Is It Time To Join TikTok? - Episode 14

Ty Smith0:04

Welcome to another episode of the Crypto Marketing Show. My name is Ty Daniel Smith.

TJ0:07

My name is TJ.

Ty Smith0:08

We got TJ here, and...

Kylie0:08

Kylie.

Ty Smith0:09

We have Kylie here as well. Today we are discussing the question that's on everyone's mind: is it time to join TikTok?

TJ0:14

Well, if you've talked to me in the last couple months, you know what I think.

Ty Smith0:16

Your Twitter account has become basically a TikTok account.

TJ0:19

That's not true. I still tweet a lot of other stuff, but I have been talking a lot, a lot, a lot about TikTok to a lot of different people.

Kylie0:23

They need to send you a paycheck for how much marketing you do for them.

Ty Smith0:26

Yeah, you and Gary V are on the affiliate program, I'm pretty sure.

TJ0:26

Low-key, I'm low-key sponsored by TikTok. Don't tell anybody.

Ty Smith0:28

Yeah, you have a ref code to give out?

TJ0:29

No, small, small equity.

Ty Smith0:31

Okay, got you. So, do you think it's time to join? Obviously, you do.

TJ0:33

Yeah, 100%. I think...

Ty Smith0:34

Why?

TJ0:35

A lot of different reasons. I mean, obviously, our whole job, our whole thing is in attention. We're always trying to keep our pulse on where different people's attention is going.

Ty Smith1:06

Us being Coinbound.

TJ1:06

Coinbound, yeah. As an agency, as a, entity, group, whatever you want to call it. We are always trying to pay attention to what other people are paying attention to and keep our eye on where that stuff is going.

TJ1:14

So, recently there's definitely been a big uptick in TikTok and the amount of attention that's been on it, mostly because it's been kind of building more or less under the radar in the United States because it's from China.

TJ1:23

And it's been huge over there. It's owned by a parent company, I think it's called ByteDance, B-Y-T-E. And they have a multitude of different other apps that did different things. I don't know if people know that TikTok actually used to be Musical.ly.

TJ1:32

Which blew up here a while ago. A bunch of younger people were using it and they had a lot of active users. And so ByteDance acquired Musical.ly for that user base, rebranded it to TikTok, totally remade the app. It's a much, much better app. And it's got a lot of unique factors and features and things that are getting people's attention.

TJ2:08

So now once we see, okay, this is getting people's attention, we can see based on the trends that it will grow exponentially over the next year. Now it's time to start getting involved.

Kylie2:16

And I think it's important to remind everyone, we're not just talking about crypto brands or crypto influencers or anything like that. We're talking about everybody. You should all be on TikTok.

Ty Smith2:24

Yeah, but especially crypto. Especially crypto because, just like we were talking about in the SEO episode, the earlier you get in, the more likely it is that you can establish yourself as sort of the go-to blog post or the go-to TikTok account.

Ty Smith2:35

So right now, if you were to type in crypto in TikTok, there's only a handful of accounts. I think that makes it worthwhile because, one, like I said, you're the go-to account, so everyone that joins that's in that industry and interested in that will find your account.

Ty Smith3:08

And two, because you're the quickest to learn what performs well and what doesn't perform well on TikTok.

TJ3:13

Well, and it's just a matter of that's where a lot of people's attention are. So if it depends on the type of content you're trying to make, but if you're trying to onboard new people and get young people interested in it, I mean, generations is another thing to talk about, too. I mean, that is the Generation Z is what is on TikTok.

TJ3:22

And I feel strongly that that younger generation is what's going to understand Bitcoin and it's going to be attractive to them. And digital assets and things in a digital world isn't strange to them. They grew up with Webkinz and they're used to...

Kylie3:31

Tamagotchi.

TJ3:32

Yeah, well, I mean, we, yeah. People before Generation Z had Tamagotchis, but...

Kylie3:35

Webkinz was before Generation Z.

TJ3:36

No, but what was unique about that is the digital thing was more important than the actual physical product.

