On TikTok, you can create either a personal account or a business account. While they share some similarities, there are some key differences between personal and business TikTok accounts that impact how you use the platform. This comprehensive guide examines those differences to help you decide which type of account is right for your needs.
Overview of Personal and Business TikTok Accounts
Personal TikTok Accounts
A personal TikTok account is for individual use to post videos for fun and entertainment. These accounts are best suited for casual users who want to follow trends, share videos with friends, and grow their following organically.
Key features of personal TikTok accounts:
- Used for personal branding and everyday content
- Follow friends and creators for entertainment
- Gain followers organically through content
- Limited analytics on profile and videos
- No advertising options
Business TikTok Accounts
A business TikTok account is for brands, businesses, creators, and influencers to grow an audience and promote themselves professionally. These accounts unlock more advanced features to analyze performance and promote content.
Key features of business TikTok accounts:
- Used for building brand awareness
- Targeted tools to reach new demographics
- Advanced analytics on profile and content
- Promoted post advertising options
- Shoppable features to drive sales
While many features overlap, business accounts unlock more monetization and growth opportunities better suited for branded content.
Setting Up Your TikTok Account
When signing up for a new TikTok account, you can select either a personal account or business account depending on your intentions with the platform. It’s important to choose wisely during setup as you cannot easily switch between account types later on.
Creating a Personal Account
To create a personal TikTok account:
- Download the TikTok app on your mobile device.
- Tap the “Sign up” button.
- Enter your email, password, and birthday.
- Select “Personal Account” when prompted.
- Follow the instructions to create a username, profile photo, bio, and more.
- Once your profile is set up, you can start engaging with content, following creators, uploading videos, and more.
The process is quick and simple. Be sure to make your username and profile details representative of your personal brand.
Creating a Business Account
To create a business TikTok account:
- Download the TikTok app if you haven’t already.
- Tap the profile icon in the top-right corner.
- Select “Switch to Business Account”.
- Choose your business category and enter info like business name, email, description, website, etc.
- Follow prompts to set a profile photo, username, bio, and other brand details.
- Tap “Done” once your business profile is ready.
- With your business account activated, you can now access additional analytics and advertising options.
Be sure to choose a business category that aligns with your brand, products, or services. Complete your profile to look professional.
Personal Account Vs Business Account Features
While personal and business accounts have access to most of the same core features, business accounts unlock additional options focused on branding, advertising, analytics, and ecommerce.
Profile Settings
Both personal and business accounts can showcase branding through profile details like username, bio, profile and header photos. Business accounts have the option to add links to websites and other social profiles.
Analytics
Personal accounts receive basic analytics showing profile views and video plays. Business accounts gain access to advanced analytics like content performance, audience insights, traffic sources, and more.
Advertising
Only business accounts have access to TikTok’s advertising platform to run promoted posts and amplify content. Personal profiles do not have these marketing capabilities.
Shoppable Features
Business accounts can add shoppable elements like product tags and shopping tabs to drive purchases. Personal accounts lack ecommerce features.
Support
Business accounts receive priority customer support while personal accounts have access to standard help options. Brands often need specialized assistance.
Verification
Verification with a blue checkmark is only available on business accounts and top personal accounts applying through TikTok’s creator fund.
For brands and professionals, the additional business account tools offer much more growth potential in comparison to personal accounts. But casual users may find personal accounts sufficient.
Personal Account Use Cases
For most people on TikTok, a personal account is the right choice to engage with fun videos and make everyday content. Here are some of the most popular use cases for personal TikTok accounts:
Staying Entertained
Millions of people use TikTok personally just for entertainment purposes. Personal accounts let you easily browse and interact with all types of videos from top creators, brands, and trends.
Sharing Casual Videos
A personal account works great if you want to make short videos documenting your life, having fun with friends, showing off dance moves, trying out trends, and more general personal content creation.
Growing Your Personal Brand
Everyday individuals can grow sizable followings on TikTok by consistently posting entertaining or informative videos with a personal brand. Personal accounts allow this organic growth.
Reconnecting with Friends
By searching profiles and hashtags, personal accounts make it easy to find and reconnect with friends already active on TikTok and share in the experience.
Discovering New Creators
The TikTok algorithm quickly learns your tastes and starts recommending new creators that match your interests, easily discoverable through a personal account.
Exploring Interests
Whatever your hobbies, passions, or interests, a personal TikTok account lets you dive in and interact with a community around cooking, gaming, art, pets, and almost any topic imaginable.
For most personal users, a TikTok account is all about fun, entertainment, killing time, and connecting with friends and creators already on the platform. Business tools aren’t necessary.
Business Account Use Cases
For brands, businesses, creators, and entrepreneurs, a TikTok business account unlocks far more monetization opportunities perfect for driving results.
