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Earn real money with 10 powerful TikTok strategies

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By Tega Egwabor

From the Creator Fund to brand deals, these monetization methods help content creators turn engagement into actual income

TikTok has evolved from a simple short-form video platform into a powerful ecosystem where creators can build audiences, express creativity and earn substantial income. With millions of users worldwide, the platform offers a range of monetization options that allow individuals and businesses to transform engagement into real revenue streams.

Understanding these earning opportunities helps creators choose the best strategies for their content style, audience demographics and financial goals. The key lies in knowing which methods align with your strengths and how to maximize each opportunity.

Platform-supported payment systems

  1. The TikTok Creator Fund represents one of the platform’s primary monetization mechanisms, paying creators based on engagement, views and activity on their videos. While the exact payout per view varies, consistent posting and high engagement increase earnings substantially. Eligibility typically requires meeting a minimum follower count and a set number of views over a defined period. Once accepted into the fund, creators earn money as their eligible videos generate views, with more interaction translating to higher potential payments.
  2. Live gifts and diamonds allow creators to interact with audiences in real time during streaming sessions. Viewers can purchase virtual gifts using TikTok coins, which they send to their favourite creators during live broadcasts. Creators then convert these virtual gifts into diamonds, which can be exchanged for actual money. This system creates a direct support channel between audiences and creators, offering immediate interaction and feedback while tying revenue to live performance quality.

Leveraging business relationships

  1. Brand partnerships and sponsored content represent one of the most lucrative earning methods on TikTok. Companies pay creators to produce content featuring or promoting products and services. These partnerships vary widely, from single-post sponsorships to long-term collaborations involving multiple videos or entire campaigns. The value of these deals depends on audience size, engagement rate, niche relevance and creative influence. Brands seek TikTok creators with authentic voices and loyal followers since genuine endorsements tend to perform better than traditional advertisements.
  2. Affiliate marketing allows creators to earn commissions by promoting products and linking to online stores. When followers click unique links and make purchases, creators earn a percentage of the sale. TikTok supports affiliate integrations and shopping features that make it easier to tag products and track revenue, creating passive income potential that works especially well with product reviews, tutorials and recommendations.

Direct sales opportunities

  1. TikTok Shop enables creators to sell products directly through the platform, whether merchandise, digital goods or curated items. The integrated shopping experience allows followers to buy without leaving the app, combining social engagement with direct sales in a seamless way.
  2. Selling digital products and services like ebooks, courses, tutorials, presets and templates positions creators as experts in their fields while turning knowledge into income. Educational and specialized content often attracts dedicated followers willing to invest in tools and learning materials.

Building deeper connections

  1. Fan subscriptions and exclusive content offer subscription-based access to special perks or private communities. These subscriptions can be hosted on TikTok or external platforms that link through social profiles, providing benefits like behind-the-scenes videos, exclusive tutorials, early content access and personalized messages. This model creates steady revenue streams while fostering deeper connections with fans.
  2. Crowdfunding through platforms like Patreon, Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee allows followers to contribute financially to support ongoing content creation. TikTok videos can drive traffic to these external pages, turning engagement into recurring support with predictable monthly income and diverse reward tiers.

Expanding beyond the platform

  1. Licensing and media opportunities emerge when viral content attracts attention from television programs, advertising agencies or larger media networks, leading to paid appearances and extended creative collaborations.
  2. Cross-platform monetization converts TikTok popularity into wider opportunities on YouTube, Instagram or podcasts, each with their own monetization systems. This approach amplifies audience reach and diversifies income streams.

Success requires strategy, consistency and creativity combined with authentic engagement that resonates with audiences.

Feature image credit: Shutterstock.com / 19 STUDIO

By Tega Egwabor

Tega Egwabor is a writer with RollingOut, covering diverse stories that span politics, health, fitness, finance, and more. Guided by a philosophical background, Tega approaches stories with depth, balance, and nuance. Passionate about connecting ideas with everyday life, her work seeks to spark curiosity, encourage reflection, and open up meaningful conversations.

Sourced from RollingOut

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Are TikTok and X tracking you across the internet? This privacy tool can tell you

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By Miles Hilton, Cal Matters

Since 2020, readers have used Blacklight, our pioneering website privacy inspector tool, to run more than 18 million scans. Previously, Blacklight detected tracking pixels from Google and Meta. Today, we’re announcing that it can scan for two more digital trackers: TikTok and X pixels.

A tracking pixel is a small piece of code added to a website that sends information about the site’s users to the platform that operates the pixel. That can include details of a user’s activities, such as their browsing activity, purchases and searches. A website that embeds a pixel often does so to inform its advertising campaigns on the platform that create the pixel. When its pixel is embedded across many websites, the platform can compile a user’s data to build a detailed profile of their interests, behaviour and other personal information. These profiles allow other businesses to buy ads from the platform to target categories of users — though this data can also be used for other purposes.

When you look up a website in Blacklight, it will now report if it finds the TikTok pixel or X pixel. More detailed information about the specific data being passed through pixels is also available by clicking on “Learn more” in the top right of the results, then clicking the link to “download an archive.”

