1/ I want to provide a bit more color around my reply to @JuiceboxCA's tweet last night about @tiktok_us response to @instagram announcement of Reels. To be clear, while I think it was a mistake, I don't think it was a fatal error, per se.

2/ I made the comment about how Blockbuster mentioned Netflix by name and showed our logo which amounted to free advertising. Not to compare BBI/NFLX to TT/Insta but to say that mentioning your competition is rarely a great idea.

3/ To start, let's look at who is the first place brand in the space. While Instagram is bigger, TikTok as created an altogether different experience. So let's use the lens of FUBO (First, Unique, Best, Only) for positioning to evaluate.

4/ Is TikTok the first social network? No. But it is definitely the first TikTok experience. Is TikTok unique? Absolutely. Is TikTok the best? At being TikTok? Yep. Is TikTok the only TikTok? It was (and I would argue still is).

5/ So, to me TikTok is the first place brand with Instagram trying to copy their entire experience via an added on feature. Kind of a like a singer that can hit every note perfectly but has no soul behind their voice.

6/ Now let's look at where TikTok's audience came from. This is purely speculative on my part based on my observations and may be totally wrong. It is unlikely that people who never used social media before make up a large part of their audience (save for maybe younger ones)

7/ The next likely pool of users, then, is going to be people who had FB/Insta but quit. I'd be surprised that was a large percentage of their users as well. This means the likely largest pool of users is those that still have FB/Insta but maybe aren't on it as much.

8/ I've built up a small, engaged following on Insta (shameless plug: https://www.instagram.com/inthechipswithbarry/) I've noticed engagement decline as TikTok rose. Some folks who used to be highly engaged come back and like a slew of posts then disappear for a while again. Some ask if I'm on TikTok.

9/ And yes, that's anecdotal but it seems that, while in all likelihood, TikTok has siphoned users away from Instagram they haven't done so entirely.

10/ Which brings me to the last theme of this thread and that is the business environment in which TikTok is now having to operate. Trump has decided that it needs to be banned due to partial ownership of its parent company by the Chinese government.

11/ The only "out" currently on the table is if Microsoft buys them. Microsoft running a social network? Um, ok. Either way, the future isn't looking fun for TikTok.

12/ So, if we pull this all together...we have a first-place brand (TikTok) reminding its user base (that likely still has and uses Instagram) that Instagram just launched a version of TikTok.

13/ All against a backdrop of TikTok potentially going away in the US or being taken over by a company with a not great track record in consumer-facing products outside of operating systems, business software, and gaming hardware.

14/ And, because I don't want to just tsk, may I suggest that TikTok could have "owned" and thrown shade at the Reels announcement without even mentioning Instagram.
The first, the only.
The best TikTok is the only TikTok.
and so on. Plus, they could've leveraged the amazing UCG

15/ I'll wrap this up by reiterating that, in my experience, mentioning competitors is rarely a great idea. Just my opinion, I could be wrong. Also, if you'd like you can check out this article I wrote about this very subject a couple years ago here. https://medium.com/better-marketing/how-netflix-acted-like-a-first-place-brand-and-why-you-should-too-5d91cd3ddcb8