Building Brand Awareness
Posting branded content on a business profile generates greater brand awareness as you attract a targeted audience interested in your niche.
Promoting Products or Services
The promotional capabilities of business accounts allow you to showcase and drive sales for physical products, digital services, events, and more.
Reaching New Demographics
TikTok grants access to valuable new demographics like Gen Z that may be hard to reach on other platforms, perfect for brands expanding their audience.
Increasing Website Traffic
Business accounts gain greater analytics to understand your traffic sources and audience behavior, helping drive more website visits through strategic optimization and advertising.
Generating Leads or Sales
Through natively integrated ecommerce capabilities, shoppable links, and compelling content, business accounts can turn TikTok fans into leads or paying customers.
Improving Brand Loyalty
Consistent branded content and engagement through a business profile strengthens consumer loyalty and advocacy for your brand over the long-term.
Going Viral
Business tools maximize your chances of creating viral content as you can identify top-performing content then amplify it through paid advertising.
For businesses, the expanded feature set of TikTok business accounts are necessary to turn organic interest into measurable ROI and harness TikTok as an integrated marketing channel.
Switching from Personal to Business Account
When first setting up your TikTok account, it’s smart to think carefully about opting for either a personal or business account depending on your goals. However, some users originally establish personal accounts then later realize they want to switch to a business account to unlock more features.
Here is the process to upgrade from a TikTok personal account to a business account:
- Open your TikTok app and tap on your profile icon.
- Look for the option to “Switch to Business Account” and select it.
- Choose your business category and complete all profile details for your brand.
- Carefully review and agree to TikTok’s terms for business accounts.
- Tap “Done” to activate your new business profile.
While straightforward, be aware switching from a personal to business account means you will lose your current followers. The upgrade essentially creates an entirely new account.
So if you’ve already grown a large personal following, switching accounts may not be worth it. In that case, you’re usually better off continuing to use your profile as a personal account.
Personal Vs Business: Which Should You Choose?
Deciding between a personal account or business account depends on your goals and intentions on TikTok. Here are some key questions to ask yourself when making the choice:
- Will you primarily use TikTok for entertainment or promoting a brand/business?
- Do you want measurable results like sales leads or traffic to a website?
- Is building an audience of professional value or just for fun?
- Do you plan to run advertising or simply grow your audience organically?
- How important are advanced analytics to track your performance?
- Is a blue verification checkmark important for credibility?
Casual use cases are likely best suited for a personal account. But any professional, branding, or monetization goals will benefit enormously from the expanded features of a TikTok business account.
The chart below summarizes some of the biggest differences:
| Personal Account | Business Account | |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Everyday users | Brands, businesses, creators |
| Content Focus | Casual, entertainment | Professional, branded |
| Analytics | Limited | Advanced data & insights |
| Advertising | Not available | Promoted posts & amplify content |
| Shopping Features | None | Add product tags, shopping tabs |
| Verification | Very limited | Yes through application |
Evaluate whether the additional business account capabilities matter for your goals on TikTok. While you can always upgrade to a business account later, it’s smartest to start with the right account type from the beginning.
Maximizing Personal Accounts
If you determine a personal account meets your needs for casual TikTok use, here are some tips to get the most out of the platform:
Show Off Your Personality
Let your profile and content highlight your interests, sense of humor, talents, and personality to establish your personal brand.
Follow Trends Strategically
Jump on trends selectively that align with your brand rather than force every popular trend into your content style.
Post Consistently
Consistency with posting quality content is key for TikTok’s algorithm to show your videos to more potential followers.
Use Top Hashtags
Research hashtags popular in your niche and include relevant ones in your captions to get discovered by more people.
Engage with Your Audience
Reply to comments, like videos, follow supporters, host Livestreams, and find other ways to interact with your growing audience.
Enhance Videos Creatively
Take time to edit your selfie footage, incorporate text overlays, use trending audios, add effects or filters, and polish your videos.
Analyze Performance
Review analytics to see which videos perform best, when your followers are most active, and other insights to guide your content.
Collaborate with Others
Duet popular videos, participate in hashtag challenges, and find opportunities to collaborate with others to cross-promote.
Have Fun!
Don’t take your personal account too seriously. Embrace TikTok as a platform for entertainment, creativity, and fun interactions.
Maximizing a personal TikTok account relies on consistently posting captivating content and strategically engaging your audience. But maintain your unique personal brand and style.
Maximizing Business Accounts
For brands using TikTok business accounts, the expanded features allow maximizing your reach and results. Here are some top tips:
Optimize Your Profile
Fill out every brand profile field possible like website, contact info, description, location, etc. to look professional.
Showcase Products on Profile
Feature products, services, or portfolio examples prominently on your business profile to highlight your offerings.
