I love TikTok. I’m in no way aware of which kind of data the platform extracts from me, but the same goes for all other software I use. My precautions for TikTok are 1) I don’t use my own name; 2) I don’t use my official email address that I use for other purposes; 3) I haven’t created content with this account (when I ran a YouTube channel, I did promote the videos under a different account); 4) I don’t comment on content or divulge personal information in any other means; and finally, perhaps most importantly, 5) I never make purchases in the app (when you click a link through TikTok, the app will have access to your data even after you’ve been taken to a website – you’ll notice the app you’re using is not a browser but TikTok).
I’m sure those five measurements aren’t robust enough to ensure TikTok doesn’t have any data about me that I’m not 100% comfortable them having. As a political scientist, I’m wary of the conversation surrounding this application as it seems the pressure that’s put on the Chinese app by the US legislators is much more severe than that put on US-based software (notwithstanding the Meta interrogations).
But today, I want to explore what’s good about TikTok, in the context of the world of work. In this blog post, I list a few things I’ve learnt this week.
How to Design a Good Logo
Lucy Eden is a Brand Designer, and I have come across her videos where she critiques logo designs sent in by followers. She’ll show the original and then walk you through why she’d make certain changes. I’ve learnt about spacing, keeping the number of different fonts and colours to a minimum, and about incorporating the design elements better to the logo. See for example the video on Lawn Guys.
She also did a great video on whether to include an ‘obvious’ element in your design. I never thought about it, but if designing a logo for a café, perhaps a coffee cup isn’t the most memorable logo – just think of the Starbucks logo!
How to Introduce Yourself
Yasir Khan suggests a good formula for the dreaded ‘Tell me about yourself’ question. In this video, he puts forth a three-step approach: first, what you are doing now; then, what you did before that; and finally, where you’d like to go next. This especially in the context of a job interview.
How to Be a Better Marketer
A photo repost I can’t find in the browser shared by Daily Vid, this is a great reminder of selling solutions, not features. For example, instead of selling 5 gigabytes of storage, you can sell 10,000 songs in your pocket (for an MP3 player or an iPod, a slightly outdated example that’s nonetheless spot on).
From B2B Jade I learnt about getting of the ‘marketing task wheel’ where you’re constantly given new, ‘must-get-done-by-yesterday’ one-off tasks, not being able to focus on building your own strategy for efficiently executing the overall company one.
A great video in Finnish, this social media manager named Anna was asking people to comment their age on the video so she’d have proof that over 25-year-olds do in fact use TikTok (the struggle is real).
I’m Not Alone
To me, the biggest draw of TikTok is the sense of community. There’s plenty of toxic, stupid and dangerous content on this platform and on all the others, too, and I do believe in having limitations to what young people can see, for example, as well as outright banning certain types of content. That said, I admire the TikTok algorithm (designed to keep me coming back and staying for hours on end) for showing me content that I really enjoy.
I like the work-life skits; the honest rants about the world of work; the HR professionals’ takes on what it is that HR does and why they seem like they’re never on the side of the employee (their job is to protect the business – although, as my favourite HR person on TikTok said, every single employee is hired to protect the business. You shouldn’t really have termites inside your house trying to tear it down while others fumigate). I like that I’m not alone in my frustrations – and that others, too, think many of the realities I’ve had are ridiculous.
Do you use TikTok for anything? What have you learnt there this week?
Sidetracked 