Alternatives to TikTok: Transitioning Your Audience Seamlessly

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:00

Welcome to The Circle Sessions featuring The Circle of Experts. The Circle of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs, Tonnisha English Amamoo of TJE Communications, and Don the Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, one of the Circle of Experts joins me to talk about some critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media, monetization, and website design to help you implement all of these together. This week, Tonnisha is here with the Circle of Experts. She is on a mission to help small businesses level the playing field through digital marketing solutions. Thanks for joining me today.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:00:39

Thank you for having me as always. I appreciate

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:41

it. Sure. And and listeners, in the background, it it's a working mom time. So you'll hear some baby in the background, which is perfectly fine. All of us have to work through this, and that's great. Like, that's that's super Yeah.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:00:52

I got I got lots of snacks here laid out, lots of toys. So, hopefully, we'll be good.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:58

Yes. It'll work out fine. We had previously talked about, and we kinda predicted the future kind of, with TikTok. And, you know, at least right now as we look into the future, TikTok is gonna be banned unless, you know, they win they win some court cases, which I don't know, it's slim to none that they will. I I think what's happened is happened, and you wanted to bring up today, you know, some alternatives, some some different thoughts about, okay, this marketing tool, this platform is potentially gonna be gone. And as with any any social media platform can this can happen in a heartbeat. It could it could close shop without even warning you.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:01:37

So

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:38

Yeah. So let's talk about some approaches, some thoughts about how, you know, the remorse feeling, you know, period, of course. But it's that, okay, but you gotta move on. So so what what move on. Yeah. What are you thinking?

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:01:51

Yeah. So just some background for people. You know, we've been talking about TikTok for a while with the potential ban. And as of Wednesday, April 24th, president Biden did sign a law that would essentially ban TikTok if it's not sold within a year. So what they're looking to happen is for ByteDance, which is the company that actually owns TikTok, to sell their portion of the platform to a US based corporation or company. The problem with that is as of right now, there really isn't anyone that could probably handle the infrastructure of TikTok other than maybe Mark Zuckerberg. But then at that point, it's, you know, people are saying that he may be a monopoly even when it comes to the digital marketing space, and just the social media space in general. So people aren't really too sure about that.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:02:50

And then also there's a possibility that, ByteDance may sell the platform, but they won't sell the algorithm, which is what makes TikTok TikTok. So it's almost like what's the point in, you know, investing potentially 1,000,000,000 of dollars to buy the platform if you're not gonna get all of the pieces. So here's what I'm suggesting that people do. As of right now, we really don't know what's gonna happen. So my first thought is to just keep posting.

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:23

K.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:03:23

Keep posting as normal. Keep maintaining your platforms. Keep up with your content as you're already doing, but have a plan. Have a plan for if this platform gets shut down right now. Like, they say, you know what? Forget the 12 months, we're done. What is your plan? And I think that's most important for us to do on any platform that we're a part of is to have a plan for the what if. So that's number 1. I also believe that you should be thinking about how you will convert your audience from TikTok to Instagram or to another platform.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:04:09

I remember do you remember Vine?

Brett Johnson [: 00:04:11

Yeah. And I liked Vine a lot.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:04:13

I love Vine, and, essentially, TikTok is like the reincarnation of Vine almost. Mhmm. But I remember when Vine was set to be shut Don, and there were a lot of I think we even talked about this before. There were a lot of people who used the platform, like comedians. There there was a comedian I remember, his name is King Botch or something like that. And he was super popular on Vine as a comedian, and he jumped to Instagram early and brought his people over there early. He didn't wait until the last minute to continue on with his comedy, and now he's been in movies and TV shows, and he's doing well for himself. Another person that comes to mind is the singer Kehlani.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:05:02

She's a singer out of California. And when she was on Vine, she was a comedian. And towards the end of Vine, she kinda started to showcase her singing capabilities. I believe she was on, like, one of those competition, singing shows, but people did not wanna see singing from her. They wanted to see the comedy. And she was smart enough that when Vine shut down and she moved over to Instagram, she did no more comedy. She only did her singing, and now she's like a multi platinum singer. So you can use this opportunity to reinvent yourself as you move on to another platform, or you can use this as an opportunity to double down on who you are as a podcaster, as a business owner, as a person, and convert your audience over into another platform.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:59

Yeah. It's pretty difficult, isn't it, if you think about it? Because you're on TikTok for a Sessions, because of what it what it does. Maybe let's let's let's not even talk about the algorithm, but it's the the short stuff. It's that it's that it it works really well, And there isn't anything out there comparable, let's put it the way. There there is, but it's it's just not the same. YouTube shorts, yes, maybe, but it's not the same. And that's where the algorithm comes in, obviously, in regards to feeding what's going on. But but it also is a I think you're right.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:28

It's a good time to explore Guy is TikTok working for you. Maybe Right. Maybe it's much more beyond than what the algorithm in TikTok's doing is maybe it's just because you do really good short videos. So so can that translate into another platform?

