Find Your Trailblazing Social Media Talent: How TikTok Is Changing It All

Social media presence has been on the agenda for the last decade, but now we’re going through a second revolution. TikTok-first culture is impacting everything — the rules of the game haven’t just changed, they’re being continually chopped up and rewritten, before we even get a proper grip of them. It poses great opportunity, but also threatens brands. So what’s stopping them from seeking help from those who understand the platform best? Why the holdback? 

It’s all too common that social media management is handed over to someone — whether that be an agency or in-house — that is still playing catch-up on the medium. Sure, traditional marketing strategies do still apply to socials, but all the marketing experience in the world isn’t going to help you with how to get it right in a way that feels authentic to the platform. It's hard to think outside of the box when the box is morphing into a triangle when you turn your back. The trend merry-go-round is spinning at a pace impossible to keep up with; unless of course, you’re riding it. 

Nevertheless, we all understand the potential power of social media if we can get it right — particularly for brands. Notions that Instagram is just for selfies and TikTok is merely for videos of dancing kids, feel as far in the past as MySpace does to the reminscient mind. Just look at how Duolingo reclaimed its online image, taking Duo the owl from a character only ever mocked on Twitter (for his relentless notifications) to a TikTok icon. We can see Taco Bell smashing it on socials, whilst Nerf has stayed relevant even when their original dart-blaster audience became grown adults.

You know what these brands have in common? A 20-something gen z-er running things. The younger generations grew up with social media; they understand it best. They’re accustomed to seeing brands try too hard on social media, or skipping right past an ad in the first second because it’s so obviously an ad. They know what to avoid, but they also know what works.

For content creators, the norm involves featuring in campaigns — working in advertising more generally isn’t even on their radar. It’s not that it doesn’t interest them — discussing brand building and driving campaigns that get talked about in popular culture has them brimming with ideas to merge the physical and digital worlds and create iconic entertainment. I’ve seen it happen.

Historically, when thinking about creative ideas, we were borrowing from books, films, events and more to inspire our thinking; the reality now is that pop culture is being influenced by the ever-changing landscape of TikTok and user-generated content. Creatives and brands need to understand how they not only become a part of that, but stand out.

The amount of raw creative talent out there in the form of creators, who aren’t being utilised by creative agencies, is truly shocking. These are people entirely immersed in the creative world, they’re completely submerged in it. Meanwhile, agencies sit on the sidelines, by the paddling pool, dipping their toes. 

My authority to speak on this issue comes from building a personal brand with over 200,000 followers, entirely in my leisure; when I’m not working full time in a creative agency. It was 2050 London that recognised the potential in applying my knowledge of the social media landscape to brands.

And that’s why we’re building a crew of next-generation creatives (with a range of specialisms and niches) that live and breathe this content — experiencing it, making it all day, every day — to creatively direct campaigns with oversight from creatives and strategists with decades of brand experience. 

They’re already blazing their own trails online; hence why we named it ‘Trailblazers’.

Brands finally understand the power of social media — now, they need to understand the importance of putting the right person in the driver’s seat. Or, in the case of Trailblazers, the perfect people to have with you in the car. It’s the rare kind of backseat driving that’s actually going to make you more effective. We only have to trust that their directions will lead us to somewhere great. It’s time to sit back and enjoy the ride.