What’s So Great about TikTok?
TikTok is a social media app that features short-form fifteen-second videos on any topic, from hilarious comic moments to the latest dance trends. Renegade, anyone? The short and sweet video content is both addictive and entertaining. Subscribers can lose themselves for hours scrolling through countless dance challenges or watching their favorite foodie influencers. The big news is that TikTok has recently bested YouTube in viewership in both America and the UK.
A recent BBC News report states, “Data from app monitoring firm App Annie indicates that average time per user spent on the apps is higher for TikTok, indicating high levels of engagement.” Folks love their TikTok. YouTube continues to have the larger audience clocking in at around 200 billion viewers vs. TikTok’s 700 million. But the TikTok audience shows a deep connection with influencers and content creators during their live stream sessions.
No one knows this better than Tabitha Brown.
Meet TikTok’s Mom: Tabitha Brown
Tabitha Brown is a vegan influencer and a bright ray of sunshine in the sometimes-dark social media landscape. Tabitha is an actor, vegan foodie, mom of Choyce and Quest, and the wife of Chance. She lights up the lives of millions of fans daily with her quick wit, homespun wisdom, and delicious vegan hacks.
As she would tell you, “Because that’s my business.”
Her moments of food inspiration and uplifting encouragement became a touchstone for folks around the world who were isolated and fearful during the pandemic.
She closes her videos with her dad’s manifesto, “Hey, you have a good day, but if you can’t, don’t you go out messing up nobody else’s.” She follows her own advice. In fact, she’s looking to make the lives of her followers better. With each video and recipe, she is spreading joy, hope, and the promise of vegan deliciousness.
Tabitha’s YouTube journey wasn’t her original plan. In 2016, her dreams of becoming an actor were waylaid. Debilitating health issues, depression, and a continual headache plagued her for over a year and a half. She could barely make it through casting calls or pick up her kids from school. After months of suffering, Tabitha and her daughter, Choyce, introduced her to What the Health, a vegan documentary that had been shown at school. Having tried every other pill and therapy offered by her doctors, Tabitha decided to do a 30-day vegan challenge. She eliminated all animal products from her diet.
That challenge changed her life.
A meat-lover since her childhood days in North Carolina, her headache disappeared on day ten. She’s never looked back. Hungry for the soul-warming comfort food of the South, she began experimenting in the kitchen, developing vegan versions of her favorites. Creamy mac and cheese. Delicious pecan tacos. Tasty carrot bacon. Tabitha was finding joy again in the middle of the healing process. Anchored in her belief in God’s plan for her life, she felt like He wanted her to share that joy with others through videos.
Tabitha began chronicling her vegan journey in short YouTube videos. She posted between acting gigs, cooking new meat-free dinners for her family, and picking up Uber customers as a sideline. In January 2018, she encountered the Whole Foods TTLA – a tempeh bacon, tomato, lettuce, and avocado sandwich – that rocked her world with its delectable goodness.
Sitting in the Whole Foods parking lot, between bites of her toothsome sandwich and singing its praises (Lord, have mercy!), Tabitha went viral. Her hilarious adoration of tempeh bacon was contagious. With over 100,000 viral YouTube views, people wanted in on what she had, and started following her. She has over half a million current YouTube subscribers who get in on her daily goodness. Since that fateful tempeh bacon day, Tabitha has become a Whole Foods Ambassador, working to spread the vegan love across the States. Her rise as social media darling had just begun.
The TikTok Switch
TikTok wasn’t Tabitha’s first choice for a streaming platform. In her words, “Ain’t that for the kids?” But her daughter Choyce told Tabitha, “You could be like the TikTok mom.” Choyce was right. She joined TikTok in March of 2020 just as America plunged into lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic. Tabitha’s kind words and delicious homecooked meals struck a chord with the kids. Her young followers were hungry for more.
In three months, Tabitha had 3.8 million followers. That number has skyrocketed to 4.7 million in the last year and a half and is still climbing.
Tabitha’s life shifted in that moment.
Her positivity and social media following has sent her influence soaring in ways that her acting roles never could. Her catchphrases, “Very Good” and “Like So Like That” have spawned official merch. Her hairdo, Donna, has its own social media following. She has partnered with McCormick to launch her own unique garlic, ginger, pineapple, and mango Sunshine by Tabitha Brown seasoning. Tabitha is heading out on her first book tour this fall as, Feeding Your Soul (Because That’s My Business): Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom, drops on September 28. Very good.
Is TikTok Right for Your Business?
TikTok isn’t just for Tabitha Brown. Every entrepreneur and business needs a voice.
88% of TikTok users say that they love discovering new content while on the app. According to the TikTok business platform, “TikTok is in more than 150 markets in 75 languages. No video app is on more mobile devices worldwide.”
If you are looking for a global reach, think about tapping into TikTok’s easy, short form streaming. It could connect you to your customers and audience in a way that you had never imagined. Brands as far reaching as the NFL and The New York Post use creative TikTok posts to boost their influence and connect with their customers.
If you are like Tabitha in thinking that TikTok is just for the kids, think again. Oberlo, a drop shipping membership site encourages its members to use TikTok to reach their customers. They have noted the research on a growing trend in the platform’s adult usage.
So…are you looking for a way to use short form content to highlight your business’s personality and mission? Do you want a fun, exciting way to interface with your customers on a daily basis?
CCB would love to brainstorm measurable strategies with you, identifying the best marketing tools to launch your influence and send your online visibility soaring.
With the social media’s everchanging landscape, TikTok might just be the right way for you to connect.
Because that’s your business.