When Companies Take A Wrong Turn … It’s every developer or startup’s worst nightmare.
After the launch, things go viral. Everyone loves the application, it gets big, and money starts pouring in. Then an update is performed, and everyone turns on you. Complaints abound, downloads diminish, and so does the income. The user base has abandoned ship.
This “apps gone wrong” situation happens often, but it can definitely be avoided. Let’s take a look at one instance of a company taking a wrong term, in this case, TikTok, and what you can do to avoid situations when marketing goes wrong, or ex-brand fans decide to cancel you.
What is TikTok?
The TikTok app is touted as the destination for short-form mobile videos. Originally, their mission was to provide a platform not unlike Musical.ly or Snapchat that allowed for easy video editing and lipsyncing with other users. It was almost like a social media karaoke app.
According to TikTok’s own website, TikTok “empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones, and is committed to building a community by encouraging users to share their passion and creative expression through their videos. TikTok has offices in Beijing, Berlin, Jakarta, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo. In 2018, TikTok was one of the most downloaded apps in the world.”
However, it looks like that last bit won’t be true for much longer.
Where Did TikTok Go Wrong?
TikTok was a pretty interesting venture and an overall great app when it first came out, but some internal changes and marketing choices led the company down a dark path.
TikTok put a lot of money into a massive video ad campaign that was, for lack of a better word, the cringiest marketing faux pas ever. It was hard to be anywhere on the internet without being subjected to one of TikTok’s awful ads. And when the app Musical.ly shut down, underage users pulled up to TikTok and took it over.
TikTok also has a lot of security programs and technical issues that are not being fixed. This isn’t just a personal opinion, either. A lot of real people in real life are not happy with TikTok and it doesn’t seem like the company is interested in customer support or even comment replies:
It wouldn’t be surprising if TikTok disappeared within the year. Here’s how you can avoid a similar mistake.
How to Avoid Wrong Turns as a Company
To make TikTok fun again, a few changes would have to be implemented. They would have to revamp their ad campaign, ban underage users, and market the app as strictly for lipsyncing and not imbecilic videos.
If you wish to avoid TikTok’s demise, the solution is simple: Listen to your users. Browse each and every review available for your app after it launches. Use social media to poll your users and see what they actually like about your app. Use a management tool like Net Promoter Score (NPS) to gauge your customer relationships. Really, this is all it takes. TikTok users have been complaining for a while now, but it all seems to fall on deaf ears.
How was our guide to avoiding wrong turns and marketing blunders? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
Photo source: Pixabay