To develop these new features, we partnered with a group of computer science students in Brandeis University’s Capstone in Software Engineering course. These students – Yiyou “Felix” Fan, Jiawen “Zena” Hu, Hengye Li, Hongchen “Steven” Yang and Yiquan “Frank” Zhang – researched and developed the features with the support of our product team.

Blacklight’s pixel detection features have already powered our Pixel Hunt investigations, which revealed that sensitive personal user information was being shared from government websites with Meta and Google, leading to lawsuits, removal of pixels from sites and increased government scrutiny. These new features give a fuller picture of the digital privacy landscape by exposing tracking pixels from two more companies.

We hope these new features will help you better understand what happens to your data as you navigate the internet. While Blacklight can’t say exactly what companies like TikTok and X do with our data, it can provide a starting point for deeper investigation into how that data is stored, shared and used across the web.

Do you have questions, suggestions or need help understanding your Blacklight results? You can always reach us at [email protected].

Feature image credit: iStock Photo via CalMatters

By Miles Hilton, Cal Matters

CalMatters is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe, explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable. For more information about its mission, donors, staff and contact information, see CalMatters’ About Us page.

Sourced from The Mercury News

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The new search frontier: How TikTok is redefining discovery

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By Peter Allen Clark

Search has seen an enormous upheaval recently in terms of tools, intent, and expected experience, with social platforms like TikTok forging new consumer routines.

“Search has fundamentally transformed from this old model of ‘I have a question, I need an answer,’ to really a place for stories and perspective,” said Rema Vasan, TikTok’s head of North America business marketing, at a panel during Advertising Week New York. “This isn’t just a change in behaviour, this is a fundamental shift.”

According to TikTok’s data, Vasan said the top three reasons people search on the platform are to explore personal interests, educate themselves, and entertain themselves. And for younger audiences, the shift is even more pronounced.

Here’s how experts are viewing changing consumer habits when it comes to search and product discovery.

From answers to inspiration

Cypress Villaflores, vice president of social at Publicis, described what she sees as driving the change during the panel.

“People are really going to a platform like TikTok because we want inspiration,” she said. “We want information. And when you go into TikTok search, it’s giving you all of that and then that added layer of in-the-moment engagement.”

For US shoppers TikTok is the most useful social platform (28.4%) for researching and evaluating new brands/products, according to June 2025 data from EMARKETER.

“You’re not only getting an influencer’s perspective, but you’re also really getting ordinary people,” said Villaflores. “And sometimes that’s what you need to finish your search journey.”

Vasan noted that 86% of Gen Zers now search on TikTok instead of traditional search engines.

“Consumers’ intentions have changed,” she said. “They’re not just looking for quick answers. They’re looking to explore, compare, and really shape their perspectives.”

The middle-funnel battleground

In partnership with WARC, TikTok mapped four stages of search: Understanding, exploring, evaluating, and buying.

“TikTok plays a very strong role in the exploring and evaluating phases,” Vasan said. “Eighty-four percent of searches on TikTok happen in that exploration phase, which is 1.2 times higher than on traditional search platforms.”

Villaflores said that journey often leads directly to purchase.

“It really helps you make the purchase and create things that are more meaningful,” she said. “By the time I hit that buy button, I’m very confident in the thing that I’m purchasing.”

Keywords, but smarter

While culture drives discovery, precision still matters if TikTok is to remain vital to business’ strategies. Some 64% of worldwide B2B and B2C marketing leaders say TikTok drives more business impact than other social media platforms, according to a June 2025 survey from Sprout Social.

“Keyword strategy is so important to any search campaign,” Vasan said. TikTok’s new Keyword Planner, now in open beta, helps advertisers identify high-value terms and track search trends before committing spend.

Villaflores noted that traditional tactics still apply. “You can do branded versus non-branded, exact versus broad match, and a lot of those strategies are transferable to TikTok.”

For marketers still viewing TikTok as “just social,” Villaflores offered a challenge.

“Search has changed overall as a behaviour. It’s not anything anyone can truly ignore,” she said. “Be open to testing and integrating it as part of your larger strategies, because human behaviour is always continuously evolving.”

By Peter Allen Clark

Sourced from EM Marketer

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Instacart grows its retail media bona fides with TikTok integration

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By Aaron Baar

The grocery delivery platform is the first retail media partner to enable targeting and end-to-end measurement directly within TikTok’s ad platform.

Dive Brief: 

  • Instacart is collaborating with TikTok on a program that will integrate the company’s retail media network data into the platform’s Ads Manager, the companies announced in a press release.
  • Select CPG advertisers soon will be able to use Instacart data for targeting and measurement, and to enhance their shoppable ad formats. Instacart is integrating its purchase and grocery selection data directly into TikTok Ad Manager.
  • The integration makes Instacart the first retail media network to offer marketers end-to-end capabilities natively on TikTok, according to release details. The move follows other recent efforts from Instacart designed to boost its appeal to advertisers.

Dive Insight:

With the TikTok integration, Instacart aims to establish itself as the most advertiser-friendly media network, providing its data to help brands reach new and motivated audiences with minimal friction. While other retail media networks have worked with TikTok on specific campaigns, Instacart is “the first to work with Tiktok [on] what we’re calling an end-to-end integration,” Ali Miller, Instacart’s general manager of advertising, told Adweek.

