Can You Find New Interior Design Clients on TikTok?

Can you find new interior design clients on TikTok? Or is it just a platform for kids showing off their latest dance moves? In this piece, we explore TikTok’s demographics. Who’s really on the platform and what they’re using it for. More importantly, you’ll learn what this information means for interior designers.

Why the Interior Design Industry Needs to Care About TikTok Demographics

Because if you don’t understand the platform’s demographics, you don’t know if you will find your interior design clients on TikTok.

So the headlines. And for context we compare them to the interior designers’ favourite social media platform, Instagram. TikTok has 1.2 billion active users worldwide. However Instagram boasts almost double that number, 2.1 billion active users globally. We see a similar pattern in the UK; 18 million TikTok users vs. 32 million on Insta. But the difference in users is reducing rapidly. TikTok user numbers are growing fast. Whereas UK Insta user numbers have started to fall. Albeit only slightly.

As for age and gender demographics, the 2 platforms are surprisingly similar in the UK. Both have slightly more female users, 57%. 55% of UK Insta users are aged 30 and above. Despite its reputation, the same is true of UK TikTok users.

There’s another key difference between the 2 social media networks, usage. UK TikTok users spend almost twice as long on the platform than Insta users. But it’s hard to say if that means you’ll reach more potential interior design clients on TikTok or Instagram.

But you need to know more than just users’ demographics to understand if you can find new interior design clients on TikTok. You also need to know why they’re engaging with the platform.

So Do People Just Throw Shapes on TikTok?

And why would any of us in the interior design industry care about TikTok if it’s filled with people’s vids showing off dance moves?

As with all stereotypes, it’s worth digging a bit to see if it’s justified. And social media agency Social Shephard have done just that. And their findings? Based on hashtags, the top 3 content categories are Entertainment, Dance, and Pranks. Between them they grab 80% of TikTok hashtags. In contrast, Home Renovation & DIY hashtags, the category that includes interior design, amounts to a mere 3%.

Equivalent statistics for Instagram are hard to come by. However, Insta users head to the platform to catch up with friends and check on their favourite influencers and brands. In short, it’s a bit more serious.

To summarise, the TikTok stereotype reflects what most users want from the social media platform. That said, it’s most users. Not all users. So there’s space for informational content too.

But the story doesn’t end here. As TikTok and its supporters are quick to point out, TikTok’s algorithms work differently to those of Insta, Facebook, and so on.

If You Use Insta Reels, Why Would Interior Design Studios Consider TikTok?

Instagram Reels are effectively Meta’s response to TikTok. But how they reach other users is different. With Instagram, who sees what is highly dependent on your number of followers. Whereas with TikTok, who sees what is based on users’ interests. Either figured out using registered interests in their profile or from earlier activity. And this means your videos might be seen by a large audience regardless of your following. Note, ‘might’. Not ‘will’.

So, I put it to the test. My only registered interest in my TikTok profile is DIY. And all my searches relate to interior design. Such searches bring up the usual fare of interior design tips, design trends, and behind the scenes videos. Posted by often high-profile interior designers such as Kelly Wearstler. Based on this information, you would expect my home feed to be populated with videos that relate to home renovation, interior styling, DIY, etc.

Nope! Instead, lots of fail videos. Some dancing and prank ones. Occasional cute animal videos. And most disturbingly, I’m inundated with relationship advice from impossibly beautiful twenty-somethings. I’m 50, married, with 2 primary school-aged children. Either TikTok knows something about my wife that I don’t. Or the app has badly misjudged what I’m likely to interact with.

Can You Find New Interior Design Clients on TikTok?

Can you find new interior design clients on TikTok? Compared to Instagram, TikTok’s biggest advantage is the different way its algorithms work. But this theoretical advantage is never likely to come to bear for interior designers. Because #Japandi is never going to capture the collective imagination in the same way as #ChrisRockSlap.

Otherwise, TikTok has the same drawbacks as Instagram. Not least, the lack of easy ways users can respond to a call-to-action. Which means TikTok and Instagram have the same primary marketing use, brand awareness. But at least people expect to find interior designers on Instagram. Which means you need to be on the platform. The same is not true of TikTok.

So, why are some high-profile interior designers active on TikTok? Because those with big marketing budgets can take a long-term gamble. That’s to say, as TikTok’s audience matures and perhaps tires of the inane, users may become interested in the content interior designers produce. In which case, those interior designers will have already established themselves on Tik Tok. This means they may have what’s called ‘first mover advantage’. A business strategy that can bring huge profits. But fails many more times than it succeeds.

For most of us in the interior design industry, TikTok’s worth is nothing more than mindless escapism. And relationship advice, apparently. Not that I need it. At my age I know how to keep my wife happy in bed. Don’t disturb her when I get up in the night to pee!

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