As a TikTok influencer, you’ve already amassed a fantastic following and built a powerful presence on TikTok. However, your social presence might not be enough on its own.
It’s no secret that influencer marketing is taking the world by storm. The industry is forecast to achieve a revenue of $143.10 billion by 2030, up from a value of only $14.27 billion in 2021. Increasingly, companies are leveraging influencers to connect with audiences who are no longer engaged by traditional forms of advertising.
Younger generations in particular say they trust influencers more than traditional celebrities, and an average of 49% of consumers rely on influencer recommendations to guide purchasing decisions. In this environment, the opportunity for influential figures is rising, but the competition is increasing too.
One of the best ways to set yourself apart from the crowd as a TikTok influencer is to upgrade your digital presence, with the right website or online portfolio. A website where you can also embed your TikTok videos and create a great platform of your own.
Why Do TikTok Influencers Need Websites?
Influencers often assume their social presence is enough to help them develop a reputable and profitable brand in the digital world. After all, you already have plenty of fans on your chosen channel and an excellent platform where you can share content.
TikTok is particularly supportive of its influencers. The company launched the TikTok Creator Fund in 2020, which aims to build influencer opportunities by connecting users to sponsorship, brand partnership, and representation deals.
However, as an influencer, you still need to work consistently on your personal brand. After all, this identity, credibility, reputation, and authenticity are what you’re selling to potential partners.
While social media platforms like TikTok serve as an essential springboard, and a valuable tool for day-to-day engagement and interaction with followers, they have their limitations.
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of a website for TikTok influencers:
1. Own and Grow Your Audience
The first thing most TikTok influencers need to realize is they don’t fully own their audience. In simple terms, with nothing but a TikTok account, you’re reliant entirely on one platform to make sure you maintain access to your following and continue to grow.
If something changes with the TikTok landscape which means you suddenly stop being able to reach your audience, or you lose access to your account, your entire brand could disappear overnight. With no other way to find you, your audience wouldn’t be able to stick with you while you figure out how to rebuild your social presence.
Having your own website means your followers always have a “plan B”, and another way to get hold of you. With a website of your own, you can actually own your subscriber lists and other information, which helps you to maintain connections with your fans, no matter what happens. As an added benefit, your website will allow you to reach followers, partners, and clients on a wider scale than TikTok would alone. For instance, Zach King, one of TikTok’s biggest influencers, doesn’t just have a TikTok presence. He’s also active on YouTube, Instagram, and his very own website, where he sells merchandise, books, and shares valuable updates.
2. Expand Your Personal Brand
TikTok, just like many social media platforms, doesn’t leave a lot of room for you to showcase yourself to potential advertisers and partners. When you’re trying to build valuable collaboration opportunities, you need to be able to show your audience what you’re capable of on a broader scale.
The Zach King Team website, for instance, acts as a curated environment where users can learn more about Zach, what he does, and what he’s achieved with his videos. You can find out about his speaking sessions, and look at case studies from Zach working with other partners.
Your website works a little like a portfolio for a creative professional, collecting all of the best examples of your work into a format that makes people more likely to want to work with you. You can even create a dedicated “contact” section to make it easier for people to reach out.
3. Build Your SEO Presence
Speaking of growing your audience and sales potential, a website also allows you to develop a greater presence on search engines. While a lot of people do learn a significant amount about TikTok influencers on the platform itself, they may start their search for someone to work with by looking for terms like “influencer” on Google.
If you don’t have a strong SEO presence, then your customer isn’t going to be able to find you when they’re looking for a potential partner. With your own online website, you’ll be able to create content that boosts your visibility among partners and customers. You can produce how-to content, tutorials, and other posts enriched by specific keywords people may be searching for.
Your website content also serves as an evergreen insight into who you are and what you do. While, alternatively, content on TikTok might quickly fall out of your intended audience’s view over time, as it’s replaced by other, more up-to-date content.
4. Get Creative with Content
Speaking of the content you can create on your own website; it also offers significantly more freedom than you’d get with TikTok. While TikTok is great for creating fun, fast-paced videos, there may be other ways you’d like to showcase your skills. You could write blogs that provide insight into your understanding of a specific industry or share useful information and guidance.
You can also share longer pieces of video on your website, perhaps to highlight the work you’ve done to create a specific video or campaign for a business. You can build your website and the pages within it however you like.
The content you produce on your own website won’t need to fight against the videos posted by other TikTok creators for a chance at getting attention. It’s also a great way to show your versatility as a content creator. You might be given opportunities to work with companies on more of their marketing campaigns this way.
