TikTok Business Account vs. Personal Account: What’s the Difference?

Updated on September 11, 2023

7 min to read

Content Writer

Published April 18, 2023

TikTok Business Account vs. Personal Account: What’s the Difference?
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We’ve got juuuicy bits to share about TikTok Business Accounts vs. Personal Accounts.

Here’s the deal… Some social media managers aren’t sure if having a TikTok Business Account is the way to go.

Can you relate?

Are you wondering if having a Business Account is worth it?

Well, the short answer is a resounding “Yes!”

And we’re going to talk in detail below why you should absolutely encourage your clients to get Business Accounts if they aren’t on one yet.

Table of contents

What you’ll learn:

  • What is a TikTok Business Account?
  • TikTok Business Account pros
  • TikTok Business Account cons
  • How to create a TikTok Business Account?
  • Tips for TikTok Business Accounts
  • Other ways to use Vista Social for TikTok Business Accounts
  • Customers Also Ask
  • Everything you need to build successful TikTok Business Accounts

What is a TikTok Business Account?

TikTok Business Accounts allow brands to take full advantage of TikTok’s marketing features. 

A Business Account is better for reaching, engaging, and converting TikTok users than a Personal or “Creator” Account. However, it also comes with some limitations. 

TikTok Business Account pros

  • Promote your client’s website. If your client has at least 1,000 followers, they can feature a website link on their TikTk bio. Otherwise, focus on proven strategies on how to get 1,000 followers on TikTok first. 
  • Access to Commercial Music Library. TikTok provides Business Accounts with a music library that’s safe to use for commercial purposes. The TikTok Commercial Music Library has over 1.3 million copyright-free tracks for promotional content.
  • Include a business email. A TikTok Business Account lets you attach a business email address to your client’s profile. While Personal Accounts can also include an email address in their bio, only Business Accounts get a clickable email button. 
  • Get content ideas and inspiration. The Business Creative Hub helps brands sharpen and improve their TikTok marketing strategy. It provides free learning resources, content ideas, community-driven tips, and more.
  • Access to more TikTok advertising tools. With a Business Account, you can launch advertising campaigns to reach targeted users. TikTok ads for Business Accounts include advanced features like Spark Ads and TikTok Shopping Ads. 
  • Augment your marketing with TikTok Business Center. Business Accounts can start and manage creator collaborations through the TikTok Business Center. The TikTok Creator Marketplace will help you find influencers who can grow your client’s online presence.  
  • Create autoresponders. Grab every lead generation opportunity with TikTok’s “Auto Message” feature. This lets you create autoresponders to answer direct messages on autopilot

TikTok Business Account cons

  • Give up access to non-commercial audio. Due to legal reasons, Business Accounts will have limited access to TIkTok’s music library. This limits your ability to use trending sounds on your client’s TikTok videos. 
  • Limited Duet and Stitch options. With limited sounds at your disposal, you won’t be able to use TikTok’s Duet or Stitch features on some posts. Not all TikTok brands use them, but Duet and Stitch are some of the best ways to grab the audience’s attention. 

In terms of pros and cons, the benefits of a TikTok Business Account vastly outweigh the disadvantages. 

Just remember that switching to a Business Account makes you ineligible for features specific to Creator Accounts. This includes the following:

  • Creator development resources like the Creator Next program
  • Monetization opportunities like the TikTok Creator Fund
  • Account privacy settings
  • Access to popular songs 
  • More Duet and Stitching options 

Ready to give your content workflow and posts a major upgrade? Try AI Assistant powered by ChatGPT today! 🤖💙

How to create a TikTok Business Account?

You don’t need to spend money to create a TikTok Business Account. 

For agencies, use the steps below to convert your client’s Personal Account to a Business Account: 

How to create a TikTok Business Account on mobile:

1. Go to the settings and privacy page

From the TikTok app, go to your client’s profile and tap the hamburger settings icon. Select ‘Settings and privacy’ from the pop-up menu at the bottom. 

Go to the settings and privacy page.
Image Source: TikTok.com

2. Change your account settings

Under “Account,” go to ‘Account’ and tap ‘Switch to Business Account.’ This will initiate the account type conversion process. 

Change your account settings.
Image Source: TikTok.com

3. Set up your client’s Business Account

The initial start page for Business Accounts includes an overview of their benefits. 

Feel free to read through the list and tap ‘Next’ when done. On the next page, pick a category that best describes your client.

Select the correct industry from the list and tap ‘Next’ to proceed.

Set up your client's Business Account.
Image Source: TikTok.com

Enter your client’s business email address to help customers reach out to them directly. Tap ‘Add’ after entering the right email address—or, choose ‘Skip’ to complete this step later.

Add an email address.
Image Source: TikTok.com

Next up, write a captivating TikTok bio that introduces your client’s brand to users in a positive light. Just like the email address, this step is optional and can be done after the setup process.

When done, tap ‘Create now’ to finish the setup process and create a TikTok video right away. 

 Tap 'Create now' to finish the setup.
Image Source: TikTok.com

Tips for TikTok Business Accounts

A TikTok Business Account unlocks new, valuable opportunities to grow your client’s TikTok account. However, those opportunities are only meaningful with the right action plans. 

