← Social Media Marketing Talk Show
Social Media Marketing Talk Show
TikTok Updates: Desktop Changes, Creator Marketplace Sunset, Ads, and More
00:15:30
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- [00:01]
Shauna Allen
Ever wonder what happens when you bring together the world's top marketers under one roof? Social Media Marketing World 2025 isn't just another conference. It's where career defining connections happen over coffee, where you suddenly form a cohesive strategy, and where you'll meet your next client, mentor or business partner. As attendee. Shauna Allen put it perfectly. I've learned more that directly helps our bottom line at Social Media Marketing World than any other event I attend. From cutting edge AI applications to Instagram strategies that actually work in 2025, this is the experience marketers call life changing. Join us on March 30th in beautiful San Diego. Physical and virtual tickets are still available at social media marketing world.info.
- [00:55]
Jerry Potter
Welcome to the Social Media Marketing Talk show, your guide to the ever changing world of social media. You are a marketer using TikTok. We've got some important updates you need to be on top of. Including TikTok becoming even more computer friendly versus just smartphones in a way that I think Instagram never quite got to. Also, Live shopping is expanding again, an update that could be a really amazing opportunity if you are or work with local businesses. And TikTok is going deep with a new feature for one specific industry. And if it's the one that you work in, this is potentially a huge opportunity. All right, my name is Jerry Potter, host of the social media marketing marketing Talk show, a production from Social Media examiner where we break down all of the latest social media marketing news and what it means for marketers like you. Today I'm joined by Kenya Kelly. Kenya is an Instagram and TikTok expert and runs a social media agency. Also host of the Kenya Kelly podcast. Kenya, welcome to the show.
- [01:52]
Kenya Kelly
Hey, Jerry. So excited to be here. I changed my podcast name by the way.
- [01:56]
Jerry Potter
You did? Okay, so it's not the Kenya Kelly podcast.
- [01:58]
Kenya Kelly
It is called the if you create it podcast.
- [02:01]
Jerry Potter
Oh, I like that. Okay. All right, we'll have to get that updated in our notes. All right, so first up, Instagram started like so mobile and they've slowly given us more on desktop. But I feel like TikTok is like, yeah, yeah, we want you to use us wherever you're going to be. So what are these Updates around the TikTok desktop user experience?
- [02:17]
Kenya Kelly
Yeah, so it's been really cool to watch what we are able to do on TikTok now on our desktop. So as of right now they have. Because it used to be very clunky, but now when you log onto the TikTok desktop now you're going to see the format in like, in a modular layout. So it's like, it feels very similar to The Looking at TikTok on your phone, except now you have, you have quite the view. So not only am I seeing the for you feed where I can just see it directly like I were in a mobile app, but I also can, I can keep scrolling. So if I want to keep seeing a particular video of mine or someone else's, there is an opportunity where it's called, I think it's like float screen or floating or something like that where the video then goes to the lower right hand side of the screen and I can keep scrolling but I can also hear and keep watching that other video. But also you're able to use a bunch of different features now on TikTok that you couldn't before, like scheduling and music and just a lot of the different in app features that you have on mobile are all being brought to desktop.
- [03:17]
Jerry Potter
It's interesting, that whole like watch it in the corner thing, Facebook has had that right. Simply because TikTok has always been about like, here's another video, here's another video. And so I assume as you're browsing other videos, don't start playing sound or anything.
- [03:30]
Kenya Kelly
Well, I've experienced it where the video plays but that sound isn't there. So the sound that's on is a floating one, but, but the videos keep coming. It's kind of like YouTube. Like you can have YouTube open but you can't hear anything else except for what's floating, which is YouTube. But you can, you can scroll and see other stuff.
