Earlier this year, TikTok started testing several new features, including its own version of retweet with a "Repost" button. Brands and creators alike rushed to examine how to repost on TikTok and what it might add to their content strategies, sensing the huge marketing potential of this feature.
Indeed, this platform with tons of user-generated content (UGC) is a must-have for brands and creators looking to stand out in the world of social media marketing.
TikTok was the number-one download in the United States and the most visited website in 2021. With over a billion monthly active users, it's an ideal platform for brands to engage with audiences, build communities, advertise, and boost exposure.
While creating original TikTok videos is important to establishing your account’s voice and identity, engagement with your online community can be just as important, especially for brands. Consumers are much more likely to respect, trust, and interact with your brand on TikTok if you’re resharing UGC from people like them.
So, let's check out how to repost on TikTok and what opportunities this new feature brings to the table for marketers.
How to repost on TikTok
Open the video you’d like to repost.
Click the Share icon, a right-facing arrow.
Tap the yellow Repost button and add a comment to accompany your repost.
Optional: add a Comment that will be visible to users viewing your repost.
The repost button shows up in the upper left corner of sharing options. After reposting, you’ll see the option to add a comment next to your profile picture, alternating with the message that “you reposted.”
It’s also easy to remove a repost on TikTok; simply open the comments section of the video and hold down on the top message that says “Reposted this video” until the option to remove repost appears.
It’s also worthwhile to mention that, once you watch a video three times on a loop, the repost button will also appear above the creator’s username, as a gray button that says the word “repost.”
As you've probably guessed from the above steps, the TikTok repost feature differs from its analogs on Instagram, X, or Facebook.
Two moments:
You can only repost videos found in your For You feed or from a profile. Videos found on the explore page usually don’t have the repost option.
Your reposted videos won't appear on your TikTok profile, only in the home feeds of your connections who are mutual friends with you.
In other words, the purpose is to boost the visibility of the content TikTok algorithms recommend to you. Instead of sharing it with your contacts through informative text messages or other social channels, you’re increasing the reach of a video within the platform it originated on.
The Repost button is an instrument for amplifying UGC and encouraging passive users (spectators) to participate on the platform. It's a low-friction way for them to let a broader audience see what they like, with no content creation but promoting the content of others.
Given such limits, what's in it for brands? Can your business benefit from learning how to repost on TikTok? How can you get the most out of it for your social media marketing campaign?
Let's find out.
How brands can benefit from reposting UGC on TikTok
UGC on TikTok implies social selling, which looks more natural than obviously sales-oriented, promo ads from brands, thus evoking more trust in viewers. When watching content from real people they can relate to, social users have more confidence and trust in a brand’s products, and often want to become a part of its community.
When users see others like them using a product, they're more likely to try it. Numbers speak volumes: 67% of users say TikTok inspires them to shop, even when they didn't plan to do so. In 2021, they spent $2.3 billion on the app, 77% more than in 2020.
For brands, TikTok UGC both inspires purchases and increases brand awareness with social proof. TikTok ad campaigns can be useful alongside organic posts, primarily when they either feature UGC or emanate the authenticity of UGC.
So, TikTok campaigns and UGC reposts help your brand:
Get more visibility and exposure
Reach a new audience
Engage more potential followers and future customers
Build loyalty and trust (73% of TikTok users say they feel a deeper connection to companies they interact with on the app)
Influence the decision to follow you (passive audience, so-called spectators), buy from you, or purchase from you again (returned customers)
Revel Nail collects UGC from its community and builds a shoppable gallery of content linked in the brand’s TikTok bio, in addition to reposting the videos on the app.
In addition to reposting content from your brand’s community, consider resharing content your brand gleans from influencer marketing. Given the nature of the TikTok repost feature, where you need a mutual friendship for content resharing, all these benefits also work well in partnership with influencers.
