A 15-hour Ban, User-Generated Content and a Run on Feta

Katie Flynn: Welcome to The Flynn Effect podcast, where we dive deep into all things culture, industry news, and history, all with the goal of helping our clients perform better. Heather, AKA, he-shirs, AKA, professional yapper. Thank you so much for joining me on The Flynn Effect podcast.

Heather Riexinger: My favorite thing, talking.

Katie Flynn: That’s why I chose you for one of our very first guests, because I knew that you could hack it. Great. And today we’re gonna talk about TikTok. So we’re coming off the heels of the weekend in which the band lasted all of what, 14 hours, I believe?

Heather Riexinger: My Saturday night was rough.

Katie Flynn: Yeah, were you like trying to get the last little bits? I tried. Cause I stayed up late.

Heather Riexinger: Yeah, I thought it was gonna be midnight and 10 30 really threw me for a loop.

Katie Flynn: Oh, is that when you got the notice?

Heather Riexinger: The bedtime scrolling that I usually do, gone.

Katie Flynn: Yeah, I stayed up later than usual. I have a baby, so I tried to go to bed at like 9 30. 11 ish, I think rolls around. And even in the morning, I could refresh it a little bit and still see what was already loaded, but then it just slowly crackled away. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I know we joke all the time about how we’re, the old people who are on TikTok here, I know we’ve got a lot of other folks who have different preferences, X, which is such a bizarre one to me, but Instagram, of course. But you are usually pretty aware of the big trends that are going on, right? And I think from a agency perspective and what our clients are doing, we have started to get some questions around TikTok and how they should be on it. And now there’s this big question of, is it even going to exist, which is a whole different thing, but assuming that something like TikTok or TikTok is going to be around, do you think that there are specific tips that brands might move forward with that will help them play better or just trends you’ve seen from large brands that you think have done well?

Heather Riexinger: Yeah, I think what makes TikTok so special and why I spend my time there is the authenticity. And so it’s gonna be so much, it’s so much different from brands and brands that have had success there is you can’t plan out a content calendar. You just have to go with what feels right in the moment, what those trends are. And for a lot of brands, that’s incredibly hard, especially when it comes to industries with compliance heavy regulations, is you can’t water this down. It just has to come from the heart and be true to what you’re doing. And that’s where all of the major influencers and the brands that are seeing success are coming from.

Katie Flynn: Yeah, and I think it’s interesting too. I had never heard of Scrub Daddy, for example, prior to TikTok, right? The sponge brand, but they’re not really putting ads out on their channels. Like it’s very much so just like getting in on the joke, right? Like that’s the fun about brands on TikTok is that they just play along and do the trends featuring their products or their people or whatever, but it feels a lot more organic. And I think that that is something that resonates with people a lot more than the traditional, you know, you gotta sell them in three seconds before they move past your ad. You know, from a best practices perspective, I know one thing that I have spoken about with clients who have said, you know, we’re contemplating putting up a TikTok account, I do think that consistent posting is also a thing. Like you have to post every day. I’ve even heard people say, if you wanna get a TikTok account up and running, you gotta post every day for 90 days. Like that’s gotta be your goal because the algorithm favors that so much. But it’s interesting because the other platforms aren’t like that. If you were to post every single day on Instagram reels, I do think people might be like, whoa, slow your roll here a little bit. If TikTok does go away, do you see a different platform that would take its place for you?

Heather Riexinger: I don’t think so because what I love about TikTok is exploring new things and I’m being presented with things I’m not searching for. And I think, you know, I saw a quote a while ago that said, Facebook makes you hate people you know and love and TikTok makes you love people you don’t know. And I don’t think anyone else does it well. Reels is very weird. TikTok, when TikTok came back, one of the best content pieces on Sunday happened to be people making fun of what they were seeing in reels for the 12 hours that it was gone. And I think the algorithm is just so good that it serves you what you’re looking for and that’s what pulls you into TikTok and makes it engaging.

Katie Flynn: Well, and it’s like Target, right? You go in there and Target tells you what you need. When you go into TikTok, it also tells you what you need. You don’t have to seek it out. So I totally agree with you on that. And I’ve seen some takes that, is it YouTube shorts? Are the equivalent to TikTok videos? I’m not in the loop on that. It’s something like that. So it’s the same format, short form video. But again, I think you’re right. I think it’s the algorithm that people really, you know, resonates with them. And I’ve seen people, like tons of people commenting on very niche videos that hit their pages that, you know, I built this for you page brick by brick. Like, you know, it takes a while to curate your content. And I was laughing this weekend because my dad was in town last week and I made him watch the Martha documentary on Netflix. Have you watched it? No. Oh my gosh. She’s such a badass, you have to. And she obviously was like robbed. But anyways, next day, TikTok somehow, I’m getting all Ina Garten, Martha Stewart, Witch Bone Kitchen, like to a T in terms of homesthetics, cooking videos. Like they just, it’s dialed in. And I think if that were to go away, I think we might have some resistance on other channels or maybe something new would emerge. I don’t know. You know, Vine was a thing for a minute.