TJ3:39

So, I remember I heard somebody speak at a conference one time when he was talking about this and how it really blew his mind was his daughter wanted this toy, this animal, stuffed animal really bad. He didn't know. She was talking about it for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. 'I really want this.' And he was not ready yet. Finally, okay, we can get it. She gets it one day. She's so excited, happy as she could ever be. The next day, he sees her sister walking around with the stuffed animal.

TJ4:20

And so he's like, 'What the heck? Why did...' And he said, 'Why do you have that?' 'Oh, she traded it to me.' And so he asks his other daughter, 'Why did you do that? I thought you wanted this really, really bad.' She's like, 'No, I just wanted the online. I didn't care about that. I just wanted the digital pet to take care of.'

Kylie4:28

Because you can hang out with all your friends with Webkinz.

TJ4:29

Right, because that was the whole point was for the digital product. So...

Kylie4:37

But also Generation Z is the hardest demographic to advertise to because they are the demographic that hates advertising the most. And they don't like when brands try to target them specifically. They want to choose what brands they consume, what products they buy, different things like that.

Kylie5:16

And the way that TikTok's algorithm is set up is it's very specific to the things that you engage with. It's so specific that it's almost crazy that everything on your timeline after using it for a couple weeks is now all things that you love to see.

TJ5:27

Yeah, no, that's a great point. TikTok's algorithm is unique because it is based on a machine, like the whole company is a machine learning company. So their whole algorithm is much more detailed as far as every, I mean, obviously, every action you take in every social media platform is tracked and is part of their algorithm.

TJ5:35

But theirs, they're pulling it in from a multitude of different apps over a multitude of different kind of stages of life and use cases of life to really dial this stuff in. So I'll be interested to see how it develops over the next year because they're really just starting to pump it in North America right now.

Kylie5:47

And how it's going to work with marketing on the app as well. How specific can you get when you're marketing on TikTok?

TJ6:18

Well, that's, yeah, they're doing some really interesting things with marketing. Like pretty much any rapper that has blown up in the last, in the US, in the last six months or so has done so via TikTok. Now, I don't know if that's direct partnerships that they do, their agent or their label does through TikTok.

TJ6:28

But there are definitely, if you look, there's featured sounds and there's, you know, there's all kinds of things that TikTok's doing to push content to the top. I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see a lot of Target showing up on TikTok pretty soon because they love that type of digital marketing. So I would, they're probably going to have a corporate deal with them. And I've noticed Apple, anything you post in the Apple Store...

Ty Smith6:39

Yeah, what's going on with that?

TJ6:40

Well, it could be a corporate sponsorship with Apple and TikTok.

Ty Smith6:44

Yeah, so lately we've seen a lot of people go viral posting Apple-related content, why I'm saying that.

TJ6:48

And so that could be a scenario where Apple is paying TikTok to boost videos that include their products.

Ty Smith6:52

Yeah, I wonder how that works. In terms of tips, obviously, it's relatively new to crypto and everything like that. So no one's really figured out what works and what doesn't work yet. But in your experience, what you guys have seen, what works and what should people kind of try to incorporate into the content they're creating?

TJ7:28

On TikTok?

Ty Smith7:28

On TikTok.

TJ7:29

Anything works.

Kylie7:30

Or doesn't work. Right, like that's the thing is you really don't know because it's everybody else deciding what goes viral.

TJ7:35

And really what the answer is is it's not one video. Don't try to make the one that's going to go viral. It's, you know, it's quality and quantity. So make a lot of different videos, put a lot of different stuff out there. And the one that you don't think is going to go viral will, and the one that you're 100%...

Ty Smith7:45

Viboy's was great. Viboy's, the, what was it, SeaWorld? The SeaWorld, I've never seen a prison this close up before. Yeah, check that out. It's great.

TJ7:50

So random.

Ty Smith7:50

Yeah, and Nye is killing it on TikTok as well.

TJ7:52

Yeah, okay.

Kylie7:52

And if you guys want to make me famous on TikTok, KylieGetLow.

Ty Smith7:54

KylieGetLow, very clever. Viboy gave her that.

TJ8:21

And I'm excited to see what some of the creative people, Crypto Euclid just starting to mess with it. I know he's going to come up with some creative stuff.

