⏳ 4 minute read.
I was shocked to see how good The Washington Post is on Tik Tok. I was expecting the typical drab, formal and flat news reporting, instead I got comical, slightly cringey and hilarious content delivering serious news.
Introducing ‘dorky’ Dave – the face of the channel:
Click on Dave to view
Why they are so good:
- They are appealing to their growing younger audience (now at 710.4K) by presenting serious news through short skits to entertain and inform.
- It shows their reporters as ‘normal people’ just trying to crack a story in a ‘behind-the-scenes’ format.
- Its been reported that they designate at least 30 minutes to engage with their followers which is arguably the most important element.
- With over 26.9M likes, it’s clearly a winning strategy. Here’s a comment from one of its users to demonstrate how they are being perceived: “I don’t exactly support your newspaper but how did a company get so trendy.. love y’alls tiktok [sic]”
Here’s more of Dave in action:
Click on the images below to view
What do the Washington Post and Amazon have in common?
Jeff Bezos owns both.
When he bought the Post in 2013, his vision was to distribute free, topical and timely content on the internet. He is of course the master of distribution (Amazon) so he wanted to bring that same ethos to the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, over on Instagram:
The vibe is completely the opposite here – news extracts are delivered through black and white text-graphic posts, clearly catering to an older demographic.
Feels a bit heavy here, I’m off back to Tik Tok…
@DigitalVinGill 