That means advertisers will soon be able to use Instacart’s audience segments to better target campaigns on TikTok’s platform to reach consumers with high purchase intent. Additionally, they will be able to enhance shoppable formats through TikTok’s Smart+ campaigns, which are integrated with Instacart grocery selection data. Advertisers will also be able to measure campaign and conversion performance through a closed-loop platform.

Instacart claims to have more than 7,500 active brands and 1,800 retail partners in its ecosystem, giving it a robust pool of data for its retail media network. The TikTok partnership is part of the company’s strategy to help marketers cut through fragmentation and complexity by allowing them to tap into Instacart’s retail media data wherever they’re already buying media, per release details.

Beyond its latest move, Instacart recently announced a partnership with Pinterest to make ads on the platform shoppable via the grocery delivery service. The company also expanded its partnership with The Trade Desk to integrate its grocery selection data on the programmatic company’s platform, enabling advertisers and agencies to use specific criteria to build first-party custom audiences.

By Aaron Baar

Sourced from MarketingDive

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TikTok child data protection inadequate, Canadian privacy officials say

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By Peter Hoskins

TikTok’s efforts to stop children using the app and protect their personal data have been inadequate, a Canadian investigation has found.

Hundreds of thousands of children in the country use TikTok each year despite the firm saying it is not intended for people under the age of 13, according to the findings.

The investigation also found TikTok had collected sensitive personal information from “a large number” of Canadian children and used it for online marketing and content targeting.

TikTok told the BBC that it will introduce a number of measures to “strengthen our platform for Canadians” although it disputes some of the findings.

Feature image credit: LightRocket via Getty Images

By Peter Hoskins

Sourced from BBC

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Instagram is copying TikTok, and the strategy is working

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By Christianna Silva

Between a behemoth copycat and a looming ban, TikTok is being attacked on all fronts.

When Instagram releases a new feature that is a direct copy of another app, its users fear the worst.

In a 2022 essay for Digital Trends, writer Cristina Alexander lamented the “TikTok-ification of Instagram” because it “takes away the type of content people love most about the platform: photos from friends and family, as well as content based on their interests.”

“And it’s something I’m just about fed up with,” Alexander wrote.

But the doomsaying rarely lasts forever. Alexander joins the ranks of Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, and a whole host of regular users — including myself — who have fallen into the cycle of hating it when Instagram makes a copycat change and then, after a few months, come around to it.

Like it or hate it, Instagram’s copycat strategy works — and its dedication to stealing features from other apps is helping to fuel its ability to overtake TikTok.

Think of Instagram like Kirby in Super Smash Bros. He’s a formidable foe on his own, but it’s using his Copy Ability by swallowing his enemies and using their own powers against them that makes him so powerful. Instead of finding and using power ups or prioritizing his abilities, Kirby uses his enemies as his own, personal power ups. Instagram — and other Meta-owned apps — swallow their enemies, take on their features, and use them to win. Instagram used this strategy to remove Snapchat from its list of significant competitors, and TikTok is next.

For the first time since 2020, Instagram overtook TikTok in new app downloads in 2023, according to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower reported by the Financial Times, making it the most downloaded app in the world. In 2023, Instagram downloads grew 20 percent in comparison to TikTok’s 4 percent.

This comes after Instagram launched Reels, a TikTok-esque feature that was originally panned by its user base but has now become a mainstay on the app. And it might be the inclusion of Reels that has helped launch the platform back to the top.

“Instagram has outperformed TikTok in adoption over the past few years, driven by the popularity of its Reels feature along with legacy social media features and functions,” Abraham Yousef, a senior insights manager at Sensor Tower, told the Financial Times.

Instagram’s successful copycat strategy might be the reason it is succeeding, but TikTok is facing a battle at all fronts.

President Joe Biden said that if Congress passes the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” — which would ban TikTok and all other apps based in China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran from U.S. app stores — he’ll sign it into law. Lawmakers argue that TikTok user data for U.S. citizens could be accessed by the Chinese state, but TikTok has consistently denied that claim.

The legislative push to ban TikTok led to multiple congressional hearings and, just last week, the app encouraged all of its U.S. users to call their representatives to “stop a TikTok shutdown.” It comes two years after it was reported that Meta paid a Republican consulting firm to create public distrust around TikTok.

All the while, TikTok is becoming increasingly less fun and more focused on ecommerce. With the emergence of TikTok shop, it feels like every other video on the For You Page is a promoted or sponsored post. The TikTok experience is changing, and it might not be for the better.

Just because fewer people are downloading the app, and many more are complaining about their experience on it, doesn’t mean TikTok is fully failing, though. The app has higher engagement than its rivals, with users spending an average of 95 minutes on TikTok in comparison to 62 minutes on Instagram, 30 minutes on X, and 19 minutes on Snapchat, according to the Financial Times report.

We’ll have to wait and see what a TikTok ban will look like, but one thing is certain — even if the app isn’t banned in the U.S., the fight for users won’t be over.

