This post first appeared on my PR blog, but I thought it would be good to share on our Source PR website too. Enjoy!

TikTok’s influence is huge. The app’s popularity has grown exponentially over the last few years, fuelled by lockdown boredom initially and more recently by the desire for better social media experiences than Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.

Any marketer can see the potential such a platform holds, but there have been several times where TikTok has truly worked its magic. Instances where its influence has been so great that it has changed lives forever.

3 BookTok Success Stories

‘BookTok’ has become a force of its own, so much so that if you walk into any Waterstones, The Works or WH Smiths nowadays you’ll more than likely see a ‘TikTok recommends section’. But the social platform has not just propped up already established authors, it’s also helped create them too. Turning dreams into reality… Literally.

• One of the most recent examples is TikTokker Marguerite Richards turning her dad’s decade-old novel into an overnight sensation through just one video that went viral. The clip, which now has over 40 million views sent Marguerite’s Dad’s novel, Stone Maidens, into the charts 10 years after its initial release. The overwhelming response to a simple yet emotive video goes to show the influence that organic content can have – with the right messages and just a little bit of magic. Richard, who is just the cutest soul, told the BBC: “last week has been a whirlwind experience for me, truly mind-blowing. However, I earnestly believe that it is most important for a writer to never take no for an answer, to persevere, and never, never give up.” 
• Another that any TikTok aficionado would recognise is Alex Aster, author of Lightlark. The now-novelist posted on the app a few years ago about her ideas for a set of books about a mythical island that only appears every 100 years. After being initially rejected by several publishers, her video went viral and this resulted in Aster being offered a six-figure advance book deal from Abrams Books. The first novel has now been published, with others to follow.
• And finally, it’s not an ‘overnight sensation’ story like the others, but author Colleen Hoover, dubbed the Queen of ‘BookTok‘, would certainly have to attribute a large portion of her popularity to the app. Her book ‘It Ends With Us’ was one of the inaugural ‘BookTok’ recommendations, and when Hoover herself become really active on TikTok, her fame only increased. Now, her novels are commonplace in most bookstores, with large collections being on offer and many ‘BookTok-kers’ still recommending her works. In fact, Colleen Hoover attributes her success so much to TikTok that last year, she released a sequel to ‘It Ends With Us’ that she said she thought to do to thank her loyal followers.

2 BeautyTok Success Stories

Though ‘BookTok’ is incredibly influential, it’s not the only niche of TikTok. As with Instagram and other social media platforms, health, beauty and lifestyle are also other popular genres on the app. There’s been plenty of opportunity to go viral organically in this space since TikTok began getting really popular, and many small businesses have grown to great heights because of this.

• Delhicious, an award-winning Ayurvedic skincare brand really demonstrates the value of TikTok fame compared to more traditionally successful routes, such as appearing on TV. Zara Saleem, who founded the business, actually appeared on Dragon’s Den last year, but her brand really took off anyway thanks to her TikTok channel. At the end of 2021, it was reported that the business hit six-figures and ended up with a 20,000 person waitlist after going viral several times. Since then, Delhicious has only gone from strength to strength. From being kitchen-manufactured, to having a full production line. There’ve also been several new products launched by the brand too. I’ve followed them since very early on, LOVE their stuff and so the story sits really really right with me. It’s a classic example of how TikTok can transform a life!
• If you’ve ever seen the trend of icing your face on TikTok, then know that a lot of this can be traced back to an Australian-born business, The Contour Cube. After one video getting 6m views, the female-founded company sold £20k worth of stock according to the Female Start Up Club podcast. I don’t have much health and beauty content on my feeds, but I did pick up on this trend and the time and when researching extra ideas to bulk up this blog, I was delighted to come across this story.

2 FoodTok Success Stories

Everyone’s ‘For You Page’ is different, but I’d bet you that most people have food videos pop up on their app at least every now and again. One business went viral though not for its irresistible food (though I don’t doubt it!) but instead, for its impossible earworm of a song.

• You knew it was coming… Who took themselves off to Binley Mega Chippy last summer? The unassuming Coventry chip shop ended up with queues out the door and down the street after a jingle about it went viral! 🎶 If it’s in your head now, I’m sorry. According to Sky News, the owner Kamal Gandhi said his overnight fame was crazy, but he was so grateful for it. This is definitely one that has me questioning my peers that travelled miles and miles for a chippy (reportedly, even some from overseas?!) but at the same time, it’s great to see yet another small business thriving thanks to TikTok fame.
• The self-proclaimed ‘CEOs of SweetTok’, I loved Candy Works’ videos during lockdown. I still get a serotonin rush when they pop up on my pafe even now. So, when looking around for this blog, I was delighted to see that the business is still doing super well, even nearly 3 years on from its initial rise to fame. The company was created by Sophie and Ryan Taylor, who put about £400 into it and a lot of time on TikTok. Now, it has a reported £1.4m turnover and 1.7m followers. Amazing stuff.

