Is Oversharing on TikTok Good for Business?

One look at Access Travel PH’s TikTok and you’ll immediately notice the lack of corporate humor that inundates a brand’s socials. 

On the bespoke travel agency’s professional account, owner Angely Dub doesn’t only share snippets from her international travels across all seven continents: she also imparts insights you wouldn’t normally find on travel blogs and guidebooks. Which countries are the best for New Year’s festivities? Sightseeing around sacred places? Hot men? (For those curious, it’s Australia, Uzbekistan, and Spain, in that order.) You name it, she can tell you all about it in three minutes or less, in a manner that resembles a catch-up with a friend—albeit the best dressed, most experienced one in your barkada.

This story time format is the latest addition to brand marketing strategies that bank on authenticity and relatability. “Consumers do not wake up in the morning and think, ‘What ad will pop up on my timeline today?’ or ‘What advertisement will this brand show me now?’” says Manny Gonzales, consulting head and strategy director at Ogilvy Philippines. “The way for brands to reach audiences right now is not to disrupt their everyday lives but seamlessly integrate themselves into their routines.”

And what better way to do that than to mimic the go-to behavior of this generation’s digital natives?

The Oversharing Economy

Social media platforms were always designed to harvest information from the average user, hence Facebook’s go-to question being “What’s on your mind?” But oversharing became part and parcel of the internet not too long ago, thanks to the dawn of TikTok. “One reason behind this could be what you call the online disinhibition effect, where you tend to act differently online compared to real life,” shares Riyan Portuguez, registered psychologist and content creator behind Your Millennial Psychologist. “Tendency natin is iniisip natin na wala naman sigurong nakakapansin nung sinasabi natin. Tapos mabibigla na lang tayo na nagviral na tayo dahil sa algorithm.”

Story time videos that range from the creepy (e.g., this one about a haunted house someone stayed in) to the chaotic (e.g., year-end ‘dating wrapped’ videos, popular here and abroad) will always be popular, because whether we admit it or not, we love digging our nose in other people’s business. “Humans are social beings: sadyang naghahanap lang talaga ng connection, ng proof na di tayo nag-iisa sa experience natin, na di tayo alien,” Portuguez explains. “Madali rin tayong napapaniwala kasi it’s a way of establishing credibility: this person is putting their reputation at stake by showing their face, giving their details. Bakit di tayo maniniwala sa kanila?” 

This kind of transparency leads to a presumed image of authenticity, something Portuguez surmises is a product of long-term media conditioning. Look back at the Pinoy Big Brother housemates of yesteryears, for instance: those who picked fights and told it as it was were much more likely to be trusted than those who kept to themselves. “Pag prangka ka, nagpapakatotoo ka agad. Pag hindi ka masyadong nagsasalita, mapapagbintangan ka na nasa loob yung kulo mo, kahit nagiging cautious ka lang naman,” notes Portuguez. 

Engagement-wise, longer videos perform better: TikTok explicitly encourages users to talk in front of a camera for over a minute through in-app prompts and social media copy. Such content can also rake in ad revenue and garner comments, especially when the topic is controversial or told in multiple parts. By incentivizing those on the platform to continue the trend, the app has created an internet where we can’t help but know everything about each other.

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Trendjacking or Truth-Telling?

It’s no wonder brands are so quick to jump on this trend. Corporate attempts at authenticity have evolved in stages: we may recall the likes of Duolingo or our local Angkas doing moment marketing or leaning into distinctly millennial humor. Influencers eventually permeated the space, unboxing sponsored products before a camera in exchange for somewhat honest reviews or recently, getting ready in front of their audience while spilling good tea.

Now, we can expect more CEOs and even founders of small businesses to hop on this trend, especially since they have free rein in the content they put out. “Small businesses usually have the freedom to go overboard in terms of their creativity and sometimes even with the claims they put out about their product. They’re not under any regulatory board kasi eh,” says Gonzales. We can see this in a coffee shop owner taking viewers around a day in her life as a working student, in two best friends sharing their experience putting up a line of tote bags, and even in this unhinged mochi buns seller, who took someone else’s sound, leading some to believe that it was their own story.

But Gen Z don’t always think highly of those who infiltrate their safe spaces. “You’re not always sure kasi if what they’re saying is true or if they’re just embellishing to get attention,” adds Kendra, a humanities major who has taken social media internships during her university life. “Everything kind of feels like a facade.” Michelle, another college student, echoes the same sentiment, saying, “It’s like they’re always trying to get me to do something for them. I can find their content funny and all but that doesn’t mean I’d want to buy their product.” 

Sometimes, in an attempt to be too authentic, brands end up sending the wrong message or crossing boundaries between the private and the professional. On a Reddit thread, users say they used to find Angely Dub’s TikTok antics “entertaining” and “hilarious” but now see her as “mahangin” and “mayabang.” Under the video of mochi buns mentioned above, a commenter asked, “May connect ba [‘tong kwento] sa pagkain?” Another asked for a second part of the story, to which the owner responded with: “If dumami pa views and likes, sige.”

Keeping a Healthy Distance

Though popular misconceptions may claim otherwise, consumers are not as at risk of being fooled by brands. Sure, we may be prone to the occasional impulse buy, but we’re usually vigilant and aware that just because a creator is trauma dumping on our screens doesn’t mean that the bottle of toner in their hands is the solution to our skin troubles. 

Gen Z carries a healthy amount of skepticism with them as they view content, which means that engagement will not always translate to sales. Digital platforms have given the empowered, opinionated consumer an arena to gather an army and call for boycotting, if need be. “Brands had to learn this the hard way, na hindi kami ang bida. The audience is. You know your worth and you know that you can control your life. You see questionable messaging in advertisements or watch a brand that you think isn’t being authentic and think, ‘Of course not!’” says Gonzales. 

So while businesses need to make bank at the end of the day, it’s still wise to evaluate if certain trends are worth riding on. Unilever, for example, has announced they’re stepping away from purpose-driven marketing for all their brands and only deploying this strategy when it’s absolutely relevant. This is a result of recent criticism from investors, who have pointed out that their efforts have grown quite forced and unnecessary. “A company which feels it has to define the purpose of Hellmann’s mayonnaise has in our view clearly lost the plot,” elaborates Terry Smith, a major investor in the multinational corporation.

Rather than making virality the sole metric to strive towards, a foolproof best practice would be underscoring the benefits a brand can provide. “Kahit gaano kaganda yung functionality ng product mo or kasulit yung deal na inooffer mo, hindi siya magiging mabenta kung hindi mo naca-capture kung paano mo mamemeet yung need nila,” suggests Portuguez. 

After all, brands are businesses. They exist to improve the lives of consumers through products and services. Their advertising efforts are ways to prove how they can make that happen, not to serve as a substitute for actual human connection. While it’s standard practice to start speaking the language of customers, at the end of the day, nothing will ever beat the feeling of hearing a good story straight from a close friend.

Angel Martinez is a culture writer, consumer researcher, and content strategist based in Manila, Philippines. Her work on the internet, identity, and their intersections has been published in VICE, i-D, Teen Vogue, and Vox, and commissioned by behavioral insights agencies like Canvas8 and Crowd DNA. Outside of work, she tries to read a book a week and taste every iced matcha latte with oat milk in the city.