Aaron Conant 0:18

Happy Monday, everybody. My name is Aaron Conant. I'm the Co-founder and Managing Director of BWG Connect. And we're a networking and knowledge sharing group with 1000s of brands who do exactly that we just network and knowledge share together to stay on top of the newest trends, strategies, pain points, whatever it might be, that's shaping the digital landscape. We're gonna do close to 500 of these events this year. I don't think anybody's surprised that digital is really taken off, we're gonna do close to 100 in person small format dinners next year, if you're a tier one city, shoot us an email there, you know, anywhere from 15 to 20 people sitting around a table, having a talk on a digital topic, I'm more than happy to send anybody an invite, I spend a good portion of my week talking to 30 plus brands, just randomly startup fortune 100 up every different vertical. To stay on top of different trends. I would love to have a conversation with anybody on the line today just shoot me an email Aaron AARON@BWGconnect.com is doing those conversations that we get a the topics. Those are the most topical for brands and organizations the network that they want to learn about the new things that are popping up. But it's also where we get our resident experts. So anybody that we ask on here to kind of teach the collective team here come highly recommended from multiple brands in the network. So that's where we got, you know, the topic for today, but also Casey, from Cohley as well. So it's during those conversations, if you guys ever need any recommendations on anything in the digital space, from email or SMS to drop shipping to Amazon international expansion. Put some time on the calendar, we've got a shortlist of the highly highest recommended service providers across the industry. A lot of people are looking to hire right now we also have a talent agency called BWG Talent. But housekeeping items as we kick this off. We want this to be as educational informational as possible, drop as many questions as you have in the question section or in the chat or email them to me Aaron Aaron@BWGconnect.com. The other thing is, we're starting to three to four minutes after the hour. And we're going to wrap it up with at least three to four minutes to go in the hour as well. We want to give you plenty of time to get on to your next meeting without being late. And so with that, I'm going to go ahead and kick it off. TikTok as a whole is been you know really blew up at the start of the pandemic. bunch people flooded in not a lot of results, people back back out who are starting to slowly figure it out what works, what doesn't work, have a lot of people, you know struggling to get something that looks authentic. And so we just had a ton of questions across the the digital landscape with a ton of different brands here. And so the team over here, Cohley has been great friends, partners, supporters of the network and a ton of brands in it for a couple years now. So we just asked, Hey, you guys are kind of leaders in this space. Do you mind jumping on and kind of giving us an overall look at you know, what does this space look like? Right? And so the title here how to make create or generating content, the winning component, your TikTok paid strategy. Casey, I'll kick it over to you brief intro on yourself and Cohley, it would be awesome. And then we can kind of jump into some of the information. And just a quick reminder for those who just dialed in, send any questions you have along the way. The questions in the chat there, we'll get them answered. So Casey, I'll kick it over to you.

