TikTok launches programme to help SMBs with social media marketing

TikTok has announced Follow Me, a new multi-channel educational programme designed to help SMBs leverage the social media platform to drive business results.

The free 6-week, email-based course aims to provide businesses with a step-by-step guide on how to get started on the platform, acting as a guide for sharing their stories and building an audience.

“We created the Follow Me experience to empower more small businesses to dive into TikTok, so that they can also share their story with the TikTok community and reach their goals,” explained Sujatha Mamidibathula, TikTok’s Head of SMB, North America.

From now until August 19, businesses can register for the latest tips from TikTok’s Small Business Ambassadors, who will offer up advice on how to drive results through community and entertainment.

Follow Me also promises different learning roadmaps based on visitors’ goals, with the email series outlining best practices for running a first campaign on the platform, as well as how to integrate a brand story into videos.

Those signing up will also receive a guide for setting up a free Business Account, access to TikTok’s Creative Center for content inspiration, as well as information on the company’s Ads Manager and Promotion features.

“With Follow Me, any business can integrate the diverse and creative formats available on TikTok into their marketing strategies to involve, connect, and engage with the massive audience base available on the platform,” Mamidibathula added.

The move may provide some improved PR in the business space for the social media platform. Last month, FFC commissioner Brendan Carr urged Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores over its questionable data practices.

The app, which was been downloaded from both app stores almost 19 million times in Q1 2022 alone, is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, an organisation linked closely to the Communist Party of China and bound to its surveillance demands.

Carr described TikTok as a national security risk and requested Apple and Google to remove it from its app stores for failure to abide by their policies.