- [03:45]
Jerry Potter
Okay. All right. I can't believe, by the way, we're only a few weeks away from social media marketing world in San Diego. Thousands of marketers are going to be coming in. Three reasons why. One, to learn from the pros. Discover the latest strategies and tools from experienced marketers who are excited to help you succeed. Two, to network with marketers who get you leave with friends, partnerships, collaborations, even new clients. Three, get ahead on trends. Marketing is changing so fast, especially with AI. And you can stay ahead of the curve. Discover emerging trends and shifts in user behavior before all of your competitors do. And I'm going to add a fourth reason. Kenya Kelly is going to be there speaking our guest today. She's going to be giving a talk of how to take your brand from invisible to influential with TikTok marketing strategies. So grab your ticket today in person or virtual. Just go to social media marketing world again. Social media marketing world. So TikTok is sunsetting Creator Marketplace. So that's going to work. It's gone now, but. But it doesn't mean the end of brands and influencers obviously collaborating. So just fill us in on this just so we know what's happening here.
- [04:47]
Kenya Kelly
Yeah, so it used to be called the Creator Marketplace, and now it has become TikTok one. And basically it's a really robust experience for whether it is creators or as brands or brands wanting to work. I call it like with agencies. So, for example, inside of the Creator Marketplace, as a creator, we are able to create a profile and we can get access to any kind of potential partnerships. So if you are a brand, you are able to set up a profile on the inside of the TikTok 1 or Creator Marketplace, and you can say, here's our campaign, here's the budget for it, and then people are able to submit themselves to that particular project, and then you can decide who you want to work with. But another feature that they now have is where I call it, where they're partnering with agencies, they're calling it something else. But my layman's terms is partnering with agencies. And so to me, what it looks like is if I have an agency with creators, that a brand is able to come on the inside of TikTok and they're able to launch campaigns with TikTok, and it's so much easier. So let's just say you are Kenya Kelly Brand, and I go into TikTok 1. I can say, all right, I've got this particular campaign, and I want to work with trusted creators. I want to work with a trusted agency to help me with this campaign. They are going to find the right creator and then it's going to be turned over to quote, unquote, the agency part is what I call it, where they will give them a brief, the person will create the different videos, and then they will actually launch the campaign and the ad campaign all on the inside of TikTok 1, making it super easy for a company to run a campaign and run an ad campaign without having to do so much of the legwork.
- [06:29]
Jerry Potter
Well, we've come so far. Like, I remember when I used to work at an agency going out and trying to do, like, influencer research, and you're like, all right, this person's got these followers. Are they real followers? Is this. You know, how much of this is bots and, you know, like. And so I love the transparency, transparency between brands and creators. Now. That's huge. All right, another big update from TikTok is expanding live stream shopping even further. They recently announced Mexico, now Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, Italy. So it's likely going to be everywhere eventually. So what are you seeing around live stream shopping? Because I've seen you talking about this quite a bit.
- [07:03]
Kenya Kelly
So we all know what we're familiar with, like QVC where people are selling different things online. And so TikTok shop has been quite the thing where a brand is able to come on and be there for an hour or multiple hours selling their products. And what has happened with TikTok shop is that now you can click and you can buy, but now what they're doing is they're trying to make it even more of experience. That's not just in the US or not just in Singapore or China, but in as many countries as possible. So we are finding like, even me, like I have to remind myself not to be on live stream so much because I'll end up just buying and clicking and clicking and forgetting that, like.
- [07:37]
Jerry Potter
Watching live streams right now.
- [07:40]
Kenya Kelly
Yeah, yeah. So it's like I can buy without leaving. It's a super easy experience. And they're just really making it easier for more countries as well.
- [07:48]
Jerry Potter
So you're essentially saying that from the consumer side it feels dangerous because they've removed so much friction to purchase.
- [07:54]
Kenya Kelly
Oh, yeah, yeah, exactly.
- [07:56]
Jerry Potter
From the marketer side, that's, you know, theoretically a good thing. As long as people are happy with their purchases.
- [08:00]
Kenya Kelly
Exactly.
- [08:01]
Jerry Potter
So if somebody's like listening right now and they're like, okay, I gotta look into this, what's the, like the easiest way you think for a brand or a marketer to where should they start?