Resharing TikTok influencer content
Reposting content created by your brand’s influencers and ambassadors works well on the app, but you can take that content’s value a step further by resharing it across your marketing channels. Get the most out of influencer content with these steps:
1. Find niche TikTok influencers
First and foremost, it's critical to find influencers that will help you reach your business goals. Do you want to raise brand awareness through viral content? Reach out to your current customers and establish more loyalty? Drive conversion from the influencer’s followers?
Depending on your plans for TikTok campaigns, it may be worth partnering with smaller-scale, niche TikTok influencers whose values and posts align with your brand and target audience. Micro-influencers tend to see higher engagement than macro-influencers or celebrities, and they can yield far more cost-effective partnerships.
The results of the whole marketing campaign depend on choosing the right content creators with a relevant and active (responsive) audience. You can find content creators on TikTok already posting about your brand or product through hashtags and TikTok’s advanced searching feature.
To save time, you may also consider influencer marketing software like Pixlee TurnTo (now Emplifi). Such platforms allow filtering creators' profiles to find the most promising influencers on TikTok, and help you identify potential advocates already mentioning your brand on the app.
2. Follow influencers on your brand account
The next step is to follow the chosen TikTok influencers from your brand account. Subscribe to see their content, like, and comment on it. Make them understand you enjoy what they do and that you might be interested in collaboration.
Curious, they'll go to check your TikTok profile and may follow you in return to seed the grain of a win-win partnership in the future. Engagement on and off the app is key here, as an influencer is more likely to partner with brands who appear genuinely interested in their content.
3. Partner with TikTok creators
Now it's time to partner with content creators you've chosen for marketing campaigns:
Examine their profiles and contact info to get their preferred channel for business communication. Reach out to influencers with a personalized message either over email or direct message on the app (DM). Check out this example:
You'll need to design a budget plan with your content creators. Also, discuss and prescribe all the duties and responsibilities: our influencer pay guide can help you determine what metrics to focus on when measuring campaign success.
4. Reshare TikTok influencer videos
So, your partnership with TikTok content creators has started, and they craft content about your brand, its mission, and products. Now, it's high time for you to repost their content so your followers can see it in their For You feeds.
What's in it for you in such reposts?
You build the loyalty and trust of your passive followers (spectators), influencing their decision-making to buy from you.
You make your current customers feel a part of the community, motivating them to buy from your brand again.
In order to get the best benefits from TikTok influencer content, consider sharing their videos on the TikTok app. While you can download TikTok videos directly, Pixlee TurnTo allows brands to automatically collect, curate, and publish content from authenticated influencers on a variety of channels, like on-site galleries.
You can also make this content shoppable to create a clear path to purchase for website visitors that’s backed by social proof. From then on, you can manage influencer relationships and content alongside everyday customer UGC in-platform, and even map specific content pieces to conversions and site visitor activity.
Embroidery brand DMC makes the most out of customer UGC and influencer content from TikTok with its “Shop the DMC TikTok” gallery of product-tagged posts.
5. Ask influencers to repost your content
Given that influencers follow your brand on TikTok, they can see your content and repost it from their feeds. Establish this at the beginning of your partnership for the best results. UGC, influencer content, and brand content can all work together when it comes to reposting and building the strongest level of brand awareness.
What do you get from creators reposting your content?
More visibility and exposure
Reaching a new audience
Engaging more potential followers and future customers
Partnering with TikTok creators boosts view-through rates like crazy, benefiting users as much as brands: 35% of TikTok users discover products and brands from creators, and 65% enjoy it when creators post about products and brands. Now, the TikTok repost feature provides another opportunity for users to see such posts.
Make TikTok Reposts a part of your UGC strategy
Although a "Repost" button is a relatively new TikTok feature with limited options (so far), it's worth considering it an extra instrument for your UGC campaigns on this platform. Make connections with niche content creators, partner with them for mutual promotion, and get the most out of it: exposure, new followers, loyal community, and — of course — sales.
Lesley Vos is a text author, blogging at Bid 4 Papers and specializing in content creation and self-criticism. In love with words, coffee, and foxes. In the hope of mastering the art of proofreading before she hits "send."
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on pixlee.com. Any statistics or statements included in this article were current at the time of original publication.