Casey Murray 3:24

Awesome. Thank you, Aaron. And thanks again for inviting Cohley to participate and more notably to talk about, you know, what has basically just been 2021. For us. It's watching, you know, the crazy wave happened with TikTok 2020 was the big emergence. But 2021 has been even more disruptive and so excited to jump in and talk about some of our findings over the last year and more notably what's going to happen in 2022. And so just to set a brief agenda here, you know, before anything else, including intro all the way down to the paid strategy. Aaron mentioned, feel free to add in any questions along the way. I am the first person to admit I hate hearing myself talk all the way through, I'd rather make this as conversational as possible. So any questions that you may have, feel free to drop it in the chat or send it directly to Aaron. And Aaron is very good about making sure that I don't keep babbling, and we'll jump in as needed. So for just a quick agenda here from the actual presentation point of view, I'll do a quick intro myself. I will keep the Cohley overview as minimal as possible, because stupidity is all about TikTok. And so we'll start with an overview of TikTok noting you know, where where it began where it's going. TikTok made me buy it. And some may be familiar with this trend, but I'll dive in deeper in just a moment. What the heck does creator Generated Content mean? And then beyond that, how do you take the content from creators and implement that into an effective ongoing paid strategy? And so just To begin on who the heck I am, my name is Casey Murray. I'm the Director of Partnerships here at holy. And so my role is, quite frankly, very awesome. I get to work with a friends and partners like Aaron of BWG, as well as various agency integration tech partners. Very notably, TikTok is one of my favorite partners. So I get to work with them on a regular basis and help implement strategies on behalf of mutual clients and prospective clients. Also, notably, I'm allowed to TikTok on the job. And so that definitely makes my job even more fun than it already is a little bit about me, for folks that may be heard right before he jumped in. I'm in New York City transplant originally from Chicago. And then then even more intimate detail is that I have a dog's life roommate named Tina. And Tina is wonderful. I love her. And I think because I named her Tina, she thinks she's a human. So if anybody would like some dog photos, at the very least, shoot me a note, I got my contact info at the end. So I promise to keep this as high level as possible, but wanted to give everybody a rundown if you're unfamiliar with Cohley, what is Cohley and what's up with the fish. And so just to give you all a high level overview of what we're about, Cohley is a content marketing solution. We were founded in 2015. And headquartered in New York City, with, you know, brother, sister, partnering offices in Argentina, Atlanta, in Salt Lake City. And so where the heck does a fish come into play? Holi is a misspelling of choline, which is a species of fish. And so many may be considering, do you even have a fish tank, of course we do. That makes us official. And so to the right here, you'll see this is our mascot, slash BFF fin. And so fin is representing our whole philosophy on content. And what this means to marketers, and quite frankly, where the trends are going in various channels. And so the way that we think about it starts up top here at generate. And so as a brand, we think it's important to either generate or utilize content that you already have today, and activate it in various channels. And so today, we're exclusively talking about TikTok, but the way Kohli thinks about it is that there are dozens of channels that you should be activating and regularly measuring the performance of your content with. And so we enable brands to generate it through content creators, activated in the channels that are most important, enabled them to measure the results, to make informed decisions so that they can repeat the process, right, starting with generating content, and finding trends that work or don't work. And so now, to get into the fun stuff, let's talk TikTok for folks that are unaware, or maybe just avoiding the internet for the last two years, TikTok is the number one entertainment platform. And this is being driven by authentic and creative content. And so just letting that marinate for a moment, there's something to be said about that. Authentic and creative content is what drives TikTok, and what has made it the behemoth that it is today. And so as we think about that creative content, this comes in the form of short user videos that are generated by creators, for everybody. And so I'm going to be talking a great deal about TikToks, immersive platform, what it means for the end user, but more notably, why it's so contagious as a platform as a medium to find trends and get educated and inspired. It's really about being authentic and true to everybody and themselves. So this is a platform that demands attention. And so we'll go into some of the specifics. But really exciting to see TikTok, which when I first started here at Cohley, I kind of looked at TikTok, as you know, one year old Labrador, that wasn't quite sure that it was as big as it is. And today, I feel like they're really finding their stride and really, really confident and comfortable with who they are. So I'm excited to share with you what that means from our perspective. And so before we go into it, just to make sure that everybody's on the same page, TikTok is very, very vital. And from my perspective, and many others, I believe that it's going to be the most important marketing channel in 2022. And so #TikTok made me buy it for folks that are unaware of this trend. This is a validated trend by many, including Adweek seen that Sensor Tower, but just some stats here, roughly 50% of TikTok users have actually made a purchase after seeing the product or service advertised on the platform. And so that means one out of two users are likely to buy something. And so just letting that soak in for a moment that tells me if I'm a marketer, that I need to be doing this if I'm not already. And if I am already doing it, I need to double, triple quadruple down on my efforts. Another noteworthy stat is back. Last year in q1 of 2020, TikTok set the bar by accumulating more than 315 million installs of the application. Now, this is the most of all time. And so to me, that tells me that those folks have downloaded it. And according to other resources, they're still using it, they're using it regularly. And so in addition to that, this is the first non Facebook app downloaded by more than 3 billion users. And so this is the fastest growing app in our lifetime by comparison to the you know, Facebook or Instagram, so the world, but to me, it's a marketer, that tells me that, you know, maybe I missed out on the early Facebook trade back in the day, this is your time to capitalize and seize on a new opportunity.

Aaron Conant 10:55

So quick, going back to that first bullet point, or maybe they were just going to get that. What are those ads? Are those? You know, just by happenstance, I mean, it says their ads, so I'm assuming they're paid for those affiliates. Are those actually produced ads? What, what are those look like? Because I know that's where a lot of people struggle is as soon as you start to make an ad, it feels like an ad. And as soon as starts to feel like an ad, it feels like it's not native to TikTok, and then it doesn't work out as well. So people try to balance that, how do I get something? How do I communicate everything about my product and an ad type format? But not have it be an ad type format? Right? That's, I think the major struggle, like you're saying, like having a 2020, where it goes, it blows up, then companies try to take advantage of it. It took them a while to figure out like, how do we actually use this platform?

