Abstract
Despite its rise in popularity, TikTok remains an understudied and underutilized platform in the field of social media marketing in comparison to Instagram and Facebook. Given that much of the success behind TikTok is attributed to Generation Z, studying how this demographic uses social media may yield important theoretical and practical implications for communication practitioners and scholars alike as well as for companies seeking to understand and incorporate TikTok into their practices. Thus, this present study had two central objectives. This study sought to investigate the uses and gratifications of Generation Z with TikTok in comparison to Instagram and Facebook. Next, this study investigated how their uses and gratifications impact their social media engagement behaviors on TikTok regarding brand-related content, in comparison to Instagram and Facebook. The findings were based on a convenience sample of Generation Z university students (N = 217) and were consistent with previous studies that demonstrated that specific motivations and gratifications reflect TikTok usage which can also lead to positive social media engagement behavior with brand-related content on the platform. Findings regarding specific motivations, social media engagement behaviors, and cross-platform comparisons are discussed, as well as the implications and suggestions for future research.
aIncludes bibliographical references.