THE USE OF TIKTOK AS A MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY MEDIA ON THE SHERIZ_OFFICIAL ACCOUNT

The shift in the function of the TikTok feature makes it very easy for business people to market their products. One business account that utilizes the function shift on TikTok is the @Sheriz_Official account. This study aims to determine how TikTok is utilized with the media marketing communication strategy on the @Sheriz_Official account. The theory used in this research is the Mediamorphosis Theory in cyberspace and the 7C Framework Theory to analyze how marketing communication strategies are applied to the @Sheriz_Official account. This research uses a descriptive qualitative approach with qualitative research methods. The data collection techniques used are in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. The results of this study indicate that the shift in the function of TikTok social media, which gave birth to several business features, is beneficial for business people. The marketing communication strategies that are superior to the @Sheriz_Official account are regularly uploading TikTok video content every day, live streaming capit games, hyperlinking, TikTok Ads, brand community @Sheriz_Official, TikTok Shop, and TikTok Affiliates program. This research concludes that the function shift in the TikTok feature is very well utilized by the @Sheriz_Official account in implementing its marketing communication strategy.


INTRODUCTION
Humans grow and develop all the time, and so does technology.Technology is developing so rapidly over time.Technological developments, one of which is the Internet, have changed the way of interaction in marketing communications from face-to-face (conventional) to screen-to-face (internet marketing) (Lestari, 2015).The tool used to communicate is a mobile phone.Technological advancements have revolutionized mobile phones.At first, mobile phones could only communicate via cellular telephone networks.However, new media has emerged that can make everyone in the world able to communicate only using a mobile phone.One type of new media is social media.At present, the most widely used social media is TikTok.
The TikTok application is a new media platform for uploading content through internetbased videos.TikTok is a social media that focuses on entertainment media.TikTok is an application from China developed by digital company Bytedance.TikTok can be downloaded via Google Play and the Appstore.According to (Abdulhakim, 2019) Tik Tok is a new social media platform for users to express their talents through video content.TikTok presents videos of 15 seconds to 3 minutes which TikTok users can access on their respective homepages.
TikTok is now a marketing communication strategy because TikTok is a video-based social media.According to (God, 2021), As a social media, TikTok provides a means of sharing content that varies widely in terms of creativity, video challenges, lipsync, songs, dancing, singing, and others.TikTok continues to experience feature updates to make it easier for its users.TikTok, initially just an entertainment medium, has now turned its function into a business media.Many people use TikTok as a place to promote their products and services.
Given this need, TikTok is sufficient by bringing out several TikTok features to make it easier for business people.Some features now widely used by business owners are TikTok videos, TikTok Shop, TikTok affiliate, and TikTok Live.
Of the many business accounts on the TikTok application, the researchers chose the @Sheriz_Official account as the subject of this study.@Sheriz_Official has been actively using TikTok since March 2021.The account now has 84 thousand followers and 1 million more likes.@Sheriz_Official is a business in the field of beauty.They sell hand body whitening, which brightens and moisturize the body's skin.The owner of the @Sheriz_Official account is domiciled in Gresik, and they are also two best friends.The researchers chose the @Sheriz_Official account because the video content was exciting, and their account insight was tremendous.Even some videos from the @Sheriz_Official account that succeeded in FYP got over 2 million viewers.From the magnitude of these accounts' influence, researchers can conclude that the account can be used as an object of research to determine what marketing communication strategies are applied to attract customer interest.

