Although TikTok is still considered to be the new social media kid on the block, its incredible growth in recent years makes it hard to remember a time when the video-looping platform wasn’t in our lives. With more than a billion downloads to its name, TikTok has not only proved itself to be one of the fastest-growing apps of all time since it was first launcThed in 2016; it has also now surpassed Instagram by this metric. While Facebook and even Instagram’s audiences are ageing, there is little doubt that the next generation of social media users has embraced TikTok. In fact, during its first 5 years, the core audience was between 13 and 21.

TikTok has built its reputation on short, choreographed dance move videos; comedy sketches; lip-synching; short tutorials; and sound bites from users looking to share fun and frivolous content with their friends. This style of video makes it trickier for brands to harness in the same way as the more expansive and flexible formats available on other social platforms. However, as TikTok matures, brands are finding better ways to leverage the huge user base – often through influencers but also increasingly through official accounts that are reimagining what an organisation can share.

The Met (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) was one of the first museums to launch an official account on TikTok and was a trailblazer in creating content to engage the app’s young audience. One of The Met’s first initiatives back in 2019 was an art contest created to inspire users to showcase their best imitation of an artwork scene or act like art figures. This global challenge included an impressive prize of an all-expenses-paid five-night trip to New York, and the chance to be among the first to visit the Spring 2019 Costume Institute exhibition. As Kenneth Weine, Vice President and Chief Communications Officer at The Met, said at the time: “TikTok reaches hundreds of millions of users, many of whom are art enthusiasts. We look forward to deepening our connection with this audience and to seeing the multiple creative ways they engage with The Met collection.”

For museums, TikTok is a unique challenge. But there are a growing number of examples of institutions effectively running accounts, distributing content, and reaching new audiences by investing time and energy into the platform. And this has shown itself to be a worthwhile endeavour – not least because the pandemic pushed the already large TikTok audience into a global explosion of users.

Adapted from https://www.museumnext.com/