
- “Day in the life” idea just as a resident’s pet.
- Compilations of resident events
- Silly video like an infomercial style highlighting all of your cool amenities
- People in elegant clothes walking around your community because luxury is a lifestyle
- Highlighting of new innovative appliances or home features
- Educational content to give “behind-the-scenes” information on apartment leasing and management.
- Application process
- Cleaning process
- Maintaining amenities
- Planning resident events
- Dealing with vendors
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives
- Non-profit or charitable partnership highlights
- Influencer take-overs or comarketing opportunities (properly vet first)
- Remarketing opportunities
A Brief Overview of TikTok Advertising
Here are the targeting options currently available on TikTok at the ad group level:
- Location
- Interest-Based (keyword pool is limited at the moment to very broad categories)
- Behavioral
Additionally, they have the following bid types available (default is the optimized CPM):
- Cost per Mille/Thousand Impressions (CPM)
- Optimized Cost per Mille/Thousand Impressions (oCPM)
- Cost per Thousand Views (CPV)
- Cost per Click (CPC)
There are also Lookalike Audiences and App Retargeting available. The latter finds users who have previously installed the advertiser’s app and retargets with ad units.
Minimum campaign spend is currently $500, at either a $20/day CPC or $10 CPM (default).
Want to learn more about GTMA’s organic social media, social advertising, or creative services? Fill out the contact form below!