by By Madison Price
As social media continues to grow, every company is getting on board with the newest trends and forms of marketing. TikTok is an app where businesses and campaigns can reach the younger generations. The question comes to who should and shouldn’t be using TikTok. When does the line for marketing to younger audiences get set?
TikTok is beneficial in many ways to small businesses. TikTok explains “78% of Small Businesses That Run Ads on TikTok Have Realized A Positive ROI”. Big known businesses such as Sour Patch Kids have had much success on TikTok. Sour Patch Kids has a comedic approach to its content creation. With over 3 million followers and being known for their comedic replies and TikToks, brands like Sour Patch Kids can benefit from being on TikTok. Bigger corporations such as Dior use TikTok to discuss fashion trends, new runway updates, and interview models to discuss BTS. This is an example of a bigger brand that has a high-end/professional persona. Food and Consumer Brands like Sour Patch Kids have the freedom to be comedic and less professional. These are two situations where TikTok can be used as a professional and casual platform for brands or, in this example, Politicians to reach younger audiences.
When you think about the roles of a politician, there are many. When it comes to campaigning, you want to be honest, up front, and provide information about your mission. You are also asking people for donations and support. When you are elected, you then have to hold a role of power. They are responsible for representing constituents, holding a professional persona, and being understanding. Being professional and being relatable is where that line for marketing to the youth can start to blur. Politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) use the platform to inform her constituents and other American citizens about her mission and what her team is doing. From a comedic side, we can see how Representative Suhas Subramanyam uses his platform as a comedic comeback to his opposing party. He uses viral TikTok trends and makes videos about bills passing in the House or the opposing sides’ decisions.
What we can start to notice is that not many Republicans are hoping for the TikTok trend. All of the politicians that you will come across on TikTok represent the Democratic Party. This is most likely targeted towards the idea that the younger generation may lean more left than they do right. The Republican Party targets older audiences more than they do younger generations. The question we can then ask is “Should Republicans start using TikTok to target a wider audience?”. 32 members of Congress are currently on TikTok, all being a part of the Democratic Party. No Republican member of Congress has an official TikTok page.
In politics, the way you campaign yourself is the way you should be marketing yourself on all social media outlets. Therefore, any politician who starts posting on TikTok should be creating content that follows along their party lines and personal campaign. As a communications team, it is up to them as to what should be posted. Clear boundaries need to be set, and make sure all information going out is correct. If false information starts to be disputed, major problems can occur. In the end, the information politicians put out shapes public opinion. TikTok can help strengthen and shape the message rather than limiting itself to potential marketing opportunities.
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Hi Madison!
Your blog post is so engaging! I really like how you broke down the contrast between brands like Sour Patch Kids and Dior on TikTok. You make a smart point about how the same platform can serve totally different tones depending on the brand identity, playful and meme-driven for snack companies versus sleek and trend-focused for luxury fashion. That distinction helps show how flexible TikTok can be when used strategically.
Great analysis, Madison! I like how you highlighted the balance politicians need to strike between professionalism and relatability on TikTok. It’s interesting to see how party strategy and audience demographics influence who’s using the platform, and how. Really insightful read!
Hi Madison!
This blog does a great job explaining how TikTok can be both helpful and tricky for politicians to use. I like how it compares different examples and shows how important it is for politicians to stay professional while still connecting with younger people.
Hey Madison, this is really interesting and I think you brought up great points. Tiktok has definitely been a positive for politicians, especially younger ones like AOC. Although I feel like during the last presidential election my feed totally confused me to think that Kamala Harris was beating trump and going to win easily. The algorithm totally worked on me and put me into a naive bubble. Definitely a changing landscape for how future candidates are going to get their message out.
Hi Madison!
I really liked your post! I think it’s cool that politicians are trying to connect with younger audiences on TikTok, but sometimes it makes me a little uncomfortable and frustrated when serious topics are turned into memes or jokes. It can even feel like politicians often make fun of our generation rather than support us. I liked how you talked about the balance between being relatable and staying professional because it’s definitely not an easy line to walk.