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Social Media Marketing Podcast
How to Use TikTok's Verified Business Account Features and Local Feed
00:42:59
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- [00:01]
A
Over 3000 marketers are gathering in Anaheim this April for Social media Marketing World 2026. They're not coming because it's trendy. They're coming because it works. Martha Cromer told us quote I've been to conferences where I've only heard things I already knew. I learned so many new concepts at Social Media Marketing World, I definitely got my money's worth. Unquote. Year after year, marketers credit Social Media Marketing World with career advancements, business breakthroughs and and strategies their competitors haven't yet discovered. Maddie Young shared quote this year was my first time at Social Media Marketing World. It exceeded every expectation I had. The value of the sessions and networking experiences cannot be overstated. Unquote. While you're deciding whether to attend, thousands of marketers have already secured their spots. Get your tickets now at social media marketing world.info that social media marketing world.info.
- [01:03]
B
Welcome to the Social Media Marketing Podcast, helping you navigate the social media jungle. And now, here is your host, Michael Stelzner.
- [01:13]
A
Hello. Hello, Hello. Thank you so much for joining me for the Social Media Marketing podcast brought to you by Social Media Examiner. I'm your host, Michael Stelzner, and this is the podcast for marketers, business owners and creators who want more exposure, more leads, and more sales. Today, Jerry Potter and I are going to explore some important updates from TikTok with our special guest, Kenya Kelly. Take it away, Jerry.
- [01:38]
B
Thanks, Mike. It's great to be here. And some big TikTok changes to discuss, including TikTok has new verified business accounts. They're free to set up and unlock some amazing new features, but may also have a big of a downside. Also, if you've been holding out on TikTok because you're marketing a local business, there's a new feature rolling out that could make the platform super powerful for you. And we've long known that posting more often can increase Your reach on TikTok, but not all of us marketers and business owners have that kind of time. But there are some new AI tools built into TikTok that could make that a little bit more efficient. So we're very excited to be joined by Kenya Kelly. Kenya is a TikTok and Instagram Reels expert and runs a social media agency and also hosts the if you create it podcast. Today, Kenya, Mike and I are going to explore what these latest updates from TikTok mean for small business marketers and owners like you. Kenya, welcome back to the show.
- [02:28]
C
Yay. Thank you so much for having me.
- [02:30]
B
So let's jump into these verified business accounts. Now the first thing that caught my eye when I saw this was, oh, this is a free thing. That's interesting with all of the paid verification that we've seen. But what it does is it ties an organic TikTok account to a real business and category, which is supposed to help TikTok apply specific rules and features, also makes it so that they can apply specific safeguards like age gating, geofence, if your business is not supposed to be in certain areas, especially for brands that are in some restricted verticals like gambling and healthcare. And then also if you register as one of these, it unlocks additional organic capabilities, including having a link in your bio before you have, what is it, a thousand followers you have to have before you get the link in bio. Yeah, okay, yeah. So you would get that now instead of having to wait lead generation from your profile. Destination downloads, like for map directions, app download links, organic geotargeting, multi user login for account management, which is huge for agency people. So all of these different things. But Kenya, I have to ask you first, you're obviously on Instagram as well. It's been long reported by marketers that switching to a business profile on Instagram has reduced their reach compared to like the creator and the personal profiles. So do you see this happening on TikTok? And basically if I don't see an immediate benefit for any of those additional features, would you recommend setting this up?
- [03:48]
C
Yeah. So it has always been a thing on TikTok where if you have a, if you switch to a business account versus versus a personal, you get a lot less reach, you get a lot less of those like commercial features like the audios and stuff like that. So for the longest time, since I've been on TikTok for five years, I've never encouraged my audience to have a business account unless they have a physical product because they're trying to set up a TikTok shop. But I think that TikTok's goal is they understand that now there's the American component to it and they've got to really drive businesses to the platform. So do I still think you're going to get better reach as a creator account? Yes. But do I think businesses are going to have way more features that they never had before? Yes.
- [04:28]
B
So if there's an essential feature, it sounds like you're thinking, you know, it's worth it. Like let's say people want directions, you're a local business, then that direction button alone could be well worth the reduction in reach.
- [04:39]
C
Yeah, exactly. Because if you think about what's happening now, like, people are searching more on TikTok than ever before. They're searching for their place to eat, their place to go out at night. And so oftentimes, it's like the. One of the easiest things to do if you're out with your friends and you're like, where can we go get dumplings? And you're like, go to Dumpling House. And then there's that feature where you can literally go to the maps and go like, and just get on. It's like, that's an easy way for people to be able to get to where they want to get to, versus leaving the app and doing this, doing that. So it's definitely a good feature.
- [05:07]
A
Kenya, you said something kind of important that some of our audience might have missed, which is now that it's an American company, Right. I mean, like, just double down on that a little bit because there was an exchange that happened. Just give people kind of a quick update if they've not been paying attention to TikTok. Just kind of zoom in on that just a little bit more.
