TikTok, Instagram, Threads: Where Should Brands Invest in 2026?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Yeah, you know, we're just uh we're just two people with opinions like everybody else in the world that wants to be well, we don't want to be famous, but we don't we we we we just have a podcast and it's fun to do. So anyways, welcome to this episode of the Nerd Band Podcast. Um gonna start that intro early and then I'm gonna say that again after the music plays. So coming up, we're gonna talk about TikTok, Instagram threads, where's your brands invest in 2026? It's coming up. Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of Nerdbrand Podcast. I'm with Danielle. Hey, hey guys, and we're gonna talk about TikTok and Instagram threads. Uh threads separate threads is I I always forget about threads, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Oh, I know, I do too. And it's one of those things that like it is it's relevant, but it's not. It's it's in a weird place because it's like it's its own, like trying to compete.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

It's its own not really, you know, depending on who's looking at it. But um, you know, it it's kind of its own beast and it's trying to compete with, you know, with X and with Twitter. So you know, so it's kind of like, okay, it's relevant and I get I get it, but there is also just a level of people don't really know fully what it is.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

So there it's just this It's like a dumbed down version of Twitter for those listening.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Yeah, so it's basically in a weird spot, like, okay, it's not Twitter, so people like that it's not Twitter, but it functions similarly to Twitter, but yet it's just not promoted and it's not up, you know, used a lot. So it's kind of like, okay, is it even relevant? The world may never know.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah, sort of like many social media outlets. I mean, like right now, I had somebody ask about, you know, you know, when you do ads, really, you have to think about the platform you put the ad on because do you want that audience to see your stuff and contact you? Mm-hmm. Maybe not.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

But maybe yes, maybe no, maybe maybe.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Yeah, you kind of you have a very clear view of like if I was a business, would I do Reddit ads? No, because I don't want anything to do with highly political, controversial, or just or even just opinions that are way too up to the other. The audience is not the audience that you probably want to show up. Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Like there's there's a difference between having an opinion, an unfiltered opinion with Reddit, you're going unfiltered opinion to the point that if you even have a minor engagement, then you're associated.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yeah, yeah. And the thread doesn't get deleted, even if you delete your account. That's not how it works. Also, too, you're not allowed to promote yourself anyway on Reddit. That's not how it works.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

So it's completely different than Facebook or any of the other platforms. Having said all of that, the trends and algorithm shifts and the content types that work, I can tell you that my opinion is that the content types, and I can pull metrics, um, just from like what you're doing with videos, those work. Those outpace static posts by probably four to one almost.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

I was gonna say, you know, most of the time, and now granted these numbers shift depending on the account and depending on the month, just because everything can be so up and down, you know, anytime you're doing a post, you know, a static post with no media, you know, can perform well to a degree. The moment you add a picture, it is going to generate two times more views, clicks, whatever. Uh, do a video, and it's gonna be five times more.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

And that's basically the now carousels kind of are like, you know, where you have, for those who don't may not know that concept, um, where you're swiping through pictures. So like you have multiple photos and you're swiping through, like you can see on TikTok or Instagram reels where you can swipe. Um the metrics I've seen on those are somewhere between like three um like three times to four times, just kind of depending on the source. Um, video is still king and getting the most in engagement and interaction, but carousels aren't aren't fall far behind.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yeah, everybody's running to social media right now because uh it still has that mentality of, oh, this is a free way to advertise. Well, no. Yes and no. No. There's a person that you have to pay, there's time that you're paying for, even if it's yourself, to create the content, to figure out what you're going to say, and then put it out there. A lot of businesses are still throwing spaghetti on the wall, unfortunately, in 2026. I mean, I've been preaching this for over 10 years, but it's never going to change. So they're always going to do this where they just put stuff out there and hope somebody clicks on it and engages and then calls them for services to convert to an actual sale. And again, we talked about that at LinkedIn. That's not really what it's for. It doesn't you mentioned that it has a lot of views, but that's you know right.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

There's a difference between views and interactions. You know, you can like something because, you know, oh, this is funny, this is cool, but then if you're interacting with it, like commenting on it, sharing it, um, if there's a website tied to it, clicking that link, you know, there's a difference between like, you know, just viewing it and that stuff and and actually going in and interacting.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, and a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

And usually if you're if you are a business owner and you do have your own account with it, um the big thing that algorithms are pushing right now on socials is to interact with other content. So not just going in and you know, liking things. You know, if you just go through and like things, sure, that that works. But if you want to go in and actually like share a post and comment on stuff, that's gonna help drive people because the algorithm sees, okay, this is an active participating account. So that's something that, you know, fun little free tip right there. Um, maybe if we do the whole uh nerdbrand plus thing that we've mentioned before, I can kind of go deeper into the strategy on it, but there's a free little tidbit for you for now.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yeah, uh your time would be heavily invested in this show and podcast and all the channels on it, and less time with clients just because of that. Right. It would just be that would be the shift that we'd have to do. And that's not a strategy that we're ready. We can't do that yet. Not yet.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