Casey Murray 11:45

Absolutely. And I think what's notable about TikTok is that they're making it easier and easier for brands to get started. And quite frankly, just try out what works for that. Because everybody on the line, I'm sure you come from a different background as it pertains to your product or service, what have you, I can't say yes or no this or that will work for you. Ultimately, what TikTok and totally believes in is the value in testing. And beyond from our vantage point, we think that the truest value is testing content, getting a ton of content and testing it where you see fit, oh, a TikTok two, they offer different means of advertising. So to your point, you know, if you want to go the affiliate route, you certainly can and it might work for you. We're not sure. And at the end of the day, the only thing that's going to validate that is the data behind it. And unfortunately, TikTok makes it easy for you as an advertiser marketer to log in and see what's working, what's not. Awesome. Sweet and so on that No, TikTok advertisement, what's the difference? Right? So TikTok, and totally both believe that you shouldn't make ads, ie deliberate ads that appear like a like a YouTube commercial, right? You should makeTikToks. And what that means is that the content that you're generating on behalf of your brand, whether it's through content creators or recycled content from what you already have generated, it needs to feel like TikTok. And so both Cohley and TikTok believe that the best performing ad on TikTok is going to feel native to the platform. So you need native feeling content, which I'll dive into what native content means to us. But what this should mean to you as an advertiser to market are on the line is that if you're trying to make a connection, utilizing TikTok as a medium of doing so, the best way of establishing that connection is by generating content that feels native and to a Tiktok end user. They don't feel as if they're being advertised to. Because at the end of the day, so many different walks of life are logging on to TikTok and browsing TikTok and an immersive fashion because they want to be educated and entertained. They want to find insights and ultimately help make decisions, especially now that it's the holidays. They want to know You know, what should I be buying for my kids, which should I be buying for my grandparents, they're going to TikTok they're asking their, you know, creative community what they should be doing. So everybody on the line that isn't already diving into the platform, or at least dipping a toe in the water, you certainly should be and you should be doing so with content that feels like TikTok. And so content that feels like TikTok or native content, ultimately means that it feels native to the platform in a fashion of this is not necessarily a paid advertisement. This is just informative, entertaining content that might be associated or affiliated with the brand, but more specific around the content as opposed to the delivery of the content. You should be striving to generate content that's not so high res not overproduced and more notably, it's in the now and what we mean by that is, you know, recycling content from 2019, it's definitely going to stick out like a sore thumb, because a lot has changed. And so you want to be fresh, relevant, and more importantly, just relatable to the end user on TikTok. And then another point of emphasis here is, there's a heavy emphasis on the music. Music is something that makes TikTok different than any other platform where, you know, audio is available on other social platforms, especially as it pertains to ads. But most people, including myself, tend to mute it. And you tend to passively scroll through as you're, you know, ingesting and absorbing content. TikTok demands your attention. The music is half the fun of the platform, which is why becomes so immersive, and why it demands your attention outright. And arguably, why ads and paid media is so beneficial to brands and marketers alike, is because it does demand the attention of the end user, which allows you to convey your message and ideally present the value of what you're promoting. And then with that being said ron relatable, to inspire that connection is really, really important. Because again, the end user on TikTok never wants to feel as if they're being advertised to. And so that's where the emphasis on the content really comes into play. And then at the end of the day, I always recommend my brands and partners, if they're just starting out with content, just have fun with it, really feel you know yourself in terms of breaking some of the barriers that may exist on other channels. TikTok is all about having fun, and being creative and engaging and entertaining. So break some of the cliches, the mold that you have in place and try new things and have fun with it, and let the data dictate what's going to work or not work and making a connection

Aaron Conant 16:52

Just a quick reminder, you know if others if you have questions, drop into the chat or the question section there. And we'll make sure we get them answered. I mean, this is actually the first question that came in was around, where are people getting content today? So we'll just keep rolling.

Casey Murray 17:08

Sweet. Well, it seems like a decent segue. So appreciate the question from whomever that is.

Aaron Conant 17:13

We have one coming in on royalty rights, which I want to make sure we get to that that's a hot topic so

Casey Murray 17:17

awesome. Should I go back to the previous slide in terms of royalty rights as it assumably pertains to music?

Aaron Conant 17:24

Yeah, why don't we do that really quick? Yeah. Cool. There's now more where it's like yes. Okay. Yeah, please go back.

Casey Murray 17:34

Alright, so let me go. Immediately. Yes.

Aaron Conant 17:37

Awesome. And as dropped in a note too. So anyways, yeah. All right.

Casey Murray 17:41

Cool. So just going back here in terms of native content. So royalty music is a very hot topic right now, you'll hear a lot of the trends have maybe some sort of sped up version of a popular song, which allows for free use. TikTok actually has a pool of royalty free music that you can choose from as well. And so, before I jump into how do you go about generating the content, let's assume your brand that's never, you know, worked with a solution like holy, maybe you've already generated a TikTok or two on your brand account, you want to try advertising. But with new audio track, you could simply utilize TikTok editor, and you can incorporate some of the trends, some of the royalty free music that they have available. And then there are other third party providers that do you know, standalone music on your behalf, they'll produce music for us. So if anybody has any follow up questions, feel free to reach out, we're always happy to help.

Aaron Conant 18:38

Yeah, this is around like royalty rights for popular trendy music from the business, you know, standpoint or a corporation uses it, you know, and then how do you feel with the how do you deal with the music limitations for business accounts? Right, I found limitations with music contributing to a business account.

Casey Murray 18:54

Yeah, so it really depends on the trend itself. A lot of times, some of the trends actually start with an advertisement or a post itself. And so it's chicken or the egg almost. And I'm not an attorney by any means. So I don't want to go into too much detail on the royalty free site, aside from the fact that I know that TikTok offers royalty free music for net new content generation. On the other half. I can't really speak to it, because I'm not certain.

Aaron Conant 19:25

In that we can connect anybody after the call. And you can Yeah, case you can do a deep dive. It's not recorded.

Casey Murray 19:31

Yeah, I think, you know, for me, especially Director of Partnerships, it's a heck of a lot easier to put you in touch with some of our partners that emphasize and focus on the music, half of it. So I would be happy to with anybody who has questions.

Aaron Conant 19:47

Yeah, the next one just comes in. I'm pretty sure we'll get to it. You know, not sure from too early, but what are the right things to do to make a video go viral? And so I think maybe we'll get to that. I don't know. But we can tackle the content and then I just want to make sure that We acknowledge that when that comes in.