- [05:27]
C
Yeah, thank God there is somebody upstairs. So for the last five years, the government has been saying TikTok is bad. You got to sell it or what have you. And then just a couple of months ago, they officially signed the deal. It's Oracle and some other companies partnered together for a TikTok USA version. I think ByteDance still owns 15%, but for the most part, it's owned by an American company. And so now all of our data, all, everything, there's so much advertising happening right now, and they're trying to, of course, drive more American businesses to the platform right now.
- [05:58]
A
So just to be clear, what Jerry was talking about earlier is that on Instagram, when you upgrade to this kind of business account, you're telling me, Kenya, that you feel like you are going to get less reach? Because didn't you just say, Jerry, that you're going to get more reach in this particular situation?
- [06:17]
B
No, no. Less reach if you switch to the business. And that's, Kenya said, is also true on TikTok.
- [06:22]
A
Okay, so do we know this to be true or is this just kind of been.
- [06:26]
C
We know it to be true. So the last five years, I've worked with thousands of business owners and I never have them have a business account. I always have them have a creator slash personal account. Unless nowadays, if they have products in TikTok shop, you must have a business account in order to sell on TikTok shop, if you want to collect leads through their lead form, you have to have a business account.
- [06:48]
A
So does this mean that for those people that are already on on TikTok and they maybe want to have a business account tied to their personal account somehow, some way, I mean, what's the use case, I guess is where I'm getting at here. I mean, I don't know what, like why would you do this?
- [07:04]
C
I think what TikTok is, is planning on doing is I think they're planning on making a business account better than it has been because there already is the how we feel about switching to a business account. We don't want to do it. And so TikTok's job is to make it way more appealing. So why someone would do it. So I think that if I had to guess, I don't know, this would be true. I think they're going to help the algorithm from not allowing people to get as much reach, which would entice them to have a business account there. Right now that's still not the case, but I think that the goal is to entice them to do that because they've got to have more advertisers, so on and so on.
- [07:38]
B
And to what you said, Kenya, people are going on there to search for dumplings or whatever else it might be. So it almost feels like it's. This is your Yelp listing, this is your Google business listing. Is that how you see it?
- [07:49]
C
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, because I didn't realize the power of geotargeting on TikTok until I moved back to Houston from San Diego and build a massive Houston community just by tagging. And so I could see why a local business who never used to advertise on TikTok, why they would have this business account there to have all these features. Because when, when we love something, all we do is talk about it. All these local businesses are seeing what is happening, how businesses are blowing up because people are talking about it on TikTok. And the easier they make it to for people to get to them, the, the better it is for that business.
- [08:21]
B
So you've spoken at Social media Marketing World many times. You're a listener of the show. I would love to know of the. I'm going to recap the features here that you get with this account. I would love to know which ones you think our audience would benefit most from. So one of them was the link in bio without having to have the thousand followers. Another one was lead generation from your profile Which I assume is maybe a built in form is that I haven't seen it in action, but is that what that is?
- [08:44]
C
Yeah, it's called Service Plus. So there's two versions of Service Plus. One version of Service plus is if you have a business account and you are doing live streams. There's, there's a little box that pops up and then let's just say someone wants to join a challenge or something that I'm doing. If there's a box that pops up that says, hey, if you want to join my challenge, just put your name and email address in. Well, but it's going to auto populate them. So if you have that Service plus feature, it's going to auto populate them into the form and they're also making it easier to be able to export those people. That's the business account, Service Plus. But if you have a creator account, Service Plus, I can. The box will pop up and it'll say, hey, if you want to join my challenge, comment the word challenge here in this box. And if they comment the word challenge, it'll send a DM directly into my inbox. But I still have to pull for them and get their name and their email address to do the follow ups.
- [09:30]
B
Yeah, put them into your email software and everything like that. Okay, interesting. Because they want to keep them on TikTok of course. So, all right, so we have link in bio lead generation from your profile, the destination link which would be a maps link app, download links, the organic geo targeting and then multi user login. So if you were to pick two of those that you think would make it most worth essentially giving up some of your reach, it sounds like, and switching. Which ones would you say would be most powerful?
- [09:57]
C
I would definitely say the lead form and then I would say the mapping. I think one of the things they're going to do because like right now if I tag Houston, everybody in Houston sees my content. And I always forget that when people on the street are like, hey, I know you. And I'm like, oh yeah, I forgot. But I think that one of the features that they're gonna, that they're gonna add, I think that they're gonna do like some recommendations. So like, let's just say I searched for dumplings in Montrose. I think that because I searched for that, it's gonna then show me dumplings in this area. This area, this area. So I think a business would really benefit from that because people are searching for what they're searching for more than ever. And they're looking for more options.
- [10:33]
B
Yeah. And one of the features too, it said, was to, you know, by setting this up then you're less likely to get in trouble by having alcohol content reach somebody under 21 or healthcare, you know, some of these different industries. And I remember when I worked at an agency, like we had to watch all of this stuff like a hawk on all of the platforms. Do you think just in your vast experience on TikTok, do you think some of these highly regulated industries have more freedom organically on TikTok compared to other platforms? And will this make this better or potentially worse?