Feature Image Credit: Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

By Christianna Silva

Sourced from Mashable

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What TikTok’s new Shopify integration means for sellers

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By Stephanie Lennox.

Want to leverage the power of TikTok to skyrocket your sales? Look no further: selling just got easier with Shopify’s new UK integration.

The social media giant, known for its trendsetting power, has finally launched their integration with Shopify in the UK, allowing merchants to showcase and sell products directly through the TikTok app.

This integration, facilitated by the new “TikTok for Shopify” app, opens doors for small businesses, Tiktok dropshippers and side hustlers to tap into a highly engaged audience and potentially skyrocket their sales.

What’s all the fuss about?

Hashtags like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, #Squishmallows and Love and Pebble #Beautypops perfectly illustrate the platform’s influence on consumer behaviour, and just a few examples of brands are gaining massive popularity solely through user-generated content. It’s a breeding ground for new customers and trends!

TikTok Shop capitalises on this by offering businesses the ability to:

  • Create shoppable videos: showcase products directly within engaging video content.
  • Host live streams: interact with potential customers in real-time, answer questions, and promote products.
  • Sell directly through the app: eliminate the need for external website visits, creating a frictionless shopping experience.

This translates to a powerful combination of community, creativity, and commerce.

Brits: the prime audience for your TikTok shop

The UK presents a fertile ground for this integration. Now as a seller, the integration can provide you with a highly engaged audience and mobile-first commerce.

Brits happen to spend an exceptional amount of time on TikTok – a staggering 49 hours and 29 minutes per month on the Android app alone, according to Digital 2024: The United Kingdom report.

In addition to that, Brits hold the highest average monthly usage of TikTok globally, spending nearly 50 hours on the app. This translates to a massive potential customer base actively engaged with the platform.

TikTok also ranks first in mobile app spending in the UK, surpassing giants like Tinder and Disney+. Since consumers are increasingly comfortable shopping directly from their mobile devices, this integration allows businesses to tap into this trend and meet their audience where they already are.

How to make this work for you:

  • Identify your niche: the key to success lies in understanding your target audience and the type of content that resonates with them.
  • Embrace creativity: leverage the power of short-form video to showcase your products in an engaging and entertaining way. Tutorials, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and user-generated content are all effective strategies.
  • Focus on high-quality visuals: product demonstrations, unboxing videos, and lifestyle content are all effective ways to grab attention.
  • Utilise trending sounds and hashtags: ride the wave of popular trends whenever you can to increase your discoverability.
  • Run contests and giveaways: surprise and delight your fans by incentivising engagement, which also encourages user-generated content.
  • Offer exclusive deals and promotions: motivate viewers to take action and convert them into paying customers.
  • Partner with influencers: collaborate with relevant Tiktok creators to reach a wider audience and leverage their established communities.
  • Run targeted ads: utilise Tiktok’s advertising platform to target users based on demographics, interests, and behaviours.
  • Prioritise customer relationships: respond to comments, answer questions, and actively participate in the conversation to build trust and brand loyalty.
  • Use data & analytics: capitalize on insights provided by both Shopify and Tiktok to understand your audience’s preferences and optimize your business strategy accordingly.

Conclusion

The Shopify integration with TikTok Shop presents a unique opportunity for small businesses and side hustlers in the UK to streamline and simplify the user journey. By embracing creative content, and building an engaged community, you can leverage the power of TikTok to reach a wider audience and achieve significant sales growth.

By Stephanie Lennox

Stephanie Lennox is the resident funding & finance expert at Startups: A successful startup founder in her own right, 2x bestselling author and business strategist, she covers everything from business grants and loans to venture capital and angel investing. With over 14 years of hands-on experience in the startup industry, Stephanie is passionate about how business owners can not only survive but thrive in the face of turbulent financial times and economic crises. With a background in media, publishing, finance and sales psychology, and an education at Oxford University, Stephanie has been featured on all things ‘entrepreneur’ in such prominent media outlets as The Bookseller, The Guardian, TimeOut, The Southbank Centre and ITV News, as well as several other national publications.

Sourced from Startups.

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Could TikTok help transform your small business – or will you be a slave to the algorithm? We speak to business owners about how they use it

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By Angharad Carrick

  • TikTok launched in the UK in 2018 and boasts around 150m users in Europe 
  • The algorithm and shop feature mean many business owners now use TikTok
  • We speak to entrepreneurs using the platform about the benefits and challenges 

When Karim Ullah opened his restaurant in March 2020, he didn’t expect to be forced to close 11 days later.

Karim Ullah, owner of Brohmon restaurant in Essex, joined TikTok three months ago

Karim Ullah, owner of Brohmon restaurant in Essex, joined TikTok three months ago

During the pandemic, Karim was pushed to stay open for takeaways to stay afloat, and since then the restaurant has successfully launched its own craft beer and gin.

Now he’s looking to TikTok to bring his business to the masses after his daughter found success on the platform with her own musical ventures.

The current economic climate is tougher than ever for smaller businesses and, like Karim, many business owners are looking for new channels to promote their products on.

Given its popularity with a younger audience and more and more businesses moving to TikTok, could it be the answer for small businesses?

