Week 11 Part A: Marketing With Other Social Media

         When thinking of a good platform to market my business concept, I thought of how podcasts have more recently become a popular outlet for entertainment. With this in mind, I figured it would make sense to use a platform that has gained similar popularity. I was very against TikTok for a long time because of all the talk of our data being used against us and blah blah blah...which is probably true, but that was happening regardless with the FBI agents watching us through our phone cameras. 

        I've seen multiple TikToks that promote podcasts and get a lot of attention. The "For You" page is really a powerful place. There is a podcast that I've mentioned in another post called This Past Weekend, and I actually discovered the podcast on TikTok. When I did my research into Theo Von's podcast and the social media platforms that he utilizes to promote his podcast I didn't even think to look at his TikTok, but TikTok is where he gets the most involvement from viewers. It's the perfect platform to post videos from the podcast because you can do 15 seconds, one minute, or three minutes. I've scrolled through the This Past Weekend TikTok profile and have found that the videos that are 10 to 30 seconds have the most likes and comments. I haven't seen any of these posts being sponsored, but I know that this is an option to promote content as well. 

        I went to Google to find prices for creating ads on TikTok, but somehow I got sucked in to making a profile to make ads on the app. It gives you options in creating campaigns whether you want to have full control or a simplified version. I selected a simplified version because I'm not interested in doing advertisements at the moment. The next section asks about your goals in advertising whether it be to generate traffic to the account, get more page follows or profile visits, get contact information to connect with potential customers, or website conversions to bring people to your site. After this you get to narrow down your target audience with demographics and psychographics. Once you narrow down your targeted audience you select a daily or lifetime budget. I noticed that the minimum for a daily budget is ten dollars. This doesn't seem to be a bad deal considering how many people use the app.

        Even without paying to create ads for TikTok you can gain traffic by posting enough. There is a TikToker that I can't remember the name of, but he expressed that he gained popularity by just making sure that he posted enough. I've seen this happen firsthand, but it's been for sad things. Videos have come up on my FYP that are of pet owners who ask for engagement on the video so that their pet can get a surgery that is expensive. Of course I watch the video three times, like it, and then go to their profile to help them out. With consistency, I've found that these posts are one of ten to twenty identical posts. I recognize that these videos are serious videos with a serious goal, but the concept of it seems applicable to my content. 

        To use TikTok for my business there are multiple options to gain a following and attention. Once the podcast is up and running I want to try to post content at least once a day with snippets of our show, and try the concept of the repetition to see if the same videos can get more views and likes just by being posted multiple times. If this doesn't gain the attention desired we can try to do the paid advertisements. Truthfully, random content can get a lot of attention overnight. My latest reel on Instagram for the podcast has over 2,500 views and it wasn't anything special or different from my other content. I believe that if we post enough and use hashtags that we will be able to gain some ground from the TikTok platform.