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How TikTok Changed Social Media Forever and What To Do About It – kahnmedia

How TikTok Changed Social Media Forever and What To Do About It

How TikTok Changed Social Media Forever and What To Do About It

How TikTok Changed Social Media Forever and What to Do About It

How TikTok Changed Social Media Forever and What to Do About It. The meteoric rise of TikTok caught most of the social media world completely off-guard. Other apps like Snapchat and Threads have come out of the gate hard, only to see usage quickly plateau or decline. However, TikTok was different as it kept growing and growing with seemingly no end in sight. Launched in 2016, TikTok was the most downloaded app in the United States just two years later. While impressive, that was only the beginning of the upstart app’s growth spurt. In the fourth quarter of 2018, TikTok had 271 million active users. Five years later, that number had swelled to over 1.6 billion. What started in relative obscurity not long ago is now the fifth-largest social media site globally by active monthly users.

The Zuckerberg was obviously not going to let this growth go unchecked. He dusted off the same playbook he had used to quash Snapchat with Stories and launched a clone of TikTok’s short-form videos called Reels on Instagram and Facebook. Even YouTube got in on the action in 2020 with its under-60-second vertical videos dubbed Shorts. However, it wasn’t just a few knockoff features in response to TikTok and some temporary tweaks to constantly changing algorithms. How social media behaves is now fundamentally different because of TikTok, and those changes are here to stay. What are they? Read on to find out. In this article, we will discuss the following:

  • How TikTok changed the metrics that matter the most.
  • What content creators are doing to deal with the social media changes caused by TikTok.
  • How your brand can follow their lead to maximize engagement.

The Follower Fallout

CEOs and social media marketing teams used to watch follower count more closely than popularity-obsessed teenagers. Growing followers on every social media platform was a high priority for many brands. Some companies even resorted to purchasing swathes of mostly overseas followers from shadowy online entities to boost numbers. It was a dubious tactic that never worked, but perfectly represents the obsession with follower counts. However, it wasn’t just pure vanity as, before TikTok came along, your number of followers was directly related to how many people would see your content.

Are you sitting down? Good, because follower count doesn’t really matter anymore. Before TikTok, Facebook and Instagram pushed out a brand’s content primarily to its followers or through hashtags. TikTok threw that model out the door and used its algorithm to introduce content directly into users’ feeds and through its Discovery feature from accounts they didn’t follow. Since that content was actually relevant and entertaining, thanks to TikTok’s superior AI-enhanced algorithm, users didn’t care who it came from. Facebook and Instagram quickly followed suit after seeing the wild success of TikTok’s new model. Now, your content can reach far beyond your followers as every social media platform delivers it to multiple audiences to maximize engagement. The followers you do have might not even see your content if they aren’t engaging with it, making your follower count somewhat irrelevant.

The Metric that Matters Most

The Metric that Now Matters the Most

So what metric is important if follower count no longer is? Some would argue that reach should be the most critical. Yes, monitoring how many people view a post is important. However, does it really matter if nobody who sees that post likes, comments or interacts with it? That is why engagement is the metric that now matters the most. When people engage with content, it shows that you connect with your audience and put out content they like.

Engagement is also crucial because it is what algorithms now look for. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and every other social media platform want engaged users to serve ads to and for growth. High-engagement posts are “pushed” by the algorithms to a wider audience to keep that interaction going. Posts with minimal engagement are left to their own devices, receiving little attention from algorithms. This focus on engagement isn’t just a current algorithmic whim either but is here to stay.

Tips From the Front Lines for Maximizing Engagement

Getting people to like, comment on and interact with your brand’s posts is never easy. With constantly shifting algorithms on multiple social media sites, things get even more difficult. However, those who make their living from creating engaging posts are a great source of information on what works. On a recent episode of the “Only The Strong Survive” podcast, popular motorcycle content creators JessR1des and ActuallyItsAxel shared their strategies for making and sharing engaging content. Even though both had previously never met, they employ similar techniques to maximize engagement.