Casey Murray 20:02

Yeah, I think I think that does serve as a pretty good segue here. Because at the end of the day, who runs a world, aside from girls creators, and as you think about it from a brand perspective and advertisers perspective, naturally, you want to go viral? Right? You want to make the next big thing. But if you think about it, Ocean Spray couldn't have asked her team. Hey, what if we had a guy singing Fleetwood Mac on a skateboard drinking Ocean Spray? Wouldn't that be viral? Yeah, let's do it. If you think about it, that went viral, because it's organic, true, authentic content generated by a Creator. And so creators if you think of them, as you know, partners and facilitators of your brand, they're the ones who are telling stories and are the natural trendsetters. And so to make a viral video, I'm impossible. So you have to lean into the creators and understand that TikTok, again, is a platform to connect end users with creators who are entertaining and informative. And I think given 20/28 2021 and talk for years, respectively, people want to be uplifted and find relatable content. And so that's where TikTok serves as a medium. But as a brand or advertiser, you need to lean on those creators to generate content. And then you can look at, you know, the data, which assets or which pieces of content, whether it's organic, or paid, are performing well. And that should dictate or tell you, we need to generate more content like this, we need to get more folk singing popular songs, as opposed to saying we need to do high rez, here's the big splash Ocean Spray. And so at the end of the day, the TLDR is brands need to let creators do the talking for them or that TikToking for them. Any questions on that front?

Aaron Conant 22:00

Yeah, just a couple that come in? Is the goal to have your content to go? So I'm gonna address three different ones so we can keep rolling? Is the goal to have your content go viral? Or is it to drive consistent reach and engagement? So I'll say what do you find to be the most effective, I mean, everybody wants it to go viral. But it's almost like a hit or a miss here. Right? And you're, you know, you're playing as many, you know, different numbers on the you know, roulette wheel as possible, and hoping one of them hits. And so I'll tackle that one first. And then the next one is around making unsexy industry content more approachable.

Casey Murray 22:44

All right, so I'll answer the first one to the best of my ability. I do have a slide in here that goes over the different sort of paid strategies brands can choose from, as it pertains to TikTok, what's available. But in terms of the strategy of ongoing, great reader engagement versus viral video, it ultimately depends on what your end goal is. Because that viral video is building brand awareness. And it's, it's a little bit more involved. Right? So if you think about people on TikTok, they see this video, they want to do it too. And so it's involving them. And it's naturally inspiring that brand affinity that so many brands strive for and spend hundreds, if not 1000s of millions of dollars a year, right? They're trying to build that brand affinity but by creating a trend or one viral video happening, that natural affinity happens. So I would say the viral video, you know, at the end of the day you can strive for you can shoot for it, but it's a it's a pretty daunting task to sit in a room and say what if we had a guy in a skateboard scene, Fleetwood Mac, and it actually working? That's the importance of working with content creators. They're the creatives that are already setting forth what is viral, what is not. Your best bet as a brand is just to lean into them and trust that they and their respective followers will make it happen if you need it. Awesome. And then Aaron, apologies. What was the second question there

Aaron Conant 24:16

suggestions on making unsexy industries content more approachable?

Casey Murray 24:23

So unsexy, is kind of tough, but at the end of the day, I think what's most important here is again, leaning on the TikTok creators themselves and standing if you have a not so sexy product, and I don't I don't know what what constitutes such nor do I want to start pointing fingers and blaming brands and products for being unsexy. But at the end of the day, I would lean into the content creators to help the brand envision what could be sexy for a not so sexy product. And I think what's fun about TikTok is that it's not necessarily just an unboxing video, I love this product. so much, I need to go out and buy it all the time. And you should too. What's fun about TikTok is a quote unquote unsexy product can become a trend, despite, you know, the inherent product or offering itself.

Aaron Conant 25:13

No, I love it. I mean, that's, you know, so the brands, you know, I'm talking to the random ones that pop up is this interesting thing where as a brand, you have a view point, maybe you're a founder, right? creator of your own product, and you look at it, you own it, and you have a certain viewpoint based on why you created the company, or you have the product or why you went there to work. Whereas there might be 300 million people that view your product completely differently. And it's actually, when you give it to a creator that's outside of the demographic that you typically target that creates something new. And it opens up a whole new industry segment that you never thought of where it blows up. And you're like, Oh, my goodness, like that's where it went viral, not even in the intended area.

Casey Murray 25:59

So that's, it's interesting, too, because we found through, you know, TikTok and our advertising agency partners that are already running ads on behalf all their brands, they're noting that the best thing that an advertiser, somebody that's marketing on TikTok for the first time can do is set their targeting parameters to a pretty broad spectrum for that very reason. Because again, it's all about generating a lot of content, and trying to figure out what's got the best mass appeal. And so that's what's fun about TikTok. But it's also somewhat daunting. You need a lot of content, and a regular basis, regular passion, and you need to deploy it test it to a broad target. Almost always.

Aaron Conant 26:46

Yeah. Alright, so I think that just plays into another question that comes in, given that these more organic relationship with kind of content creators, means allowing them to be part of the process, right? It takes more time. So how are you able to expedite or produce, you know, this kind of content, you know, quicker than you could before? And then that leads into another question that's kind of all blend together, which is then how to control freak brands, let go of control and allow creators to take the reins. What if they say the wrong thing? Right? There's gonna be certain industries, right? They spent some time in like pharma, right? Is that whether you can find it because you don't, you can't let them say whatever they want. But they it's just a control a controlling brand. So that's kind of two things is when you let people in, right? It takes longer, right? And then so then you're talking about how do you speed it up? And then are you still maintain some kind of control?