We’re big fans of TikTok at Source PR and have long seen its value in marketing. Read my blog from a few years ago about the value of investing time in this app by clicking here.

This past week, the PR, marketing and comms world experienced something it never had before when the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II was announced on Thursday evening. Any industry pro knows if there’s something we’re good at, it’s adapting to change and thinking on our feet, especially in the PR agency world.

Many brands began frantically posting social media messages some of which came under scrutiny of the general public, with suggestions that the posts were ill judged or in poor taste.

 

As a nation, we didn’t know what to do on hearing the news. Whether you’re a royalist, want to abolish the monarchy or you just don’t care either way, this situation was new and unfamiliar, which was shown in some of the most Googled questions from last week:

Queen Elizabeth death what will happen

Queen Elizabeth death what happens next

Operation London Bridge

When is the Queens Funeral.

The government did release national mourning guidance, but that didn’t include much guidance, stating: There is no set way to mark the passing of Her Majesty on social media. Organisations may wish to review their planned content for the period.

So, can we blame social media managers and comms professionals for, in some instances, getting it so wrong? While there’s an element of common sense and ability to read the room lacking in some brand’s reactions (Ann Summers, anyone?!), I like to think that the majority of these brands genuinely wanted to pay some kind of tribute to the Queen. After all, the people behind the posts are just that: people. Some of whom may well have been struggling with the news themselves. On the other hand, there are some brands that may have been fearful of saying nothing at all – after all, would that have looked worse for the brand than posting something tone deaf? It depends how you look at it.

For me personally, I struggle with brands that have a lot to say about certain issues on social media but with no real substance behind the message. Want to change your logo to black out of respect but then have your team performing non-essential work come into the office on the bank holiday Monday of the funeral? That doesn’t sit right with me. Similarly to Pridewashing, changing your logo to the Pride rainbow flag but not actively supporting LGBTQA+ employees or recruiting fairly, is on a similar level to this for me. Unfortunately, there will always be a select few that post for clout and likes.

Nevertheless, on this occasion I think we need to give these brands a break, after all, the situation hasn’t been something any of us in the modern media profession have dealt with before, and perhaps it’s a learning curve for us all. At Source, we’d been monitoring the situation since learning the news that the Queen was unwell, and acted accordingly, cancelling both our Source and client social posts, as well as pausing any campaigns. Luckily enough all of our clients valued and understood our advice on the matter, I know some other agencies weren’t so lucky!

If we can help you with your social media strategy, then get in touch.

It’s been nearly a month since we swapped the rolling hills of the Cheshire countryside for a few days of pebble beaches and chip-stealing seagulls in Brighton for no other than the world’s largest gathering of search marketeers, BrightonSEO. Our bag at Source is traditional PR and all that it encompasses, however we also offer digital services and social media is at the heart of what we do too. So, it was a no brainer for us to head down south and touch up our knowledge with the help of incredible industry experts. This spring, we were lucky enough to hear from a diverse range of speakers from all over the world, including those from the likes of Google, BBC and Moz!

Now, following BrightonSEO there are often an influx of wonderfully insightful blog posts and resources, and we wanted to make sure we weren’t flooding the space, but contributing to it in a helpful way. So we’ve waited a month and decided to use that time to pull together our favourite takeaways learned over the course of 3 days, and how you can apply them to the PR industry. If you’ve got the Brighton blues, come along and refresh your memory with us.

Digital PR And Its Place In Traditional

But first, we want to remind you of a paragraph taken from our last BrightonSEO blog post, and that was about digital PR and how it has its place within the more traditional sectors of the industry. Digital PR is prominently focused on building backlinks to a website for SEO purposes, and whilst this is an important exercise endorsed by the likes of Google-whizz John Mueller himself, we like to make our PR efforts work harder. So, whilst digital is one of our focuses, we find it works best when bedded in with a solid social media strategy and more traditional PR activity such as events, features, interviews, and CSR initiatives. That’s the future as we see it, and it’s an exciting place to be.

10 BrightonSEO Takeaways For The Traditional World

#1 – Traditional PR Is Beneficial For SEO Too (Surprissse!)

We’re beating the same drum again, but one of our favourite takeaways from BrightonSEO Spring 2022 is the reminder that traditional PR absolutely has its place in the digital world. From the number of talks that spoke about the value of brand mentions and nofollow links, to Sarah Flemming’s presentation on syndicated links (which, spoiler, revealed they have more weight on SEO results than many professionals would like to admit). The one big takeaway is that we shouldn’t be chasing backlinks in 2022, but timely and relevant PR coverage that helps boost your brand’s exposure far further than its performance on Google.