Can TikTok help my small business?

Platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter can be a great way to reach a larger audience and both big and small businesses have stood to benefit.

There have been some runaway successes who have used social media to build their own business.

Joe Wicks, who shot to fame during the pandemic offering PE lessons to the nation, has spun out his own fitness app, while Grace Beverley, another fitness influencer, launched her own clothing line and recently secured investment.

TikTok is the newest kid on the block. It now boasts 1billion active users and launched in the UK in 2018.

Unlike other social media apps which prioritise connections, TikTok’s ‘For You Page’ presents users with videos related to their their interests through its unique algorithm.

It now also has its own shopping feature, where creators and businesses can sell their products, from which TikTok takes a small commission.

For many it might not seem the most obvious place to advertise your business, but for many business owners it has proved to be a risk worth taking.

Candice Mason, founder of Mother Cuppa, found initial success on TikTok

Candice Mason, founder of Mother Cuppa, found initial success on TikTok 

A new Oxford Economics report found that one in five businesses founded less than five years ago spend more than half of their social media budgets on TikTok.

Candice Mason joined TikTok just six months after launching her business Mother Cuppa Tea and found near-instant success.

‘I tried to build a following across a variety of platforms,’ she said. ‘I found TikTok to be a really lovely and friendly place. There were ladies of a similar age that joined at a similar time and we built our own little community over there. Very early on the videos did incredibly well.’

The Oxford Economics report found that 47 per cent of TikTok users have bought a product or service on the platform and 45 per cent have visited a restaurant or tourist attraction as a result of seeing it on TikTok.

Karim, who runs Brohmon restaurant in Essex, only started posting on TikTok three months ago and has had limited success so far, but he remains confident it will be an important part of the business.

‘I think we may be a little early on our journey,’ he said. ‘As we go further down the road, I expect TikTok to be very successful [for us].

‘TikTok is known as something that young people use to post on but I’m amazed at how many people my age have joined TikTok to see what’s happening. I think every business should be on TikTok.’

How does TikTok compare to other platforms?

One of TikTok’s defining features is its algorithm, which is based on interests rather than followers, so there is no need to gain thousands of followers to succeed.

Users view content based on the topics they’re interested in and other videos they have interacted with, which can make it a great way for small businesses to reach a new audience.

One of the benefits is that TikTok prefers users to upload videos between 15 and 30 seconds, rather than 3+ minutes as on Facebook.

I think every business should be on TikTok 
Karim Ullah, owner of Brohmon restaurant 

 

Claire Gleave, founder of maternity brand Natal Active said: ‘Sometimes I’ve done videos where I’ve been at soft play with my kids running around in the background and I’ve answered a question on video.’

A video platform might not best work for the product or service you’re selling, though.

Ben Spray, founder of digital marketing agency We Are Marketable, said: ‘On Facebook, we find you can do different types of creatives – images, videos, carousel posts, text, so that’s where we find it wins a lot more.

‘There are other features like instant lead forms where Facebook and Instagram can pull details from your profile… I haven’t seen that available on TikTok.’

Crucially, Spray found that small businesses tend to get a higher return on ad spend on Facebook compared to TikTok, where prices of products tend to be lower.

‘You’re making about three to five times ad spend on TikTok, whereas on Facebook it’s about £5-10 for every pound spent.’

For Candice, who found initial success, investing in TikTok did little to help: ‘I spent £350 on marketing and it all it did was get me a few 1000 views. I didn’t get any sales out of it.’

She was offered one-to-one coaching to help with marketing but she said it ‘became more about trying to get sales and money going through the platform and it just leaves a bit of a bad taste.

Digital marketer Ben Spray thinks business owners advertising to a younger audience should join TikTok

Digital marketer Ben Spray thinks business owners advertising to a younger audience should join TikTok 

‘I basically sit at a very steady number of views, very, very little interaction, a lot of effort for very little outcome.’

Most importantly, how successful TikTok can be for your business depends on the type of product you’re selling and who you’re trying to sell to.

Spray said: ‘I personally would recommend [TikTok] for people that are targeting a younger demographic, because that’s the majority of the market on there. And also from the clients that we’ve worked with, a service or product that’s a lower cost, because seems to perform better than higher cost services, on the clients we’ve tested.’

TikTok’s shop is flooded with discounted goods, everything from clothes to kitchen utensils, and Claire has found it difficult to sell her products as a result.

‘If you’re spending £55 on a pair of maternity leggings, you wouldn’t necessarily impulse buy,’ she said. ‘You’d want to know the brand, read the reviews and learn a bit more about the product before you do it.’

Slave to the algorithm?

TikTok’s algorithm can be very hit and miss and, while you might have built up a loyal following, users might not always see your posts, unlike Instagram or Facebook.

Karim is as bemused as other creators: ‘The algorithm is crazy, I know why it’s doing what it’s doing. When my daughter started, she would get 500 people view her videos. Then as she started putting up more posts, she was getting thousands watching her. She doesn’t know [why] either.

‘I think it’s a case of just posting videos and building your brand and channel. I would love to find a good reason as to why some things work, I think it’s anyone’s guess.’