- [11:02]
C
I don't think that they have more freedom right now because I think that because TikTok has been under such scrutiny by the United States government that they had to like restrict like cred, crazily, heavily down. But I think that now they are going to, with this new business feature is going to allow businesses, breweries, bars or whatever to be able to market in a way because that content will not reach people that are underage. Because they're going to. Because when you, when they're creating these profiles, like this is for this particular age demographic. And I think that there's going to help with pushing that content. Like for me, if I do a live stream, nobody under 18 can come into my live stream because I literally have turned that on. And I think that's going to help business to be able to market all the things they want to market when you can't market to kids.
- [11:44]
B
Okay, so social media has always been known. You know, I think there's still some small businesses that still have this reluctance to put too much time into it because it's like, well, it reaches people everywhere. And I'm just a local business. Like, I don't know about the two of you, I assume you also hear that objection quite a bit from certain audiences. So this next TikTok feature, I was playing with it a little before we came on and I think it's going to be pretty astonishing what it could do for local businesses. So they're calling it the local feed and the goal is to boost neighborhood discovery. And you know, we're coming, we're back to the dumplings again like Kenya was talking about. But basically like you have a for you tab, you have a stem tab and those different tabs at the top of TikTok. Now there's going to be one that's just called Local and it's supposed to be all nearby content, businesses and events based on your user location, content topic and recency. So I want to share it in a second what I saw on there because it wasn't exactly my dream, but I can see the potential. But tell me your initial reaction to a feature like this.
- [12:41]
C
I think it's amazing because I think that for the longest time that people couldn't advertise their local things because you're going to an international market, which isn't a bad thing. But if you're trying to reach your local people, you're not trying to drive that that attention. So you don't want to spend time on the platform. But I think this is huge for local businesses because for me personally, I'm not from here and I'm always looking for what are great things I can do in Houston or if I go to Dallas, what can I do in those areas. And it literally can feed me all the things that I may want to experience. But probably it's going to give advertisers an opportunity to like have their ads placed higher locally or like just in the. In the local fee and not just in the not in the main for you page, but literally to their local audience. I think it's a great feature as a user, as a consumer, but also as a business.
- [13:28]
B
I opened it up when we planned this show. I didn't have it yet, but I. Right before we started, I opened it up just to see what they're in the top six posts. This is why I think there's incredible opportunity for local businesses. The top six posts, three of them were about Costco. Not a local business, but maybe they were. They must have been tagged somewhere locally. I'm assuming two of them were from real estate agents. So there is potential. Now, full disclosure, I live in an area outside of Tucson, Arizona. It's not a giant, massive city. It's not like being in Houston or Nashville or New York City or anything like that. But I do think it sounds like there's a lot of potential here for local businesses to capitalize. Just like when any new feature comes out.
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C
Yeah, I think it's going to be massive. Like I am really excited for the local businesses because I know the power of TikTok. So many businesses, their lives have changed because somebody came into their restaurant, somebody bought a cookie, somebody bought a croissant and it sent the whole city into that area. And they haven't been able to capitalize on it the way that they could. But now they don't have to rely on somebody coming in from outside. They can be doing their own thing, their own influences from their bars or restaurants or local Influencers to really help them drive traffic to their events or nonprofit things or whatever it is that they're doing locally.
- [14:40]
A
You know, I have a couple questions about this. This isn't turned off by default, right? So, like, how does TikTok get people to turn the darn thing on? Because if you don't know that it exists, then what good is it? You understand what I'm saying? Like, how's that going to work? What's your thoughts on that, Kenya?
- [14:57]
C
Yeah, so TikTok is very smart, and I like to credit myself for some of this just because I had a call with them. One of the things that TikTok was trying to do was they were trying to figure out how to get people to check on the things we're trying to get them to check onto. And they brought me on a call and I said, well, why don't you make it to where the notification does not go away until they open it? And so now what happens is that when TikTok has this new feature and they alert you every time there's something new, that thing comes out to you and you cannot get that notification to move. It will not move until you open it. They also send way more emails. Like right now, they've been really trying to capture people's email addresses and they're sending out notifications on your page. So if they're trying to highlight something on the feed, those ads will run in your feed and you can't get past them. So, like, there's this new thing now where if you run an ad on TikTok and depends on, I think it's the level of pay, but if you try to scroll away from it, it won't move for like three or four seconds. It just stays there until. And then it'll go after like four or five seconds. And I think that that TikTok is going to be doing more of that when it comes to them trying to get businesses to utilize these different features, but they literally alert you of it. They don't automatically turn it on for you, but they alert you of it. Or sometimes they say new feature is available once you do an update, but most times they give you the opportunity to add it on.
- [16:13]
A
I wonder if it could be smart enough to say, hey, you seem to be interested in local content. Do you want to toggle this feature on? Right. Because if they're noticing that you're searching for restaurants or whatever in your area, you know, that'd be kind of cool. And maybe you only want it on for a period. Of time, too. Right. Let's say you're visiting Anaheim, California for Social Media Marketing World. Keep it on for a week. Right. I mean, that would be kind of interesting.
