The idle time of shelter-at-home has spawned an explosion in TikTok use among people ranging in age from their teens to their 40s.

TikTok has quickly and easily become the latest addictive social media craze. Just consider it was the fourth most downloaded app on iPhones in 2019 with 46 million downloads, trailing only YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. Its growth rate, however, makes them blush.

Clever apartment marketers are already jumping in. Trailblazing brander Tony Sousa, Regional Manager, at Embrey Management Services, says he was stuck and home during a rainy day in quarantine with his three young children and they started watching them for fun.

“Yes, they quickly became addicting, and a light bulb went off – we should be using this platform at our apartment communities because it’s the social platform of the future!”

Smartphone user-generated, TikTok videos are 15 seconds long and humor generally are their main purpose, with clips that often include dancing. TikTok-ers can add their own audio or musical background. Images and emojis can be layered in, enabling creativity to flourish. Check out @southlineresidences Jasmine Toney, Marketing Strategist for Embrey Management Services who supports TikTok marketing campaigns that feature this San Antonio luxury community and its staff, subtly touching on marketing, and always focused on the hilarious.

“The application is extremely user-friendly, where an unskilled techie can shoot and edit video, add music or create silly voiceover videos easily,” Toney says. “Creating this content requires minimal time commitment. The cost benefit is based on the time it takes of putting on your creative hat and developing a video that is relevant and appropriate for your brand and audience. After you have interacted with the app once or twice, creating dynamic content can be done in a few minutes with just a handful of clicks and Voila – engaging content!”

Kate Good, Partner, SVP of Multifamily Development with Hunington Residential, Houston, is launching a new community in June. She and her staff have already put mind to creating before-and-after TikTok videos that feature amenities, among other things. These will be used in her marketing.

“We subscribe to the idea that if people are having fun, they will remember us,” says Good, who employs three leasing professionals who are under 25 “and know how to do this.

“I’m not sure if it will turn leads our way but we hope it generates awareness for the community and let prospects know that we are open for business,” Good says.

“It’s too early to measure how successful this will be for us, but what I do know is my team is having a lot of fun creating them! That is important to keep morale up during these tough times.”

Sousa has been a laugh-out-loud marketer throughout his career. He burst onto the scene about 10 years ago as the star of Sequoia Properties’ video series “The Most Interesting Man in Property Management.” He says today he’s not trying to “sell” anything on TikTok.

“For us, we’re just joining the ‘fun’ train,” he says. “The plan is to show residents and prospects we are hip, relevant and know how to have fun – even during a lock down!”

Good says she first hooked onto TikTok in January by following the Kansas City Chiefs’ account leading up to the Super Bowl.

“I was spending almost an hour a day watching TikTok,” she said. “If I am doing it at my age, I knew my target renters ages 20 to 40 also is spending a lot of time on TikTok.”

Not Just for Kids Anymore

TikTok's user base still very closely matches that of its predecessor Musical.ly. Most of its U.S. users are young, with 25.8 percent aged 18 to 24. A further 24.5 percent are aged 25 to 34, suggesting that many TikTok users have stayed with the app, even as they turn 25, according to InfluencerMarketingHub.

It’s also booming among the high school set, but don’t dismiss the goofiness as kid’s play.

“Residents in my portfolio range in age from 29 to 44,” Sousa says. “So, I would say the platform is a bit young for us, but our team has done a few very entertaining videos and have gotten the most engagement they’ve ever received -- even on Instagram and Facebook.”

TikTok videos are viewed through the app; best practice is to post them on all social media channels to further drive engagement. TikTok videos are more commonly showing up on channels such as Twitter, and can be viewed there even by persons who don’t have the app.

Sousa says his communities’ TikTok videos set them apart – the goal of every marketer.

“Ours have resonated very well – and because most in the multifamily housing industry don’t understand the platform yet, it’s quickly helping to set our properties apart -- especially when we can put out videos that are well edited, funny and good quality.”

“The fascination I see with TikTok for B2B is that you can use the application as a content generator,” Toney says. “Even if your strategy is not to grow an organic following on the application, the capabilities offered to curate video content alone make TikTok a valuable marketing tool.”

Mike Whaling is Founder at 30 Lines is an apartment marketing firm. Whaling says TikTok hasn't been a high priority for many of his clients to date.

“I think it's likely to stay that way until its target audience starts to age up more, which we're already starting to see,” Whaling says. “We've certainly seen onsite teams participating in various dance challenges, but I wouldn't really say they're actively using it to market their vacancies.”

TikTok very much appeals to the young, although it seems to be keeping its audience as they age. While only 9 percent of U.S. internet users claim to have used TokTok, 49 percent of teenagers claim to use the platform, according to InfluencerMarketingHub.

Loren Gray, who turns 18 next week, or @lorengray, is an American singer signed by Virgin and Capitol Records, and social media personality from Pottstown, Pa. She has one of TikTok’s most successful accounts outside China, with 40.3 million fans. Geez, you think she’d be interested in an apartment? Property management firms leasing to major influencers is a strategy many use.

Charli Damelio, who turns 16 in May, has 48.6 million followers and 3.2 billion likes, and counting. Based in Norwalk, Conn., she’s described as a social media personality and dancer and has been called the "reigning queen of TikTok" by the New York Times.

Dance, Dance, Dance

One route Whaling has seen is companies that use TikTok as a resident engagement activity.

At WC Smith will use TikTok indirectly as part of its campaign of virtual events for its residents. On April 23, it has invited a dance instructor to demonstrate the most popular TikTok dance challenges so that residents can learn them and potentially participate on their own TikTok accounts.

TikTok is in the earliest stages of offering advertising on its platform.

“Its advertising tools are still in early development, so the targeting options for advertising aren’t nearly as robust or sophisticated as they are on Facebook or Google,” Whaling says.

“Like most social media, you have to consider why people are going to a site like TikTok in the first place,” Whaling says. “It’s a place to escape, to be entertained. For any company looking to get into TikTok, they should first spend time understanding the community – watch some videos for a few hours, see how others are using it and what resonates with people.

“It could be a viable platform for many companies, especially for community outreach, but marketers will see the best results when they deliver content that people want to see, not an advertisement that’s totally out of place for that medium.”

Strategies to Consider

According to The Influence Marketing Factory these are the four primary forms of ad format to market through TikTok.

Infeed native content, which is simply the posting of a video. TikToks can be up to 15 seconds long, but users can also connect multiple clips for up to 60 seconds of total recording. Videos that have been recorded outside the app itself also can be uploaded.

Brand Takeovers, where images, animated GIFs and videos can be used. The embedded links can be connected to websites landing pages or challenges and hashtags within the platform. Brand takeovers are exclusive to one brand every day. This category offers impressions, unique reach, and clicks.

Hashtag Challenges are a form when brands choose to use promoted hashtags. Hashtag challenge contain a link that directs the users to the main challenge page where they can see the details of the challenge and the featured instructions. Hashtag challenges can be measured by video interaction, clicks, banners views, and similar user-generated videos.

And Branded Lenses. TikTok is undertaking initiatives to make it more engaging. Much like the Snapchat 2D and 3D lenses for photos and faces, TikTok plans to make their platform could possibly infuse the feature to their application.

Paul Bergeron is a freelance reporter who covers apartment management. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 703-434-0280