Lovely talk from @sarahhflemingpr on the value of syndicated links and how we are becoming more aware of brand value. This more traditional PR gal is happy 😛👏🏻♥️ pic.twitter.com/QbwLyacugJ

— Jessica (@jessicapardoePR) April 6, 2022

#2 – Emotion Should Be At The Forefront Of Your Strategy

The way that content makes the reader feel is important in achieving many goals, whether that’s enticing a customer to purchase, or convincing a journalist to cover your story. The way in which you convey a message can make or break its end goal, no matter what that may be! In a talk on going viral on a budget, Alex Hickson of John Doe hit home this very point, explaining how he used topical and emotional ideas (such as how excited everyone was to see the back of 2020) to create a best-selling product that the press went crazy for. Whether it’s writing copy, social or producing PR campaigns – we like to make sure that we believe in what we’re doing, and that other people will to. Emotion is incredibly important in the industry.

#3 – Search Intent Is A Helpful Tool

We love researching here at Source, and one of the best tools for doing this is Google Trends. Whether it’s from seeing what customers are searching for to ideate blog topics, to using intent to focus your digital PR efforts (by ensuring your campaigns and link building statistic pages are exactly what people are looking for, as shared by Chris Czermak of MacNaught Digital).

#4 – Creativity Isn’t Linear

In perhaps one of the most compelling talks in our BrightonSEO history, Max Hoppy, ex-Google, explained how they teach you to be creative at one of the world’s biggest companies. In short, this involves:

• Not expecting the juices to flow in the workplace (of all the people surveyed, none said they got their best ideas in the office, in fact they came when they weren’t pushing for it, such as in the shower and whilst exercising)
• Switching up environments, Google once sent their employees on a mini break to a farm and they came back super refreshed and more creative than ever
• Following the 3 R’s for the best ideas – related worlds, revolution, random links
• Learning from not just other industries, but other worlds altogether, e.g. Speedo once created swimwear inspired by how sharks move through the water!

#5 – Always Ask: “Who Cares?”

In a discussion on creating genuinely compelling content, Corrie Jones revealed that average brand engagement of promotional posts sits at around 0.05% – 0.08%, which is enough to make any PR or social pro squirm. The solution? Ensure your messages are interesting and actually talk to the reader. At Source we advocate for content that does exactly this, and isn’t a simple hard sell, as we know the best performing accounts are ones that have a switched on and impressionable audience, so when you are ready to promote to them, they’re ready to listen. One thing we really liked from Corrie’s talk was the idea of creating conversations with social, asking more questions, and listening to answers and using that to craft further content down the line.

#6 – Consumers Are Consuming More Than Ever 😬

Another point that really stood out to us, is that the average person sees between 6000 – 10,000 adverts every single day (thanks again to Corrie for that stat!). Traditional and digital marketing industries can all agree on one thing: it’s never been more of a challenge to get your messages in front of your stakeholders. However, we love a challenge at Source and this is why the point we made above, about creating conversations and content your audience wants to see, is SO important in cutting through the noise.

#7 – Trust Isn’t Just Important For The User, But Google Too!

Any good copywriter or PR will understand how vital it is to create trustworthy, well-researched content. So, it was music to our ears to hear that Google values this just as much too. With a multitude of benefits including being more ‘citable’ but also being more favoured by search engine crawlers, we’ll continue to be an advocate of creating pieces that actually offer value, as opposed to those that are simply stuffed with keywords.

#8 – Don’t Just Rely On Your Own Data

Another point we really liked, was from Iona Townsley of NeoMam Studios, who in her talk on creative ideation, suggested looking at sources such as Reddit and Answer The Public to ignite ideas. This is super clever for PR campaigns, which is what Iona discussed, but is also something worth bearing in mind when producing social and web content too – you may think you know your consumer from their interactions on your own channels, but can you go further and research other related topics they’re interested in, and tie that back into your own brand?

#9 – Your Campaigns Should be Culturally Sensitive, Always

Alongside the main event, we also attended the Online PR Show on the Wednesday at BrightonSEO, which included 12 talks from industry professionals. Two of which perfectly put together the importance of cultural sensitivity and inclusivity in everything we do as PRs. It was great to brush up on our latest understanding of these topics, and learn from the very best. Though we think the world has evolved, as revealed by Natalia Sketchley, 54% of people still don’t feel culturally represented. This NEEDS to change. Between two talks by Natalia and Lottie Maddison, our key takeaways were:

• This goes without saying, but your LGBTQ+ messages should NOT just be during Pride month
• Be an advocate where you can, take an active role in trying to improve the very system, or at the very least – be an ally
• Ensure your creative is accessible, is your imagery diverse and are your resources available for colour blind people, for example?