- [08:10]
Kenya Kelly
For sure. So I would always tell someone, start by actually watching what's happening on live stream. So smart. I would encourage you to go to the TikTok app, but don't just go to the main feed. Go to the little button in the upper right hand corner. It says live. That's the TikTok Live center and that's the people that are live right now. And then I would encourage you to scroll until you see someone actually showcasing products. Now when someone showcases products, you're going to see their livestream a lot more because the company's making money and so is TikTok. And then once you see someone actually selling a product, be there and stay there. Watch everything that's happening on the screen. Watch how people are buying in the comments. Watch how you see the inventory run out. Watch when you see the flash sales. That's going to really give you the full experience of what is happening as a user. But then if you have a product, you know, you can't quite see what's happening on the back end of that, but you at least can get the experience by watching those that are actually selling on the platform through live.
- [09:06]
Jerry Potter
That's smart. That's a great place to start. And I recently got invited to be on a podcast, and I was like, oh, yeah, sure, I'd love to come on your show. And they asked me for some of my favorite products that are available on Amazon. Turns out they live stream their podcast on Amazon as like a sales tool. Right. Which is kind of like what you're describing. And I was just like, huh? You know, and then part of me was like, okay, well now, like, am I giving too much away here? Like, or. But then I was like, you know what? I want to learn about this. Like this. That's fascinating. So, yeah, yeah, let's do this. Here's. Here's three of my favorite products that are on Amazon. So.
- [09:40]
Kenya Kelly
Because you get to learn by doing, you know.
- [09:42]
Jerry Potter
Yeah, yeah. And watching it. And I'll probably get to see a little bit more than if I just went and watched, you know, one of their episodes.
- [09:47]
Kenya Kelly
So actually.
- [09:49]
Jerry Potter
All right, I love this update for local businesses. So TikTok has been doing something called TikTok Local for TikTok Local services, and they're looking at possibly expanding it to the US So for people hearing about this for the first time, tell us a little bit about what TikTok Local is.
- [10:04]
Kenya Kelly
Yeah, so one of the things that what people used to complain about on TikTok is that you can create content and it goes global. But local businesses were always finding themselves saying, well, how can we reach our actual local market? And so now, not only can you do the tagging in the. On the platform or have you. But now they are expanding it to where they're connecting with different users to help local businesses. So one of the things that they're doing is they're going to be offering, like, vouchers and discounts to certain types of creators. Like, for example, I do a lot of content on Houston on my second account on TikTok tok. And if I was in one of the creators, a part of the initiative, they could actually bring me on to partner with certain different restaurants or businesses. And I can actually talk about that more than likely on TikTok and promoting what's happening locally. And I can offer discount codes and coupons and vouchers for people to actually come into the store for that business. Because typically Most businesses that are local aren't necessarily promoting on TikTok because it's so global, but now they've got a literal local initiative to help with the issue that they were having.
- [11:07]
Jerry Potter
Well, I noticed too, you know, like you mentioned restaurants and then I noticed hotels was in the list too. So it sounds like they're looking to possibly, you know, get in on some of that travel influencer part of that as well, which could obviously be really beneficial. So. Okay, very interesting to see. And then TikTok going really deep with one specific industry that we'll tell you about here in just a second. But quick update along around with third party tools with TikTok and the ads program, they're partnering now with a bunch of third party tools. Tell us what you've seen about this Kenya.
- [11:38]
Kenya Kelly
Yeah, so it looks like that they are literally they chosen a certain group of businesses where they're giving them like a specialty marketing badge where they are going to have access to, I mean obviously like someone like Sprout Social and later. These are some of the platforms that they are partnering with. But they are literally becoming like I would think it as like a strategic partner with TikTok. It's like their preferred, maybe it's their preferred person that you have access to analytics and not just scheduling, but analytics and other special features for these different brands. That's kind of how I saw it. But what do you see?
- [12:11]
Jerry Potter
Yeah, I think it's just an opportunity. I know when I worked at an agency, the more we could do in one tool the better. Right. So as soon as you were like, okay, yeah, I can do this in. At the time it was a lot of like Facebook and Instagram and stuff like that's like, okay, I can do this in this third party tool on Facebook. But then I got to go into business manager or whatever it was called that, you know, that changed like three times. But you know, you had to go all these different places. So I love anytime they do this kind of like, like third party API stuff.
