Rant: Heard a client call TikTok 'the new Google' and it threw me back to 2010

I was at a coffee shop in Austin and overheard a business owner telling her friend she doesn't even bother with search ads anymore because 'everyone just looks on TikTok now'. It made me think about how we used to fight clients on the value of a basic Google My Business page. What's the biggest shift in client expectations you've had to explain lately?

4 comments

4 Comments

allen.kai26d ago

Yeah exactly, @ellioth37 that's the thing I keep telling newer business owners - you don't necessarily need to ditch your website, but you gotta meet people where they're actually scrolling and decide from there what to focus on. Best advice I've given lately is just pick one platform and do it really well instead of stretching thin across all of them.

ellioth373mo ago

My barber in Denver told me last week he gets more bookings from his TikTok videos of haircut transformations than his actual website. He showed me his phone, and the comments were full of people asking for appointments. It’s wild because I remember helping my uncle set up a Yellow Pages ad for his shop like it was a huge deal. Now the whole game is just completely different.

milam483mo ago

Honestly my cousin's bakery gets more orders from TikTok than her actual online store now.

dakotab933mo ago

Saw an article last week about a local pizza place that shut down its website ordering completely. They just use their Instagram and TikTok bios with a link to a simple form now. Said it cut down on no-shows and confused calls by a ton. The whole idea of a formal business website feels almost optional for some places these days.