#10 – It’s PR, Not ER

And finally, let’s end on another note that touches on mental health and the importance of looking after our wellbeing. There were 4 talks that particularly stood out to us over the course of 3 days, and those were by Hollie Hines, who reminded us of the challenges of imposter syndrome in PR, and that making stress responses healthy is the best way to deal with it. Kat Nicholls, who covered the importance of taking breaks when researching and writing about difficult topics. Charlotte McIntyre, who did an awe-inspiring talk on staying sane under pressures at work, which included the very important mantra: “no is a complete sentence. And, finally, Jane Hunt, who covered lessons learned from her years of managing JBH and where burnout comes from in PR, what was particularly poignant about her presentation was the emphasis on working with clients who respect you and who align with your values, as well as the importance of recognising stress and sadness amongst your teams and supporting them, without them having to ask for it. This is an incredibly essential topic of discussion in the industry, especially with the added pressures the pandemic brought about. Ultimately, people are what keeps the PR industry running so we need to ensure we’re running a well-oiled machine.

Back to our desks today after a fantastic 3 days at #BrightonSEO. Our Friday was filled with talks on everything from mental wellbeing at work to creating compelling social media 🧠💭 pic.twitter.com/jPjZ9DbqTi

— Source PR (@source_tweets) April 11, 2022

Featured image credit: BrightonSEO.

In the month that Greggs announced its largest ever café would be opening in Birmingham in no other than Primark, then brought out its very own sell-out clothing line to seal the deal, it would appear that truly anything is possible. Today on the blog, we discuss brand collaborations, the best examples of them and whether they’ll work for your business.

Are Brand Collaborations A New Thing?

Brand collaborations are when two businesses team up together to create something – that can be an awareness campaign, a product line, or something else. ‘Opposites attract’ is a phrase that would work well here, as often the most outlandish partnerships are the ones that get the most attention.

They aren’t a new thing, but they’re certainly becoming more adventurous.

Examples Of Recent Brand Collaborations That Worked Well

My favourite brand collaborations are the ones where both businesses come together for the greater good, such as…

• Not exactly a collaboration with just one brand, but I loved when Tesco put the pubs first and encouraged shoppers to grab a pint from their local instead of running offers on their own alcohol, after understanding how much support these businesses needed post-lockdown.

But I also love the downright nonsensical collaborations, that you’d never think work, but they actually really do!

• Recently North Face teamed up with Gucci and chose Francis Bourgeois to be their cover boy for a new clothing drop. This campaign collided three completely different worlds and brought them together in perfect harmony. The public went mad for it, especially the TikTok community, where Francis started out as a creator. This stands to be a great example of how to reach new audiences and why daring and bold marketing stunts pay off.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Francis Bourgeois (@francis_bourgeois43)

Examples Of Recent Brand Collaborations That Failed

Partnerships don’t always go well, and in my opinion, some that have failed include…

• Colin Vs. Cuthbert, which may not have been a collaboration at all… But, there are some, especially us sceptics within marketing, who think the whole caterpillar court case was just a marketing stunt, devised by both brands. However, in my opinion, all it did was leave both brands worse off – M&S ended up looking a little sour suing over a cake, whereas Aldi arguably took things too far bringing charity into the dispute.
• Kendall Jenner and Pepsi, McLaren and Honda, and more! You can read about those on our recent blog on co-marketed collaborations that went wrong.

Will A Brand Collaboration Work For Your Business In 2022?

If you want a brand collaboration to work for you, then, yes, you can make it happen. You just need to find a business that’ll complement yours, whether that’s because you share similar values, or are complete opposites! Think of what will create a dynamic partnership and why – then the rest will become history.

Brand collaborations can be big or small, and they’ll work as hard as you want them to. Whether it’s teaming up with a charity or causation to work together on something you care about, or getting heads together with another business – or even a competitor – to get people talking about; there is something that can be achieved for every company if you put your mind to it.

At Source PR, we’re currently working with eco-baby brand Pura in Cheshire, who have teamed up with Welsh-based company NappiCycle for a number of initiatives; one of which includes re-paving a road in Wales with recycled nappies. This collaboration has already attracted coverage in the BBC on the radio and on the TV, alongside ITV News, Daily Mail, Daily Star, Independent, plenty of regionals and other trade publications, and even in the Washington Post, for our friends overseas to read all about!

This just goes to show that the right partnership can be perfect for your brand! We’re looking forward to seeing what else 2022 has to bring for brand collaborations.

Photo by Julia Avamotive from Pexels