I got my first client on TikTok – with mixed feelings
When I started doing animal communication, a colleague told me how big it was on TikTok and I was skeptical. Until I started doing some research and realized that animal communication is truly a phenomenon on this channel. Top animal communicators have 200K – 300K followers!
So I took a deep breath and dove in. I learned by doing. I also watched hours and hours of content to hone the algorithm for my account. And I grew to admire some of those who are educating and sharing on this channel, such as scientists, Native Americans, and artists.
I just acquired my first client from TikTok and did my animal communication reading for her. She’s my idea client: a holistic veterinarian, who has worked with other animal communicators and has started doing Reiki herself. She wanted to see how it worked for her, with the idea that her patients might also want my services.
We reached out to a cat that had passed a few years ago who had started out life in a feral community. The vet had rescued this cat and kept him for over a decade, feeling very close to him and mourning his death for years.
What astounded me about this client was that she was referred to me by someone who is on TikTok a lot (she’s a bit older and confessed to me that she’s not on the channel herself a lot). Even more interesting is that I was not the only animal communicator that her friend sent over; I was one of about five or six, but something about my channel (or me) made her choose me to reach out to.
How did she do it?
On TikTok, you can send a “Message request” to someone who you don’t know. That person then has the ability to accept that request – opening the channel of communication – or not. I saw the request and read it and was shocked that it was a woman who identified herself as a holistic veterinarian in a nearby town in SC (I want to take care not to share her identity, for her privacy).
She wrote: “A client gave me your info and I am hoping you van reach out to (Name of cat that passed). My clinic is (name of veterinary clinic). Please text me or, if better, call the clinic! Either way, thank you. I hope we get to chat!”
Of course, I looked up her clinic online to see if it was legitimate. I went to her website and looked at the staff, to see if she was listed and, sure enough, she was. I decided to call the clinic and got the front desk. I told them who I was and asked for the vet and, sure enough, she got on the phone! I asked if she’d sent me the message and she said yes; you could have knocked me over with a feather, I was so surprised.
I’m sharing all this because it’s clear, from this example, that these social media channels sometimes DO work. They get your name out there and they can connect you with people you’d not otherwise meet or find. Isn’t that great?
Yes. (Deep breath) But.
I have deep reservations about TikTok – especially now that their policies have changed. Yes, their policies just changed, this week, with the “handover” to U.S. based Joint Venture.
One big policy change is that they ask for, and track, exact location. (I’ve turned this off on my phone, for almost all apps.)
Perhaps as big – if not bigger – is what TikTok says they now have the right to do with your content. Here’s a direct quote from their new policy page (underlines are mine):
By creating, inputting, publishing, and otherwise providing Your Content on or to the Platform, you grant to TikTok USDS Joint Venture a license to use Your Content that is:
- non-exclusive, irrevocable, and royalty-free (you retain the rights to use Your Content elsewhere, although we don’t owe you any payments for sharing Your Content with us)
- assignable and sub-licensable, including through multiple tiers (so we can, for example, work with service providers and business partners to help distribute Your Content); and
- worldwide (so we can show your content to a global audience).
Our license to use Your Content includes our rights to access, reproduce (e.g. to copy), distribute, share, download, adapt or make derivative works (e.g. to translate and/or create captions), perform, and communicate Your Content to the public (e.g. to display it),for the purposes of operating, improving, and providing the Platform and developing new technologies (including training, testing, and improving our machine learning models and algorithms) and services for TikTok USDS Joint Venture and our service providers and business partners, consistent with these Terms and subject to your Platform settings.
In broad strokes, this means that your use of TikTok grants them the right to use your content to feed and train their AI and algorithm. In addition, unlike other platforms (such as Google), they don’t have to pay you anything for the use of your content, or any derivative of your content.
Wow. That feels like a lot of give up, in the way of IP ownership, for the sake of content distribution.
These are the choices we make, if we create content and want others to see it.
For me, this means I’ll be sharing a lot less on the platform than I used to. I’ll probably be sharing more on Google channels (such as YouTube) and, I hate to say it, Meta platforms (Instagram and Facebook). Not that they’re a lot better in the area of terms and conditions. But something feels really wrong about the use of my content – for free – that’s so far outside of my control, and to their benefit.
I’m curious to hear what you think – am I overreacting? Under-reacting?
How do you feel about this new world of giving away IP and content, for the sake of distribution?