Claire Gleave, founder of Natal Active, has had mixed experiences with TikTok after going viral

Claire Gleave, founder of Natal Active, has had mixed experiences with TikTok after going viral 

This lack of understanding means it can be difficult to keep up momentum, and some creators have found themselves having to post more and more.

Candice said: ‘As time went on, I was finding I was needing to post more than once a day to get the same traction of views and interaction.’

And while the TikTok algorithm might seem to work for its billions of users who are presented with relevant content, it can also bring some unwanted attention.

‘I had a few videos that went viral and attracted the wrong kind of people, which is a complete waste of my time,’ said Claire. ‘I’m not interested in vanity metrics on TikTok, I want to attract my ideal customer. I don’t want a million followers if they’re all men that are interested in breastfeeding.

‘My understanding of the way the algorithm works is, it will throw your video out to say, 300 random people, and it will see who engages with it. Whoever engages with it, it will show to more of those kinds of people. If I get dodgy blokes engaging with a breastfeeding video, it just shows it to more and more of those people that have those kinds of predilections.

‘It’s not showing it to mums that are breastfeeding, which are the people that I want to target.’

Candice had a similar experience: ‘My product is aimed at women over 30, it couldn’t be any clearer. When I put my money behind it and looked at the stats, I was getting 14 year old boys. That’s such a waste of my money. It just didn’t make sense.’

Building brand awareness

What’s clear is that TikTok isn’t for every small business. The algorithm can be confusing and if you’re looking to directly communicate with your loyal followers, it’s probably not the platform for you.

Business owners who are not particularly clued up on social media might struggle with just how regularly you need to post on TikTok.

Candice said: ‘You need time to really put your energy into [social media platforms] to get momentum. I’m still working full-time trying to launch a business and trying to be on all of these platforms. You end up feeling like you’re spreading yourself too thin and not actually doing a very good job on any of your platforms.’

What it might help with is building brand awareness. Claire found she gets lots of traffic to her website from the platform when she’s regularly using it, and particularly when her videos have gone viral.

Dave Fishwick

‘I find it’s very much about brand awareness,’ she said. ‘When the wrong people drop off and the right people filter through, then we remarket through Instagram and Facebook adverts, and the occasional TikTok advert when I’m running them.’

For Claire, TikTok might not be the runaway success she might have thought it would be, but after a few viral videos she’s willing to try.

Her top tip for business owners is: ‘Get your face in front of the camera and try different things. I strongly advise going against anything that’s not in your niche, because follower numbers don’t mean much if they’re the wrong followers. You want people that are your ideal customers that want to buy your products.’

Candice is not so sure: ‘I don’t think it’s a business platform. I think it’s an influencer platform, and I think it’s a fun platform.’

By Angharad Carrick

Sourced from This is MONEY.co.uk

 

 

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Ryanair’s TikTok lays bare the dark, twisted heart of capitalism

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By James Greig

The budget airline’s social media represents a bold new era of advertising in which the customer, far from being always right, is a snivelling little worm

There has been much talk lately about online abuse, with both the British and American governments drafting strict new legislation aimed at tackling the problem. But the internet’s most venomous troll has slipped under the radar: ultra-budget airline Ryanair. Casting aside the idea that the customer is always right, the brand’s social media presents a new, black-pilled mode of advertising in which the customer is both petulant brat and spineless coward, grumbling impotently as they submit to ever more degrading treatment.

Ryanair’s TikTok views the people who use its services with disdain and delights in the terrible service it provides them, safe in the knowledge that we are too broke to fly elsewhere. Taking all of the things which people hate about the company and turning them into a source of self-deprecating humour, it jokes about charging people for breathing, mocks customers for complaining about flights “which no one forced them to book”, gloats about having window seats with no windows and charging extortionate additional fees.

With both its TikTok and Twitter accounts, Ryanair has trapped its customers in a dom/sub dynamic. In one sense, it’s like the big-dicked top who fucks you good, treats you like shit and knows you’ll come crawling back for more. But the analogy breaks down when you consider that the company has no redeeming qualities other than cost: it’s more like a lover sending you a series of gloating texts about how terrible they are in bed, safe in the knowledge that you have no better options because you’re a broke-ass loser. Plenty of people lap this up, barking like seals (or replying “savage!!!”) at their own abjection. Over the last few years, the account has gained millions of followers and widespread acclaim. “The voice doesn’t just sound human. It sounds like a hilarious member of Gen Z: fluent in the latest memes, ready to pounce on bad takes and eager to troll for likes,” enthused one article in The Washington Post, which described it as “the most savage account of any airline”.

Ryanair’s antagonistic, self-mocking approach isn’t entirely new. Brands have been using irony for decades, usually in an attempt to capture something about the zeitgeist: in the 1990s it was slacker disaffection, today it is informed by the often chaotic and nihilistic humour of social media. Companies have previously embraced a bad reputation in an effort to transform it (one 2004 Skoda advert was premised entirely on the fact that everyone hated their product) and others have leaned into obnoxiousness – Cards Against Humanity, for example, once crowd-funded $100,000 to dig a hole in the ground. When people complained, “why didn’t you donate it to charity?” they replied, “why didn’t the donators?” Pretty twisted stuff… More recently, there has been a trend of advertising based on the idea that capitalism sucks: a Subway/UberEats advert with the slogan, “when your day is long, go footlong”, and a footwear brand cracking jokes about how young people today will never be able to retire.

