TikTok-kometen Malene

It's often seen in the leadership that maybe not on the platform that you and yourself should know different ideas, but if you don't understand them, then it doesn't make sense. Here in front of me is the tourney state museum for art. Rebranded to SMK and up in front of me. I'm meeting with Marlene Holt, who is a social media and Tik Tok expert. Hey, there she is. Hi, how are you? I'm just about to do my intro. Yes, you can see. Yes. Exciting. Marlene Pribeholt is 26 years old and has had a career in social media. Yes, born in Haderslieu, but then grew up in Foressia and moved to Copenhagen to go to CBS and lived here for four years before moving to the USA. The last few years she worked in New York, where she started a job two months ago as a social media manager for the entire North America for the Australian beauty brand Marko Beauty. Marlene has been called the king leader of Tik Tok experts and in 2021, when she only worked with marketing for a year, she was therefore called the M-talent of marketing. She was also the first in Denmark to get the title Head of Tik Tok, when she worked for the company KOPK. And this is what she has in her own Tik Tok profile. About 25 million views and over 5 million likes. There is far from Frederikse up to New York, both in kilometers, but also in big places. Yes, is there? Yes. Since Marlene is at home in Denmark in summer, I have gotten her a chance to go on a trip to find out how she became such a scrapped Tik Tok marketer, how it is to work with social media and marketing in the modern advertising business, but also how to best use Tik Tok in its marketing in 2021. My name is Emil Nøllund and you are listening to InSikten, the media marketing podcast about advertising, marketing, communication and tech. From my point of view, it is a super nice area out of the water. About me and Marlene Holt, we are continuing from SMK to the apartment park Austria Anlägg, which I know as my own baulum, because I grew up a stinkast from it. You are a social media expert, I am an expert in Austria Anlägg. So now we are going down to the camp site. Can you go in the sand? Yes, yes. Me too. Yes. In Austria Anlägg passes through the alleys of the camp site, through the Bolltbahn Gryden, and the old Syrvård ski of the park, where I made rivers and soldiers. When I was a child, I did not find the beauty of social media. But Marlene was born in a much more digital age than I am. I think I have always had a natural interest, where it has also been posted on my own profile and made around it. My child has always made videos and pictures, when it has been bought GoPro and filmed with my backpack, tour or whatever it should be now. So it does not surprise me at all that it is also a specific TikTok, that really became a big thing for me. But it was of course the first thing that I got my first job at Nordic Social, where I was the first to enter the company. So it was just me and three guys who started the company up. And it just grew incredibly fast, where we got some big customers from the start, who were loyal and dominoes and I do not know what. So I was allowed to get a lot of experience from the start, to be part of and start some of these processes, that you do not want to be allowed to if you work in a large company. And then it came to 2020, I was already on TikTok, of my own natural interest, and used the platform a lot. And then when it really went up in March, where the country went down with corona, then I also posted videos and made a little around with it, and tested what worked, what did not work. And there we had the other dominoes pizza as a customer here, and they asked if we should try TikTok, and then we did it. And the first video we posted went viral, with more than 100,000 views, almost a million views, I think. I remember on the first day we got 5,000 followers, and there were over 50,000 likes on that video. So when you were sitting with Instagram and Facebook, there was a little more weight, then you were like, hold it up. Wow, that's really something. And I started to share the results on LinkedIn, and then Red Bull came in, just the new year 2021, and that profile grew also organic, from 0 to 50,000 followers in three months. So it ended up being the biggest business profile in Denmark that time. And then a lot of other brains came after that, and different articles and podcasts, and what did I know, because it was so new, and I think that was enough. We were some of the first to really work with it, in terms of business. The first time you made a TikTok for Dominoes, and it was a hit, was it a brilliant video, or was it just OQ? It was actually a trend. There was a little bit of a dance trend, and the one we were doing, where one of the last things you see, is with the hat, Dominoes with a hat. So I think it was also a bit of fun, that Dominoes jumped on that trend, and also one of the first Danish TikToks you saw, for real. And then it's a cat, when there's no other form, for wearing a hat, or whatever. We've also seen it with Duolingo, they have their own Ule, which is very popular on TikTok. Okay, I think I have to say something. I don't have the right... I might have the app, but it's not active yet. So I was surprised, but it works well on TikTok. It's branding, and you can make some fun content with it, and Duolingo has just been really good at it. They have more millions, of course. And it's a language app, where you can learn