One day.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

But yeah, it's coming. But yeah, it it's like, you know, uh, because I see it on with podcasts on YouTube. They'll have their main channel that is the show, other channels that they're partnered with, they'll make appearances on and share that show on their uh YouTube channel. Yep. And then they create channels that are just clips. There's their clips of the episodes that have been already out there because some of these shows they go for two hours.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

And they so they just issue anywhere from three minute to five to ten minute clip.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

And those I watch a lot, and those have gone up, and then there's the shorts, which are not the same, but I think clips and shorts are getting kind of muddy on YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Um, and even in like um Instagram and TikTok as well, to an extent, because they fall under the same category, and it's getting to the point where you know it used to be, oh, your your reels and your clips can only be 30 seconds, they can only be a minute.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Not anymore.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Now you can make those like five minutes and ten minutes.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Um, so it's at that point, it's like, okay, you're basically publishing something that's a video at that point.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Yeah. Yeah. And Twitter uh X um is not a place to do uh video. I'm hesitant to take my phone out and and go through videos because two or three swipes you end up on porn.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

And so maybe on your algorithm.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah, well, I mean, it's like full of like um because the way that the Twitter account was set up, there was a lot of weird stuff that the person that did it. So like I got Joe Rogan podcast. And so, you know, it's like a thing about you know Gene Simmons getting interviewed, and then I swipe that up, and then I get taxes by countries, you know, and then it's like, oh, that's fun content. Uh-huh. And then uh get an ad.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

And then uh swipe up, and I get like a weird clip of a movie. I don't know. So you can see the dumb crap, and then there we go. See what I mean? Nice. Woman in a bikini. That's taint. So they have been working on it.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Well, and I think also too, some of it is that like it's it's based on what you interact with, and you know, I think also too, you have people, whether it's you know, porn stars or not, doesn't matter. You have people who are trying to pay for views, and so because of that, their stuff is going to come up on your algorithm.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

And if you're, you know, typically if you're in the male demographic, it will come up more on that.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Oh, yeah, we get blasted with that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Yeah, but you know, there are some some times where it's like, okay, I don't even follow this kind of stuff. Why am I seeing it swipe up?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Um I can kind of I can kind of address that because on Reddit, and Reddit's still this way with its algorithm, even if you see it for a split second, like I did that one, it it'll try to keep serving that up as an option.

unknown 8:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

And if I linger though on the other ones, it's sort of what you linger on.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

It's what you spend the most time on.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Is what the algorithm goes like, okay, that's what you like the most, and then that's how it starts to build up right. So if I was to linger on the movie clip photo, I'd get a bunch of movie stuff. Right. And so on, is what that would do. So I already know. Shut that down when that girl comes up, just shut it down, get away from that, and then you know, that won't start to pollute. It's all otherwise every video that you go to next, next, next, it's going to be that way. So you cannot, you gotta be very vigilant. And I hate to say it, TikTok's the same way. All of them are yeah, they all, yeah, they all have that because what they're doing is they're trying to please you.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

X is just a little bit worse at it for sure. Yeah, because but they all do it.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

They just started this. It's not exactly it's not new, but it's not old, but it's kind of like and how they're doing it is to compete with TikTok. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, it it's a it's an addiction to go see what's next, it's that, whatever that is.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

To want to do that. And I get that. Um, and so, but to that detriment, that's also how they give you that dopamine so that you can keep going in, right? So yeah, so advertisers have to kind of figure out, like, okay, we have to mess around in that um field. We don't want to.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

So we have to.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Exactly. And it's one of those things too, that it's like, yeah, you can post a video for free of an of, you know, you talking about your services. You know, it's one of those things that sure you can do it, but it's not gonna garner the results that it would if you went in and you know did, you know, Facebook ads, meta ads, TikTok promote, like you kind of have to pair it with those. And even so, you know, depending on how you know, how strategic you want to be with it, you know, if you're really wanting it to generate leads and things like that, then that's where an agency comes in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

If you're just wanting to do multi-channel or um omni-channel strategies, yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

If you're just if you're just wanting to do views, okay, yeah, just do meta ads and tick tock promote. But if you're wanting it to actually generate into dollars, that's where you've really got to talk to somebody and you've got to work with someone.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah, yeah. I mean, uh, you know, the there's uh there's a new platform all the time. Brands feel like the like I mentioned, pressure to join it. Um it's sort of really funny how we've all become adults and now the peer pressure in my generation when I was younger, it was like, you know, don't do drugs, and now it's like don't feel the feel peer peer pressure or that. Now it's like don't join TikTok.