As journalist Tristan Cross writes in The Guardian, these adverts “self-consciously [ape] the sardonic disaffection and dejection that many of us feel” and “affect a knowing posture, as if they, too, share our dissatisfactions with the modern world”. But this is slightly different to what Ryanair is doing: the brands mentioned above are coming to you as a friend, smiling in commiseration, and promising you respite from a cold and uncaring world. The Ryanair TikTok account is the cold and uncaring world. It is the sneering face of capitalist domination, lip-syncing to an audio recording of a toddler or a sassy exchange from a Bravo series.

Like Ray Liotta in Goodfellas, Ryanair’s message is simple: fuck you, pay me. Forgot to print out your boarding pass because you’re an old-age pensioner and you don’t know what an app is? Fuck you, pay me. Your luggage weighs a couple of grams over the limit because you’re transporting your grandmother’s ashes? Fuck you, pay me. Your flight has been cancelled through no fault of your own and you need to rebook? Fuck you, that’ll be £80. As a brand, they do not pretend to “value” their customers – we are profit cows and nothing more. CEO Michael O’Leary said himself that he would charge us to use the bathroom if he could. Instead of trying to gloss over this cold-blooded, mercenary streak, the Ryanair TikTok account embraces it.

There is admittedly something refreshing in its refusal to frame a transactional relationship in the sentimental terms of family or friendship. This is a carefully considered marketing strategy, no more authentic or anarchic than any other, and the decision to not sound “too corporate” has, of course, been signed off by corporate executives. It’s still capitalism with a human face, it’s just presenting itself as an outrageous oomfie rather than as a kindly neighbour or supportive friend. But the company’s celebration of its own greed does hint at a larger truth.

While they typically expend great effort in persuading us otherwise, the Ryanair approach is – at heart – how every business views its customers, from the major corporations downwards (except for youth culture and fashion publications, it should go without saying!) The cute little queer cafe that serves snacks and hosts Heartstopper viewing parties. The girl you went to uni with who has started hawking ethically sourced healing crystals on Instagram. The ten-year-old Girl Guide knocking on your door with a tray of home-baked cookies and a fantastical tall tale about raising funds for a local hospice. If they could get away with it, they would all slit your throat for the change in your pocket. Ryanair is just one of the few companies saying it out loud, having calculated – it would seem correctly – that we would find this admission funny.

In this respect, the Ryanair TikTok account shares a spiritual kinship with Donald Trump. As political theorist Corey Robin argues in The Reactionary Mind, part of the former president’s appeal was his willingness to expose the moral emptiness of capitalism, even as he revelled in it. Where previous generations of right-wing politicians had venerated the free market as a site of heroic and noble deeds, for Trump it was simply a matter of winning or losing – as he put it, investing in the stock market was no different from playing poker in a casino. Even though he proposed little in the way of changing it, Trump punctured some of the more flattering illusions about how our economy functions – and many people loved him for it. Are you starting to see the parallels yet? Only time can tell whether fans of the Ryanair TikTok account will go on to attempt an insurrection of their own, perhaps storming the British Airways Member’s Lounge in a fit of populist hysteria.

All that said, it would be overstating the case to praise Ryanair for its brutal honesty. While the company is happy to poke fun at its minor sins, the inconveniences and shakedowns with which anyone who has flown with them will already be familiar, it is not cracking jokes about its allegedly terrible working conditions, its violation of labour laws or the fact it was reprimanded by a watchdog for misleading claims about being a “low-CO2 emissions” airline, when it is in fact one of the worst polluters in Europe.

Ryanair’s bolshy TikTok account might be a calculated bit of schtick, but it’s entirely in line with the ethos of CEO Michael O’Leary, a man who admires Margaret Thatcher, who remarked that environmentalists should be shot, and once said, “You’re not getting a refund so fuck off. We don’t want to hear your sob stories. What part of ‘no refund’ don’t you understand?” Is this endearing brusqueness, or the contempt of a multimillionaire towards ordinary people? And is it an attitude any more charming when transposed onto the grotesque lips of an anthropomorphised airplane? Some of the videos are quite funny, and they are clearly an effective marketing tactic, but there’s something ugly at the heart of it all. If you want a picture of the future, imagine the Ryanair TikTok account calling you a pathetic little worm – forever.

Feature Image Credit: Courtesy Ryanair / Tiktok

By James Greig

Sourced from DAZED

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‘They love being heard’: How Bubble built an avid fan base via TikTok and brand ambassadors

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By Julia Waldow

Bubble, a Gen Z-focused skincare brand, is taking off on TikTok.

Over the last five months, Bubble more than doubled its number of followers from 500,000 to 1.1 million people. Several of its videos, which Bubble typically posts once a day, have millions or hundreds of thousands of views.