Ty Smith8:25

I like his stuff. He has not gone viral as far as I know yet, but in my mind, he's gone viral because I love all his stuff.

TJ8:29

And so, I guess, like on a more practical sense, obviously, it's easy to say make a lot of stuff, but that's, that's kind of hard. In a more practical way, what I tell people, download the app first, play with it for about two weeks, or I say up, you know, 20 to 30 hours depending on how much time you're investing. If it's 20 minutes a day or an hour a day or whatever.

TJ8:41

But once you get 20 to 30 hours in, the algorithm will probably be pretty well getting you the type of content that you relate to. And then you'll probably start to understand how it works. Another thing I tell people to do a lot is when you see something funny or like a video that you like, always click down to the sounds. A lot of people when they first start using it don't realize that you can link to the sound and then see the other sounds that people made to it.

Ty Smith8:49

Yeah, it's cool. They've kind of turned songs into hashtags.

TJ8:57

Well, yeah. Basically, that's one of the unique factors about TikTok is it's the first social media platforms where a sound goes viral.

Ty Smith8:55

Yeah.

TJ8:57

And that's never existed in social media before. So that's why it's going to be great for musicians, it's going to be great for comedians, it's going to be great for, inspirational speakers, that type of stuff, because those sounds have a potential now to go viral. So when you find a funny sound, go through, watch what other people have done, get some ideas, either recreate it or favorite it and save it for later to recreate it.

TJ9:36

So that's what I, starting out, consume first, then create based on the trends, based on what other stuff is going viral, usually viral sounds, and then start working in some of your own original content.

Ty Smith9:49

Yeah, and if you find something that works or doesn't work, let us know because we're, we love learning about this stuff and, and the more information we have, basically, the better.

TJ9:55

Right. And if you're good and having some success and want some more help, we've got a little TikTok group growing, so hit us up and we'll get you in there.

Ty Smith9:58

We do. We have a specialty group.

Kylie9:59

We like to, we like to share the love for all of our TikTokers.

Ty Smith10:26

Right. We're all trying to figure this out together.

TJ10:29

We're all in this together. So if we all get on there and grow, it'll be good. And it's fun. It's really a very fun, very addicting. Anybody who hasn't messed with it yet, once you start doing it, it's hard to put down.

Kylie10:35

It's, so I was reading an article about TikTok and why it's holding our attention. That's literally the, the title. But she says something really interesting and explains it in a way like, because I'm trying to tell my friends, anybody that I meet really, 'Hey, like get on TikTok,' because you have a much higher potential to go viral on TikTok than any other platform that's out there right now.

Kylie10:49

And something interesting that she talks about is she doesn't feel compelled to go on TikTok because she has to keep up with her friends or know what's going on. She feels compelled to go onto TikTok because it is a platform that has specialized all of the content to her and makes it much more enjoyable to consume.

TJ11:02

Right. No, it is really cool. And the other thing on that sound piece is that you can't consume it on mute. It's the first social media platform that the sound has to be on. So you're extremely engaged and you're into the content completely.

Kylie11:35

Which is what makes it all the better for marketing.

TJ11:36

Exactly.

Ty Smith11:37

Yeah, yeah. Very, very cool stuff. So, yeah, remember to rate, review, recommend, and update us on any information you find out about TikTok, what's working for you, what's not working for you, and maybe we can help each other. Follow us on TikTok. Let's...

TJ11:47

Yeah, follow us everywhere. TikTok, Twitter...

Ty Smith11:48

Coinbound, I think it's Coinbound.

TJ11:49

Coinbound, yeah.

Kylie11:50

Coinbound, KylieGetLow.

TJ11:51

YoungDumbCrypto with a, yeah, with a zero. I mean, you can type Young Dumb Crypto.

Ty Smith11:53

Yeah, and I am @TyDanielSmith. But my content's pretty lame compared to everyone else's, to be honest. I haven't figured it out yet. I'm not that creative.

TJ11:58

We're helping the creative people dial in the algorithm right now before we're making too much of our own, but I'm excited to see what some of those people come up with.

Ty Smith12:03

Yeah. All right, that's all for today, guys. Thanks.

Kylie12:04

All right.