Heather Riexinger: Yeah, and it’s given brands an opportunity to approach their customers in different ways. So one that I think of is Trippin’ with Tarte just happened. And I keep getting served ads for a Shape Tape now because I watched all of the content from a bunch of 20 something influencers and what they were doing on their vacation. But it’s such a different way that Tarte hasn’t been a makeup brand that’s been top of mind for me. But because of that content on TikTok and not just your standard ad, it’s now a top of mind brand in makeup for so many women. And so I think there’s just a lot of different ways that that content can be approached and served to people to your point before about posting often. The more people post, the algorithm does, I mean, not a brand, but Spencer Pratt. I’ve seen every single one of his videos. Because he’s posting so often and the algorithm’s also serving me now videos he made pre-fire that I had never seen because I wasn’t actively following him for the past year.

Katie Flynn: Right, right. It makes a big difference. I think if you put some real short-term effort in, you can get some long-term gains. You can really grow an audience fairly quickly there. And so from a brand’s perspective, I do think it’s important to have a person who thinks in that way. And they have to be super, super creative, right? Because that’s what TikTok really is all about, is its creativity and just getting in on the fun. I do wonder if those folks who are currently in roles like that are concerned about what happens next, or maybe they’re gonna be that much more valuable as we figure out if TikTok does go away, where they go from there. Now, the stay is for 75 days, 90 days. 75. 75. So we’ve got some more time. Yeah, somebody will buy it. It did make me a little concerned for myself that I was like, let me get my last couple hours in. And then even when I went back to it the next day, I was like, oh, there was a piece of me that was like, maybe I’ll get a little bit of my time and whatever else back, money for sure. But actually going down that path, one of the impacts that I just don’t quite understand why it isn’t being talked about a ton is the economic impact, right? When that recipe, the feta pasta, where you baked the feta and even the like borson cheese one afterwards, like there was a run on feta. You couldn’t get it anywhere for like weeks. You know, these trends have a real impact on people’s buying behaviors. And so whether you’re selling an actual product or a service or whatever, it seems like there’s a lot of potential there, but it also seems like there could be some detriment to brands who do really well there by us pulling back on these things. So I’d be interested to see where people go after this.

Heather Riexinger: Yeah, there’s a lot of things that have come up like a birya tacos, like that hasn’t been a thing until I don’t know, those bombs came out now. It’s all anybody wants to have. So there could be, and I think the TikTok has been very good for small brands too, which has been interesting, like Mohawk Motors and different, a lot of car dealerships who have someone on the team that’s creating trendy content. They’ve gone nationwide viral, and if that’s even a term anymore on TikTok, but shows my age, but they’ve gotten popular and law firms have done it as well. A lot of local law firms and a lot of even lawyers that are breaking down cases. All of my content this weekend has been Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, but it’s been really interesting to see a bunch of attorneys break that down. And I would say, if I needed an attorney for something, I wouldn’t typically go looking for an advertisement for an attorney, but if someone local, I’d seen their videos, I like their vibe, I might use that person if I needed something in the future. So I think there’s a lot to be said for some of those type of businesses too.

Katie Flynn: I agree with you. And I also think to your point, people use it as a search engine as well. We already see that with existing social media platforms. Reddit is one I know that people go and search often for specific groups around whatever they’re looking for. And I remember I was doing IVF and I would look for people who were going through it at the same time on TikTok. And there’s so much information, right? And your doctors are doing that every day, so they don’t like really slow down and talk to you about every little detail, but you can find all of that online. So I do think it’s become this sort of part of culture that you can’t parse out. Even in terms of how we consume information, and as advertisers, we do a ton from a Google and Bing perspective with paid search, but there are probably also opportunities to just make sure that you have a presence in these places so that you’re coming up when people are using them in that capacity. Absolutely. Yeah, and that actually just jogged my brain about something else too. Oh, I know what I was gonna mention. So user-generated content, that’s something I feel like people weren’t talking about a ton even until last year. And I don’t know if it just didn’t have a name yet, but have you been hearing that from clients? Have you been suggesting that for clients as sort of a low-cost way to be getting more organic content out there? What are you hearing?

Heather Riexinger: Yeah, so we actually have a couple clients right now where we have had influencer user-generated content that we’re now pushing out via paid for those clients, and we’re seeing great success because it is more authentic or especially in the healthcare space. If we can get a doctor that’s an influencer talking about a product, it’s so much more authentic than writing a blurb of copy or hearing it from a brand. It provides that security and peace of mind that consumers are looking for. And it also provides the understanding because people want that information and they wanna do their own research, and it provides that base for them to get an understanding so that they know what they’re diving deeper into and what they are searching for. So those seem to be doing really well for us and mixing that with some of that brand created content performs really well.

