TikTok Now Tops Twitter in Adult News
TikTok Has Tons of Lessons to Teach Entrepreneurs
The wildly popular app
may be a target of a China-wary Congress. But what it has accomplished is
something that we can't ignore.
BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1
Leaving aside all the
crazy MAGA conversations about whether TikTok is really another subversive
scheme by the Chinese Communist Party (along with Covid-19 and Fentanyl)
designed to poison the minds of young Americans, the fact is that there's an
enormous amount that entrepreneurs and business builders can learn from the
popular app. How is it that, rapidly and remarkably, TikTok has taken
over online entertainment media, peer-to-peer education, celebrity commerce,
news, and even everyday political conversations?
TikTok has become the
short-form, algo-driven, sugary sweet, bite-sized attention grabber that is
here to stay whatever you hear or think about the Chinese boogeyman. And it's
about a lot more than video recipes for baking drug-laced brownies, fixing your
fantasy face, or parkour pranks and bungee jumps. TikTok is a powerful and
valuable resource that is changing the daily behavior of tens of millions of
people worldwide -- an emancipating revelation for young and old listeners and
learners as well as a lightning-fast tool for distributing and democratizing
news, content, and commerce. More than a third of the users say that TikTok is
where they get their daily dose of news and, overall, they open the app on
average eight times a day.
The core and critical TT
lessons are less about the content (so much of which is admittedly useless
crap) and far more about how TikTok emerged, quickly and continually morphed,
and set about eating the lunch of the traditional entertainment and media in
what I would call a textbook case of Clay Christensen's vision of disruptive innovation. Except today it
happens in triple time. Quick and dirty, simple to use, bottoms up entry,
ignored and ridiculed by the big guys for too long, constant iteration based on
user feedback and very smart technology. And then, all at once, TikTok is
sitting on top of the heap. Creators and visitors today are on the app more
than 95 minutes a day on average and about 26 hours a month. 00:00
01:53
Yet the TikTok takeover
wasn't exactly an overnight success or even much of a surprise to the folks who
were watching and living through the process. Anyone who thinks that the TikTok
creators are just a bunch of kids rather than the next generation of entrepreneurs
simply isn't paying attention --- attention being the critical currency of
today and tomorrow. The TikTokers have absolutely mastered the triple talents
of grabbing attention, leveraging virality and engineering authentic
engagement. Half a dozen of the TT leaders each have more than 50 million
engaged and active followers who are willing to share and spread the gospel
daily.
Maybe what spooks the
politicians is that TikTok is just getting started in building its economic
engine. Already, more than five million U.S. businesses actively use TikTok,
including Inc. Sponsors, brands, and advertisers are welcome,
and TikTok is building out management and agency support as well as a
marketplace for creators to assist in the process of matching the proper
parties with the best messengers. TikTok will be the lead sponsor of the 2024
Met Gala. (See https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-goes-to-the-met
.) Creators will soon be able to sell
their merch directly. A billion-dollar TikTok Creator fund will provide direct
financial payments to attract, support and compensate new creators. And, in a
throwback to the old days of appointment TV, TikTok is launching nightly
programming which -- just a guess -- may be the last nail in the coffin of the
very old, stale, and tired late-night TV shows.
So, if you're trying to
build your business and create buzz, here are four of the most important TikTok
tactics to keep in mind.
1.
Build a Culture of Support, Cooperation, and Partnership with your Key Players.
Only two industries call
their customers "users" -- tech businesses and drug dealers. TikTok
decided early on that even "influencers" was too passive a
description and not a strong enough identity. "Creators" meant power,
agency, and talent as well as a desire to make something. They are happy to
work together, collaboratively, and competitively, and alongside TikTok to make
their dreams and desires real. Unlike Uber, which treated its drivers as
disposable cogs, or other sites which initially served everyone but the talent,
TikTok made creators the central focus of its attention from the outset and the
creators returned the favor. More than 80% of TikTok's 1.1 billion monthly
active users have posted a video. It's a two-way partnership and a mutual
admiration society.
2.
Explain and Insist Upon a Fierce Work Ethic, Accountability, and Everyday
Output.
Creators listen and
learn from their peers, copy, and build upon the best work they see elsewhere.
They quickly realize that it's a 24/7 undertaking if they want to keep up,
build their base, and hold on to their followers. Everything is about speed and
currency and, if you don't have something new and different to say today, your
visitors will quickly go elsewhere. Interestingly enough, in this rapid-fire
world, chunky clunky, unpolished video reads as authentic rather than
amateurish. Another lesson the
old-time makers never learned. Nonetheless, for the
serious creators, it's still a much higher bar than many beginners realize and
a lifestyle that leads to exactly the same kind of rude awakening which many
new employees in other startups and high-growth businesses experience as well
as early burnout. Success in this space also requires that the company itself
be attentive, responsive, and infused with the same sense of urgency as all of
the other parties.
3.
Keep Moving the Cheese and Stay Ahead of the Competition.
When the competition
wakes up, we want them to find our smoldering campfires while we're already
over the next hill. Iteration and constant improvement are the whole ballgame,
and no one has moved faster than TikTok. While the traditional players continue
to ask their users to fit within their systems, TikTok listens aggressively to
its creators' needs and moves quickly to respond. A great example is the length
of permitted videos which started at one minute, moved to three minutes, and is
now at 10 minutes. That opened up new opportunities and changed the game
entirely. This adjustment was largely creator and data driven. Engaged viewers
are far more willing than anticipated to watch their favorite creators' work
for longer periods of time.
4.
Make Sure Your Technology is Top Notch.
While the front ends of
the various video players may look similar, it's what's under the hood in terms
of technology and how the specific content is parsed, selected, and delivered
to each follower that really differentiates the competitors. TikTok's
development of the "For You" page algorithm represented a material
departure from the way that the game had been played and a major growth
accelerant as well as a powerful tool in securing and cementing engagement.
Previous programs fed visitors content from sites that the given viewer
followed - a somewhat closed loop and really limited discovery. TikTok's system
listened and watched what you were actually selecting and viewing in full as
well as what you skipped over and then - from a vastly larger universe -
selected and sent you content that the algorithm thought you'd most enjoy. This
was a page taken right out the Steve Jobs bible. His famous quote: "People
don't know what they want until you show it to them." TikTok did just
that.
TikTok has plenty of old
and new competitors, but no equals on the near horizon. If politics and
regulators don't get in the way, it's hard to imagine that TikTok won't
overtake Facebook and Google in the next year or two and become the world
leader in social media.
