TikTok Newsletter 28
Inauguration. World Economic Forum. Dionne Warwick and the world’s first nuclear energy influencer
Hi subscriber,
this is Understanding TikTok your weekly infusion of TikTok related news. My name is Marcus.
Let´s start with a correction. While covering 🏛️🔥 TikTok & the Capitol siege last week i shared a TikTok video showing “a Capitol rioter upset because he’s on the no-fly list.” As Louise Matsakis rightly pointed out: the man was upset because he was directed to wear a face covering not on a No Fly list (he wouldn’t have made it to the boarding area) linking to the website PolitiFact by the Pointer Institute. Sorry for the mistake and thx a lot Louise!
If you followed the entire sea shanty thing (newsletter 27) here is the quote of the week by Rebecca Jennings: “The thing about viral sea shanties is that there is literally nothing to explain at all. There is no need to square sea shanty TikTok with our current political moment or pretend that there was something inevitable about the popularity of sea shanties in early January 2021...i regret to inform you: They are not here to save us.” 👏 Nevertheless, i will keep an eye on the phenomenon and discuss it with Raphael Smarzoch on Clubhouse, 21.1.2021, 9 PM CET (in german).
This week we talk about:
🇺🇸 The Inauguration & JournoTok
⛷️ The World Economic Forum Challenge
🎙️ Dionne Warwick waiting for you
⚛️ The world’s first nuclear energy influencer
🇺🇸 The Inauguration: Media companies stepping up their TikTok game
“13 TikToks so far, 8 push alerts. Busy day” tweets Alex Connor. She is the one producing TikTok videos for USA TODAY’s TikTok account. And: “I can’t believe @alexptachick actually approved this”.
Alex Ptachick is responsible for audience development at USA TODAY. Alex and Alex are talking about a TikTok video starring Bernie Sanders and his famous outfit. The image that has very quickly flooded the internet in endless meme variations.
While Charli D’Amelio did her make-up, had a dunkin donuts drink (her own i guess), did a dance tagging user Kamilabatti posting all three events to TikTok journalists in the US did their job. I counted more than 30 videos on the CBS News account: some TV recycling, some behind the scenes and some original social content. NBC LX storyteller Chase Cain was on the ground, at least getting a glimpse of “Biden & Harris arrive at the White House!”
While my entire For You page had not a single video about this historic day, the hashtag search on #Inauguration #Inaugurationday #Inaugurationday2021 only showed days old stuff or people filming their TV to me. If you had the same and want to change that you probably need to a) choose and actively follow some media accounts b) change the channel from “For You” to “Following” c) educate the algorithm by watching more news on TikTok. There is quite some to choose from. As a constant reminder here is the list with nearly 200 publishers and journalists on TikTok.
And just in case you missed it. Nathan Apodaca, the Ocean Spray TikTok star was part of the Inauguration Parade too. Is that a first sign of Biden just forgetting about this whole idea to ban TikTok in the US? 🛹
⛷️#MyBigIdea
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has joined TikTok in September 2019. According to Digital Diplomacy it is one of the biggest NGOs on the platform, besides e.g. International Federation of the Red Cross and Crescent Societies.
After having launched a quite successful Hashtag challenge together with TikTok #allthedifference (4,9B views) in January 2020 the WEF is about to launch a TikTok campaign on 25 January 2021 using the Hashtag #MyBigIdea. Quote: “So, what kinds of ideas are we talking about? They can be anything you like - from a science project you’re working on to clever way to recycle plastic bottles, from solutions for students struggling with online learning to a way to fight racial discrimination.”
While #AllTheDifference left a lot of room for individual expression #MyBigIdea is pretty focused on makers and entrepreneurs. Let´s see if they can be lured into participating when the pretty vague and soft reward sounds like this: “The #MyBigIdea videos with the most likes will be featured in a web article going out to the World Economic Forum’s social media following of 27 million people. The most popular ideas will also be considered by Uplink’s judges, and the contributors contacted directly.” 🧐
The World Economic Forum is a foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. It is known for holding a yearly meeting in Davos. Important leaders from politics (such as presidents) and the economy are given an opportunity to talk. These meetings are often criticised because they are seen as a vehicle to further capitalism in the world by anti-capitalists and supporters of antiglobalization.
If you are an NGO looking for TikTok ideas i recommend the “Handbook for TikTok for non-profits and digital diplomacy - A practitioners manual with tips and best practices to leverage TikTok for good, for government, and for social impact” by Andreas Sandre.
🎙️Dionne Warwick is waiting for you
In march 2020 when people were learning how to really wash their hands a TikTok video of former disco queen Gloria Gaynor was shared widely. At least i thought so. 838,1K views and 67,2K likes. This of course is not very often compared to let´s say the 32,1M views and 7,1M likes that Olivia Rodrigo got for a single driver´s licence video. Whatever this is 2021 and not 1978. Gloria Gaynor is down to an average of just under 5000 views. And it just goes to show that the overall majority of users on TikTok was born right before or after 2000. And is not that much into 1970s disco these days.
Obviously TikTok’s main user base right now is not so very much into the 1960s either. Despite the NME (that was a very influential music paper back in the last century) writing “Dionne Warwick is now on TikTok” as a headline not that many people seem to care. Since January 19 Dionne is waiting for more followers. She tweeted that she will start posting on TikTok when hitting 10K. Right now (January 20) there are only 4458. Say a little prayer.
⚛️ The world’s first nuclear energy influencer
This story has all it needs to fit Mel magazine from L.A. A lifestyle and culture magazine covering “sex, relationships, health, money, work and culture” and nuclear power. They have a portrait of the 30-year-old Brazilian model Isabelle Boemeke: A fashion model since the age of 17 with no formal scientific training, Boemeke might seem an unlikely nuclear energy advocate. The fact that Boemeke is self-taught and relatively removed from academia and the industry is part of what makes her such an effective science communicator.
Visual appealing due to a wild mixture of “eye-catching outfits, vaporwave-y aesthetic flourishes, pitch-shifted vocals, fast cutting, subverted internet tropes and unforgettable analogies” as Madeleine Holden writes. Brands trying to do TikTok should check out the wild mixture of hashtags, visual aesthetics and storytelling. Would love to hear Joseph Beuys thoughts on that. Oh, and there is another article about TikTok and depression on the Mel website too.
You have reached the end. Find more links on Twitter. Share with a friend. Or send mails. I answer all two of them. Speak soon. Ciao. Marcus 🍋