language. But I would say there's a TikTok channel, which we call Unhinged. They say what they want, and are very sensitive in that way, and that they say, and in that way they answer back to people. And that's what people can like. Do you answer a lot on TikToks? Do you answer a lot back? One thing is to watch the videos, but the other thing is actually the comments. People really go up in the comments, and read them through the service, like maybe a bit of a controversial video, or what do I know? Then you can see people commenting, and discussing what ends up being a high grade, and you can also see a lot of brands that are successful in that way. They want to be active in that way, because it's also a way to drive traffic to their own TikTok profile, that if you have a comment that is at the top, because there are many who have liked it, then self-community management is an important part, and it's difficult, a part that many people don't have time for, because there are so many others who do an activity, so it's not always the time and resources for that, but if you can focus on that, then it's actually something that can really help you grow fast. Earlier, brands could also grow organically, like they can on TikTok, on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, but it was difficult and difficult with the rules, which Marlene also experienced. When I started working with it, it was difficult to grow organically, because it was a bit of a budget to put some paid behind it to boost it, where TikTok just came in and everyone could go viral. It wasn't because you had to be known, or a big brand in the front line, and I think that's what I love about TikTok, is that, again, it's accessible for everyone, everyone has the opportunity to go viral, if they can find good content. So it's not about if you're Coca-Cola, you could also be a small boutique from Henestrand on the west coast. So it's really the fact that everyone has the same opportunity to get their views on TikTok, and I would say that it's also the change now, after a couple of years, that TikTok is still the place where you get more views of most engagement, when it's also said that after Instagram has expanded Instagram Reals, then it's also the place on Instagram where you can get more views. But if you just post a static image in your normal grid, then it doesn't go viral, but at least you already have a part of it. And that's what TikTok is all about. You can have thousands of views and still get millions of views. Can you say in a way that it's going to be a bit of a search maybe, but when TikTok comes, is it a bit of a surrogate among social media? Is it kind of a pirate that does things a little differently? Yes, I think that's both the way the algorithm works in relation to the content that has been made, and also in relation to the content that has been made. It has been much more authentic and not so average for Brains, and I think that's why it was hard for many at the beginning, just to find out how our brand fits into this platform, because you can't just take your TV commercial and clip it to a short video. It's not going to work. You don't have to do something where you get a bit more traditional effect, because it's much more down on the ground. And maybe a bit strange, and some of these trends, that maybe not everyone understands how it works. And at the time when you have some senior leadership that's going to, what is it called, good knowledge, some content, but they don't understand it, then there could be problems in relation to that. And I think that's why many, maybe the community that has been sitting and making social media for the work they've had, it's a bit difficult to take a fight and show where what they can actually be in relation to ramming GenC and now also GenAlpha. The numbers are not just for themselves. I would agree with that. But again, I think it's difficult for some people if they don't understand it. And I would say, in the beginning TikTok was also, you could show good numbers on brand awareness, but there were also many companies that wanted to have a bit more hard numbers in relation to the convention itself. And there TikTok wasn't the best media to prove it, and it's something they develop and still develop in relation to whether it's TikTok shop or how it's connected to Amazon. But I would say at the end, if you also just had done some use of yourself, you could see how people talked about it. And now we worked with Matus. We were the ones who launched Matus' TikTok with KOPCO. And then we used a lot of lives for Matus' boutiques in their videos. And then we talked about how they felt about how it affected them. And they said that there were so many people who wanted to show us TikTok videos and see this product. And they could see it on their own in relation to what was popular. It's obvious that it has had an influence, so you can also just see in general on TikTok how the product is being sold, because it has gone viral. When you're unmarried and turn 25 in Denmark, we have a very special tradition. Basically, your friends will tie you to a pole outside on the street, no matter what the weather is. And then they're going to cover you in cinnamon. You yourself have been on TikTok and are on TikTok. I don't know what was active you are now in terms of time, but I found out that you have had 5.2 million views together. Can it fit? It likes. It likes, it's a lot. Yes, I've had some videos that