About Matt
Using social media I went from school dropout working on building sites to best-selling author and writer, speaker, online course creator, business owner and part-time university lecturer studying for a PhD in business and marketing.
Hi, I'm Matt Stait MSc, MCIM, MCIPR
More importantly than that I have consistently created multiple viral videos across platforms, built large online communities of my own, and now do the same for my clients.
Social selling, brand building, and creating communities on social media through short form video has become something I am not just good at, but enjoy. I now teach what I know to my clients, and part-time to business MBA students.
When I first started I found it very hard to source marketers and trainers who specifically knew about TikTok and short-form video.
I soon learned it has its own way of doing things and often the 'traditional' way didn't fit this new medium.
That acknowledgement that specialist knowledge was needed for businesses like mine to gain the most benefit from short form content and this new way of communicating led me to set up Different Think Ltd.
As a teacher and trainer for many years I quickly saw that the knowledge I had gained building large followings and creating many pieces of viral content with zero ad spend across multiple platforms for my clients and myself could be formatted to create the Success Wheel Formula.This is our unique eight-point framework specifically designed for building successful profiles across social media using short-form video, and the basis of what I teach to my clients.
Aside from social media I have written four books, three e-Books, and numerous articles for industry publications, spoken on over 250 podcasts and business summits, enjoy martial arts, and share my home with a very large overly enthusiastic dog.
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Is TikTok more popular than Google?
Is TikTok more popular than Google?
TikTok has more visits than Google!
2021 saw the continuation of the meteoric rise of TikTok where the analytic data from Cloudflare tells us the platform stole the crown from Google making it the most popular site of the year.
TikTok which began life as a Chinese platform called Douyin in 2016 was introduced to the rest of the world a year later by Bytedance after merging with Musical.ly. Originally a short-form video sharing platform that was predominantly dancing and lip-syncing the past few years has seen its record braking rise to become one of the most influential platforms in the mix today.
The amazing growth of TikTok can be partially attributed to the overall rise in internet usage which has seen an expansion in many areas, but we can also see that the Global pandemic has also led to a significant uptake. The platform itself also leverages its tools to bear on users with a top-secret algorithm designed to keep people engaged with a smorgasbord of fast-paced eclectic content that is designed to keep interest. Unlike some of the other video-sharing platforms, the way it is set up with the For You page means the user is presented with a single video at a time and the user does not have a choice in this. It is also a platform for doing and taking part with a raft of trends and challenges that creators can participate in and then share. In fact, it is that very shareability that has helped its success as even if you have never been on the platform yourself you have almost certainly seen a TikTok shared across the other social media channels.
Photo by Mitchell Luo on Unsplash
This format has worked so well that other platforms have cloned the model and are pushing their versions including Instagram reels and YouTube shorts. Even Facebook is now launching its own version of short-form content. This seems to be a clear indicator of the power of this medium as all of the main players are now establishing a short-form video platform which lends to the credibility of this style of content and the need for businesses and marketers to master it.
The adoption of this style of communication by the platforms has led to exceptional levels of growth for our clients by using the tactic of short form content. See more
None of these copycats seem to be slowing down the rise of TikTok however as of the end of 2021 they were the most popular site on the internet according to Cloudflare.
The data they have collected tells us that TikTok first took the top spot from Google on February 17th of this year for just one day, but from August onward they dominated the position even holding it on the notorious Black Friday. This is an amazing achievement considering the age of the platform and the fact that during similar times last year it sat at number seven in the same rankings.
To see that growth in perspective (Statistica) tell us the platform has seen a 180% rise in usage meaning that 18% of all internet users now access TikTok (Global web index). Combine this with the findings of (Sensor Tower) who tell us the average user globally will be in the app for around ninety minutes per day, nearly twice as much as both Facebook and Instagram.
There is little doubt as to the incredible growth of the platform and its increasing popularity. The questions that do fight to be heard are how much bigger will the platform become, and how that will affect our interaction with it?