Casey Murray 27:49

Yep. So twofold. There

Aaron Conant 27:51

are questions today, Casey? Oh,

Casey Murray 27:53

no, you're good. You're making sure I'm awake on this Monday. It's all right. So to hit that first one, I if you're a farm a brand, I mean, there are going to be limitations and what you can and cannot advertise on TikTok just like Facebook or Instagram. And so similar sort of rules and regulations are in place within TikTok said they wouldn't be your best bet in terms of what you can or cannot do you paid strategy for. But in terms of organic, that's different. I mean, you're allowed to connect with content creators, and ask them point blank if they're interested in working with you as a brand. And so that's where you can get creative. And again, lean on the content creators themselves, to help advocate for your brand and your product. And so there are a couple of creative ways to do it. And it all ties back to the content creators and the content itself.

Aaron Conant 28:45

How do you speed up the process? Is it just, you know, leveraging, like somebody like you guys to just hit more people at once, or fine tune so you can play multiple different, you know, you know, games at the same time to try to get more data in and test and learn. But as you get more people into the process, everything starts to slow down.

Casey Murray 29:08

It's a It's honestly, seemingly daunting, but it's really not. I mean, as a brand, you should know or not know what works or what doesn't work, right? Maybe it's your first time on TikTok, but you've been doing this on Instagram, or you've been doing paid in Pinterest, right? So you could have somewhat of a general basis on what content tends to work for you and your brand. And specifically, what inspires that connection with your target audience. And so this first bullet here talks about TikTok creative brief. This is as it pertains to generating content. And so this link here, which, if anybody's interested, reach out to Aaron or myself, we can share this deck with you and this link here. It's a free offering from Cohley just to help you get started with your first creative brief. But a couple of questions that you as an advertiser bring should be asking yourself, first and foremost is what is your end goal? Right. And so we talked about what's more important, creating consistent ongoing engagement, or is that creating that next viral video. And so that all stems from what is your end goal? Is it to drive brand or product awareness is product specific, maybe as a brand, you're launching a new category, and you want to get some input and insights from your target audience before tripling down on other paid mediums, this is a great opportunity to test a broad appeal and see what's resonating. Or maybe it's just a seasonal discount, you're going to run this for a couple of weeks. Either way, that's how you should be thinking about it and framing your creative brief, which for folks who have never written a creative brief, this is essentially just a detailed job posting, as I like to think of it that says creator, we want content, this is what we're looking for. And as a brand or an advertiser, you're able to spell out things that you know, maybe you haven't thought about, like, what is your budget? Ie What are you willing to compensate creators for producing this content on your behalf? And then again, as we think about the end goal, being the driver and writing out the content piece and what you're looking for, do you intend on repurposing this on your own brand side? Are you looking for the content creator to publish to their followers? Are you looking to do paid exclusively and not have this publish on you know, creators profile or your profile? Do you want to just do boosted promoted posts on TikTok? You know, leveraging top performing organic assets, these are things that you should be asking yourself and again, the TikTok creative brief that Kohli put together and is offering anybody on the line for free, the great jumping off point. And so again, we're happy to chat after this, if anybody has any questions around building that out, but it's a helpful resource to start. And once you've created that job posting, many brands already have a pool of content creators to choose from, that they've already worked with. Or if you're new to this process, you may want to consider working with somebody like holy, where we have over 150,000 content creators, you know, that are specialists in various channels beyond just TikTok, but we have a ton of people that are expert content creators on TikTok. And so as a brand, you're able to publish that creative brief. And ideally, have content creators reach out to work with you. And from there, it's important to keep in mind that it's always you know, more as merrier, as a constant starting out on TikTok, because you won't know what works, until you test it across a diverse pool of content creators, and specifically diverse content, to see what's resonating with your target audience. But if you're thinking about this, just dipping your toe in the water, it's helpful to start out with a strategy that's more or less in line with, let's generate a pretty broad target. And then figure out you know, who is our ideal customer on TikTok, and let's triple down on that after figuring it out. So as you think about selecting the right creator for the right campaign, it's important to diversify the folks that you're working with. And that the found success working with the same five creators over the last six months might be time to try maybe five or 10 More, ask them to produce some content that's a little bit new, that maybe doesn't feel as you know, normalized, that's typically been and operate that way. Another thing to keep in mind as you're selecting the right creator for the campaign is take a look at the content that they've produced to date. And think about it as almost a one two step process, because content should always come first. And so is what is this content? Why does it resonate with people and how do I replicate that and build down on that and triple down on that? Second should be the engagement rates, impressions, any anticipated reach based on their previous posts, but what's interesting about TikTok by comparison to other platforms, as that TikTok, you'll note that somebody with a crazy big following may go from having 2 million views on one of their videos, to only having 150,000 On the next. And so it's a little bit unpredictable versus the other social platforms on there, which again, is why emphasize the importance of diversified content and diversify content creators to figure out what's resonating best. Any questions?

