Admit it: you keep hearing about it but really had no idea what it was about until someone (much younger) described it to you. You might not think TikTok’s user base aligns well with your target demographic. Or you may feel the platform is too lowbrow for your university’s brand.

Now’s the time to rethink that.

Remember quarantine? Most of us have been spending more time at home and with that, have increased daily content consumption. (I don’t know about you, but my wife and I blew through our Netflix watch list in late March.)

As of April 30, Americans spent an average of 89 percent of their time at home¹. In March alone American’s averaged an additional 1.3 hours of watching TV and streamed an additional 1.2 billion hours of content².

It’s no surprise that TikTok’s user base has both surged — and aged — during the pandemic. In just four short months from January to April, TikTok’s 25 to 34-year-old user base increased fewer than 5 million to nearly 11 million³.

Now revisit your stance on TikTok: it’s opened up to both your traditional and post-traditional prospective student audience base.

If we were to poll the audience, would higher education be ranked closer to edgy and witty or stuffy and serious? My guess is the latter.

Loosen up a bit! Take it from the University of Florida’s TikTok video, directly from their president. It humanizes him to the audience in which they want to enroll, and is more memorable than your average higher education bio

Snore? Nope. But maybe start dancing.

Not sure where to start on TikTok? We are. Brainstorm with our experts today to push your teams outside their comfort zone.

^{1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/map-us-still-staying-home-coronavirus}

^{2 https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2020/covid-19-tracking-the-impact-on-media-consumption/}

^{3 https://wallaroomedia.com/blog/social-media/tiktok-statistics/}

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