- [16:36]
C
Well, I wouldn't be surprised if they do that because that is a feature with TikTok Shop Now. So if I do a video and I'm talking about this Elf lipstick, right? It's sensitive. It knows I've got. I'm talking about this Elf lipstick. And when I go to put in my caption, you will see product, and it's asking me, do you want to tag that product in TikTok shop? So I would not be surprised if it's going to give that same feature to local businesses to say, do you want to tag this particular area? Because that's like, anytime I post content, I can see it says locations. Do you want to tag where you are in Houston? It's like automatic. It's there. And I click, yeah, I click Local Houston, or I'll click Local San Diego.
- [17:13]
B
You know, it's interesting you brought that up, Mike, the. The privacy thing, because I don't think I opted in. And so now I'm wondering, because I remember reading it originally, but 20 minutes before the show, I said, oh, let's. I was reviewing the notes. I was like, let me see if I have this there. And there it is. Now, one thing that they have said, it's not supposed to be on, like, automatically, and it's going to be rolling out gradually across the US and whether you have it or not will depend on whether or not you have given TikTok access to your precise location. And I tried to find that in my settings. I wasn't able to find it right away, but maybe I don't have a precise location. That's why it was half Costco and half houses in Phoenix. But they do say that, you know, when it's off, TikTok will not collect that precise GPS location. So they are obviously trusting the privacy, which is a big thing. And I think it's important with new ownership. But I want to ask you, Kenya, like, based on your knowledge of the TikTok algorithm, like, what's the best way to let TikTok know, hey, this is where my content belongs? Like, is it a location sticker? Is it verbally saying the name of the place that you're in? Neighborhoods, streets, all of the above.
- [18:17]
C
Yeah. So I feel like, because this was when I moved back to Houston, I was like, I want to build a community. So I created a new account on TikTok and I was like, let me just start tagging Houston in my content. As I tagged a Houston location, then I started saying Houston, Texas as text on screen. Also was just saying Houston. But in addition to that, because you have the limit of five hashtags, I was using using Houston hashtags. Like my area is called Montrose or maybe the Woodlands. And what I found is that literally everybody that is watching my content when it's about Houston is in Houston. And I know that because I created one video talking about this area called Sugar Land. And it was a really funny video about people who won't get outside because they live in Sugarland. And I just put hashtag Sugar Land. Everyone that was commenting lived in Sugarland. And I was like, oh my God. So it's like eventually it starts to learn who you are, but if you really want to do it, tag the location, use one or two hashtags, and then text on screen hashtags.
- [19:14]
A
Like, are you telling me hashtags are still alive and well?
- [19:16]
C
Oh, yeah. Live and Kick.
- [19:18]
A
They're not on the other platforms is my understanding. Right, Jared? Isn't that true?
- [19:22]
B
Yeah, Instagram was sort of the. The last one where they were sort of relevant. And even Instagram has been limiting. Now I think we're down to five, four or five that you're allowed to have. And some people reported they got that from TikTok.
- [19:32]
C
TikTok went down to five and then Instagram went down to five, which is smart.
- [19:37]
A
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- [20:45]
B
So one of the things that they said was this local feed algorithm is going to choose content partially Based on recency. So if a local business or marketer is listening to this and like, okay, we're going to get on in this, how often do you think they need to post so that they always feel like they have something recent available? Like, is once a week enough?
- [21:02]
C
Yeah. So one of the things I always tell people is that we oftentimes feel the pressure to post a lot, whether it's on TikTok, Instagram or wherever. But we have to get into a regular rhythm, right? And I tell every business owner, focus on one great piece of content per week and that content you're putting out and you're also engaging on the platform. So don't just post and go. So if you're going to do once a week, post that great content, you know, respond to people on comments, go to and actually talk to people on different pages and stuff like that. And if you can get to two a week, if you can get to once a day, that's great. But minimum, that one piece once a week is recency enough. But they do want to see you actively on the platform. They do want to see you actively commenting back to your people. They do want to see you talking to other people on different accounts and stuff. And it also benefits you anyway as a business because you're all in the comments. That's like, you know, have you guys familiar with the Dr. Pepper thing?
- [21:54]
B
Go for it. Tell us.
- [21:55]
C
Yeah, so there was a. There's a girl who just loves Dr. Pepper and she. She makes jingles and she has her whole life. And one day she got on and was like, Dr. Pepper, I wrote a song for you, you, Dr. Pepper baby is good and nice. And that's what she did, right? And in the whole world, people, all these people that make music started making actual jingles out of this sound. Photographers and editors started making actual commercials out of this sound. As a result, she's got the biggest commercial where they actually redid the jingle. Then she got a deal with Vita Coco. They took her to the Super Bowl, Hyundai, all of them, all because of. Of of that.
- [22:32]
B
Do you think somebody strategized that or do you think it was truly organic?
- [22:35]
C
I think it was truly organic because, like, when you listen to her and you watch her, how her content has been, that's just how she is. And she just kind of just was doing this thing and it took off. So then other people decided, like, I'm gonna do a jingle too. Like, I'm thinking about Hidden Valley Ranch. I won't sing it, but it's like, the funniest hidden Valley ranch song ever. She got picked up Vaseline. All these people are now script. They're doing it on purpose. But the brands, if a brand is only there once a week posting one piece of content, but they're actively engaging on the platform, it changes everything, you know, for them. You know, like, what was that? I think it was JetBlue. Nothing beats a JetBlue holiday. Remember that? Y' all know that sound? No, but there's this huge sound. It's this lady, she just says, nothing beats a JetBlue holiday. And right now. But people took the sound and turned it into something else, as if they were catastrophic situations. JetBlue blew up. But they also allowed themselves to play into it by just commenting.