Aaron Conant 34:43

Yeah, a couple more. Okay. Is it recommended for brands to have their own TikTok account to share creators content and original branded created content? Or is it recommended to partner with creators and not have a branded TikTok account?

Casey Murray 34:58

That's a great question. I think It's important to do a combination of both. Because again, it's important to have these partnerships with the content creators themselves if you're leaning on them to publish organic posts, and if you as a brand are trying to see what's resonating before you start your own brand account, Sure, great, great approach, more of a mass appeal, and you can get better insights. But it's also important to have your own presence there too. Because once you get somebody on the hook, that's suddenly a brand advocate, or they have affinity for your brand or product. They want to have somewhere that they can, you know, like, share, repost, comment. So it's important that you have a combination of both. And that it's a consistent ongoing process where you're testing your own brand content, you're observing organic posts, you're observing hashtags, and then most notably, you're tripling down on your winning assets, which I'll talk about in just a moment here. But I think it's a combination of both.

Aaron Conant 35:57

Yeah. Last one is what's the average cost for working with creators? Or are you You know, the other one is, are you helping people manage that cost?

Casey Murray 36:05

Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it depends on the ask. Um, I'll be the first to say, I think it's a heck of a lot easier to add somebody to just simply provide you with a 15 to 32nd video of them, you know, being goofy themselves, versus asking them to do both that and in organic posts on their own follower count. So if you take that into consideration, the price will vary depending on who you ask. And so for brands building out that creative brief to start, are you asking for for videos for creator? Are you asking one video per creator, what's the end goal, and that should help you better understand what the average cost is going to be on a per creator basis. And then in some instances, you know, there are brands that try to work with creators and don't compensate them at all. So that's an alternative there, but what you're going to get is even more raw, more unedited, and less pointed content. So it's just a matter of what you're comfortable spending. The one thing on that note is working with content creators on TikTok versus Instagram, which is more of a cut and dry, I have 15 million followers, therefore this is going to resonate. TikTok doesn't work that way. And so as you factor in, how much should I compensate this creator for, it's not so much they have 15 million followers, therefore, this will for sure be a viral video, you won't know unless you test. And so your best bet is to diversify the pool of content creators you're working with. And I think it's important within the creative brief to just simply say what you're willing to compensate, as opposed to going back and forth. Because that's a waste of your time when you can find somebody that's already willing to work at the budget you set.

Aaron Conant 37:48

Awesome. Love it.

Casey Murray 37:51

Cool. Love the questions. So far, I know Aaron said that they're tough, I appreciate it. Like it's emceed it, but it's keeping me on my toes. So in this instance, you mentioned if you're a beer brand that's very hands on or you know, very particular about your branding, your aesthetic and how its represented by content creators, it's really tough. But at the end of the day, you got to realize that it's native content that's always going to drive engagement and create that brand affinity that you're looking for on TikTok, it's not the typical formula that you know, today. And so for you, if you're considering working with a content creator, you've got to omit some of those, you know, for lack of better terms, some safety measures that you have in place, and you kinda gotta throw caution to the wind. I know, it seems like that that's the wrong thing to do as a market. Because you need to have predictable content, right? You need to do stuff that's already worked in habitat at scale and in mass, but you don't know unless you try and TikTok. And so that's the thing. Again, you could have 15 million followers, and one post might be a dud, if you're working with one Creator. So you got to diversify the folks you're working with. And trust the process and working with a lot of creators, having a lot of posts out there and measuring the results to truly find your winner and what resonates best with your target audience. And in that, I mean, it's important to again, generate a lot of content with a diverse pool of content creators and just measure the results. Engagement, likes, comments, shares, it's very important to determine, well, you know what, this was one organic post and it blew it out the water despite the person only having 1000 followers, I should either boost that or promote that post. Or I should ask for rights in perpetuity, and then repost it on my brand side. It's up to you. It's a brand to try. But at the end of the day, you won't know unless you do and so just as a recap, starts with the creative brief, which again, it serves as that job posting, consider your end goal and work backwards from there. And then also worth noting, you can include the compensation that you're willing to pay. But also you can include content you like and content you don't like. Just so that you know any sort of creator that's even considering working with you gets an idea of what you might be looking for. And then once you have a creative brief, and hopefully creators are trying to work with you, keep in mind that more as merrier. And then a good TikTok strategy starts with a diversified pool of content creators, and specifically diversify content that you can measure at scale, to uncover your winners so that you can triple down on those, and ideally, start a paid testing strategy around as well, which I'll go into in just a moment. And then finally, keep in mind that, you know, native content, again, always wins. So really lean into the creators and their expertise and storytelling, because they're the ones who have amassed followers who have created and probably have already viral videos. So as a brand that's new to this, it's going to be really tough for you to just swing for the fences, as opposed to working with them who have already somewhat figured it out.

Aaron Conant 41:16

So I want to get to a paid strategy if we can. Um, but we've got a bunch of questions that came in and got 17 out that 13 minutes left, so let's roll. He said something about creating relationships with buyers and conversations. And we're gonna try to limit each one of these to a minute if you can, again, the core networking group, so if more than happy to connect you with Casey afterwards for like a, you know, more one on one conversation for anything we didn't get to today. 100% worth doing that. We're gonna still try to get through as many of these as we can. But there's some awesome questions that came through.

