Time for TikTok?
I don’t typically get over-excited about new social platforms, but I do check them out when I can. Thanks to a prod from Shel Holtz of the “For Immediate Release” podcast, I took a closer look at TikTok then I might have this early on? Below I expand on some thoughts I shared with Shel in the podcast:
What did I already know?
- They were in trouble for mishandling privacy data for minors, a problem the Chinese company inherited through their acquisition of the musical.ly app.
- The parent company is from China, and the early growth clearly and expectedly was from outside the U.S.
- The audience, as usually discussed when TikTok came up over the last several weeks, skewed very young (which speaks to the acquisition of musical.ly).
What do we know now?
- Some companies are exploring TikTok as a marketing channel Most notably, Calvin Klein. Is CK’s termination of its runway line and sudden appearance on the new platform part of the same story? I’m not sure of that, but I thought the ads they did put up make sense (if not for me).
- I looked for other marketers, and found the NHL had posted some All-Star Game content in February aimed at the Chinese market. I did not see much other concerted marketing effort *the new Shazam! movie has an effort called “#SHAZAMUp, and I have been told that the WWE has made an effort. More successful seems to be efforts by The Tonight show and others to encourage viewers to propagate memes (basically “America’s Funniest Home TikToks” but with hashtag rules). Clearly, we are in exploratory/experimental stages.
What do I think? (Pretend to care, I won’t be offended if you fake it)
- I see more potential in TikTok vs, say, SnapChat for widespread marketing, simply because this is not a platform for “secret” content. Posts are not only permanent, but the platform encourages sharing to Facebook, Instagram and across the Web. To me that makes more sense for those who want their content shared widely rather than among a limited number of confidantes. I feel strongly that secret/vanishing/private post networks are harder for marketers except for targeted 1:1 (or 1:some) campaigns.
- The basic format- 15-second videos- recalls the late lamented(?) Vine in a way, but there are ways around the time limit (again, flexibility), and there is a built-in catalog of approved music through Apple. I assume this is a legitimate partnership and not a music rights lawsuit waiting to explode.
- It’s early days. I do not have much personal use for TikTok, but I am more intrigued by the potential (if not the presently available content) than I was for Snapchat and the like. Time will tell.
In the meantime, for some examples of typical videos without having to sacrifice your phone’s TikTok-less purity, check out https://www.tiktok.com/en/trending.
All that said, I eagerly await the return of Will Sasso’s lemons to the internet (please)?
Dark Mode?
My latest significant MacOS update had a “dark mode.” Slack has a new dark mode. Facebook Messenger has dark mode. Apps all around are suddenly adopting it, it seems. Heck, Tweetdeck had it years ago, and though the app is gone, the Web version offers… a dark mode (I just remembered to enable it).
What’s the big deal? I found this blog post to have an interesting explanation about eye strain. That’s enough for me; the post is worth a quick read.
To answer my question (and perhaps yours): yes, there are dark mode plug-ins for WordPress. Should I enable that on this site?
Speaking of Going Dark…
Will you remember where you were when Facebook and Instagram went down last week? Me neither.
Public Service Announcement
If you thought I was talking about you in my response:
1- I wasn’t; you were not even remotely on my mind;
2- You might be part of the problem.