METHODS
This research is a descriptive study using a qualitative approach.According to Sugiyono (2016: 9), a qualitative descriptive method is a research method based on the philosophy of postpositivism used to examine the condition of natural objects.This research method is a method that will produce a systematic description of the relationship between events or phenomena being studied.Qualitative descriptive research tries to explain all the symptoms and conditions that existed when the research was in progress.This study used qualitative research methods.Qualitative research seeks to uncover problems with empirical data to develop a relevant understanding of individuals and events.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The @Sheriz_official account is a business account that focuses on the beauty sector.
This account sells body care products through body whitening body lotion.Sheriz_official was founded by two best friends, Shelma and Rizma.Sheriz_offcial has also been registered with BPOM and is also HAKI certified.Sheriz_offcial focuses on online business only and uses Instagram, Shopee, TikTok Shop, Tokopedia, and WhatsApp as media for business and promotion.@Sheriz_official has been using TikTok since March 2021.@Sheriz_official consistently uploads its content, so the account's followers have reached 84 thousand followers and over one million likes.The @sheriz_official account also uses Instagram social media as a promotional medium.However, the business focuses on TikTok social media to increase insight into the @sheriz_official account.(Ricko, 2018) The owner @sheriz_official says that the reason they use TikTok is because of TikTok's great algorithm.The algorithm in TikTok can make content go viral and is usually called FYP (For Your Page).FYP content has high insight regarding views, likes, comments, and shares.
With FYP, business people feel that TikTok is very profitable for them.TikTok does not look at the number of followers to get FYP.Regardless of the number of followers, TikTok will automatically suggest content for other users if their content is viewed a lot.
TikTok is a medium for young people, and many of them use TikTok as a means to find entertainment.Most TikTok users are millennials, so many content creators have just been born with TikTok.So this can be used to promote a product.TikTok can now compete with other social media and e-commerce such as Shopee and Instagram.According to the owner @Sheriz_official, TikTok's current position is higher than shopee and Instagram.They explained that their sales comparison figures from the start using shopee and their sales using TikTok media were almost identical.Even though they have used the shop beforehand, the number of buyers on TikTok has almost matched the number of buyers there.TikTok is now being used as a medium for selling to benefit business owners and TikTok users.The owner of @sheriz_official also mentioned that TikTok could open new jobs for content creators and function as e-commerce because of the TikTok shop feature.The owner of @sheriz_official said that businesses must now learn how to use the latest TikTok features to be utilized to the fullest.

Marketing Communication Strategy Implemented by the @Sheriz_Official account
The @Sheriz_Official marketing communication strategy using the 7C Framework's theoretical elements will be understood.The 7C Framework theory is a theory used to understand how interactions occur between online sellers and customers.There is Seven elements were used to review the marketing communication strategy for the @Sheriz_Official account on TikTok social media.The seven elements are context, content, community, customization, communication, and commerce.The following is a discussion of the @Sheriz_Official account marketing communication strategy:

The aesthetics of the TikTok account @Sheriz_Official
The first element is the context which is the situation or background of a communication.The context on the @Sheriz_Official account includes the aesthetics displayed.
Apart from aesthetics, context also includes operational matters, which means the focus of the research object (Permana & Pratiwi, 2021).In the TikTok account @Sheriz_Official, several elements can be used to support the aesthetic appearance of the account.Among them are video titles, placement of video title bubbles, and types of video title bubbles.The owner interprets the word aesthetic as visually arranged and conceptualized attractively with a specific theme.They are more concerned with the content of the message in the video than its aesthetics.The owner explains that the essential thing for visuals is the title bubble on the video cover.They chose a purple bubble for the cover of each TikTok video to be uploaded.Furthermore, things included in context and aesthetics are Hashtags and sound, which are used as the background music of the video to be uploaded.They follow the trend that is currently viral.The trend includes hashtags as well as sounds.Before creating content, they research what is trending on TikTok.
Then it will arrange manipulative trends, such as replacing currently viral trends with things related to Sheriz_Official.From the observations of researchers, they often also use #Testidarisheriz in some of their TikTok videos.They also create manipulative trends, such as changing #dirumahaja to #sherizaja.

TikTok Video Content Creation
The next element is Content.Content contains various messages or information presented through the media, especially new media, in writing, visuals (images), audio, or video (Mahmudah & Rahayu, 2020).The results of the researchers' observations showed several videos from the account @ Sheriz Official, which is included in FYP.Like the picture below, the video got 158 thousand likes, 9000 comments, and 3000 shares.This video has been viewed 2.3 million times.The content of the video is the result of using @Sheriz_Official products and product-sharing information for free.Another thing that supports the video is the writing of the video, which is very persuasive.The content creator from the @Sheriz_Official account explained that the first step in making a video is to conceptualize the content of the video.They look for inspiration for video ideas from competitors with the same brand.However, modified to avoid copyright.They will create a weekly timeline for the TikTok video concept to be organized.Making a Timeline for TikTok social media must follow the changing trends on TikTok, which are very fast.Another strategy for getting FYP is to upload content three times a day.They also divide content into Persuasive, Educative, and Entertaining.Persuasive content invitations to use the product.The educational content is in the form of videos containing product knowledge.Moreover, entertainment content is relaxed content that contains trending entertainment.To increase insight from uploaded TikTok videos, they use the TikTok Ads feature to advertise their videos.Usually, they use this advertising feature when they do live streaming.This aims to enliven their TikTok live streaming.