Casey Murray 41:55

Awesome. And yeah, I appreciate the heads up on the timing. I didn't see the clock. So I will try to power through this. But I should only have about four, four more slides. But again, we're more than happy to connect after this and answer any specific reporting questions that you may have. But at the end of the day, I did want to highlight the fact that TikTok offers a ton of different ad and brand solutions that you should be factoring into, as you start, you know, dipping your toe in the water. I've already noted the importance of content creators and the content itself. For the last 10 minutes or so we're going to be focused on you know, what you should be doing for an ongoing paid strategy and how to be successful with it. Because again, it all starts with the content that content creators and an ongoing means of measuring success. And so I'll tell you exactly how that all looks when painted together. But it's crush through

Aaron Conant 42:51

these, even if we go faster through this, that's fine as well. But

Casey Murray 42:54

sure, it's the best practices just power through these. Keep in mind, TikTok is a vertical platform, you're never doing any sort of orientation. So keep it vertical. Broad targeting, we talked about this. So instead of saying I'm targeting people that are left handed in New York City, probably a little bit better to just limit that maybe gender and location. native content always prevails a strong CTA on any ad that you're doing, which I noted, TikTok has an editing tool, make it pop, make it work with the music itself. That's really what's driving performance. short and succinct, like I'm trying to be right now works best on TikTok 15 to 30 seconds is where you want to be. Audio, again, is critical. Organic performance should serve as a litmus test, ie content right here. If this is working better than the other, utilize that in a paid strategy moving forward. But more importantly, it's the content creators and the data that are going to help you predict what's going to be a success. And so there are various TikTok solutions. So for the sake of time, I won't go into it too much. But we work very closely with TikTok so if you have any questions around, here's my brand. Here's my industry, which one of these solutions is best for me, just reach out to myself or Aaron, we're happy to point you where it is. But you know, top view one day Max, these are different sort of options for you to test in conjunction with a Content Test, to again see what's resonating best with your target audience. And so just as a recap here, it's best to all in all, collaborate with a diversified pool of content creators, and enable an ongoing content testing strategy even before doing paid media behind it. Once you're ready to you know uncover from 20 videos, you found five that are your best. Let's implement a paid strategy there with the five but with those five videos, you have now various options within TikTok to promote those posts and to promote that content. So think about it in terms of various content creators, various content and various means of advertising. So there's a lot of ongoing testing that goes into cracking the knot and figuring out what works. So just remember to keep those fundamental best practices in place as you do so. But at the end of the day, all of this is going to be working in tandem with one another to help you optimize and drive the means of connecting with your target consumers. And so with that being said, I feel like twist spitting wrappers. So I'm a little out of breath. But on this last slide here, we've got a couple of links, which I can share this with anybody interested afterwards, or Aaron can do so. But here info dot coli comm slash b WG that's going to provide you with that free TikTok brief. If you've never done any sort of content generation on TikTok, this will be a great one a one on how to get started and what to think about to again, work backwards from your end goal, and write it out so that it's crystal clear for content creators. Here's my email, my LinkedIn. And So Aaron, I think we have about 10 minutes left. So I suppose we can take a couple of questions that I address.

Aaron Conant 46:16

Yes. Do you have any recommendations recommendations on top brands to check out on TikTok.

Casey Murray 46:21

So that would be something that I would actually want to point to our account managers on. Because every single industry is different. There are a ton of thought leaders that I'd love to recommend right now. But for the sake of time, I think that'd be one where a cow manager can really point you. I, you know, in terms of this brand is doing this very, very well. And they're somewhat similar to

Aaron Conant 46:44

another one, you know, just coming yet interesting points, or TikTok is not the same approach as influencers. As far as identifying the right partner and compensation. You see that there's a difference there.

Casey Murray 46:56

Yeah, yeah, I would say, you know, as it pertains to TikTok, and, you know, in terms of figuring out what, what is the code, right, Instagram and Facebook, have been selling ads for years, right. So they have more of a predictable model where it's, I have 15 million followers, therefore, you should pay me a lot because the reach will be there. There might be a little bit of variability, but the reach should be there. With TikTok, that's not the case. TikTok really, really emphasizes the importance of content. And so the reason why I said it's important to diversify the folks that you're working with, is that even though one person has 400 followers, and then the other person that you're working with has 250,000, that person with 400 followers may end up having a piece of content or a visual asset that they post that goes viral. And so follower count doesn't really matter on TikTok, it's really about the engagement and the content itself.

Aaron Conant 47:58

What type of demographics interest geographic metrics this TikTok offer, from an influencer followship followership so what kind of, you know, metrics do they offer and what's going on? And then another one that comes in, is it beneficial to ask, you know, your creators to post on their Instagram real as well?

Casey Murray 48:20

Good question. In terms of the the demographic and targeting that's available, what I know is on the ad side, as opposed to the influencer side, so I wouldn't be your best bet in terms of that. What I do know is that most content creators will know you know, what they are interested in, and you know, what their area of expertise is, by working with a platform like poli, we make it a little bit easier for you to better understand, you know, what, what these folks might be interested in and allow you to chat with them directly. But TikTok allows you to also search for content creators via their content marketplace. So that might be a good place to start. And they do let you get pretty granular. And then Aaron, apologies, what was the second question there?