- [23:28]
A
Blew up in a good way. By the way, we should clarify. You don't mean blew up.
- [23:31]
C
Oh, sorry. Exploded in such a great way. So if you come on TikTok and you say nothing beats a JetBlue, everybody's gonna finish the sentence. And they didn't have to create the content. They had their one piece that was regular, and then they were engaging with people on the platform. Dr. Pepper did that. Vita, Coco, Chipotle, all of them.
- [23:50]
B
So. And to clarify, if I find out that somebody planned something that's designed to look organic, like, my reaction is not like, oh, they planned that. My reaction is, oh, good marketing. Right. I'm all. I'm all for it, but I know on the consumer side, sometimes there's a lot more skepticism around that. So we're talking about this new local feed on TikTok, and I'm curious to know, what suggestions would you have or what should marketers know about, you know, if they're trying to figure out how to measure the impact of posting more localized content beyond just views. Right. Views is good. Local views is good. But if somebody was going to promote something, like, would it be worth them mentioning a secret word that people can come in and redeem, or is that potentially gonna backfire if it gets too much reach? Or how would you advise somebody on that?
- [24:35]
C
Yeah, so I would definitely tell a business to have a secret word, have a secret drink they had to come in and order, or a secret ranch or whatever. Because most times people won't be able to see what has happened from TikTok until the. The video blows up or the video does a lot of views. But if everybody's coming in and all they're ordering is the Arnold Palmer but with raspberry lemonade, you know exactly where this came from. You know, that's kind of like what happened with Chili's. Like, I don't know if you know about this, but Chili's launched this mozzarella sticks, Nashville hot mozzarella sticks. I don't like mozzarella sticks. I don't like cheese like that. But somebody went to Chili's and got their. It's called the triple dipper, multiple items. And they were like showcasing the mozzarella sticks and the cheese it just pulled out. Everyone started going to Chili's just to do what they call the cheese pull. Chili's didn't even have an account on TikTok, so they knew what happened when everybody was coming in to get the mozzarella sticks. And so eventually some of the local branches started creating accounts on TikTok and they're all doing this cheese pull thing. Changed their life forever. Have it to McDonald's too.
- [25:41]
B
So we've got this local feed now and you're saying mention locations, tag locations. Should non local businesses consider tagging locations in their content?
- [25:51]
C
Yeah. So if you're trying to get people in a certain location, yes. But if you're not focused on a specific location, I wouldn't do that because you're telling TikTok this is who we are and who we're targeting. So I wouldn't do that. Like, I don't tag Houston in my main TikTok account. I do it in my Fun Influencer account because I want to reach everybody on that account.
- [26:11]
A
But what if you're at an event, right? Like a huge event like south by Southwest or something like that? That's where you would do something like that, right?
- [26:17]
C
Oh, yeah, for sure. So like, when I start posting content on TikTok, when I'm at Social Media Marketing World, I will tag Anaheim. When I'm at Disney out there, I will tag Disney Anaheim and it will reach people in that particular area. Perfect.
- [26:30]
B
Okay. All right. So obviously all of the platforms have been rolling out new AI tools and TikTok shop is no exception. And I want to just go through these one by one, Kenya, and get your reaction and thoughts to each one of these. So the first thing is the ability to have AI dubbing so you can make faster videos by generating scripts, voices, and lip sync narration from product info. You can use generic voices or a synthetic version of your own voice if you are the business owner or the face of the business or anything like that. And so basically the way it works is you upload a short product video and you select your product and I guess it'll Give you a script, you review it, then you say use my voice or use synthetic voice and then start lip sync and off it goes.
- [27:14]
C
I think it's amazing. I think that it is a really creative way for businesses and brands to create content promoting their products and services. I think it's also really, really smart. Part on TikTok's part of getting product based businesses to create content because not everybody has someone to film, not everybody understands influencers or UGC content creation. But if I have this water bottle and a series of them and all I have to do is do the script and the product and what AI is able to do. I will post content every single day and then I will run those as ads as a business because I'm like, I don't have to do as much work that I used to.
- [27:52]
A
I might be getting this mixed up. But I'm pretty sure that the parent company that originally founded TikTok has some incredible AI technology that they have come out with. I think it's called Seed Seedance. See Dance. Yeah, exactly. So my guess is they're applying this technology here. Is that what's going on, Kenya?
- [28:09]
C
I think so. I saw it come out so I downloaded it, but I haven't played with it yet. But yeah, I really think so. Like I've seen so many AI videos on TikTok of product based business. So I saw someone promoting like a lip balm and the video was, was great. It was so good. And at the bottom it said this is AI generated. I could not believe it. But it was all done on the TikTok app. So good.
- [28:32]
A
Wow.