- [12:38]
Kenya Kelly
Yeah, me too. And there's so many different companies out there, but they've chosen these few. I'm excited to see what they're going to show us, how they're going to partner with them.
- [12:45]
Jerry Potter
Yeah. So there's just in case any of these are the ones that you're working with as an agency. Dash Hudson, brandwatch Amplify. I don't know that one. Hootsuite Khoros later, as you mentioned, Sprinklr and Sprout Social and this I think could be a huge opportunity. If you are in or work with the auto industry. They are introducing TikTok auto ads. So give us kind of the details you're seeing about this and then we can talk about what's possible here.
- [13:12]
Kenya Kelly
So right now, obviously, if you are an automotive dealer, you can be advertising on TikTok, but what it looks like is they're definitely enhancing it even the more and going deeper. So when I was looking at some of the, the content that they're putting out is that not only are you able to showcase the cars that you're selling or what have you, but one of the things you're able to do is like, I call like a carousel fee pose. And it was like, here's the inventory of this particular vehicle. We have it in red, we have it in black, we have it in whatever. We have it in this type of version. I'm not a car person, but also if you and I were talking earlier, is that it shows the inventory of, of the actual dealers and dealerships per like, VIN number. So it's like, I think that you're going to be able to see these ads on TikTok in real time of this is the vehicle that is available at this dealership and this, this in this, in this model, whether it is used or it is brand new. And maybe you can start the process of buying a car directly from TikTok. That's what it seems like is happening.
- [14:11]
Jerry Potter
Well, when you were talking earlier about the Tick tock Live opportunity, all of a sudden I'm, and I'm thinking about this story. I'm picturing somebody on the lot, like, all right, we've got one of these babies left. You know, what's it going to take to get you in there? And somebody's like, oh my gosh, there's only one left now. Yeah, that is a much bigger purchase than a lot of the stuff that's obviously sold on TikTok live shopping. But yeah, this is, you know, I think, I think it's going to be the back end. That's a great opportunity too because they talked a little bit about automated creative generation. And so once somebody has a car on their lot, let's say then you've got all this B roll from. I used to work with auto dealerships a little bit. You got all this B roll, you know, video and photos from the manufacturer and we're all seeing these tools now where it's like, well, go through your catalog on Shopify or whatever and we'll literally make an ad from it. A video, like a professional looking video ad, all with AI. This stuff always starts where the money is, right? And there's a lot of money in auto sales, so not surprising, but I think it's the kind of thing we could see trickling down more soon.
- [15:11]
Kenya Kelly
Yeah, I'm very excited about it. I think that, like, this is not something that we have experienced on any social media platform. And so just watching the innovation of this idea and the execution of it, I'm like, this is gonna change so much in a good way.
- [15:24]
Jerry Potter
It reminds me of like when ebay auto came out and some of these other platforms, you know, they got specific for specific industries. So it'll be interesting to kind of see what's next. So. All right, quick reminder. Social Media Marketing World takes place March 30 through April 1. Get your ticket today at SocialMediaMarketing World. SocialMediaMarketing World and Kenya. Where's the best place to discover more about you?
- [15:46]
Kenya Kelly
Yeah, so first make sure you guys come to the conference. I'll definitely be there teaching TikTok on day two. But also you can find me on YouTub Instagram TikTok at King Kelly. And my podcast is the if you create it podcast on all the podcast players.
- [15:58]
Jerry Potter
Awesome. And a couple more podcasts for you to check out and add to your lineup. The social media marketing podcast as well as the AI explored podcast. Until next time, may you be wise with your marketing decisions. Thanks, everyone.
- [16:10]
Kenya Kelly
Bye.
- [16:10]
Jerry Potter
The Social media marketing talk show is a social media examiner production. For more social media insight, visit social media and examiner.com.
- [16:24]
Shauna Allen
We'Re in the biggest shift in marketing history with AI and social algorithms transforming everything. That's why Social Media Marketing World 2025 isn't just a conference. It's your complete marketing transformation. Whether you join us in San Diego or virtually, one breakthrough could change your entire career. Secure your spot today@social mediamarketingworld.in fox.