Aaron Conant 49:04

Was it the, the the Instagram I've got, like 15 of them go through so beneficial last and then post on Instagram real?

Casey Murray 49:12

Got it? Ah, that's tough. I don't want to say no, and I don't want to say yes, because it's really dependent on the use case. But what I do know firsthand is that most platforms like TikTok and Instagram are really seeking channel specific content. What I mean by that in an extreme case is if anybody on the line uses Reddit like I do, anytime somebody reposted TikTok and read it, people hate it. And so similarly, if you're reposting Instagram on TikTok, people on TikTok aren't gonna like it. My gut tells me that reposting TikTok and an Instagram Brio will have a similar result but at the same time, I can't guarantee it. So it's always worth trying. But proceed with caution.

Aaron Conant 50:02

How do you grow your organic presence on the platform? No, we just rip through, you know, the paid side, I work for a well known brand, but only have 300 followers on TikTok, which makes us hesitant to start running any paid media on the platform until we have a more established following. Mm hmm.

Casey Murray 50:20

So it's interesting. I mean, you could heavily lean on the content creators themselves, and then ask for rights in perpetuity on this post and repost it on your brand side. But I think it's never too early to start a paid strategy, even if that is, you know, coming from the perspective of a major brand, even if it is a pretty passive approach in terms of budget in other areas, like you may be investing heavily in Instagram and Facebook, test the waters with TikTok start a small investment. But my strategy in terms of you know, launching a net new paid strategy is always start with like, maybe 1.5 times your normal spend, and then reel that in a little bit back to one, in terms of what you were hoping to spend on this campaign. Start out with a splash and then reel it in real quick one or two weeks in, and then you should reel it back into what you're willing to pay. But in any event, it doesn't matter if you have 300 followers, three followers, paid strategies, just going to boost the amount of impressions that you get. And it's all about the content itself. And so start posting every day, organic and start, you know, investing paid media into an array of different assets to see what are your top performers, so that again, you can generate more content like that.

Aaron Conant 51:36

Awesome. Tying back to a comment about finding an influencer, influencer creator, that matches your target target audience, how do you determine that? Can you then the other one is right after that is, you know, craters are worried, you know, what about craters, you're worried about having their account suspended, you know, gambling or fantasy sports arena.

Casey Murray 52:00

All right. So I didn't hear the first one because it sounded like somebody was taking two hammers outside. But that's New York City for you. So I'll need you to repeat that first one. And then secondly, gambling and other stuff. I will not touch that. Because I'm not an attorney. And I don't know point blank, I can give you my my guidance and recommendation. But that would be a conversation that you'd certainly want to have with TikTok as it pertains to paid ads on their platform and what is or is not accepted.

Aaron Conant 52:27

Finding the influencer content creator that matches matches your target audience. How do you find them, and then we've got one more and then we'll have to wrap it up. Rigid sending one more, we'll get to that.

Casey Murray 52:39

Cool. I mean, there, there are a number of different ways that you can do it, you can utilize TikTok, you can search for them directly. Cohley. And personally, I believe that it's easiest to just, you know, utilize the platform like ours, have them apply to work with you, as opposed to reaching out searching and finding the right ones. But you know, different strokes for different folks, everybody is able to do whatever they want he early on Sure. Reach out to TikTok creators on your own by utilizing TikTok to find them. Or it could utilize a platform like ours to make it a little bit easier. And it all just depends on which you're more comfortable with and what you're willing to try out early on. Yeah,

Aaron Conant 53:17

awesome. Yeah. And I would second that, that it Cohley will facilitate a lot of that on the back end and just make getting started a whole lot easier. This is the last question. I know. We're out of time. I'll try to ask it anyway. Should a brand use paid TikTok even if they're very low on organic content?

Casey Murray 53:36

Yes. No, I think that if you're very low on organic content, that still means you have content, and you should try paid for the organic content you do have, which is going to help inform you. What sort of content should we generate more of based on your winners versus losers?

Aaron Conant 53:56

Awesome. Well, we are literally right here at time. I promised everybody we get out of here a few minutes early. Casey, thanks so much. You're awesome. I know we threw a lot at you today. You guys are great friends, partner support network, encourage anybody you know, up follow up information here. We'll connect you with Casey. Anybody has any questions on anything else in the digital space from dropshipping, to SEO to replatforming to pretty much anything even including Amazon, don't hesitate to reach out. We've got a ton of different educational events going on. We also have a shortlist of top service providers like Cohley that come highly recommended from the 1000s of brands on the network. We also have a half day forum where we're going to be tackling a bunch of stuff on Thursday, I dropped the link in there, anybody's open to sign up for it. There's no cost for any events ever. So I look forward to seeing people on Thursday. With that. We're gonna wrap it up. Hope everybody has a fantastic Monday. great rest of the week. Everybody take care, stay safe and look forward to having you at a future event. Thanks again. Casey, you’re a Rockstar man. Bye, everyone. That was a whirlwind already. Take care.