- [28:33]
B
And they're investing so much in TikTok shop right now. So the next one, basically, you know, if you have clothing or anything like that, you know, no models, no problem. Basically you can take your product photos and they'll turn them into shoppable videos with AI with natural voiceovers. I'm assuming this is how they're limiting the use of the AI. You can have 45 new poses day daily and 20 new templates weekly. And right now this is available for menswear and women's wear. When you go in and set this up just from taking your product videos and they'll turn them into these things with models.
- [29:05]
C
Yeah, and it's really cool. Like I saw a video of a girl with freckles that in AI, I mean it was done very nicely and I think that it's smart on the businesses part because one, they don't have to have the models, but also if it's in TikTok shop. And if they. Two things. If they're using TikTok shop fulfillment, then they don't have to do fulfilling because TikTok has that new fulfillment center that they open. But also TikTok makes money every time you're selling a product. So it's in their best interest to let you do as many videos as possible so you can advertise your products because TikTok makes their piece and then you make a significant amount over that.
- [29:37]
A
I guess the natural question is where do we get to try around with these tools? I mean it sounds like these are all ad related tools. Is that correct or not correct? Like where can we mess around with this? Do you know? Can you.
- [29:47]
C
They're all business related tools. So you just have to have a business account on TikTok and anybody can do that. You can literally create a brand new account on TikTok choose business account and then you'll see what they give you access to. But also they have like their. I think it's TikTok newsroom. You can kind of see them playing around with the different things. But most times all the features roll out at different times. So I don't think that every company that has clothing in TikTok shop has it right now. I think they're definitely testing a few people here and there and then they'll continue to like go out like the local feed. I don' have that. Jerry has it.
- [30:18]
A
Okay, so this is really intriguing because anybody who listens to my other show, AI explored, knows that a lot of these features and functionalities like the, the concept of an AI model that's not a real human. There's tools out there you can use, like Mid Journey for example, and the idea of AI actors, which is not something we're talking about here, but we're kind of implying a little bit is coming. And it's kind of fascinating to think that anybody who has a product but does not feel comfortable enough creating professional photo shots or even professional hiring actors and stuff like that or models can now do this stuff. Like the barriers to actually taking your product to market now have greatly been removed. And it's pretty fascinating, isn't it?
- [31:04]
C
Yeah, absolutely. And even if a company does have access to it is cutting their marketing like spending way down because like now you can use. I mean it sounds bad for the person that was getting paid for it, but it's also like the company doesn't have to spend all that money anymore because they're literally able to do a lot of that on the inside of TikTok.
- [31:21]
B
That's incredible. So let me ask you this because while we're on this topic, are there any other generative AI tools that you are using on TikTok yourself right now that we should be thinking about? That's like something that most people probably already have and may not even know. Is there because they're still following the same routine they were a year ago?
- [31:37]
C
I don't think so. I'm not. Right now I'm learning more of their AI tools. I haven't really done a whole lot with them, but with this new update I'm creating a new business account just so I can play with all this different features, but there isn't anything I'm personally doing because I'm doing the creator account more than the business account.
- [31:51]
A
One of the things I hear from a lot of the video creators that I get on my other show is that Sora 2 from OpenAI is ridiculously good for creating really good scripted ads. Content that is really cinematic, that is kind of like if anybody's ever downloaded the sort to app, it looks like looks fantastical. A lot of the stuff that's on there, but you can actually use it to create stuff in your own likeness and actually stuff that's really, really quite effective. So what a lot of creators are doing is they're going over, they're experimenting with Sora too and then they're exporting those videos out and publishing those as TikToks.
- [32:29]
C
Okay, I'd look into that.
- [32:31]
B
Yeah, that's an extra step. But it'll probably, you know, it'll all be integrated soon enough most likely. So.
- [32:37]
C
Exactly.
- [32:37]
B
A couple of other features here with AI and TikTok shop. One list with AI where it'll instantly generate product listings from a photo and a BR brief description including optimizing for search, which is incredible. Although I don't know how you optimize for search if everybody's optimizing for search with the same AI tool. Because then everybody's sort of optimized for search but. And then this was, I think one of the most interesting things. A CRM tool that will allow sellers to send personalized messages and offers based on customer behavior. So like an abandoned cart, they can send a one time or an automated campaign option. It looks like it's free to use. If you have TikTok shop and it all depends on they have something called a Shop Performance Score spf. As long as your score is high enough, basically you're running a legit store. Then you get access to this. So I guess my first thought with this was just thinking, I mean, obviously it sounds like an incredible opportunity to be able to automate DMs to people, but I guess I'm kind of surprised they're letting this happen for free, because normally on most platforms, if you're going to privately DM somebody who hasn't explicitly opted in, you're paying for an ad or something.