Post Valuable Content
Offer useful tips, behind-the-scenes footage, entertaining videos, or educational content that brings value to attract your target audience.
Promote Consistently
Schedule an ongoing stream of natively branded content to keep your business top of mind on TikTok.
Make Content Shoppable
Add shoppable elements directly into your videos like product tags or links to enable seamless purchasing.
Run Targeted Ads
Use TikTok’s powerful advertising tools to promote your best performing organic content to interested users.
Track Performance Data
Monitor analytics constantly to find your best content then double down on those strategies and optimize underperforming areas.
Engage with Influencers
Partner with nano or micro influencers in your niche to collaborate on branded content and expand your audience.
Reward Your Audience
Give back to committed followers through giveaways, exclusive offers, or other creative incentives to boost loyalty.
Drive Website Traffic
Include links, promotions, or calls to action in your profile, captions, and videos to convert viewers into site visitors.
Focusing on professional presentation, branded content best practices, and taking advantage of all the business account tools will help maximize your TikTok success as a brand. But also show some personality!
Content Best Practices
Posting quality content that resonates with your target audience is critical on TikTok, for both personal and business accounts. Here are some overall best practices for creating effective videos.
Know Your Brand Identity
Establish a consistent style and tone aligned with your brand image, whether fun and casual or polished and professional.
Hook Viewers Right Away
Lead with your most engaging content in the first 5 seconds before viewers swipe away. Capture attention fast.
Keep Videos Concise
15 to 60 seconds is the ideal length for most TikTok videos. Longer can work for tutorials or storytelling, but avoid rambling.
Show Personality
Let your videos highlight authenticity and personality, which creates engagement and connection with your audience.
Jump on Trending Topics
Stay on top of viral sounds, hashtags, effects, and concepts then create your own take to ride wave of trending topics.
Educate and Entertain
Offer either entertainment through challenges, humor, etc. or education via tips, tricks, hacks, and insights to provide value.
Promote Creatively
For business accounts, weave in natural promotion rather than hard sells, spotlighting products or services in useful, engaging ways.
Engage Your Niche
Tailor content, hashtags, captions, and messaging to resonate with your niche audience based on interests and emotions.
Encourage Comments
Spark conversation by asking questions, running polls, prompting hashtags, or otherwise incentivizing audience comments.
Analyze Your Data
Use TikTok analytics to identify your best-performing content then create more videos aligned with top subjects and styles.
The most effective TikTok content is creative, focused, brings value, and engages your specific audience. Test different video approaches to see what lands best.
Hashtag Strategy
Hashtags are critical on TikTok. Aligning your content with strategic hashtags helps new users discover your videos and profile to grow your audience.
Research Trending and Niche Hashtags
Find a mix of popular hashtags around trending memes and challenges along with niche hashtags specific to your industry.
Use Relevant Hashtags
Include hashtags actually relevant to your content’s topic, mood, genre, etc. Don’t just throw in unrelated popular hashtags.
Create Unique Branded Hashtags
Craft 1-2 hashtags unique to your brand that you can promote across all your content.
Local Hashtags Matter Too
Using local city, neighborhood, or state hashtags helps you get discovered by nearby users.
Place Hashtags in Captions
Put most hashtags in your video caption rather than filling up the comments, spaced out for readability.
Use 5 to 10 Relevant Hashtags
Aim for around 5-10 well-selected hashtags per video max to stay discoverable without overtagging.
Research What’s Working
Check analytics on which hashtags drive the most profile clicks and audience engagement to focus efforts there.
Make Hashtags Searchable
In your caption, bold or uppercase the first letter of each word in a hashtag to make it easier to find in searches.
Host Your Own Challenges
Business accounts can launch branded hashtag challenges to drive UGC (user-generated content) and engagement.
With a strategic, optimized approach to hashtags, your videos and profile gain tremendous potential to be discovered by new viewers seeking that content.
Collaborating with Influencers
Influencer marketing on TikTok can significantly expand brand awareness and trust by partnering with content creators that resonate with your target audience.
Find Nano or Micro Influencers
Look for “nano” and “micro” influencers in your industry with 5K to 100K engaged followers rather than gigantic accounts.
Vet Influencers Carefully
Thoroughly review content, engagement levels, audience quality, brand alignment, and other factors before reaching out.
Compensate Fairly
To incentivize quality content, provide fair compensation through gifts, free products, paid sponsorships, donations, or profit sharing.
Promote Cross-Content
Negotiate for the influencer to create content featuring your products and services while you repurpose their content.
Feature User-Generated Content
Beyond paid partnerships, repost entertaining branded content posted organically by nano influencers as user-generated content.
Foster Long-Term Relationships
Partner repeatedly with influencers that drive results rather than one-off sponsorships so you become ingrained with their audience.
