To TikTok or Not to TikTok
TikTok has experienced a significant surge in popularity in recent years, with a current global user base of 1.59 billion. The New York Times has even stated that TikTok “is rewriting the world.” .
So what makes it so popular? What are the pros and cons of using it as a platform, and how can it be best utilised in relation to business goals?
Here is our breakdown of TikTok, along with tips on how you can develop a B2B TikTok discoverability strategy so you can enhance your social media presence and increase your online engagement figures.
Learn more: To BlueSky or Not to Blue Sky? Read the article.
What is TikTok?
TikTok was first launched in 2016 by a Chinese company called ByteDance. Rebranding to Douyin in 2017, a global version of the app was developed and released that same year, becoming what we now recognise as TikTok. Developed in just 200 days, the app prioritises short-form video content, ranging from 3 seconds to a minute; however, videos can be up to 10 minutes, which users upload directly. Following its merger with Mysical.ly in 2017, TikTok went viral, reaching 100 million users and attracting over a billion views in its first year alone.
Fast forward to 2019, TikTok’s value as a marketing platform was recognised, with the platform enabling the embedding of sales links into videos posted. This would shift the perception of TikTok from an app for teenagers into a worthwhile addition to B2B social media strategies. With potential for creatives and professionals alike, there are numerous options available for optimising TikTok for your brand.
TikTok for B2B Brands
At Alice Violet Creative, our key target audience is senior leaders of complex companies, primarily tech and cyber. In the UK, TikTok now reaches over 30 million monthly users, making it one of the country’s most widely used social platforms. It’s no longer just for teens; around a third of users are aged 25–34, and nearly 16% fall into the 35–44 bracket, showing a steady rise in professional audiences. TikTok itself reports that 1.5 million UK businesses are active on the platform, with SMEs contributing £1.6 billion to UK GDP through TikTok-driven activity.
While usage among senior decision-makers (45+) is still smaller, it’s growing fast as professionals increasingly use the app to discover insights, thought leadership, and brand storytelling. For brands like ours, that means TikTok is less about direct conversion and more about discoverability, a place to build visibility and familiarity among audiences who might never encounter your podcast or expertise on more traditional B2B channels.
We use TikTok primarily for podcast discoverability, tapping into powerful niche communities through hashtags like #BookTok and #CyberAwareness, which help our content surface in front of curious, idea-driven audiences who’d never otherwise find us.
The Cons of TikTok
Anonymous users
While TikTok has undeniable reach, there are a few realities worth knowing before you add it to your social media strategy.
Firstly, most TikTok users are consumers rather than creators. In the UK, more than 30 million people use TikTok monthly, but only a small fraction actively post content; the majority simply scroll. That imbalance creates a kind of echo chamber: brands speak into a largely silent audience.
Then there’s the issue of anonymity and tone. Because many users consume rather than contribute, there’s a veil of distance that makes critical or dismissive comments more common, particularly when your content comes from experts or senior leaders. We’ve seen this firsthand: a guest with 35 years of industry experience can make a perfectly reasonable point and still attract comments accusing them of “not knowing what they’re talking about.”
Relevance
This is the other side of the coin regarding the numerical aspect of TikTok. Whilst your content has high potential for greater viewership figures, these may not necessarily be relevant to your brand. TikTok thrives on a broad audience, with mass appeal at its core. Often relying on current trends for success. When compared with stats from other platforms, the result can be misleading at first.
For example, a recent post of ours received 859 views on LinkedIn. By comparison, our highest recent post on TikTok received 50k views. At first glance, TikTok looks more positive, but LinkedIn’s professional audience makes those 859 views more relevant. This is because this equates to an engagement rate of 8.55% whilst TikTok is equivalent to a 0.52% engagement rate.
A general audience is less pertinent to your brand. LinkedIn is primarily oriented towards business professionals, focusing on networking and business growth, which is ultimately more beneficial.