- [33:39]
C
Yeah, well, I think that. Well, first it's giving. It's making people want to advertise on TikTok. Right. Because even though we all know TikTok, the business community. Community, I don't feel like, has really, really taken to TikTok invested a lot of money there because they were talking about banning it for five years. Right. And I think this is TikTok's way of, like, well, you know, it's kind of like with Mark Zuckerberg, at first we had all these amazing free things we could do on Facebook and we were like, yeah, and then they charged us for it. So I wouldn't be surprised if TikTok has taken that same route of like, give them everything, get them here, and then eventually, slowly charge for this or charge for that, which is, I think, is a smart thing. But also, every time a sale is made on TikTok shop, TikTok tok gets a percentage. It's small, but they get a percentage of everything. And the more people that they're able to get out of the abandoned carts, which we all love, and then Shopify loves, TikTok is like, well, they're already doing it here, here and here. We should do that as well. And I guarantee you, all the sellers have been having conversations with TikTok saying, hey, here is what we need. Like, I just got a message from TikTok, I think it was last week, and they emailed me and was like, hey, we know you're a course creator. What are some of the things that we're missing for course creators? And I was just, like, telling them all the things that we need. And, like, y' all want to take 50% and you need to take 20, you can't take 50. And so by having all the conversations, they're making all these. Right. Changes. So I think a lot of the stuff that we're seeing is coming from the sellers. It's coming from the business owners that Tick Tock is saying, okay, let's adopt that, that, that, that. But I don't think they wanted to put all that investment in until they knew that they could operate in America because America is one of the biggest markets for TikTok and now they're like go time.
- [35:14]
B
So that's why we're seeing this big influx of features. You feel like is because of, of the transition.
- [35:19]
C
Oh yeah, obviously I'm a new quote unquote marketer, but I've been just watching it for the last five years. I was like, the DMS are going to open, chatbots going to happen. I'm like, because it doesn't make sense for them not to have all these things that all the other platforms have because how are you going to compete if they all have these features that you don't have? And so TikTok's job is to keep a stake in the marketplace, but you can't. If business owners are not having success, they want to have, you know, like, like I feel like TikTok exploded because of COVID but they weren't ready for it was because nobody was and they weren't ready for the business owners to come there. But we all showed up there and they had to like hurry and change so many things about their business and their model that it seems like they're doing a lot right now. But the truth is I think that they've been trying to build this for a while and then launched out when the time was right.
- [36:05]
B
Now one friction point I know for a lot of marketers and business owners is still getting into that world of working with, with influencers to help spread the word about their messages. And you shared some incredible examples, some of them organic, as we've talked today, Kenya. But another thing they've added is what they're calling creator picks so you can find affiliates. So basically it will highlight high performing creators recommended by TikTok Shop. So if you are selling in TikTok Shop, it'll basically sort of endorse qualified affiliate partners. This is really neat and I don't feel like we've seen anything like this on any other platform. There's been more matching that's happened on like YouTube has a platform where you can, you know, brand connect, where you can connect with people. But this will be really interesting to see where this goes. Do you feel like this is going to lower the barrier for affiliate marketing or influencer marketing?
- [36:52]
C
I think it's already been happening, but I think they're just now talking about it in the public because over the last year, two years, you've got TikTok shop creators and this is all they do for work and they're making millions of dollars for the Businesses and for themselves. And they have ranks now, so it's like you can't see their rank but in the back end there's a ranking for how well this person does with their content, how well the seller does. And I think that businesses have already been able to like capitalize on, okay, this creator sells this much and they're already sending products to those particular people. I just think that now they're going to broaden it out even more because there's way more people now that are TikTok shop affiliate creators on the platform. So again, I think it's TikTok's way of saying, all right, more businesses bring your products to the platform and we've got this database of creators who are rock stars and you got to pay them a little bit more percentage but this is their results that they get and all that.
- [37:44]
B
Well, and the AI is going to know if you bought likes or bought follows or you know, the comments are, you know, AI generated like it's going to know better than anybody.
- [37:54]
C
Yeah, but here's the deal, it's not even about that. It's not about the likes or any of that. It's all about like what they call it, GMV or something like that. I'm not a big creator, TikTok shop creator, but it's like if I get this thing from the TikTok shop for free as a sample and I'm promoting it on the back end of my account, I can see how many views I got to this, how many sales I got for this. And so can TikTok and TikTok shop. And so when they're looking at she sells out everything she gets or she, this is the, the number she gets that thing, that's how they're ranking people. And then when they go to the brand they're like this person like 9 times out of 10 does X, Y and Z. It's nothing about views, it's all about the sales that are happening on the back end for that creation.
- [38:34]
B
I like that GMV is gross merchandise value. That's the abbreviation they use for that. So basically how many sales did you get? So, wow, that's really powerful. So all of these new AI tools, but TikTok is also like all of the platforms cracking down on AI to make sure that people are not misusing it or misleading people. So already now TikTok requires people to label realistic AI generated content, but they've also got these behind the scenes tools to identify AI content. And, and I thought this was interesting. You know, we all know AI content is exploding, and AI is exploding everywhere. But said over 1.3 billion videos have already been labeled using existing detection and creator tools so far. And they're testing a new managed topics control, allowing users to adjust how much AI generated content. They're actually calling it AI gc that they see in the. For your feed. So in your circles and the conversations you've had lately, Kenya, how do you think people are feeling about AI generated content overall? Because I feel like we're hearing a lot of different things. People are like, I love it. I love the creativity. And other people are like, I want authenticity. I want to see people's acne and I want to hear their voice squeak or, you know, whatever it might be.