Katie Flynn: Yeah, no, I think that’s a great point. And here at Flynn, we work on peace of mind brands. Those are things like financial services, insurance, healthcare is such a big portion of what we do. And so I think some might be surprised to find that we’re so often pushing social, but Bob, our chief media officer, is always talking about how at the end of the day, people are still people, right? So their information consumption habits are the same as you or me as a consumer, even if you’re selling a B2B product is something that you would think people wanted a really official channel with something like healthcare, but there are more and more companies and brands getting in on the fun there. And I think you’re right from a user-generated content perspective, people want their neighbor, their coworker, whomever to be the one who says, “Hey, have you checked out this service or this product?” It’s like a dangerous thing to say as an ad agency, but traditional ads aren’t probably the work horses in the same way that they used to be, which made people think, “Oh my gosh, I really need that thing.” I think trying to get things that feel a little bit more natural and a little bit more like peer suggestions out there goes really far away in terms of chipping away at people’s, if they’ve got distrust of something or whatever, particularly if it’s a big purchase decision, right? You wanna hear from other people. That’s why client testimonials or customer testimonials have always been such a driver.

Heather Riexinger: Yeah, and I think one thing that’s really important with this that we’ve found success with is the content can’t be just so disparate. You can’t just hire a bunch of people to say whatever they wanna say. You still need that concept. You still need that brand through line. And so we’ve found a lot of success with saying, “This is what the brand stands for,” “This is what the benefit of the product is.” Here’s an insight we know about this audience. And it’s really great to hear, especially if we’re talking to a doctor or something, they’re like, “Yeah, that’s exactly what patients are saying “and you’re aligned.” And so by having that through line, it makes it obvious that it’s coming from a specific brand. It’s not something where at the end of the ad, oh, the influencer could hold up a box for anything in that industry. What they’re speaking to and the language they’re using is going to be consistent with that brand and help to build the brand equity at the same time. And the really interesting thing with TikTok that I don’t think we’ve seen on other platforms is influencers had to build up their following kind of brick by brick in a lot of the platforms. In TikTok, people have taken off a little more and it’s been a little more organic. They put out some great content and people start to like it. They’re gaining a following through that. So a lot of the influencers that are out there are not your typical, “I want this to be a career influencer.” Sure. You know, I think of, you know, my dream influencer to work with would be the Spindock. And she– I don’t even know who that is. Oh, she’s fantastic, a brain surgeon.

Katie Flynn: Okay.

Heather Riexinger: And she’s one of the top brain surgeons in the country. And she puts out so much content and it’s so good, but it’s educational. She’s also showing, you know, what a day in her life looks like. And at the same time, she’s doing 20 hour surgeries on people, which, you know, in the past, there might’ve been opportunities where someone was a good doctor, you know, but they were spending their time trying to build an influencer platform. Now there’s a lot of these people that are doctor first and they’re just creating content to get it out there. And they’re very successful with it, but it’s not their primary focus. And so I think TikTok’s allowed them to be able to do that without a big team behind them.

Katie Flynn: Yeah, and a big creative outlet, right? For people who maybe aren’t in what you would traditionally think of as creative roles. I don’t know if you, I don’t know his name. I wanna say it’s Brady, maybe. He’s a dentist and he will just like sit and talk about a funny topic, but he could easily be a standup comic. I mean, he’s hilarious. If I find it, I’ll send it to you.

Heather Riexinger: Yeah, I don’t know who you’re talking about.

Katie Flynn: You’re like my number one person who I’m like, Heather, you should probably see this. One of my favorite favorites is Becky, who does the like golf country club mom thing. I mean, you know, we work on Dick’s Sporting Goods around here and so we have a lot of conversations around golf, but she just nails it. Yes, all my golf friends. It would be shocking if she doesn’t have a golf partnership already, by the way. She does. She does.

Heather Riexinger: She’s sponsored by, she’s with PSG, irons, at least. I’m not sure, she’s a good sense, actually. Yeah, so she is one, yeah, all of my golf friends we sent out around the entitled housewife because it’s, everyone knows that person.

Katie Flynn: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, awesome. You know, I don’t think I have anything specific in terms of questions left for you, but anything else that you, when you think about TikTok, that you would think, you know, our clients should know this or even just, you know, something that you love.

Heather Riexinger: No, I think just back to what we originally said is the authenticity of TikTok and just being who you are and creating the content in the moment and going with the trends is what seems to get traction for brands and not trying to really curate that content. Just go with it and also be a part of the conversations around your brand and what people are saying. So you can’t push out content and then walk away. You need to engage and you need to respond and that’s a big piece of it to see success on the platform.

Katie Flynn: I totally agree. And plus, if you’re just engaging on other people’s content, you have the ability to like comments, right? And sometimes you see thousands and thousands of likes on particular comments. So to your point, getting involved in the conversation, whether it’s on your content or somebody else’s goes a really far way as well. Yeah. Well, thanks Heather. I’m sure we’ll see you back for another Yap session soon. Oh, I’m sure yapping away.