went viral. In fact, the one that went viral was me who was doing my makeup, where I talk about these men when you turn 25 in Denmark and don't get married in Jutland, where you get a channel. And it's a very Danish tradition that we maybe don't have much over. But I just choose to sit and explain on TikTok, because I was prepared to go to my friend's birthday, where we were going to give him a channel. And I got over 12 million views, I think. And I actually know some of my Chinese students. They said it came into the news in China, where it was famous that Danish people are ashamed of their young people for not being married when they are 25. So it's very fun to see how a video you don't think about can go viral in that way, but also be framed in many different ways. Because that's what I could see in the comments section. Some people think it's fun, others think we're just ashamed of our young people for not being married. It was then, after I moved to New York, where I started to share about what I'm studying and living with. That I started to get a part-time job. Now I'm working, so to speak. And I'd like to share more of that, but I think I've just been tired. So it was hard to film the day, at the same time that you work together. My own TikTok has never worked 100% in terms of building it, and trying to make money. For example, with IKEA I had worked last year in USA, where they paid 10.000 kroner, I think it was in payment. And then I was allowed to buy products for around 10.000 kroner, which I think was a great collaboration with... What did I have that time, maybe? 30.000, of course. In terms of Denmark, it's not the same price we're at. So it was very interesting for me to be on that side of things and see how it works now, when I normally sit on the other side. [MUSIC] I'm sitting in Copenhagen, and you're from Frederikse. I'm from Copenhagen, you're in New York. There's a different kind of pontus in the city. My good friend My has told me that you can make a career choice in life, and you want to be North in Kingland, or King in Northland. And then you want to be King in Northland, in Frederikse. With all due respect. And North in Kingland, in a city like New York, where people are so good, have you noticed that you have to deal with the elite? Yes, I think it's clear that you can notice that in a city like New York, there are so many talented people. So it doesn't mean much to be a talent in Denmark. When we suddenly have so many talented people around the world, they come to New York to try and work up in their careers. I'm the first social media person in M.K. Beauty in New York or USA, and then they have their own Australian team. So I think it's a bit fun for me to have the opportunity to build something up. It's to be part of it from the start and see how it can go. But then I'm a lot of other people I'm learning from now on. I'm not doing a lot of big things, and for example now, we're going to work with Paris Hilton when I get home in an hour. And it was something they just got fixed again two weeks after a new brand director started. So things are going so fast and again, there's money to be able to do these things. So I think I'm going to get a lot of experiences that I don't necessarily want to get here. But I also get a lot of challenges, I would say, that you learn from. How much do you fill TikTok into that strategy you want to put for M.K. Beauty? It's fun. We haven't actually started our TikTok yet. - That's fun. - Yes. So we have a global one that the Australians actually handle. And I've been doing some videos once. But I've been focusing on Instagram from the start. When I started in July, we had 5,000 followers. Now we're at 12,000, I think. And I've been informed that on 1st October, we're going to have 100,000 followers. So there you can also see a little bit of the expectations there. But now we're going to work with Paris Hilton. We're going to do some other big things in the end. September, which I hope you really want to buy this. TikTok has been a little too much, because my focus has been somewhere else. And I think we post, or I post, at least twice a day, just on Instagram. So it will also say that over six of the content I'm going to produce every month. So yes, we're coming to TikTok, but it also requires a little extra time. Is it stressful to have this number 100,000? Do you want to start in October? There are two months then. Yes, I think it's still a bit of fun, because I know they expect it based on some of these employees. So it's not just about my school, if you can put it that way. But there are high expectations, in general, and the working time is also a bit different. The hours are a little longer, but I also think for me, this is my little baby now. And I think it's super exciting, I think it's really fast with what I'm doing. So I love it, and I also think it's the perfect time in my life to get the opportunity to do this. Is there still a fairly new iPhone that makes 100? Yes, me and iPhone 15 now. We're up to 15, but yes, it's just us two that are filming and directing a little content. But yes, at the same time, it's just me, hopefully, so we'll get a little more people. Well, I'm an adult, because it really goes fast. The time goes fast in Austria, and now there's a little gasoline or water on the motor, which has been kept for a year to keep the microphone. If you want to keep it longer, then I have a lot of citrons and without citrons. Keep