- [39:43]
C
Yeah, I think it's up and up. You know, I think that there's some of us that we just love what AI is doing and what it can do, and we're fascinated by these videos. But I think that some people are in fear of AI is becoming someone else and fabricating things. Things, but also taking jobs. I think some influencers are concerned because if they're making X amount of dollars as an influencer per video, and now this company is able to do 10 times the amount of videos for less money, the influencers are like, oh, my God. And I would be scared too, if most of my money was coming from. From brands. So I think that, rightfully so, people are excited and not excited about it. I think those that make the most money creating content, content for brands are in lot of jeopardy. And I think that they're scared more than the other people.
- [40:28]
B
Okay, so with 1.3 billion videos already labeled as, you know, AI generated content. So that doesn't mean, obviously you used AI for your script. It means that something in there was generated. Do you think labelizing it normalizes AI content, or does this just increase skepticism toward, like everything in the feed? And Kenya, after you answer, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this too, Mike, as you are obviously in the AI world so much.
- [40:52]
C
Yeah. So I think that having it labeled AI generated, I think, one, it protects TikTok from putting something out there that is AI and not saying that it is. Two, I think that it protects the. The creator for, like, if they're putting out AI content that they're like, I'm saying that this is what this is. So that way TikTok doesn't take it down. But I also think that, that it helps the consumer that are actually consuming the content to know that. Let me not believe what I'm seeing here. So, like, I am very gullible. Okay? So I've seen plenty of videos of bears and horses and deer jumping on trampolines. And I'm like, oh, my God, I love those. And I'm like, oh, it's AI generated. And I'm like, because I'm going to be very gullible. So I think that it helps with that. And I think it also helps because you've got got very impressionable people, not just kids, but impressionable people. And if they see something, they will typically believe what it is that they're seeing and think the whole world is ending. But with the detection of that this is AI, I think it helps with the legitimacy of things, in a sense, but also I think it protects a lot of people, too.
- [42:01]
B
Yeah, Mike.
- [42:03]
A
Yeah, it is a really interesting quandary because on the one hand, and I believe that almost all creators, if they're not already using AI to assist them, they will be very soon because it's becoming easier, incrementally easier to edit, to add B roll, to do all sorts of fascinating things. So I guess the real question is, what kind of content are we talking about, right? Like, if there's a video of Kenya and it's a digital version of Kenya, is that going to be labeled as AI, or is it more the sensational stuff that's designed to get shares and all that kind of stuff. So I would imagine it is kind of one of those, like, slippery slopes. And I know a lot of the models, like sora and Google's VO3 do watermark with the synthetic ID, that kind of signals that it's AI generated. But I can't speak for the stuff coming overseas from Asia, for example, like the Sea Dance one we were talking about. So what we don't know is really what is real and what is not real. So on the one hand, I absolutely like the idea of like some sort of meter that says generated by AI, highly likely, you know, versus AI enhanced. I kind of feel like everyone's going to be using AI to enhance their videos.
- [43:17]
C
Agree.
- [43:17]
B
Yeah, well, and those watermarks too, I mean, for the majority of the population, they're not even going to notice that or even know to look for it. Right. They're not in our world where we're like, oh, we see, see that? And why is that thing on my video or, you know, whatever it might
- [43:28]
A
be, and the watermarks aren't even sometimes visible. They're like underneath in the code.
- [43:32]
C
Correct?
- [43:33]
A
Yeah.
- [43:34]
B
Yeah. Well, this will be very, very Interesting. You know, on YouTube right now, you are asked if something was AI generated in a misleading way, but it's still not a required question. But I do think we're going to get to the point where it's just going to be required. You're expected to answer every time and it's going to be one of those things there. If the automated detection flags you like later, you might get in trouble for that and get shut down or banned for a bit.
- [43:56]
C
I think so too. So you might as well just click on the label.
- [43:58]
B
Yeah, yeah. Just be upfront about it. All right, Kenya, this has been a really fascinating conversation. Thank you for joining us today. If people want to explore working with you, where do you want to send them? If they want to connect with you on the socials, what's the best place to find you?
- [44:11]
C
Yeah, first things first, meet me in Anaheim at Social Media Marketing World. That's first. But also I'm on all social media platforms under King and Kelly and then my website. Website is Kenya.
- [44:20]
A
Kelly, Kenya and Jerry. Thanks for absolutely fascinating show today. And folks, if you missed anything, we took all the notes for you over@social mediaexaminer.com 71 0. It's hard to believe we've had 710 weeks of this show. If you're new to the show, follow us on whatever podcast platform you're listening on. And if you've been a listener for a little while, we would love a review and do check out the other show that we publish called the AI Explored podcast. This brings us to the end of the Social Media Marketing Podcast. I am your host, Michael Stelzner. I was joined today by Jerry Potter as my co host and I'll be back with you next week. I hope you make the best out of your day and may your marketing keep evolving.
- [44:59]
B
The Social Media Marketing Podcast is a production of Social Media Examiner.
- [45:08]
A
What if you could get year round AI training? That's exactly what's waiting for you with our AI Business Society. To learn more, visit socialmediaexaminer.com AI.