TikTok: The Clock for Video Media Promotion
By Baylee Martin
Short-Form is Taking the World by Storm
“Short-term oriented cultures enjoy living in the moment and like to achieve quick results without too much concern for the future.”
- Nathalie Nahai, Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion
Scoring a 29 on the Long-Term Oriented Scale (LTO) and ranking number thirteen out of eighteen other counties based on their human quest for virtue, the United States is definitely a short-term oriented culture. TikTok’s popularity over the course of the past few years has changed the marketing game for companies and for influencers - both looking to grow their brands. TikTok is all short-form video, which is making it more marketable in comparison to other social media platforms that may not be as engaging.
The Proof is in the Percentage
49% of Business Videos Are Less Than a Minute Long
54% of People Want to See Brands Create Video vs Any Other Type of Content
60% of Internet Traffic Revolves Around Video
66% of Video Ads are Less than 30 Seconds.
68% of People will Happily Watch a Business Video if it’s Under a Minute
72% of People Prefer Video vs Text to Learn a New Product or Service.
93% of Marketers have Landed a Customer via Social Media Video
When analyzing how social media apps push ads out to their consumers, it is clear that video in general is most preferable to the audience. The average TikTok user spends at least 26 minutes on the app per day. This means that if each video on the platform is around 15 seconds long, users are consuming at least dozens of videos per session. These short-form videos do not only live and exist on TikTok, but find their way to other social media platforms that have begun pushing out short-form content, as well, such as Instagram Reels, Facebook Stories, and YouTube Shorts.
Look familiar? The TikTok to Instagram Reels, to Facebook Stories, to YouTube Shorts pipeline is real - and for good reason.
(Colormatics, Short Form Video Statistics and 2020 Marketing Trends)
Living in an Individualist & Indulgent Society
The United States is the top rated, highly individualist society globally, which means that we as Americans value our personal time, freedom, challenges, and are motivated by personal gain. Because of our heuristic nature, short-form media is the easiest to register and is more appealing to watch when taking the time to scroll through social media.
“Although we’d like to think we’re rational, in reality, it’s our fast, automatic system that’s in charge. [This system] relies on heuristics (cognitive rules of thumb) to reduce the complexity of incoming information and speed up our decision-making which, most of the time, works just fine… We tend to pay more attention to information which comes easily to mind (the availability heuristic), and we often give greater weight to memories that are personally relevant, or emotionally vivid - which is why stories are so powerful.”
- Nathalie Nahai, Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion
The average watch time of video advertisements on Facebook is 18 seconds, and is majorly seen on users’ mobile devices. The need for immediacy while scrolling mixed with the distractions just a head-turn away from a mobile device play into this statistic, and are why short-form videos (like TikToks) take priority.
(Wochit Team, “Why are short-from videos so effective on social?”)
The United States is also a highly indulgent country, especially when it comes to benefitting ourselves and having control over our own lives. How do we gain that control? By keeping in contact with others, expressing freedoms, breaking stereotypes, laughing and smiling, and striving for wealth. TikTok allows for all of these mediums through video comments and shares, the ease of posting original content, viewing the lives of others, and learning from others who we may see as well-off.
“If your audience is time- and attention-poor (which is most of us) with a low need for cognition, then taking a less effortful route can work better [than others]. This means designing experiences, messages and interactions that leverage cognitive rules of thumb such as scarcity, social proof and liking.”
- Nathalie Nahai, Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion
How Can You Cater to An Individualized and Indulgent Audience?
Create some type of reward for consumers.
Provide a unique edge.
Pose a challenge to your users.
Cause commotion / controversy (tastefully of course).
Allow them to taste the success you’ll provide for them.