The power of TikTok

Once the domain of teens, the geezers have taken over TikTok, and are doing some pretty cool things to make a difference in the world.

Move over Facebook (Meta), the geezers have discovered TikTok, and we're doing some pretty cool things.

I created a TikTok account about a year ago, to post short news updates with quick analysis (as my background is politics and media). I did pretty well in a short time, getting 240,000 followers in about six months. Then the war hit, I switched to covering Ukraine 24/7 -- and started doing daily live Q&As.

You can watch one of my recent live broadcasts here:

As soon as I started covering Ukraine, my follower count ballooned to 440,000. But even more interesting, people (who were way beyond their teen years) started recognizing me on the street. A lot. TikTok has a reach that goes far beyond teens.

And lest anyone claim that people on TikTok don't care about politics, my Afghanistan explainer, during our withdrawal, got 7 million views.

And can watch my daily live Ukraine news updates on:
YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g-mreX-G
TikTok: https://lnkd.in/gJ2_hrDq

The concept behind TikTok is simple -- but it's still easier to understand by checking out the videos directly. In a nutshell, you post short videos -- anywhere from a couple seconds long, to 3 minutes. And they can be about politics, music, beauty, fashion, comedy, you name it.

This video, for example. is perhaps 4 seconds long, but it's one of my most popular: https://lnkd.in/gr_75Nht

What's also been fascinating to me is the potential for fundraising. I've been able to raise $50,000 for Ukrainian humanitarian relief. Through direct gifts from my followers, we've: provided direct help to a number of Ukrainian refugee families; given thousands of dollars in cash and food to hunger groups that are preparing food and then delivering it to shut-ins and people in bomb shelters in Kharkiv; bought a bus, filled it with medicine, had someone drive it to Mariupol, where the medicine was dropped off and the bus then filled with citizens who we helped escape the town's incessant bombing.

And now, we're purchasing two cars for the hunger charity in Kharkiv, filling them with food, driving them cross country, and then giving the food and cars to the charity, that will then use the cars to do even more food deliveries to those in need. You can watch our video on that here: https://lnkd.in/gmQpzeVT

This is all to say that TikTok, in spite of its teeny-bopper reputation, and somewhat-creepy ownership, is a nascent force in politics. Its subscribers are interested in the serious stuff. You just have to provide it the right way.