it up. Actually, I want to say that in all the podcasts I've made in my life, with this uptake here. Yes. There are never people who have been able to keep it before, so ... The big "R". I still want to work a little here, but I hope I get there. How was it? It was super good, nice little Sony PCM100. Yes. What do you want to advertise for TikTok? I'd like to go in and see "Bose" on TikTok. "Tihar" is a really fun strategy. It makes quality bad, but it works really well. For example, I'm from the marketing department, and I get to pitch a lot of stories. And there was someone who wrote about one of the comics on three books that I can't remember, but I try to google it, and it's something that not a very professional or fine-tuned content is a trend. Yes, but it's almost bad that it can look good, it works better. Okay, it's a bit funny, I came to think about it. Actually, I came to think about my chair, and my girlfriend is very loud, and podcast. Then I came to think about, should I try to make the sound worse? Well, you can say you try to get a little different ... Yes, there is ... The sound with which many podcasts is a studio where you just want to have only the podcast sound, so you are already on your way to have a little different element with it. I just think generally we are a little more nostalgic about our technology, it was the best that it started to come forward. There were also many who began to use the old digital cameras again, and post the pictures on Instagram, because it looked a little more cool vintage. Now we are talking about trends, Marlene, like a total TikTok girlfriend, Newbee. Then I actually went around and thought that TikTok Trends was something you as a brand should really do everything to get into and piggyback on, because I think you talk a lot about TikTok Trends. But then when I researched on you, I supported an interview with you from last year on a media called Market Connect, about the mistakes Danish companies do on TikTok. And in the interview you said that one of the mistakes is that you used to follow trends, but now that TikTok has developed, you should be much more original and think about the long-term, that is, make your own way. Yes, and I think that I first used TikTok to get a lot of what we did was to decide trends, and jump in with them and think maybe not so much about what it meant for the brand or not, where we then began to move more into focusing on a little more of our original content and then jump in with the trends when they give meaning. Because there were many companies that came to us, we jump in with trends, why are we not going viral? And I think that this element with Alicare and CopyPaste, it does not mean that it is good. And I think you need to think more about why we are doing this trend, and how much we can jump in with it. And that is something I am working on. But now we are still not working on trends or some of the bigger companies that are on social media. But we are also trying to do it in a more unique way, so it is not just CopyPaste. For example, right now there has been a trend where this woman has said a thing, a very demure, very mindful. It is actually fun to say that, because it was exactly that word was the foundation for the idea of ​​making a podcast about TikTok. And then we just thought, okay, we will not just use her voice to connect it to one country with the brand, so what could we do? So I chose to go around and interview people at the office and get them to say some things about our brand that was very demure, very mindful. So yes, and I got several hundred thousand views on our Instagram, so it worked pretty well. Notice how our products are cruelty-free and vegan, very considerate, very demure. Notice how all our prices are under $30, very demure, very modest. Look how cute my makeup is, very effortless, very demure. When you can get it to give meaning, you have to jump in with it. But you do not have to take any of the trends that come and jump in with them. You can give it a bit more strategic thinking about it. But now you have not seen the video you are interested in, but should you then go out from where people know what the word is or should it be explained before you? Yes, you should just go out from where people know what it is. Then it should be enough to bring the right people. So yes, of course you still have to be on the beat, but you also have to have something original that people really want to follow. So a good mix, I would say. Now I would like to pick your brain as a Denmark's famous TikTok expert, at least one of them. What is the best practice for marketers and brands that work on TikTok here in 2021? I think one of them is certainly to do it more personally and also personally do their own profile. So this is more thinking about how our brand is for a person, how they want to be on social media. And then it is just to have some insights, whether it is a mascot, one of one's employees, whether you hire an amateur shoe player, or whatever it is now to be, to be able to help me build that profile. So it is at least something I see in different works, that it works really well. It is something that is somewhat familiar and personal, you know. Should it be fun? It must be fun, but it does not necessarily need to be. I think it is just to have certain characters or more different characters that people can relate to. It is also good to create content, especially for debate products. People