Should You Be on TikTok? Here’s an Easy Way to Find Out

“Media differ principles don’t.”
—Drayton Bird

Maybe you can relate to this cartoon by Tom Fishburne. It sums up life for a lot of marketing directors and CMOs right now. 

You’re feeling the pressure to be “cutting edge,” always acting on new trends and platforms, even when your objectives are muddy. 

Should you be on TikTok? What about Clubhouse? 

Well, there’s an easy way to find out.

Do a quick review of the platforms you’re currently using. 

What’s your engagement like? Are you seeing good reach, share of voice, and ROI? 

If you are, and you can sustainably build another platform into your strategy...excellent.

If you’re not seeing good engagement or ROI...then the short answer is: NO.

Don’t do it.

You can’t add another platform because you’re not leveraging existing ones anyway (and you can probably guess the reasons why).

TikTok is a tactic. So is Clubhouse.

They’re just two of thousands of platforms your business could use in your marketing campaigns. 

Jason Vana rightly points out that it all works. Every platform works, or people wouldn’t be using them.

Thing is, they don’t work for everyone.

CEOs forget that in their well-meaning drive to stay ahead of competitors and grow their businesses.

Media don’t matter that much. Principles do. 

At the end of the day, media are fun. They’re different. They come with truckloads of opportunities.

But like the great copywriter Drayton Bird says: 

“No matter what you write—letters, emails, ads, landing pages, TV commercials—you need the same skills and must follow the same principles.”

A solid strategy, good copywriting principles, and high frequency are how you succeed on a platform.

You need all three: strategy, copywriting, and high frequency.

When you’re missing one, it shows, and it’s ugly. 

We’ve all seen the Twitter feeds with useful content and a two-month gap between each tweet. 

Crickets.

We’ve all seen the LinkedIn profiles with high frequency and zero engagement because the content sucks.

Crickets.

Guess what? Your customers see it, too. (Not a good look.)

If you’re practicing the principles of good copywriting on all your channels, and you have the ability to create or outsource content, then go for it.

Give TikTok a try. Experiment with Clubhouse. 

But if your current strategies aren’t working, it may be time to reassess your strategy, your messaging, and your capacity. 

Get the principles right, and you’ll succeed.