With a forecast of 750 million users by the end of 2022, TikTok has quickly become one of the major global video destinations. 

It’s reported that in the US alone, there are 132 million active TikTok users, with roughly 43% of those aged between 18-24 years old. That core demographic makes TikTok a valuable platform for college athletics departments in reaching, attracting and supporting student-athletes with video content. 

TikTok for college athletics marketing 

Raising your school’s profile and attracting the best talent means having an effective marketing strategy. One that encompasses video across several platforms with a strong focus on social media. 

Audiences on each social platform have specific expectations and demands, from video content formats and optimization down to the tone of your content. 

TikTok is a unique platform in the way its users consume video content. Firstly, your delivery of content is less time-sensitive than other platforms. Users aren’t expecting real-time highlights or updates on TikTok, but more raw content –  trending joke formats and memes, simple one-on-one Q&As with athletes or behind-the-scenes with teams or staff.

Expectations around video production value on TikTok is quite specific – the most successful content uses trending sounds or AR filters. It’s common for a specific piece of music or audio track to go viral on the platform, prompting users to search for videos that use them.

The key theme for marketing on TikTok is trends, which move quickly. If you can stay on the pulse of the TikTok community and react quickly with tailored video content – you are likely to reach a large number of your target audience.

Here’s three TikTok content ideas, how to produce them and why they work:

Content idea	How to do it	Why it works
Student athlete Q&As	Shoot vertically on a smartphone and upload directly to TikTok, apply graphics on the platform.	Brings a human aspect to your channel and allows your audience to connect with your athletes.
Post memorable match moments with trending sounds	Clip from a live match feed in Grabyo, then send the clip to TikTok to apply sounds in the platform.	Applying relevant trending sounds gives your content another dimension, and helps with discoverability on TikTok.
A day in the life or behind the scenes with athletes or teams	Shoot moments throughout one day with your chosen subject. Record on a smartphone or a camera and edit together a short video covering key moments.	Behind-the-scenes content is always in high demand and gives your audience more context and insight into your athletes and teams.

TikTok for supporting student NIL

Supporting NIL for your athletes should encompass all of the platforms they use. This means delivering easily-accessible video assets to students in several formats, including vertical for TikTok. 

The Grabyo platform is natively integrated with content syndication platforms Greenfly and INFLCR to ensure content syndication is a seamless process for you and your students. 

Using Grabyo, you can create and share personal highlights and videos with student-athletes in any format – horizontal (for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter), square (for Instagram) and vertical (for TikTok and Snap). 

If you have any questions or want to learn more about how Grabyo can help you capitalize on TikTok for college athletics departments, get in touch!