29 Jul How To Be An Influential Executive On TikTok
Spencer Rascoff is a serial entrepreneur and has founded multiple successful businesses including Zillow and Hotwire. While many executives gravitate towards LinkedIn, he also uses TikTok in addition to other platforms. On TikTok specifically, he creates videos that give business and career advice while also keeping up with the latest relevant trends. As a thought leader in the business world, his strong presence on TikTok has been one of the primary reasons why he is an influential executive on social media.
Keep reading for our analysis on his TikTok presence and how other executives could use the app’s impressive algorithm to promote themselves and their businesses.
How is TikTok Effective for Marketing and Executives?
TikTok started out as an entertaining dance app for young people but has grown into a global social media platform with over one billion monthly active users. The platform has evolved throughout the years as many different groups of people have created their own communities on the app. Additionally, the age range has increased significantly as now 22.8% of users are over the age of 35.
The platform has become an effective marketing tool because of its impressive algorithm that successfully uncovers each user’s interests to create a customizable “for you” page full of engaging content. This also means that for companies on a budget, posting organic content on TikTok can be greatly effective to reach new audiences. Now that we understand TikTok for marketing, let’s look at how Spencer Rascoff uses the TikTok platform.
Leveraging Video Content as a Thought Leader
On TikTok, Rascoff has over 13,000 followers and over 70,000 total likes across all of his videos. He posts tips, lessons, and Q&A videos on his account that show his business expertise. As an entrepreneur with over six companies, he is a key person to go to for valuable business advice.
The breadth of video content he shares is both impressive and effectively produced. Rascoff comes across as very engaging when he speaks directly into the camera. This gives his videos a more personal touch. He includes large captions, which also makes his videos more accessible. Rascoff includes his name on the screen so that users remember him and his social media tag, and most importantly — he talks about trending topics that other TikTok users are interested in.
@spencerrascoff Here’s a quick 30-second lesson on #NFTs #Crypto #NFT #RealEstate #Art #SupplyChain #ProfessorRascoff
In the example above, he speaks about NFTs (non-fungible tokens) which, at the time of this article, was a trending topic. As it is a tech and crypto-related topic, not everyone understood what NFTs are. Rascoff was positioning himself as a knowledgeable source of information for users who were looking for answers. He uses keywords in his captions and relevant hashtags to make his video easy to find. This video is the type of valuable content that we would suggest other executives create as a way to position themselves as a thought leader.
Additionally, he has a podcast called Office Hours where he talks with others about how to manage and lead a business. On TikTok, he posts small clips from his episodes. This is a common type of post as creators do this to garner more attention around their podcast. It encourages users to comment on the clip and entices them to want to hear more about the topic.
@spencerrascoff As we watch #Bitcoin fall, what are your predictions for the future of crypto? #Crypto #Cryptocurrency #CryptoTok #Finance #Investing #BearMarket
As we stated before, TikTok is effective for reaching audiences outside of your followers because of the algorithm. There are communities on TikTok where a user’s entire experience on the app can revolve around one topic, such as food, crypto, certain TV shows, business, and so on. Rascoff does an excellent job of aligning himself with the business community on the app. He does this by finding the trends and hashtags within that community and making entertaining videos about them.
Building a Personal Brand on TikTok
Rascoff builds his personal brand by showing his personality and personal life. He posts many videos about his family and hobbies such as cooking videos with his kids, what they like to do on the weekends, his dogs, and sports events he attends. These are all effective for building a personal brand because users get to see another side of the executive. While this type of content makes less sense to post on a platform like LinkedIn, more casual content is a good fit for apps like TikTok and Instagram.
@spencerrascoff Celebrating our successful Recon Food launch with molten chocolate cake – download via the link in my bio.#FYP #FoodTikTok #TikTokFood #ReconFood
For Rascoff, the variety of topics he covers is part of what makes his account so successful. Mixing business-related content with more casual content offers his TikTok followers a nice balance that ranges from insightful and valuable topics to more entertaining and relatable videos.
Improvement: Be More Consistent
An improvement we suggest for Rascoff’s TikTok presence is to be consistent. He has a wide range of effective content but it spans over the past year and a half with some content topics not being as common in recent months.
Dates are not as relevant on TikTok as older videos can still appear on the “for you” page no matter how recently it was posted. With that being said, continuing to post videos that users enjoy is one of the best ways to grow a social media account. Trends are constantly changing and Rascoff could benefit from staying up to date on those trends by posting more frequently and sharing his unique insights.
Is TikTok the Social Media Blueprint of the Future?
For executives, TikTok may be a difficult place to build a presence because the type of content is drastically different from how other platforms operate, but it’s not going to be like that for long. Many platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have taken many TikTok features — such as short-form video content, the “for you” page, and immersive feeds — and adapted them to their own platforms. Short-form videos are being promoted by these apps since they’re what users are consuming the most at this time. It is essential for executives to understand the social media landscape because creating relevant content users want to see is a key strategy for improving their online presence.
If you are looking for an executive and business leader to base a TikTok presence around, Spencer Rascoff is one of the best examples. He shares a wide range of content that caters to his audience and is successful on the app by using relevant hashtags and video types. Rascoff showcases his authentic persona through video by sharing his personal life and genuine advice to help others succeed with their own business goals.
Short-form video is difficult to navigate and produce, but we can help! If you’re looking to get your executives on TikTok or any other social media platform, start a conversation today with one of our marketing experts! Click the link below or check out our LinkedIn for more insights.
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