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:06:44

Yeah. Which it definitely can. I mean, we've seen people we see people have lots of success with Instagram reels. The people who jumped into YouTube shorts early on have seen success there as well. And reels are on Facebook as well. So, you know, this is something that you can continue to do. It just may look a little bit different. I think what sets TikTok, apart from these other platforms is that TikTok is the videos, and that's it.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:07:18

Versus Instagram, you have people posting static Experts. There's swipe posts. There's reels. There's stories. There's lives. I mean, there's just so much that goes into it. And I understand that that can be overwhelming trying to figure out, okay, what do I do? Where do I start? But if you know that, like you said, you're good at this thing, you can still do that thing, but, unfortunately, you may have to dabble into the other things just to make sure that you're playing nice with the platform. But you that doesn't mean that you have to stop your creativity with these short videos.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:07:58

It just may look a little bit different. And, honestly, I could see where, you know, we've seen it where Don an app dies, another one is born. So there will be something else that will come and people will, you know, be a part of and it'll grow. I mean, the social media world is constantly evolving every single day. And I think that's the fun of it is that it is unpredictable. It is, you know, just one of those things that you learn as you go And that's why we can't be so married to just one platform or one thing because it is constantly changing. So we also have to be willing to change as

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:51

the the other platforms are gonna probably maybe possibly take advantage of that being gone. Now, again, they can't match. I mean, all of them are scratching their head going, what is what is they what what is TikTok doing with that algorithm? Mhmm. But they could maybe refine what they're doing in regards to that. Like you said, can there be a a feat that's only video and feat that's only static? I don't I don't know. Yeah. Who's to say? But it's that Right. You're right.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:15

It's, you know, keep going with what you're doing until. But so what would you suggest as a strategy, though, if you let's say, okay. You just know that TikTok is gonna go away or you just say, I'm I'm not gonna play to the last minute. I do wanna transfer over to something else. What would be some strategies that kinda keep up keep in mind for the migration or to keep people engaged where they are because, again, that TikTok is a very young demo, and Right. And and so that's one thing to keep in mind. Where do you go for that young demo? But also, you know, it that transition period could be a long time. Those who play in TikTok may not wanna go to Instagram because that's just not their platform as a as a viewer, as a as a as a content engager.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:57

What are some thoughts on that? How do you the sooner the better, I'm assuming. Right?

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:10:02

Yeah. The the sooner the better. And I do wanna note that I know that maybe a few up updates ago, Instagram does have the option where you can choose to only scroll through reels. Like, there's, like, a reels button. I don't know if everybody has it yet, but there is a reels button. But definitely don't wait, because the people who did wait to transition when Vine was closing down, we may not even know who those people are anymore or, you know, I can't think of, you know, some of the people I used to watch. I don't know what they're doing now. So you definitely don't wanna wait.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:10:41

You want to jump now. You wanna be thinking about it now. That's not to say you don't still keep posting, but you wanna start thinking about this now. Where are you gonna go next? Like you said, what what makes TikTok work well for you, for your business? Look at your analytics. What kind of content are people resonating with? What is making them stick around and want to follow you? What is making them want more information from you? And you need to convert them. Start converting them now. Don't wait until, you know, next year when, like, there's 30 days left because everybody's gonna be, like, trying to do the same thing.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:33

Yeah.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:11:33

You can start doing that now. So rather that be Guy preference would be to try to get your current followers into some sort of mailing list or some sort of community that you have outside of social Idea, because then at that point, no matter what happens, you have a way to reach those people. You can also, think about asking them to follow you on other platforms or find you on other platforms. I mean, even when, when Twitter was not, I guess, technically coming to an end and becoming x, and when Elon was, you know, pretty much kicking journalists or some journalists off the platform, a lot of, journalists and publications, you know, said like, hey. We're done here. Here's how you can, you know, stay in contact with us. Here's what you can do. And they didn't delete their forms, like, their their Twitters are still there.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:12:35

But when you go to their Twitter account, they have a pinned tweet that shows all the places that you can find them outside of Twitter because they're not posting there anymore. So you can do that as well to, you know, leave something there because, you know, even though this ban is set to happen, no one's Don come to your house and delete Tik Tok from your phone. It's just that there won't be any more updates from the platform and potentially, you know, as time goes on, it won't work. Right. But for now, it's still there. It still exists. So you need to take advantage early on to try to get people transferred over to where you want them to be going forward.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:17

Yeah. You've given a really good example of, understanding who's viewing you and and how do you really talk to them. Is it gesture there, or can you get them into other, like, a community of some kind of or an email database or a, you know, part of a newsletter or whatever? This could be a really good learning Circle, learning lesson Don how to communicate with your followers.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:13:44

Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:44

Can you get them? This is a this is an example of of can you activate them? Can, you know, be beyond word. Yeah. Beyond getting them to do something that you're telling them to do or asking them to do in your Idea, but can you make them do a really heavy lift? And we're talking a heavy lift for somebody that loves TikTok to go to some other platform, or to sign up for a newsletter or or an email database or something like that, or be a part of a community somewhere. That's you don't think it's a heavy lift, but it is. Because people that live on and want that platform, they don't wanna go somewhere else. They love that. So to