Building Interaction With Followers
The third element is communication.In a marketing communication strategy, building a good relationship with followers is one of the most important things.Marketing communications aim to introduce, establish, and create interactions between companies and business partners or consumers (Kusniadji, 2016).One way is by interacting in the form of twoway communication.So there will be feedback that both parties feel.Customers will feel happy if they are considered close by the business owner.They have a unique nickname for their followers, namely Sherizen.Sherizen is an abbreviation of Sheriz-Netizen.The owner says that in every interaction formed, whether video or text, they always refer to customers with this unique nickname.Apart from that, they also routinely hold giveaways and live streaming to establish customer communication.Their types of live streaming are more varied.They usually do claw games on their live streams.They also respond to comments with videos.So if there are interesting comments from followers, Sheriz Official will answer them using the TikTok video.

Use of the Hyperlinking Feature
The fourth element is Connection.The connection is by utilizing the Hyperlinking feature in the TikTok @Sheriz Official account bio.A hyperlink or link is a way to connect one thing to another using a link code.Hyperlinking is a cheap, easy, and practical medium to use in everyday life because of the simple technology (Charlina & Rasdana, 2022).Then use the hyperlink feature, where customers will be directed to other Sheriz Official social media.
Whether it is Instagram, Shopee, Tokopedia, or WhatsApp, there is even a link to join as a Sheriz Official reseller Picture 3. Hyperlinking at @Sheriz_official account

Form a Brand Community
The fifth element is Community.Community or community is a social unit formed in a group with common interests that are functional or territorial (Riwando, 2021).The owner of the @Sheriz Official account creates a brand community that contains a group of people who are loyal to Sheriz Official.They have a group for their customers.The brand community they form is carried out through groups via Telegram.For loyal customers of Sheriz_Official, they have a group called Sheriz One.Then there is also a particular group of distributors and resellers of Sheriz_Official.There is also a particular group for KOL (Key Opinion Leader), a member of TikTok Affiliates Sheriz_Official.There is also a particular live streamer group from Sheriz_Official.With this group, it is hoped that the relationship between Sheriz_Official and its brand community will go well.(Primasari, Sari, & Sutanti, 2021;Sholihah, Malahayati, & Supriyono, 2021)

Utilization of the TikTok Shop and Affiliate Marketing Features
The sixth element is Commerce.Commerce is an activity using promotions to increase traffic (number of internet visitors) to online stores (Suwarni et al., 2022).This point will cover how the @Sheriz_Official account uses TikTok as a medium for buying and selling.The TikTok shop is a platform for buying and selling transactions that TikTok users can use.TikTok Shop is a feature that can facilitate business people to sell their products.Business owners can list as many of their products that will be sold.Usually, there will also be unique and exciting promos provided by TikTok.From the buyer's point of view, this TikTok shop can directly make payments.So, users can view products with up to one payment in the TikTok Shop.
Business owners can also use the Affiliate Marketing feature in this TikTok shop feature.Their TikTok affiliate gets help from several people called KOL to promote their product.After successfully selling the product, they will get a commission percentage from the product sold.

CONCLUSION
Based on the research results presented above, the marketing communication strategy implemented by the @Sheriz_Official account includes six elements in the 7C Framework Theory.The first element is the context where the @Sheriz_Official account pays attention to aesthetics in the form of visualizing the TikTok video cover title, which is neatly arranged so that it will attract the attention of its followers.Then the second element is Content, where the @Sheriz_Official account creates content in the form of TikTok videos of several types.
Uploaded content must include three things: persuasive, educative, and entertaining.The third element is communication, where the @Sheriz_Official account provides special treatment for its followers by replying to comments and making special calls.The fourth element is connection.@Sheriz_Official utilizes the hyperlinking feature, which contains access links to several other @Sheriz_Official social media.The fifth element is a community, where @Sheriz_Official forms a brand through a telegram group from a group of people interested in @Sheriz_Official.Then the sixth element is commerce, where @Sheriz_Official utilizes the TikTok Shop feature as a medium for buying and selling.The last element that is not fulfilled is customization.So it can be concluded that @Sheriz_Official uses all the features available on TikTok to promote their product.