Here are the highlights:

  • Post Everywhere: Keeping up with constantly changing algorithms can be tricky, even for creators who are always online. Audiences can also be spread across different social media sites, making it difficult to predict where content will produce the most engagement. To mitigate this, JessR1des and ActuallyItsAxel post their content across all the major social media platforms. Doing so allows them to “cover all the bases” and not miss out on where a post might take off.

  • Optimize Content for Each Platform: Posting everywhere doesn’t mean taking the same piece of content and carpet bombing it across every platform. You can’t completely ignore the preferences of each platform’s algorithms. A full-length video isn’t going to fly on TikTok and needs to be cut down into much smaller segments. YouTube might prefer longer videos and shorter ones for its Shorts section. The list goes on, but even if you use the same content, it must be optimized for each social media site.

  • Analyze Your Efforts and Make Adjustments: Neither JessR1des nor ActuallyItsAxel mindlessly posts content without ever checking on it. Both constantly dig through analytics to see how their content performs across social media. This allows them to see what types of posts are getting the most engagement and where. Both then put the most effort into the sites and types of content that connect the most with their audiences. Without diving into their metrics to look for these trends, correcting their content strategy would be impossible.

  • Deep Knowledge of Their Audiences: JessR1des and ActuallyItsAxel both have a solid understanding of what will connect with their followers before they even create a piece of content. They interact with them regularly, meet them at events and constantly study their demographics. Without that detailed knowledge of their followers, it would be impossible to create content that engages with them. That can be said of any brand trying to do the same.

Gathering first-party data about your customers is essential as third-party cookies go away, but also to understand their demographics, interests and other factors. Experiential events are a great way to meet your customers in person and get to know them. That knowledge can then be used to create content that connects with them. The more you know about your customers, the easier that is.

Social Media is now Pay to Play

Social Media is Now “Pay to Play”

All those steps don’t just apply to content creators but will also help create more engaging content for your brand. However, it is important to remember that every social media platform now has a “pay-to-play” aspect. Facebook and Instagram could once rely on gobbling up most online marketing budgets. However, they are now engaged in an epic battle for your advertising dollars with TikTok and YouTube. To help grab more advertising spend, every social media site has somewhat minimized “free” engagement. Brands have seen their engagement falter without spending money to “boost” posts. The message is clear: if you want engagement, you will have to pay for some of it.

This new reality doesn’t mean that all of your brand’s posts need to be boosted. However, you should have a carefully constructed digital marketing strategy integrating paid posts with organic ones. Posts announcing sales or new products without marketing dollars behind them can often fall flat and have minimal reach and engagement, resulting in a revenue hit. Amplified posts can also help to increase awareness of your brand and grow its social media followers, which can help organic posts perform better as long as they are engaging.

Quality Absolutely Matters

TikTok may have been responsible for a flood of gas station sushi-grade content like dumb dance videos and brain-dead challenges. Even if that content is somehow popular, it doesn’t mean your brand should follow suit. Yes, you can have fun on social media, but a brand’s content directly reflects it. If all of your content is memes pilfered from others, reposts or looks like it was created in MS Paint, don’t expect people to have a high opinion of your brand. And with people first discovering many brands through social media, what you post matters more than ever.

Just as important as the quality of your content is the quality (not the quantity) of your followers. Sure, you could post cute kitten or Kim Kardashian videos and probably get solid engagement and grow your followers. However, if you don’t sell pet products or are perhaps a plastic surgery center, does it really matter? Probably not, as chasing engagement and follower count with content that has nothing to do with your brand ultimately does little for it. Social media is not a popularity contest but a place to grow your brand’s authenticity, connect with your customers and increase sales through digital marketing efforts.

We Can Help

Creating engaging content is difficult, but at Kahn Media, we can help. Our creative team is highly skilled at crafting videos, capturing Reels and producing photography that connects with your customers. We also have in-house social media experts and an award-winning digital marketing team that can maximize the engagement of any content. As a full-service marketing agency, we can assist your marketing department or operate as a turn-key one for your brand. Check out our services page to view all that we offer, and contact us to discuss how we can assist your brand.