Top Sounds 

Our curated picks of the top sounds on TikTok

1. Gucci Mane? 
   Frequently paired with a ranking and a surprise in the top three. Here’s an example about coping mechanisms.
2. A Little Evil Who among us is not a little delusional, a little evil, with an overwhelming urge for power and revenge? Much like the previous sound use this to highlight three traits.
3. Your Life is LOTR actually Want to make something more dramatic than it deserves to be? Try out this sound to really sell the moment.
4. Fighting For Your Life If you’re not strong enough to admit you’ve done it yourself before surely you’ve seen a child ugly cry to the point where their words become completely inaudible. Use this sound to portray a perspective that might be a straw man or a comedically refutable argument.

 Our Sound Highlight 

You Know It’s Not The Same As It Was*

Mood:

Things change. That’s what this song is about. This sound is a snippet of As It Was by Harry Styles. The mood is nostalgic and can be used to showcase how things got better, worse, or simply just changed. Our video highlight is a great example of this sound being used for a cause.

*cannot be used on business accounts

 Video Highlight 

Actions always have consequences, and sometimes, things are never going to be what they used to be. Sustainability HQ shows footage of what used to be a healthy and thriving community in the coral reef using a trending new sound that hits the audience where it hurts.

 Impact Account 

An organization getting content right— JUV Consulting

JUV consulting won a spot as our account highlight this week for showing us their chaotic (and comedic) Google calendar. Gen Z speaking to the hearts of Gen Z is what they’re going for and they’re succeeding! Sometimes a little bit of honesty can strike a chord in your audience and bring new viewers in. And just like that, your account is leveling up and people will see that you’re moving differently.

Special Shoutout To: Paris Olympics 2024’s TikTok
Where else are you going to see a sad baby wandering Paris with a beret and a baguette?

 Effects Highlight 

This effect can be used to show anything from ‘head empty, brain smooth’ to responding to truly foolish behavior in a silly way.

This colorful filter that looks a little like an old Apple commercial is being used mid-way through a video to be chaotic and/or joyful.

 Tactic Watch 

The tactic you might want to use in your advocacy content— community

Building community might be more impactful than views alone. We live in a metrics centric-world, I know. But sometimes what is more impactful, particularly for calls-to-action, is having an established audience and a sense of community. There are myriad ways to build community on TikTok. Some creators take to live or keeping up with the comment section, or even replying to comments with videos. When it comes time to get viewers to take action, having a sense of community will make the effort seem much more collective.

 The Moment 

Issues that are at the forefront of online discourse— workers organizing.

Amazon. Starbucks. Etsy.

Workers are organizing across industries. This is a moment where the power of workers’ organizing is being discussed online, with increasing talk about unionization in other retail and warehouse giants. When workers win in one instance the effects can be dramatic across industries and regions with those wins being reflected in raised salaries and improved working conditions across the board.

This is a moment to dial into the conversations happening online about labor in order to drive forward change for workers.

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 The Zeitgeist 

Hot topics from across the internet

• Etsy sellers went on strike due to the platform hiking fees by 30%. Sellers asked customers to boycott. The campaign received over 15,000 signatures in a week.
• Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck got engaged.
• Drag Race will have an all-winners season. The season will include eight winners from Drag Race, All Stars, and Drag Race U.K.
• Botulism at Bon Appetit. You may remember that they were in the news in 2020 for a racist culture and underpaying and mistreating staff of color. Well, now the issue is food safety— and botulism.
• David’s Bridal is not an heirloom. But one woman sure seemed to think so. Her issue? Her sons married “bigger girls” whose children she speculated would also be “bigger.” Throw together fatphobia, a dated gown, and an apparent history of racist Facebook posts, and you had a Twitter Main Character™.
• Viola Davis might be going to hell. At least according to Twitter. Look, do I love her? Yes. Is she an iconic actress? Absolutely. Are these facial expressions questionable? You tell me.
• SNL won’t stop with the TikTok sketches. We kind of wish creators like @cleotrapawest weren’t copied almost word-for-word.

 Takeaways 

We do this work every day and we see the changes to trends and the platform in real-time. With all that said, here’s what we’ve learned this week:

Don’t adopt a voice you don’t have.

Always consider whether the tone of your content is consistent with how you appear in the world. This past week we were reminded how frequently AAVE is misused. And just how often people refer to AAVE as Gen Z slang. Marketing departments seem to be especially keen to misuse and appropriate AAVE. Here’s a rundown of some of the issues this raises written in VICE.

This connects to a larger theme online. As we consider how we communicate, we must consider who we are and what positions we hold beyond simply avoiding appropriation. In particular, we must consider how social justice language does and does not apply to us. An alarming example came this past week via a parent describing parenting duties as “emotional labor.” When you use terms that specifically apply to the experiences of groups in certain power paradigms you may be doing legitimate harm by removing those terms from their initial meaning and context. TLDR; words mean things.

Made it to the end of this newsletter? Here’s a treat, a seasonal goose.