5. Open New Avenues for Monetization
While your high followers count on TikTok and relationships with existing brands might be an excellent source of income for you right now, you may decide you want to expand your earning opportunities in the future. One way to do this is to expand your marketing skills, so you can assist your audience with a wider range of projects, as mentioned above.
Another option is to create your own merchandise and start selling products to your audience, through your website. David Dobrik has his own online store where you can find clothing items and accessories created specifically for fans. While your merchandising products might not pay the bills straight away, they can end up being an excellent source of passive income over time.
With the emails you collect from customers who visit your store, you can also build a fantastic list of people to keep in touch with whenever you produce something new.
What You Need on Your Influencer Website
If you’re convinced that a website might be the right way to upgrade your online strategy as a TikTok influencer, the next step is figuring out how to use it to your advantage.
Here are some of the most important things you can include on your website, to make sure it has the right impression on your audience, customers, and partners.
1. A Digital Social Wall:
As mentioned above, your TikTok influencer website should be a curated collection of all the things that might make people want to work with you or follow you. This means it’s important to provide visitors with an up-to-date insight into what you’re actually doing on social media.
Tools like Juicer.io allow you to aggregate various social media posts from TikTok into an attractive and professional social media feed for your website. You can moderate and curate your content however you see fit, showing only your most valuable posts, to help strengthen your credibility and drive conversions.
Your social media wall will ensure people who might not have found you on TikTok (but through a link or SEO instead), will still be able to get a good idea of what you can do. Check out our TikTok video aggregator for more detail.
2. An “About You” Section:
As mentioned above, the bio features available on TikTok, and similar websites are often extremely limited. When businesses are investing in powerful influencer marketing campaigns for their companies, they often want clear insights into the value of the partner they’re going to be working with, and who they are.
A good “About You” section, tells customers everything they need to know about your background in the industry, how you’ve developed your position as an influencer, and what you can offer. This environment can serve as an excellent opportunity to convince clients of how much you can offer as a partner for their team.
3. Engaging Content:
Aside from your social media feed, you’ll also need a range of other forms of content to help your website stand out. This content will improve your SEO standing, and make it easier for people to find you when looking for influencers in your specific industry.
It also ensures people are more likely to keep checking your website for updates. Some might even join your email newsletter subscription if you give them the option. This is a great way to earn more ownership over your target audience.
Just some of the content you can showcase include:
- Long-form videos including behind-the-scenes insights into your TikTok content
- How-to articles and blogs about your industry (to showcase your thought leadership)
- Podcasts and interviews with other influencers in your space
- News about upcoming merchandise or events you’re involved with
- Case studies and testimonials from other customers (to highlight credibility)
4. Details on What You Can Offer:
Your website can be an excellent way to connect with companies who might want to use your services, but don’t want to reach out over TikTok. With that in mind, provide a clear insight into what you can offer. Your customers will want to know:
- Audience demographics: Who follows you and how many people are currently following you on TikTok? What are your engagement levels? Are there any specific groups of people you have a particularly strong following with?
- Specific services: Can you provide your customers with help building the ideal influencer marketing campaign? Do you need them to provide you with all the details, or can you share ideas? How will you prove yourself with reports and analytics?
- Brand reach: How much of a significant brand reach do you currently have? Have you worked with any specific big-name brands in your industry? How many people mention you on social media, and what sort of reviews do you have?
Make sure you list any important details or metrics your audience might be able to use to determine if they want to work with you.
5. Contact information:
While some people may know how to reach out to you on TikTok, many companies working with an influencer over social media will generally prefer to use other contact methods. Giving your customers the option to reach out with a contact form, phone number, and email address is a good start.
It can also be helpful to provide your audience with map information showcasing where you are in the world. Having a physical “office” location can sometimes make you seem more credible.
Design Your Influencer Website
No matter how fantastic your social media following might be, a TikTok presence alone isn’t enough to ensure you can thrive in today’s competitive world. To attract the largest audience, and the best possible selection of clients and customers, you also need to be willing to invest in your online presence, with the right website.
Building a website is the ultimate way to showcase your credibility, connect with new people, and gain more ownership over your fanbase. See how you can bring your influencer portfolio to life with a little help from Juicer.io
Related Reading: Increase your website’s user engagement through TikTok
Have a look at the following solutions Juicer.io offers:
- How to embed Twitter feeds, accounts or Tweets on any website
- How to embed Instagram posts, accounts and reels
- How to embed Linkedin feeds
- How to add Youtube videos to your website or blog
- How to embed TikTok Video Feeds on any website
- How to add Facebook posts and feeds to your website
- WordPress plugin for social media feeds
- Embed any social media feed on Wix, Squarespace, Tumblr, Shopify and WebFlow sites