cannot really relate to a product, but they can relate to people. And then I also talk about community. There are many who sit aside, but it is really important not to just comment on your own pictures and DMs, but to be active and show how you talk to people. And it is not just a robot sitting behind a machine, but that it is actually a real person. You interact with the network as well, because there are so many young people now who are waiting to get answers on the social media within 24 hours. And they write to brands on the social media in relation to a little more customer service. So it is important to sit aside, resource aside, and also be able to make the community part of it. And then, what can you say, a little connection with that? Or the last thing I want to say is to look at one who understands it and uses it. And that is also what we have talked about. It is often senior leadership that may not be on the platform that you and yourself should know different ideas, but if you do not understand them, then it does not make sense. Then it is also possible to say a little more senior people that you should think about who it really is. The goal group is for this content. It is not necessarily you who should understand it. So it can be good to hire some people who sit on these platforms and love to be on them and get them to control it. My first social media was the platform MySpace, which mostly deals with profiling on its own music. I like to check if MySpace actually exists still today, but with some other functionality, as you can see that many other social platforms change over time, or change completely. Will TikTok be a mega trend in many years ahead? Will it be a fast thing or can it also disappear? It can always disappear, and I think in our lives we have not yet seen the effect of social media. Some of them are like MySpace, and we see how Facebook is going, and at the same time, it is absolutely not dead. It is still not the biggest. And I also think you see this development, there may be more and more older goal groups on these platforms, and how it will take effect on TikTok, it is also very interesting to see. But with TikTok, we can already see that it is the young people who create content where the elderly consume it. It is not them who created it. So I still think we have seen the effect TikTok has on the other platforms, with Instagram, there for reals, YouTube, there for shorts, on Pinterest, you can post videos and link the beta-tester now, a video format, so you can see how big the influence it has on the video format, but it can always disappear. There is not really any correct answer to what is going to happen. It depends on the technology and how you develop it, whether we all suddenly come to sit with umbrellas in a metaverse, or whatever it is, so long as it works, then you can focus on it. And what do I think of myself? Because you are 26 years old now, and in the big picture, you are only at the beginning of your career. In any case, if you look at other years, you are a typical worker. What is your professional bucket list for the future, and is it only something to do with marketing and social media? It is exciting, and I think God is going to promise, in the world we live in today, can you always give advice, or try something new, or whatever. I love what I'm doing right now, I think it's fun. So in any case, I will continue to work with it, and try to work in the business world. And I think you have also seen how important social media is in a marketing department and how big the influence it has on general sales and all this. So I think we also see a lot of future in the marketing department, when it comes to social media and background. I think it will definitely be the right thing to do, if at some point you were going to be a CMO for a Fortune 100 company, or whatever. We look at it high, and then I don't know what. We take it back, every year, every year. We have to see what happens. But yes, I think it's really interesting to work with. So that's at least what I'm going to continue with right now. Many thanks to Marlene Holt, Social Media Manager from MarcoBeauty for a masterclass in both her career and in TikTok. My name is Emil Nållund, and you have listened to InSikten of the media marketing department. Thank you for listening to us now. I hope we get to hear from you. And if you like what you hear, I would also like to recommend you to listen to InSikten to others. And all the talk about TikTok and trends, which I always think are exciting, have made me a little unsure if it's actually a mistake that I'm not on the platform. I miss out on something when I'm on TikTok. To be honest, no. My boyfriend is not Social Media himself. So he sometimes sees me when I'm watching TikTok, and that's also good for him. It's entertainment, but it's not because I can't live without it. And it's that there are many conversations, for example if I tell him what you're talking about. But then you can quickly explain when it's a trend for the social media. So some people might want to follow a FOMO Fear of Missing Out, where others think, you know what, I actually don't really miss out on this. It's not one of the most important things that happens. But it's also a channel where many young people also get their new names. So it's a bit of a one-off algorithm, and you don't know what you're getting. But I think at the end of the day, it's not because you can't live without TikTok.