Bubble’s business has ballooned across channels since Bubble launched at the end of 2020. Thanks to a recently-expanded partnership with Ulta Beauty, Bubble’s products — which vary from moisturizers to masks — are available in around 9,000 stores in the U.S., including CVS and Walmart locations. Bubble’s online sales have grown 1,000% year-over-year, while its in-store sales have spiked 800%. This number could be higher, though, because Bubble runs out of inventory quickly due to rising demand, CEO Shai Eisenman told Modern Retail.

On TikTok, all of Bubble’s reach is 100% organic, according to Eisenman. “It’s something we’re super proud of,” she said. Some of Bubble’s TikTok videos are educational (why the brand is fragrance free, for example), while others jump on social media trends (like rolling a product down a set of stairs to see if it breaks). One of its newest videos, which advertises Bubble’s new Cloud Surf moisturizer, racked up some 220,000 views in the first two hours. As of July 21, it had 696,000 views.

Bubble is on other platforms, too, although it has fewer followers there than on TikTok. The aforementioned Cloud Surf video, for instance, had 7,300 views on YouTube Shorts and 11,000 likes on Instagram, as of July 21.

Eisenman attributes the brand’s fast growth on TikTok to its relationship with customers. Bubble replies to nearly every comment posted on its TikTok videos, it’s amassed an ambassador program of 7,000 fans and it features user generated content (UGC) in its posts. One of Bubble’s most recent TikTok videos, which thanks fans for helping the company reach 1 million followers on the platform, includes videos of customers explaining what they like about the brand. Many Bubble fans will post videos of their product hauls or give tips or tricks for how to use items under the hashtag #bubble.

Bubble will sometimes use UGC to come up with its products. One recent example is the brand’s new plushie, a new category for Bubble. Eisenman told Modern Retail that she was watching fans’ videos showing their product hauls and noticed that many of the TikTokers had stuffed animals in the background. That observation, combined with the knowledge that one of Bubble’s most popular products is its moisturizers, led Eisenman and her team to develop a plushie version of Bubble’s Slam Dunk moisturizer. A video teasing the plushie has 547,000 views, with comments such as “BUYING WHEN IT COMES” and “OMG IT’S A SQUISHMELLOW OF BUBBLE?!”

Bubble typically enjoys a spike in sales after posting TikTok videos. In January, Bubble saw its sales through Walmart stores double after a video from a TikTok user went viral. But, Eisenman says she doesn’t think of TikTok primarily as a sales channel, although people can buy products via a link in Bubble’s TikTok bio.

“It’s really hard for us to come and say, ‘Oh, this is a sales channel,’ because honestly, most of our sales happen in-store and in retail and Walmart and CVS and Ulta,” she said. “But obviously, TikTok is fueling that growth significantly.”

Instead, Eisenman said she wants to use TikTok to build brand awareness, engage with customers and explain Bubble’s values. “We constantly adapt and post content and speak to our audience as if it’s a conversation,” Eisenman said. “And that’s, I think, something that’s very unique in terms of just our growth and in terms of our community, because they love being heard.”

Bubble’s ambassador program is key to this effort. Bubble has set up chat channels on the app Geneva to collect feedback from Bubble’s biggest fans. “Everything we want to launch, everything we want to do, they’re a part of,” Eisenman said. “We send them pictures of stuff way before they launch, and they help us choose names, and they help us choose packaging. And they’re truly a part of the ideating and the decision-making process in the company.”

Bubble’s ambassador program is so popular that it has a waitlist of more than 41,000 people. Eisenman said. She said the brand is focused on “accepting as many people as possible,” but that because many applicants are under 18 years old, Bubble needs to get consent from their parents. “That’s why it takes a very long time to actually go through the list,” Eisenman said.

Bubble’s brand ambassadors need to be at least 14 years old; have at least one valid and active social media account on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest or YouTube; and provide a valid personal email address (plus a parent or guardian email address if under the age of 18).

Kimberley Ring Allen, founder of Ring Communications and adjunct professor at Suffolk University, applauded Bubble’s community-based strategy, calling it “smart.”

When TikTok first launched, Allen said, brands wanted to churn out as much content as possible. “Everybody was spending all their time making videos, right?” she told Modern Retail. “You had just been pumping out videos, and sometimes they would get views, and sometimes they wouldn’t. And that’s because there was no strategy.”

Now, Allen said, companies are thinking about channels like TikTok more as community-building tools. It’s not enough just to post content, she said — brands have to form a relationship with consumers. This is especially important, Allen added, because today’s consumers are “very ad-aware.” “The second they see an ad, they know to ignore it,” she said.

Brands are constantly trying to formulate new and existing TikTok strategies, but some work better than others. The food-saving app Too Good To Go posts its own content, but largely benefits from viral videos of customers showing off how much food they can get for $3.99. Brands like Pepsi and Pizza Hut have found mixed success in creating their own TikTok sounds in the hopes of going viral.

Ultimately, companies that use TikTok to collect feedback from fans and interact with customers will see the benefits from that, Allen said. “They turn their customers into prosumers,” she said. “Like, you know, your feedback is important, we want you to test these new products. They make them feel super appreciated… [and] they stay engaged.”

Feature Image Credit: Bubble

By Julia Waldow

Sourced from ModernRetail

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