Restricted Usage
TikTok does face restrictions in some regions, with partial bans applied to government and military officials in Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Canada, and the UK and an outright ban in India. Earlier this year, America also seemed set to ban the app; however, this was overturned by the Trump administration within twelve hours of coming into effect. However, this may not be a permanent solution.
These bans have been due to data security concerns. According to a BBC article from last year specifically how TikTok harvests “excessive” amounts of data compared to other platforms, its ownership by a Beijing-based company and the hypothetical fears over the Chinese government using this data to collect potential blackmail material. What this means for cyber companies and those in trust-based industries is concern regarding privacy and data protection. If these fears are to be believed, there would be a considerable risk for clients of these organisations as well as the employees regarding transparency and data handling.
Despite this, many market leaders, such as Cisco, Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, and Google, maintain accounts on TikTok. Based on this, the perceived threat, as reflected by these brands being active on TikTok, can be considered low. This is, no doubt, due to the numerous security precautions in place for these brands to mitigate any potential data fallout. Nevertheless, this is still an aspect that brands should consider.
Limited Content Lifespan
The most complex challenge on TikTok is standing out. Approximately 23 million new videos are uploaded to TikTok every day. Your videos will be in circulation and competing with all the other videos. As such, standing out can be quite a challenge. Compounding this is the issue of content lifespan. Videos on TikTok remain relevant for 35 days, only achieving 95% of their viewership in that time. By contrast, is takes double that time on Instagram to reach that same percentage.
Many creators will upload multiple times a day to stay ahead of their competition and remain relevant.
Focus on platforms where your content can benefit from a longer lifespan. YouTube is an especially great platform in this regard. One of our most popular videos, Inside a Romance Scam, is still receiving views a year on from it initial upload. The goal is to create “evergreen content”. These are videos that will remain popular for years to come and that have maximum longevity.
The Pros of TikTok
Numbers
According to Statista, TikTok has approximately 1.59 billion global users. For reference, that equates to 19.3% of the world’s population. This means your content has a strong chance of being seen compared to other platforms. Over time, this can help build an active audience base. Furthermore, TikTok is especially popular with marketers. According to the Influencer Marketing Hubs report in 2024, 50.6% of marketers allocate half their budget to TikTok, with an additional 51.9% planning to sell there. Subsequently, TikTok has significant business potential in addition to content engagement.
The Algorithm:
One of TikTok’s best features is its algorithm. This supports directing content towards users with aligned interests who aren’t following you. This applies to both the “Explorer” and “For You Page”. Using data such as likes, video interactions, and viewing trends, TikTok’s algorithm helps its users discover content they are interested in. In essence, this makes growing an audience base over time an achievable goal. Ultimately, your content will find an audience through the algorithm.
According to Edison Research, as of 2023,
“As of 2023, 75% of Gen Z podcast listeners age 13-24 reported using TikTok. Among them, 80% discovered podcasts through their TikTok feeds, meaning it was the second most popular social media app for podcast discovery after YouTube among this group”.
Based on this, TikTok is undoubtedly an effective platform for discoverability.
If you’d like to learn more about social media algorithms, check out our article: 4 Tips to Improve Your Podcast Part 1: Discoverability Within the Algorithm
Production Process
Although video production can be a time and cost-intensive investment, short-form content for TikTok can be created by repurposing existing content.
This involves investing your production efforts into one video and then reusing that content in several shorter videos. For example, the average video length of an episode of Cyber Made Human is approximately thirty minutes. From this, we make five high-quality reels through the effort of one production. If longer using podcast highlights is not an option for you, live events or even an extended video interview can work as well. The key is to film only one block of footage rather than filming each short individually. This makes the overall production easier and more efficient.
Learn more about content repurposing here.
Summary: Creating a B2B TikTok Discoverability Strategy
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JACK
SPECIALISMS
+. Writing
+. Video editing
+. Photography
+. Social Media Management