As marketers look toward the second half of 2026, it’s important to consider holiday promotions and how to maximize reach, awareness and sales.
Some brands may have already mapped out a full holiday schedule, or have an outline that they use for their promotions. But with social media usage trends always changing, it’s worth reassessing traditional approaches and considering the value of building a presence in other apps in order to capitalize on rising opportunities.
Over the next few weeks, Social Media Today will be publishing a series of overviews offering tips and tactics for building an organic social media presence on the major platforms. These strategies can then act as a foundation for broader social media promotional efforts.
This post examines TikTok, which is one of the most popular, albeit divisive platforms. The app has emerged as a key connector for younger audiences.
Here are some tips on how to build an effective brand presence in the app.
1. Use TikTok Trends
TikTok provides a range of trend insights options, including its free TikTok Trends tool, which allows marketers to track trending topics by region and industry sector.
TikTok also maintains a Top Ads listing, which provides an overview of the best-performing TikTok ads by region, industry, objective and format.
Marketers can tap through the various examples to soak in what’s working on TikTok. They can also check out the comments to see what people are asking, which could provide further guidance about what users want to see from brands.
The insights gleaned from these tools can help to inform a TikTok ad strategy by showing not only what’s being discussed in each business niche, but also how the most successful brands are tapping into this with their promotions.
2. Build a database of key themes and formats
Based on the data available in TikTok Trends and Top Ads, marketers can build a list of the key themes and formats that are gaining traction with TikTok users.
This will provide an overview of how to angle promotions to align with TikTok user interests, while also directly pointing to the video styles that are working for other brands.
3. Examine influencers
Influencer marketing on TikTok can be a powerful tool, with creators generally having a better grasp of the platform than most brands.
As such, brands can use TikTok Trends to find the most popular creators by topic, which will then guide marketers’ content approaches and offer a better understanding of what’s working within a specific niche.
Brands that understand their niches will also have an easier time finding potential influencers to partner with on promotions.
4. Formulate a strategy
Using this research, marketers should be able to build a strategic approach to TikTok that aligns with their industry’s key trends and appeals to people who are engaging with related content.
Brands should stay aware of trends, keep up to date on niche interests and tap into opportunities as they arise by monitoring the evolution of broader conversations in the app.
5. Study analytics
Marketers can then use their TikTok insights to measure the response to their content and activity, doubling down on what’s working and moving on from what’s not.
The key thing with TikTok is understanding the app, and what TikTok users are responding to. Overt marketing will be less successful, but by digging into the major trends, marketers can get a better sense of what works and what doesn’t. In addition, they can see what people are asking in the app and therefore know what answers their brand can deliver.
