I’m on TikTok now!

I’m pleased to announce that I’m on TikTok now! This is a big change in my social media strategy, so I decided to write a blog post about it.

If you’re not in the mood for text, you can jump straight to my TikTok profile. If you’re a text person like me, you can keep reading for the full story.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a social media platform that lets users post short videos ranging in length from a few seconds to three minutes. The platform is also testing out a ten-minute video option, but most of the videos are three minutes or less. The most popular videos on TikTok tend to be a minute or less.

Why TikTok?

I’m using TikTok to reach new audiences and communicate in new ways about the climate crisis and climate justice.

There’s a popular misconception among people my age and older that TikTok consists entirely of ridiculous viral videos with no deeper substance. Trending dances, funny cat/dog videos, and so on.

Those TikToks do exist. They’re a major part of TikTok and a perfectly valid form of entertainment. But they’re not the only part of TikTok.

What initially inspired me to give TikTok a try is BookTok. BookTok is an entire subset of TikTok focused on books. People post book reviews, book excerpts, reading lists, and general musings about reading, writing, and beyond.

Exploring TikTok and especially BookTok convinced me of the value of communicating through short videos. It’s not the only way to communicate, but it’s a very new, engaging, and still-evolving form of online communication.

The short video length demands brevity in the same way that Twitter’s character limits do. This inspires a short-form communication style that is often concise and at times even poetic.

There are, of course, down sides to the focus on brevity and viral trends. It can lure the viewer into watching an endless stream of disjointed videos that play on their emotions to keep them watching without providing much substance or opportunity for meaningful engagement. The main post discovery algorithm can also lead impressionable viewers down destructive rabbit holes all too quickly, and does so on a regular basis.

But I’ve seen some great content on TikTok. It’s one of the best places to reach a younger audience that’s more directly affected by the climate crisis than I am. So I’ve decided to give it a try.

Now that I’ve made the leap, I also see the transition to video as a natural next step given my long history of radio broadcasting.

For over twenty years, I’ve co-hosted a local community radio show called Your Community Spirit. At first, I didn’t see the connect between radio broadcasting and TikTok. One is audio, the other is video. One is long form, the other is short form. However, they both involved talking to a public audience about the climate crisis, climate justice, and related topics.

My exploration of TikTok is yet another form of climate communication. I’m excited to reach new audiences and communicate in new ways about the climate crisis and climate justice.

What Will I Post?

What I post depends largely on what my followers want to see!

Since I’m new to the platform, I’m going to do a series of posts to determine what types of TikToks gain the most traction. This will involve experimenting with different topics and styles until I find that sweet spot at the intersection between what my followers want and what I’m excited to share.

My current ideas fall into four broad categories:

  • Book Reviews/Excerpts. I want to review climate change books, both the ones I’ve written and the many others available in my climate change bookshop. I’ll post written reviews on my blog and video reviews on TikTok.
  • Game Reviews. I’ve decided to review all of the climate change games on itch.io. I’ll post written reviews on this blog and video reviews on TikTok. When I’m done with those games, I’ll look for other climate change games to review.
  • Superhero/Supervillain. I want to give a shout out to individuals and groups who are doing climate justice work. I also want to call out individuals and groups that are working against climate justice. Since superhero narratives are popular these days, I intend to find out if my climate superhero/supervillain videos are able to reach new audiences with climate justice messaging.
  • Humor. I haven’t decided yet if this will just be an aspect of the other videos or its own entire category. My radio show involves a lot of climate humor, so don’t be to surprised if I post a few videos that are purely climate humor.

Where Can You Find Me?

You can find me on TikTok at @treesongrlsh. It’s all lower case.

The RLSH at the end of some of my social media handles is short for Real-Life Superhero (RLSH). To learn more about Real-Life Superheroes, visit my superhero mission page, the Initiative Collective’s website, the New York Initiative’s website, and RLSH.net.

I’m also going to experiment with posting the videos on other social media platforms that I have an active account on: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and possibly Mastodon. I don’t want to post the exact same content to all accounts, but I do want people to be able to see these videos if they’re not on TikTok. So I’m going to continue posting my usual content on the other networks in addition to these videos I’m making with TikTok audiences mind.

Thank You

Thank you for reading this and following me on social media. If you have questions or other feedback, let me know. In the meantime, if you’re over on TikTok, I’ll see you there!

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