Do I need TikTok for my coaching business?

You’ve probably heard of TikTok, but you might not know what it is, or be too embarrassed to ask your kids.

As a platform for content creators to express themselves through short clips, It’s a space to act silly and playful, experiment with trends, and show another side of yourself. But it’s more than just a place for dancing – it’s a marketing haven – especially for coaches.

In this blog you’ll learn more about what TikTok is, how it’s used and why it might be useful for your coaching business in terms of creating engaging content.

What is it?

TikTok is a video-sharing social network where you can create and scroll through videos tailored to your interests. With over 800million users each month, TikTok is a huge community platform with a predominant Gen Z and Millennial market with over 50% of users aged 16-34, and 37% of users aged 30-50.

TikTok is kind of like neapolitan ice cream – it has a variety of flavours, and looks like too much choice – but once you experiment with a bit of strawberry here, and chocolate there, you can easily find a place that you like. Once you start making videos and putting yourself out there, there are endless opportunities for content growth.

How do I use it?

When you open the App for the first time, you’ll be asked to select your interests from hobbies to sports and leisure activities. TikTok will use this to generate videos on your For You Page – the endless scrolling machine! This page looks a bit like the animation opposite:

From there, you can interact with the videos by navigating the like, share and comment buttons. This lets the App learn what you like, so it can show you more videos of what you like, and less of what you don’t. It also means when you come to make videos yourself, you’re already showing up in other people’s feeds who like the same videos as you.

Once you’ve created your profile, you can begin to add a lovely headshot of you and an intro to who you are/what you do. You can link to your other socials and your services so that people can find you easily.

You will also find the Discovery page where you can search for hashtags and content directly. This will be useful to you if you’re trying to find other coaches who do what you do, or to discover the creative ways people are introducing themselves.

As a tip, regularly interacting with your ‘For You’ and ‘Discovery’ page will present a major growth opportunity for your content to be seen by more people. Say, you’re a life coach and you market your services to parents – if you interact with what your audience want to see, your future videos will appear in both pages. So, if you’re thinking about long-term growth, being an active user is key to attracting an audience – and it keeps your content fresh and up-to-date.

What is the benefit to coaches?

TikTok is a really easy way to make short-form video content that you can repurpose onto your other social platforms (think Instagram Reels). The #coaching tag amounts to 830M views so there’s an audience already out there who might be keen to learn about you and your services.

Plus, as a coach you already know the value of being open, inclusive and accessible. Like Coaching, TikTok’s community has an inclusive spirit which doesn’t have the same potential as other social platforms to scrutinise/downplay your ideas. You’ll learn that the content on there is a free-for-all in terms of putting yourself out there. So, don’t be afraid! You can grow your own community organically through your content, and support other coaches to do the same. That way, you’re opening the door to untapped potential through connecting with others and creating content more people will want to see.

What content does well?

As a general rule of thumb, this type of content does well:

Visuals
Trends
Hashtags
Music
Humour
Fun

This is not an exhaustive list, and actually you might find you want to skip all of the stylistic stuff and just introduce yourself. Maybe you have a random clip in your camera roll that you find funny – why not upload it with a caption to contextualise the moment, and add hashtags to grow your reach.

In a ‘How To Blog’ by the ICF, they recommend keeping your content engaging and informative. They pose the question: What do you wish more people knew about coaching? It could be a simple fact or statistic that piques their interest – the choice is yours!

Do I even need it?

Ultimately, TikTok is a world of videos that fits every interest and niche, so what you see and what you make can be anything you want it to be. Putting yourself out there can be as simple as reacting to another coaching video, or joining a trend/challenge that you can add your own spin to.

If you’re ready to take the plunge, why not ask yourself: what coaching question could I ask my clients in a short video?

This blog was taken from a live event we hosted in our community. For more inspiration and conversation, join our community full of coaches thinking about their marketing.