Rising stars of social connection: British Red Cross and TikTok
Nana Crawford and her team at British Red Cross have seen massive growth in their TikTok account during lockdown
Let’s face it. The last 6 months have been very short on positive news and feel-good stories. The news has been relentlessly grim and the outlook for the world is shocking. Between global warming, the deep wounds of structural racism that infest every part of our society and hold it back, the rise of political populists, Brexit schisms and a global pandemic with the death toll currently at time of writing standing at 618,000 people you could be forgiven for thinking the apocalypse is here.
But humans cannot live on misery alone and so we seek out positive stories in the gloom. A beacon of light that shows us that all may not be lost. And I’ve found one. The headline story is Lewis Capaldi raising over £40,000 for the British Red Cross in less than an hour. But as ever there is more behind that success than meets the eye.
In less than six months the British Red Cross has grown it’s following on TikTok, the popular video app currently valued at over $100 billion, to 381K followers. The account has outstripped their Twitter following (246K), Facebook (302K), and Instagram (69K) in a very short space of time.
At Flying Cars we are always on the lookout for interesting people to talk to and stories to tell. So I chatted to Nana Crawford, the Social Media Manager at British Red Cross about what they’ve been doing, how their growth has been achieved and what other charities might learn from them.
The British Red Cross TikTok account is a lot of fun. They really get it. They get the platform, they study the trends and they make videos that people enjoy watching. But this didn’t happen by accident or luck.
It’s no surprise Nana views TikTok as a great way to work with celebrities. They collaborated with some very big household names during lockdown - Rita Ora, Lewis Capaldi, Gordon Ramsey to name just a few. There were many more. But creating these partnerships did not happen by luck or renown alone.
Firstly they spent time researching who was using TikTok well amongst celebrities. Secondly, they considered who had an affinity to the work of the British Red Cross and could support them with authenticity. They then had to spend time creating a personalised and relevant pitch document. Nana and her colleagues in the media team spent a lot of time honing this document to send to agents and representatives. At first, the pitch was a little long and too focused on the organisation. After a few versions, they landed on a successful formula that was short, to the point and included one-line ideas for content in the videos that the talent could work with. This made it easier to say yes and reduced the work required from any partner.
In terms of generating donations, they found that live streams worked particularly well - there is spontaneity and urgency in a live stream that there isn’t in normal TikToks. Viewers feel a real connection to the person and this makes donation asks powerful and compelling. Nana says they have not yet cracked the formula for generating donations from normal videos yet and this is something to work on in the year ahead. The donation stickers mechanism is integrated with Tiltify and involves 3 or 4 steps to donate so is not entirely frictionless at the moment.
Extraordinary growth
The extraordinary growth the social account has seen over the last 6 months is down of course to the skills and dedication of the team Nana manages and the wider team of collaborators across the charity - the TikTok Squad. She says ‘we don’t take ourselves too seriously, we are willing to be silly. Everyone is human and this is a fun side of our work. Working in a law firm it would be tricky’.
But it isn’t all high jinks and japes. The team of Nana Crawford, Alice Buckle and Cristina Barcus are very dedicated and organised and they accept that failure is all part of the process. ‘Sometimes videos you expect to do well don’t. But each video is a learning experience’ Nana says. They try to learn from each video - and their TikTok squad are equally committed. Often practising multiple takes of slo-mo walking or elbow-bumping to get the timing right on the break on a piece of trending music. It’s a lot harder than it looks - trust me.
As a key component of their growth, Nana also mentions they hit upon some great content at just the right time. Their myth-busting series of TikTok’s generated some huge numbers early in lockdown - ‘elbow bump’ and two handwashing videos generated 80 million views alone. These are extraordinary organic numbers. This is a classic case of seizing the moment and acting on it - but it wasn’t just opportunism for the sake of it.
There was a very significant organisational objective behind these public health pieces - making sure vulnerable people were protected and placing the Red Cross brand squarely at the centre of Coronavirus response. Delivering the right message at the right time in the right channel. Senior management at British Red Cross ‘get’ the work the team are doing and respect it. Nana’s team have creative freedom with their content and they don’t have multiple layers of sign off for videos that could kill creativity, spontaneity and trend-surfing.
Why invest time in growing your Tik Tok audience?
Well, let’s be clear. The audience on TikTok is pretty young. So if you’re aren’t interested in engaging younger audiences then it probably isn’t for you. But given that half of the world's population is under 30 - why wouldn’t you want to engage young people? Can you afford not to?
63% of U.S TikTok users are under 30 and 80% under 40. But as demonstrated over the last few months this age group can be engaged to make donations and wider brand engagement with younger people is valuable in itself.
Distribution of TikTok users in the United States as of June 2020, by age group
The growth of TikTok has been phenomenal - particularly during the lockdown. It was the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide for June 2020, with more than 87 million installs, representing a 53% increase from June 2019. (Top Apps Worldwide for May 2020 by Downloads, Sensor Tower ) These install numbers beat even Zoom. So with the audience size growing exponentially month by month and the chance to mirror the growth of followers the British Red Cross has seen, the appeal is clear.
Further, the scale of reach for successful accounts like those run by Nana and her team mean that organisational messages can penetrate into the lives of millions of people. The British Red Cross has produced content in lockdown with different types of message: public health information, brand awareness and credibility, fundraising asks and explaining exactly what the charity does to help people - keeping all front of mind and showing how the work of the organisation is more relevant now than ever before. The use of polls on the platform can give you interesting insight into how much people understand about what you do, and the chance to address and educate this view in subsequent content if required.
So you want to give TikTok a try? 5 tips to get going
If you think TikTok might be right for your organisation and you are thinking of dipping your toes in the water then there are a few steps you can take:
Set up a private account and follow some interesting creators for content ideas
Get comfortable with the channel before you start posting
Observe what music is trending and how your content could use that music (music is a huge part of TikTok)
Think what niche your organisation has and how it could plug into content trends on TikTok - follow some big accounts already existing in your niche to see what content goes well
Consider if your organisation tone of voice allows for playful content generation
It’s clear that Nana’s team have perfected the art of growth on TikTok with their fabulously engaging content but they aren’t stopping just yet. Over the next 12 months, their focus will be building on early fundraising success, spreading awareness of first aid and plugging into the growing trend of ‘EduTok’ - using the platform for educational purposes. We can’t wait to see what comes out of the Squad next.
Comment, link & share away
Here are 5 great TikTok accounts to follow to get you started
@jeremylynchofficial - unrivalled creativity
@whatchugotforme - peerless sketches using Donald Trump audio lip-synced by comedian Sarah Cooper
@britishredcross - obviously!
@ifrc - another great Red Cross account
@washingtonpost is great for ideas and weaving branded content into their videos