Talk TikTok to me

By Charlotte Wells

Communications Trainee

Starting as Comms trainee, I didn’t know what to expect – “What even is Comms?” I remember thinking. And what a journey it’s been. As I’ve learned the ropes, my focus has been using Comms to engage young people with Sussex Wildlife Trust. What’s the best way to do that in today’s world? Social media, of course!

Social media is a powerful tool for reaching diverse audiences, but platform demographics are constantly shifting. While Facebook was the go-to when I was in school, today’s young people are gravitating to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

What have I been doing?

Researching how to engage young audiences on each platform was an essential starting point. Sure, we all love an educational bird-box building tutorial, but does that work on every platform? Apparently not!

While educational content is important, researching other organisations and chatting to the Youth Rangers showed me that sometimes … we just need a bit of silliness. So, I was tasked to focus on TikTok – with the ambition to grow our presence and attract young followers.

TikTok

TikTok is a place of pure CHAOS, and I love it. It’s all about creating short, witty videos, following trends, being creative and incorporating catchy audio – ideal for quick laughs and bite-sized entertainment.

In a world that can feel quite serious at times, especially in the face of the climate and nature crisis, I’m using TikTok to share nature in a fun, light-hearted way. The goal? To work towards our strategic aim of connecting with more diverse audiences, whilst hopefully brightening their day. Plus, making someone laugh at a silly deer video might be just the thing to spark their curiosity and investigate further into what Sussex Wildlife Trust is all about.

Check out Sussex Wildlife Trust’s TikTok to see what I’ve been up to!