Mel Hopkins Posted March 12, 2022 Report Share Posted March 12, 2022 (edited) I saw TikTok CEO Shouzi Chew on Bloomberg this morning and the interviewer, David Rubenstein, asked Chew, how someone Rubenstein's age could benefit from TikTok. Chew answered BookTok, generates 40 billion views (BILLION WITH A B ) for the booktok hashtag. There is also Black BookTok I found one influencers "Kendra.Reads" https://www.tiktok.com/@kendra.reads?lang=en with more than 100k followers who was featured on CBS news https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kendra-keeter-gray-tiktok-creator-black-characters/. I'm on tiktok. So far I just watch. Is anyone promoting here promoting their books, bookstore or publishing company on tiktok? Post your profile name so we can follow. Edited March 12, 2022 by Mel Hopkins added content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Posted March 13, 2022 Report Share Posted March 13, 2022 @Mel Hopkins Are you seeing may folks in our age on TikTok? Did you discover Kendra Reads before you saw the CBS News article? It seems odd that TikTok, a video sharing platform, is still displaying user videos as mirror images. All the text in the video being reversed is unnecessary and irritating. (Am I coming across grumpy this a.m.? ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel Hopkins Posted March 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 On 3/13/2022 at 11:26 AM, Troy said: Are you seeing may folks in our age on TikTok? Did you discover Kendra Reads before you saw the CBS News article? I get all my TikTok notifications from my daughters, who share stories with me. Since I don't spend much time on TikTok, I followed up on the CEO's claim of about 40 billion views for the hashtag BookTok. Following that lead, I searched for black BookTok and found Kendra.Reads via the CBS news story. I followed her because she promotes black books and follows up on recommendations where popular series contain black characters. I didn't see one ad while watching any TikTok video. Starting an account and getting an audience would be too time-consuming for me. The way to benefit from the hashtag BookTok is through its popular influencers promoting books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Posted March 14, 2022 Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 I'm part of a program called Builder + Backers and am hoping to do an experience in which I can test the effectiveness of TikTok for AALBC, but I need a website refresh which I hope yo complete in another 4 weeks. As far as the lack of ads on TikTok, if they are like any other social media platform, they will be coming -- trust me. The other thing I find problematic with social is that so much of what we see is advertising. Now I don't have a problem with advertising, but it is often undisclosed and gives prominence to those with the most money. This usually ends up in marginalizing Black content not cosigned by white folks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel Hopkins Posted March 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 @Troy Off-Topic: My club notifications isn't working. I get notifications from the forum topics but not club notifications. I do have it set to receive notifications when someone comments, starts a topic or replies to my topics - but I'm not getting anything. I hope club members are getting notice of activities from Readingblack.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel Hopkins Posted March 15, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2022 On 3/14/2022 at 12:07 PM, Troy said: 'm part of a program called Builder + Backers and am hoping to do an experience in which I can test the effectiveness of TikTok for AALBC, I'm not familiar with the Builder + Backers program. If you could, would you share an overview? Also, I don't know why this escapes me (maybe I'm too close)- but YOU ARE AN INFLUENCER with the oldest black books promotion website on the internet. AALBC continuously drives black book sales and promotes authors through email marketing, promotional marketing, bookselling programs, and social movement. TikTok is designed for low information consumers. The TikTok audience wants their info in easy-to-understand, digestible "byte"-size increments so they can share it with others. My daughters always force me to participate in the music and dance challenges, which I love. I've noticed the same with other parents our age -even celebrity gen-Xers and X-boomers. So, from the cultural perspective, TikTok has been able to bridge the generation gap. Users even engage others in the literary movement and have brought a lot of backlist books to bestselling status. So, here's a thought. BookTok (43 billion views as of today)- "BlackLit" could be the theme (the blacklit hashtag isn't popular) featuring social movement black literary fiction. For example, my daughter's beau's grandfather wrote Trumbull Park in 1959. Recently inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, Trumbull Park is about the first black family moving into a whites-only public housing project. I've noticed in the aalbc newsletter you reach back to spotlight the literary history makers. So there might be a way to get your #Sankofa (2.3 million TikTok views) on, to use that editorial angle as a point of entry to tell and promote aalbc's story on TikTok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Posted March 16, 2022 Report Share Posted March 16, 2022 19 hours ago, Mel Hopkins said: YOU ARE AN INFLUENCER Sure, I am definitely and influencer, but not on social media -- at least not directly. The term "influencer" is not applied to indie platforms -- especially the black-owned ones. The social media algorithm simply does not favor older Black men you aren't talking about nonsense. IMHO. Can you think of a so called influencer who is a Black, cis-gender, male in my age range on TikTok, for example? Is he buck dancing (metaphorically speaking). Again I will give it a shot... Thanks for the information on Frank London Brown. His book, Trumbull Park is still in print. I just added a place holder for him on the site: https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Frank+London+Brown You can learn more abut Builders + Backers here: https://www.buildersandbackers.com/press-posts/tulsa-cohort-2022 it is a really helpful program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel Hopkins Posted March 16, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2022 3 hours ago, Troy said: Can you think of a so called influencer who is a Black, cis-gender, male in my age range on TikTok, for example? Is he buck dancing (metaphorically speaking). Again I will give it a shot... Here's a group I found via aarp - Silverfox Squad LLC - I think the founding member designs shoes - He's verified on instagram has about a half-million followers. Who knew? lol io Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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