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:14:21

make it as easy as possible because like we've said before, people are lazy. We're lazy outside of, like, when it comes to our own businesses. Like, of course, we want people to take action, but all of us are like, yeah. I'll do that later or Mhmm. I don't feel like clicking to their profile page to do that. So, you know, you gotta give people some grace and you have to make it as easy as possible for people to take that action. You know, for example, with Instagram right now, there is a way to you don't have to set it up through a 3rd party, but, instead of telling people to click the link in your bio, you can say, hey, comment the word podcast and I'll send you a DM of my podcast so that you don't have to necessarily go clicking around. And so there's an automated system where somebody can comment, podcast, it automatically responds to their comment and sends them a DM or whatever you want them to have.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:15:24

So, like, something like that takes it away from like, you don't have to do anything but make the comment. You don't have to, you know, click around. So think about how you can make it as simple as possible for people to go from one place to the next. And if you can get that down, it'll be so much easier to get people over to to the next place. Whether that be a new platform or a mailing list or community or whatever. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:59

One thought that came to mind, and we always go back to this true crime genre because, you know, you're into it, but it's and it's very successful. That's the thing. But but it's one of those I wonder if you could pull people from TikTok onto the next platform, with exclusive content. Something that's a something that's a FOMO. Something that is just that you're not gonna get it here. Sorry, folks. We know TikTok's gone, but we're trying to tease you over to this next platform. This is where you're gonna find this very cool video we did, but it's only here sort of thing.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:16:31

Yes.

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:31

Thanks for Or or leading them into a sign up of something to get that content, then you're kind of you're you're breadcrumbing it a little bit Right. In regards to where you want to. So, again, it's that learning what the audience will do.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:16:44

Too with some, like, crime junkies, for example. You know, I know they have an app. I believe that some of the content you have to pay for, but they do have an app. So, you know, that that I know apps can be, heavy, you know, lift. They can be Experts, but if, you know, if it is a mighty networks or, you know, which people can access through an app, like, what else is it that people can can fit into where now you hold their information. You don't have to go, you know, searching for it if something happens, like they're already a part of your community where everything is, and you can build that exclusivity, like, oh, we posted this in Mighty Networks. Did you see it? You know? So, yes, I love that. I love that idea.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:32

Yeah. And I think it I think any genre of podcast, or business, you can use that. Think about what's that special sauce that you have that you can, you know, make it even tastier by, you know, bringing them along to and and it's gonna take more than one time. So kinda plan it out where you're going with this strategy, and to bring them along. And and maybe it's that, you know, first before you do it Tonnisha maybe kinda get a general feel of of those that are following you on TikTok. Where would they go to follow you? Maybe just straight out asking them, hey. TikTok's gonna go away. What is your next best what do you love? Your next your next best social media platform that you'd love to go to? And maybe just follow you know, ask them, and they may tell you straight out it's not Instagram, it's something else.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:18:18

Right. And to that regard, give them options. Don't don't say, hey. The only way to stay in touch with us is this thing.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:28

You

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:18:29

know, it could be multiple things. It could be we have a YouTube channel. We have email. We have Instagram. We have Facebook. We have link. Like, give them all the options and give them the opportunity to not only tell you, like, hey. Did you think about this option? But also be able to choose how they will continue to get your content going forward.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:18:52

Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:52

To me, I think this is making lemonade out of lemons, honestly. Yeah. It it could completely. Of course, you hate to see a platform go away that's gonna that is working for you. But what a great opportunity to learn more about who's following you and what they really like about you and and why they would that why they would do what they what you asked them to do. Why they would. Yeah. So if if, if if our listener is is Don TikTok, loves it, really wants to figure out how to move.

Brett Johnson [: 00:19:21

How can they get a hold of you to, you know, even more? I mean, we gave him a a $1,000,000 worth of of ideas here, but but it's but it's also the strategy of doing it. And I think that's where you can come into play that I think it it takes more than just like, oh, that's a great idea, but what do I do? That's where you can come in. How can they get a hold of you to talk a little bit more about

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:19:42

how do I do this? Yes. You can go to my website. It's tjecommunications.com. You can book a free consultation, and we can talk through. I'm also on social media as tjecom, and on LinkedIn as Tonnisha English, Amamoo.

Brett Johnson [: 00:19:59

Super.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:19:59

So definitely reach out. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:20:00

Definitely do because I think it's more than just a knee jerk reaction. It's gonna take some planning. Yeah. And and and if you're using TikTok for, you know, helping your podcast and you need some help with that, okay, what I would do with the podcast, you know, give give Circle Sessions Media a shout. You can go to my podcast Guy. Let's let's book a time and then talk about it. If it it includes podcast and need some social media, we'll bring Tonnisha in with it as well too. Let's figure this out.

Brett Johnson [: 00:20:24

If you got some problems looking forward, that's what we're here for. Let's figure this out, and if we can be on your team, we will be if it makes sense. Let's get it working right. So exactly. Tonnisha, thanks for joining me again today. This has been some fantastic information, but and and very timely appreciate it.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:20:41

Thank you. Thank you for having me.