Here are four additional tips to help you reap the full benefits of Business TikTok accounts: 

1. Optimize your client’s Business Account

Use a professional profile photo and captivating bio for your client’s Business Account. 

Upload your client’s company logo to make their TikTok profile more recognizable. If their social media is represented by their CEO, marketing director, or any top-level staff, use their photo instead. 

As for the bio, most businesses use short lines that enumerate value propositions. Organize these using a list with emojis to draw attention. 

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Use short lines.
Image Source: TikTok.com, @jmvirtualsolutions

Also, consider using mobile landing page solutions like Linktree to promote relevant pages. This includes their other social media accounts, product landing pages, and contact forms. 

2. Build a consistent content strategy across all social media

Learn how to repost on TikTok and cross-promote content across multiple social media platforms. 

By cross-promoting content between different channels, you exponentially increase the reach of each post. 

Use an all-in-one platform like Vista Social to build a synchronized social media content strategy. Our platform lets you streamline social media publishing with an automated content calendar and smart curation tools. 

To create an automated content calendar, log in to your Vista Social dashboard, click ‘Settings,’ and go to ‘Publishing Settings.’ 

Create an automated content calendar.

Scroll down to publishing queues and select the social media platform you want to schedule for.

Use the drop-down menus to select the right profile group and social media account. Next, click ‘Add a slot’ to define a posting time for the selected profile. 

Add a slot' to define a posting time.

Over time, Vista Social analyzes content performance and compiles ideal posting time suggestions. 

To use these suggestions, create a post with the Vista Social publisher, select ‘Schedule,’ and click ‘Next.’

Create a post with the Vista Social publisher.

On the left panel, click ‘Show optimal times’ to reveal the best posting times based on previous content performance. Click any of the slots you prefer to schedule your client’s TikTok video.

Reveal the best posting times.

3. Quickly choose tracks from a commercial audio library

One of the main advantages of Vista Social for TikTok marketing is the trending audio suggestions for businesses. We only suggest copyright-free music that is usable on promotional content. 

To look for suggestions, use the Vista Social publisher, add your video, and click the three-dot settings icon in the video thumbnail. Select ‘Pick sound’ in the pop-up menu to continue. 

Choose tracks from a commercial audio library.

Under the “Trending sounds” tab, choose the clip you want to use and click ‘Apply sound.’ You can preview each clip by clicking the play button under their cover art. 

Choose the clip you want to use.

4. Manage TikTok conversations

Vista Social consolidates all your social media conversations in one inbox. 

Use filters to sieve out comments, mentions, reviews, shares, and direct messages. To improve efficiency, create “saved replies” to provide quick answers to common queries.

Simply click the saved replies icon at the bottom of the message field to create or select response templates. 

Create or select response templates.

Vista Social also features a ChatGPT integration to generate AI-based responses to user messages. To use this feature, click the ChatGPT icon, enter the message you’re responding to, and click ‘Generate reply.’ 

Select the response you like and click ‘Use selected’ to send it. Alternatively, select ‘Save selected’ to keep messages for future use. 

Click the ChatGPT icon.

Other ways to use Vista Social for TikTok Business Accounts

  • Use recommended hashtags to boost the searchability of TikTok posts. 
  • Create intriguing post captions using popular TikTok quotes, questions, and interesting stats.
  • Build automated content curation channels from news sites, RSS feeds, and royalty-free media marketplaces. 
  • Review cross-channel analytics reports to track content performance across social media platforms. 
  • No need to learn how to find deleted TikTok videos—keep a cloud-based media library you can access at any time. 

Customers Also Ask

What does a Business Account on TikTok do?

A Business Account is more equipped to help brands with business activities on social media. Brands of all sizes can create a Business Account to access advanced analytics, run ads, and leverage other TikTok management tools. 

Is a TikTok Business Account free?

Yes—you don’t need to spend a single dime to create a Business Account. You can also convert an existing Personal Account to a Business Account free of charge.

What is the difference between a TikTok Personal and Business Account?

TikTok Personal Accounts are for individual users who want to share short-form videos and interact with other people’s content. Business Accounts, on the other hand, are for brands that are interested in TikTok’s marketing potential for commercial purposes.

Everything you need to build successful TikTok Business Accounts

Make no mistake, signing up for a TikTok Business Account alone can’t catapult your clients’ TikTok profiles to TikTok nirvana—a place where they get thousands (or millions) of engagements and followers.

It’s all about the strategy, mi amigo!

That’s why you need Vista Social, a modern social media marketing software that can streamline your marketing campaigns.

Use our software to:

  • Create centralized content calendars
  • Create captivating content at scale using our AI content generator tool
  • Collaborate with your clients and team members efficiently
  • Create highly customizable reports
  • Etc.

Creating a free account today.

About the Author

Content Writer

Jimmy Rodela is a social media and content marketing consultant with over 9 years of experience, with work appearing on sites such as Business.com, Yahoo, SEMRush, and SearchEnginePeople. He specializes in social media, content marketing, SaaS, small business strategy, marketing automation, and content development.

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