TikTok is a constantly evolving social media platform. It’s targeted towards Generation Z with 16–24-year-olds making up over 60% of the viewers – and 56% of the content creators. It focuses on hooking in people with catchy 15 to 60 second videos. As of September, TikTok receives around 2.5 billion visits globally per month, and has 2.05 billion registered users worldwide. This makesit one of the highest viewed social media platforms in the world. The number is predicted to grow to 2.25 billion by 2027.

TikTok is used strategically by businesses, NGOs and political parties.  But research organisations have been slow to follow suit onto the platform.

TikTok’s global audience attracts a wide range of demographics. It is not only dominating the Western world; its growth is constantly evolving in developing countries. Asia and the global south are well represented. According to Statista which is a global data platform, Indonesia has the highest number of TikTok users with 157 million. Nigeria has nearly 30 million users – much more than the UK which has just 23 million.

Insights reveal that 20% of the platforms’ users regularly approach it for news and current affairs updates. Brands and newsmakers are flocking to TikTok to reach growing audiences – so why not use it in international development?

Poverty and inequality

International Development is the process of working with countries to improve their economic and social wellbeing, addressing poverty, inequality and other problems. In practice, this needs to be done through effective communication.

The rising role of influencers

Influencers are a rapidly growing trend on social media that involves celebrities promoting products or quantifiable actions to their followers. They really emerged in 2020, and since then we have seen numbers increase.

We saw during this year’s US election, a growing number of influencers encouraging their followers to vote. They were largely tactical and strategic in their posts, not speaking out about their political views but instead pushing forward the notion of casting a ballot. The aim? To enhance democracy in a world where Western voter turnout is at an all-time low. Helping locals have a voice is also a big aim in international development. Why not use TikTok to help young people engage better with civil society across all parts of the world?

Men in suits

TikTok strategies have been proven to work in the USA and the UK. Political parties and large NGOs have picked up TikTok in their campaigns and missions.

Some international development groups, like UNICEF have turned to TikTok in messaging, but I feel they have missed the mark in some of their attempts to go viral. Despite having nearly half a million followers, UNICEF is getting only 50-100 likes on their videos about disease and conflict. Just one of their videos stands out – a piece using a top Korean pop influencer about mental health. This got 1.9 million clicks. Oxfam is also trying to spread messages on TikTok, but many of their videos show men in suits, not people on the ground. One of their most recent videos attempted to “mobilise the power of people against poverty” but received little attention from TikTok fans.

Communicating evidence on TikTok

In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) took to the platform for their COVID vaccination campaign. It asked cool young doctors to go viral in the mission to get people immunized. The tactic proved to be highly effective with their work contributing towards the largest and fastest vaccination programme the UK has seen to date.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently launched a new partnership with TikTok to bring science-based health information to the masses. Working with WHO’s Fides network, a collection of 800 creators and healthcare influencers with an audience of 150 million people worldwide, the collaboration is helping to share health content that pushes back against misinformation. With around one in four young people receiving their news via social media, senior WHO figures want to combat the increasingly prominent issue of misinformation.

The Africa Evidence Network (AEN) have been experimenting with the platform too, with a range of content drawn from its wide and growing membership.

Why not use TikTok in other global campaigns?

Simple strategies

The strategies are straight forward; street interviews, videos must be shorter than 60 seconds, use influencers.

Take note, international development organisations! So much could be done with the right approach.