Diversify Your Brand Portfolio
all about TikTok and trends as a strategy
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By now, I’m sure most of us have seen both of these TikTok updates:
In the week post-ban and resurgence, I’ve seen so many posts on other social media platforms talking about how major TikTok names are begging their community to follow them elsewhere.
I’ve also seen so many posts about the demise of reading and the publishing industry (again) because without #BookTok, reading is no longer cool.
Please, can we all take a collective deep breath? Thank you.
Here’s the reality: regardless of industry, if you are working on building a social presence and you’re putting all of your eggs in one basket — whatever that basket may be — you’re taking unnecessary risks.
As you can see, other social media platforms have relied on TikTok possibly more than has ever been publicly acknowledged. This is because it’s less of a social platform, and more of a tool for discovery.
Social Platforms (Meta)
typically show content from within your community before recommending new options
→ when you open Instagram, your Explore tab is secondary to your Home tab
encourage you to foster relationships and act as a tool for connectivity and conversation
Discovery Platforms (TikTok)
prioritize showing you new content before showing you content from those you follow, thus providing continuous exposure and new opportunities
→ when you open TikTok, your Following tab is secondary to your For You tab
This ecosystem has worked like a charm for so many authors, creators and small businesses. So many larger brands have also revived their image through TikTok.
But those who are mourning its demise are forgetting one thing: TikTok is not as multi-generational as the other places you can be, so the content that works there does not always translate well to the other social media apps.
Each app has it’s own identity, and thus, it’s own target demographic and ideal piece of content. You cannot post the same piece of content across all social media channels and expect to be a blanket success.
Diversify Your Brand Portfolio
Like with your finances, you need to diversify your brand portfolio. It’s not easy, but it’s the only way to remain standing. A billboard can be taken down, a social media app can go away, a meeting space can close. At the end of the day, your resilience comes down to the strength of your brand.
Stack the odds in your favor:
Make a website: If you own your domain, you own your website. This means, the only reason it would go away is if you shut it down. You don’t need to invest in something major — instead consider something simple, featuring your bio, your work, and all the links necessary for people to find you.
Start an email list: That website should absolutely have a subscribe option, and you should be incentivizing your following on every platform (and that you know offline) to submit to it. That list is yours to own, and gives you the opportunity to cut through the noise and connect with your whole audience directly.
Understand your audience: Spend some time really getting to know the people who already support you. While you nurture those relationships, personify each demographic you’d like to see your following grow into. Think like them, scroll like them, find out which apps they open as muscle memory as well as their consumption habits.
Understand the platforms: Like with your audience, it’s time to get to know what each social media app expects from you, and honor that. It’s okay to go dark on platforms that no longer make sense for your brand.
Realign, test, realign, test: Once you know who your ideal followers are and where they are spending their scroll-time, create content that aligns with that platform and their behavior. Don’t be afraid to grow slow or have low engagement while testing new ways of being present! In fact, be prepared to pivot — just ensure your pivots always stay aligned with your brand goals.
Don’t chase trends: With TikTok’s (potential) ban, people are flocking to BlueSky and other potential Next Big Apps. Do your audience and platform research, and stick to your plan. After you do, if a new platform — or content idea — makes sense for you, great! If not, keep it moving.
Go offline: Do not discount live interactions as ways to connect! Go back to the basics — find or create opportunities that allow you to be physically present with your target audience, and build relationships the old fashioned way.
TikTok: The End of an Era (for me)
My theme for the year is intentionality, and as I embody that more and more deeply, I am naturally realizing what I don’t want to spend my time doing, and one of those things is scrolling TikTok. I opened the app to screenshot the welcome back message, and haven’t pressed ‘Continue’ or reopened it since. It was fun while it lasted, but I’m done feeling overstimulated and off after a lengthy scroll.
TikTok is exhausting. The trends are so fast-paced, so subconsciously influential, and is a little too informal for me. I think we could all benefit from one less app shoving strangers’ lives down our throats. That said, I hope the brands that relied on it so heavily are investing in diversification and staying afloat.
Slightly unrelated: Grace Atwood is also focusing on Intentionality this year, and I literally could not write a better description as to what that means than she did.
PS. the Publishing Industry will be just fine.
Publishers and authors had the same amount of time to consider the ramifications of a TikTok ban as all the other industries and creators. I know firsthand that they have been having marketing meetings about diversification, amplification and alternative ways forward.
Did you see the Google x Rebecca Yarros/Onyx Storm partnership?
If you’re an author and are interested in developing your brand beyond TikTok, or interested in creating a sustainable fanbase that isn’t platform-dependent, please send me an email: hello@jessicasorentino.com, I’d love to meet you.
xx
Jessica Sorentino specializes in branding and marketing for authors, helping them connect with readers and position their work for agents and publishers. With over a decade in publishing, she transforms stories into lasting brands through strategy, connection, and visibility.
