One of the most common things I hear from marketing and communications executives is: “We need strong influencers who can increase our visibility on social media.” It sounds reasonable. But it’s also very unspecific.
Because social media isn’t a single channel. It’s better described as entirely different media where various audiences do very different things. Sometimes it’s a perfect match for a specific PR objective—but just as often, it doesn’t work at all.
Take TikTok as an example. According to a recent study from Pew Research, it’s not only the most entertaining platform for teenagers—it’s also where the largest share go to find product recommendations. In other words: inspiration, entertainment, and purchase intent in the same feed. That makes TikTok a fairly unique channel.
Perhaps even more interesting: TikTok is at the same time the least “social” of the major platforms. Less chatting with friends—more discovery, more content, more “what’s out there?” That makes it something entirely different from, say, Instagram or Snapchat.
By the way, in the ongoing debate about whether social media is good for teenagers, many teens themselves say these platforms actually help them in their social lives.
PR in the social media
For PR, these differences open up entirely different playing fields. It’s not just about visibility, but about becoming part of the content people actually want to consume—and act on.
Of course, the example above mainly concerns teenagers. If we look at the most purchase-powerful audience—middle-aged users—it looks completely different. There, TikTok is often marginal, and Facebook is still a major player. Not particularly trendy, but effective.
For many 40+, I would even argue that LinkedIn plays a similar role to TikTok. It’s also a place to find out “what’s out there.” Though of course, it’s about very different products and services than on TikTok…
And that’s exactly what makes today’s social media landscape so interesting. For PR, it’s less and less about “being everywhere” and more about understanding why people use different platforms—and meeting them there, in the right way. This isn’t a problem but, as the cliché goes, an opportunity.
Michael Falk, Agera PR