unknown 11:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

So is TikTok still king? I think that TikTok is sort of I I don't spend a lot of time on it because I just I'm not an it's not at the Chinese, it's nothing like that. It's just that's another thing, you know. I got plenty already, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Right, and plus all the data has moved over to America. So like it's it literally isn't the oh, it's Chinese own thing. Like anything with TikTok USA is its own entity now and it is in America. So yeah, it's gonna be under Oracle. Yeah, so I mean, well, even so, if it's I don't know what it's under now, but like it's it it is its own entity right now, because like if you are getting promoted by um by TikTok, there's a distinction. There's you know, TikTok and then there's TikTok USA. There was a streamer I was watching, and he was talking about, yeah, TikTok and TikTok USA are in here. And people are like, Well, wait a minute, aren't they the same entity? And he's at least like, well, they're separate because you know, TikTok is basically everybody except the US, and then TikTok USA is the US exclusively, you know, they're kind of run a little bit different. They're they are the same in the sense that we are in charge of this platform, but TikTok USA is just in charge of the USA feeds and the USA content creators, right? And then TikTok in general is handling every other country, they'll still contact uh US creators um if they're big enough and they want to promote in other countries, but you know, that's kind of the distinction.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

And I think that's the thing, it's like, you know, it's that old, old, the old I call it old term, but it's not an old term, influencer marketing, or you've got to go out and you get somebody. You know, we used to call it spokesperson back in the day, but anyway, it's like you have that person that comes in on your channel or on their channel promoting your product, using it and liking it. I mean, you're gonna pay for that. You're gonna pay for that more than you would pay for like an ad campaign, I bet.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Um, or it's inclusive in an ad campaign as a part of it.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Oh, it absolutely is. And you know, it's in in a way though, too, it is one of the more, you know, stronger organic reaches to get awareness and to get your content spread out. So, you mean TikTok, I think, is still as of right now the relevant way to go. Um, at least having it for sure. I think cross-posting on other platforms is extremely smart, and that's what you should be doing. But is, you know, is TikTok going to fall off the map? I don't think so. I think it's it's gonna be really strong on storytelling, it's gonna be great with you know, education pieces, like heck, there are certain people who they'll do mini lessons on, hey, here's what's going on and history behind it. And it's a video that's like a minute and a half, and it briefly explains stuff. So even on education, you know, it's it's strong in that way. And you know, best way to reach organics, not to mention, you know, that's TikTok is where you're going to see where a lot of trends and a lot of things start. They always start on TikTok and then they'll trickle down to the other platforms, hence why posting on multiple is smart because if you see a trend that's on TikTok, if you post it on other ones as well, that might not be a trend yet on that platform, but when it is, you're already ahead of the curve.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Yeah, and you know, there was a time, and and I think they still integrate with Google search. Um usually you have a uh and I they call it something else. I call it it's a k it's like a carousel. You'll see YouTube videos this way. And you you used to see um you'll see X posts and I think you'll see TikTok now inside the search engine. And uh that's about the smartest thing a search engine Google has ever done.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

I can't say if that's happening on Bing. Um I don't get on Bing a lot. Obviously, we do advertise on it, but we don't we're not act I don't actively as a user use it. Right. So uh Chat GPT uh gets a couple of things coming in. Um they have their own search engine, so if you have a um what is it? I it's a whatever the new chips are that are out in Macs, you can download it and run it on your Mac. So you're running an AI-based search engine from ChatGPT, I forget what they call it. And uh, you know, I can't run it. I'd love to because I've seen pieces of it and what it looks like, and I mean it's gonna if they can just kind of get that to be more like stream. Yeah, if they get that to run like Google where anybody can get it, like Chrome, right? Then I think bang, you got a winner. Right now it's only available on certain processors on your machine, which means it's gonna be pretty hardware heavy. It's probably gonna be a memory hog on your machine.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Oh, I have no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Yeah. So that's the other thing is like not everything you need to jump onto because there's resources that are being used that maybe you're not aware of.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

And it's actually detrimental to what you're doing. So having said that, it works that way with brands. I mean, you're everywhere, you're doing all these things, and it may be detrimental to be everywhere when you just be in one place. So, what what's your brand's focus on in 2026, Danielle?

