Does my business need to be on TikTok?

Probably not as a separate project — but very possibly as a second destination for video you are already making. The distinction matters, because "should I be on TikTok" is usually asked as though it means starting a whole new job, and the version worth doing takes almost no extra time at all.

The one thing TikTok genuinely does differently

On most platforms, what you post is shown first to people who already follow you. On TikTok, distribution is driven far more by what the content is about than by who follows you — which means a brand-new account with no audience can still reach strangers.

That is unusual and it is the whole argument. Everywhere else, building an audience is a prerequisite for reach. Here it is closer to the other way round.

The corollary is less discussed: it works in reverse too. A large following guarantees nothing, and a good month does not carry into the next one. You are being judged on the individual video every time.

The catch for a local business

That reach is not targeted at your town. A video about your bakery can be watched by four thousand people, and if they are spread across the country, a bakery in Wakefield has gained very little.

So for a business serving one area, treat the numbers with care. The metric that matters is not views — it is whether anyone who could actually buy from you saw it. A hundred local views is worth more than four thousand national ones, and the platform will happily give you the second while feeling like success. This is the same trap as reading reach as achievement.

There are exceptions worth naming. If you sell something that ships, or you are somewhere people travel to — a destination pub, a venue, a holiday let — national reach is real reach.

What actually works on it

Not adverts. The format punishes anything that looks like one, and rewards a fairly narrow set of things:

• The work itself. Process, transformation, the satisfying bit. This is why trades do unexpectedly well — plastering, resin floors, deep cleaning, restoration.
• Things only you know. The thing customers always get wrong, the question you answer weekly.
• A person talking plainly. Straight to camera, no script read aloud.
• Genuine behind the scenes. The early start, the failed batch, the thing that went wrong.

What does not work: your logo, a polished promo, anything with a voiceover that sounds like a voiceover. The bar is not production quality — see whether your business needs video, where the same point decides everything.

The honest cost

Not money. Three things, and you should be clear-eyed about them.

• It is video, always. If you are not going to film anything, there is no version of this that works.
• It rewards frequency. Because each video is judged alone, more attempts genuinely means more chances. Once a week is a slow experiment; a few times a week is a real one.
• It rewards being on camera. Not compulsory, but faces do better, and a business where nobody wants to appear will find it harder than the advice suggests.

The audience-is-too-young objection has weakened considerably and is no longer a good reason on its own. The three above are better ones.

The answer for most small businesses

Make the video once. Post it in more than one place.

Short vertical video is the same format on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Facebook. Filming is the expensive part; posting it a second time costs a minute. So the sensible position is rarely "should I do TikTok" and almost always "I am making these anyway — where else should they go".

That also settles the local problem neatly: Reels tends to distribute more locally, TikTok more broadly, and you are not choosing between them.

When it is genuinely worth doing properly

• Your work is visual and satisfying to watch. Some trades are simply blessed here.
• You sell something that ships, so national reach converts.
• You are a destination people will travel to.
• Somebody in the business actually enjoys it. Not a small factor — this is the platform where reluctance is most visible on camera.

When to leave it alone

• You serve one small area and sell an occasional local service. Your hour is better spent on Google Business Profile and reviews.
• You are not going to film. Be honest at the start rather than three weeks in.
• You are already stretched across four platforms doing all of them badly. Fewer, properly.

If you try it, try it properly

1. Commit to twenty videos, not three. Judging it on three is judging noise.
2. Film in bursts. Ten minutes on one job produces several.
3. Say the interesting thing in the first two seconds. No introduction.
4. Put your town in the caption so a local viewer knows you are reachable.
5. Check where views come from, not just how many.
6. Judge it on enquiries after two months. If twenty honest attempts produce nothing local, that is an answer and you can stop without regret.

The bottom line

TikTok is the one place a new account can still reach strangers, which is genuinely valuable — but the reach is not local, so a business serving one town should judge it on local enquiries rather than views. Do not start it as a separate project. Film the work once, post it everywhere short video goes, and give it twenty attempts before deciding. See also turning one piece of content into several.