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Oh gosh, I mean, just keeping up with that organic engagement and then just kind of making sure that you are, you know, are you are pushing things, you are doing cross-platforms. You know, I kind of already mentioned some of the strengths um from TikTok. Um, you know, more or less cons are, you know, it's harder to attribute some sales with it, but you know, it's it's what's trending. Um, you kind of have to honestly, the w best way to answer this question is to kind of break down each platform.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Yeah, to do stuff.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Yeah. Yeah. Sounds easy. Just do the thing.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

It's like when people it's like when people say, like, I don't have any flavons, I don't know what it is. Go out and meet people. That's how you do it.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

You have to unfortunately meet a lot of people you're not gonna like or find people you will like.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Yeah, and it's like, okay, but how do I do that? I know. And this is where the yeah, it still comes back to, but how do I? Yeah. Kind of like when the kid asks, um, like, where are we going? We're going to the mall. Why? Because we have to get some clothes. Why? Because your clothes don't fit anymore. Why? Because you're growing. Why?

SPEAKER_00 17:10

I know it is. It's like, so it's kind of like It's so hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Same thing with this. It's like, okay, well, you gotta you gotta post. How? You have to cross post. How? So the best way to answer that is going to be a long-winded answer, and we have to go through and you gotta try it. Yeah, and you have to yeah, well, a lot of it too is you know, trial and error. Sometimes something will, and I've seen this so many times, and it's so annoying as someone who tries to who tries to create content and strategize with with companies, you know, one day it might get a thousand views, maybe a couple clicks, and then you know, if you post it two weeks later on a different day, different time, it explodes and it gets all these views.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

It's almost like people use the internet at different times and different days. Yeah. Kind of weird.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

I know. It's it's so so strange, such a weird concept. Like, why can't people just get on it every day at 5 p.m.?

SPEAKER_00 18:00

I know. Yeah. People think that's how the internet works, though. Uh, it's really funny. It's like got it. Okay, look, if you went to the bathroom every day, all day, you'd be a miserable person and you should probably uh see a doctor.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

So imagine social media and the internet working that way. I don't know about you, but I'm not on the internet every day, all day long. I got problems. I need to go see a doctor, a different kind of doctor. Because I mean, there's some really toxic stuff on there.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Uh and so it's like the the idea of advertising your brand, you got to really figure out where you want to go, where to be, hone in on that, learn it. I I was on LinkedIn for two years trying to figure it out, and um, I was competing friendly with another person in an organization, and we just kind of would go back and forth on what would work and what wouldn't work as far as posts, and to this day it still holds up, you know, like what you just said, you know, you put some media on there, um, you increase your chances of visibility. And so that's really what it's about is gaining visibility, and it works the same way when people talk about SEO. It's like people aren't seeing your stuff because it doesn't it doesn't look good, it doesn't it's not relevant, or it's just a repeat of something else, or you're doing it at the wrong time, or it's the wrong audience, and that's a big one. It's always audience driven, and everybody still ignores their audience.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

So um they're more focused on I need to just promote this versus who's watching and engaging with it. Who cares? Yeah. Who's my target? Who who am I trying to target for my business? I just want to get views. Okay, well, views don't mean money.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of businesses that are really expensive hobbies.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Anyways, if you've enjoyed this episode of the Nerdbrand Podcast, you know where to go. NerdbrandAgency.com slash podcast. And you can go find us on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. And Danielle works really hard on all that stuff. So when you do so, we'll leave a comment and say, good job, Danielle. High five.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Yes, please engage with our content because as we're talking about this is what you need to do for your business. Hey, if anything, guys, go on your business accounts, follow us, interact with us, comment on us. There's your strategy right there.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Yep, there you go. So we will see you next week and uh something like that. We post it regularly now because we have lives.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

And uh our goal goal is every other week, but life happens.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Yeah, life happens a lot, and we're busy, and you know, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Which is a good thing. We have a lot of clients that we serve. So if anything, you know, even though posting irregularly might be kind of unnerving for people who listen to us, it's a good problem to have. Yeah, it is because it means we're busy and it means we're gonna be sticking around and more episodes are coming because we're sticking around.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Everybody thinks because we're not in networking groups or we're not going to this or we're not doing that, that we're like out of business or something. And I had a friend of mine reach out to me. He's like, Is Nerdbrand still in business? And I'm like, why would you think that? And he's like, Well, I haven't seen you in a while. And I'm like, Yeah, but nobody that goes to that networking group, they don't they're they want to pay like 200 bucks for a thousand dollars worth of service. I'm like, I can't do that.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

There's like four of us. I need to make those payments for you know, employees and such. It's sort of expensive.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Just a little bet. Just a little bet.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

So, anyways, I'm I'm not gonna get uh get on off this notebox. There we go, off of it. Uh, anyways, you know where to find us. And remember, keep your nerve brand strong.