Is TikTok Shop the future of LinkedIn?

Hey!

Today I’m going to make the case that the future of LinkedIn is a B2B sales platform that works like TikTok Shop. I’ve spent more time on TikTok and LinkedIn in the last three months than for my entire life before that. And I keep thinking about how creators on these platforms get monetized. 

For a long time, TikTok was the place to get a ton of followers with almost no chance at monetizing unless you hit the influencer lottery. The rise of TikTok shop has changed the game on that platform for creators. Now followers mean something… the skill of capturing attention on TikTok means something. Creators have a real on-platform business model where the incentives are aligned.

LinkedIn was (and is) where B2B outbound sales happen, full stop. That means sales professionals reaching out to qualified leads over the platform and selling SaaS and other business products. But, for creators, LinkedIn was (and is), well, small… full of untapped potential, “undervalued attention,” and with no revenue model other than creators selling their own stuff. Inbound sales funnels like that work for a lot of businesses, but it’s a tough model for creators.

A TikTok Shop for B2B sales would be a huge win for product suppliers, for creators, for buyers, and for all of us that are sick of getting cold sales DMs. This newsletter is an attempt to get you on my bandwagon. We’ll cover:

• What makes TikTok Shop work so well

• Why now is the right time for LinkedIn to make this move

• What LinkedIn MUST do for it to work

So let’s start with…

Why TikTok gives good shop

I’m not one for social shopping. I just feel so.. retargeted. And yet, here I am less than three months into TikTok scrolling on the regular and, boom, I’ve bought like six things. What gives?

@mememania97

tiktok shop 💀 #tiktokshop #memes #tiktokmemes

It’s not just me… Something is happening on TikTok Shop. TikTok’s parent company is predicting a 10x increase in US commerce sales this year, up to 17.5 Billion dollars. That’s the kind of number that says traction.

There are three reasons that TikTok shop works:

1. Product Market Fit

How fun (and addictive) is it to swipe video? And how good is that alorithm? Those are the baseline qualities that make TikTok work for video. And TikTok is even better at serving you stuff you want to buy than it is at serving you stuff you want to watch.

TikTok culture, the TikTok vibe, the feature set, the demo, it’s just made for the shop. It’s a perfect thing to build on top of their platform. The shopping as feels as “at your fingertips” as entertainment does… dopamine, just one swipe away.

2. Video + Data

Video is great for selling. You see the product in use, and you watch people who have social proof use the product. No other medium can match video for storytelling and emotional connection.

TikTok pairs this with a really good data strategy. They giveth and then they just keep on giving…eth.

For creators they have creator search insights, which with is way more actionable data than you get on YouTube. Their analytics on your videos are industry leading and all freely available. All of this is geared toward making it easy to find and reach your viewer.

For TikTok shop, they take it up a notch. You can see what products are selling best, but also what kind of content is selling the best, and you can see it in real-time in stunning detail.

If you can make it through the drop shipping hustle in this video, there is a really nice rundown of some of the data available to product providers. (Side note: I get a little anxiety when this woman loud-whispers to me like she’s leaning in at a bar- is that just me?)

3. Aligned incentives

Here’s where TikTok was so d*mned smart about how they launched the shop. You heard about it a little in that video above, but the shop is basically a marketplace for affiliate deals.

Creators can shop for products to sell, and they make a commission off of each sale. It’s a big win for them because they get:

• A real revenue model, a way to use their TikTok skills to make $$$

• complete creative control,

• the chance to pick the products they want to sell

It’s like when Uber launched in NYC. There were always black car services all over the City, for decades…those drivers were already on the road. Uber gave them a new revenue model. (If you my Uber analogy just a little, you realize that, here, TikTok also owns the roads, which makes their position mind-bogglingly strong.)

But the same kind of win is there for the buyer, too. The algorithm is really good at showing me what I want. I get to watch things I actually enjoy to make buying decisions. The selling is transparent and organic, and the checkout process is frictionless. It doesn’t make you feel like you’re being scammed. In fact, it does the opposite. It builds trust.

The only constant is…

So TikTok Shop is peak selling, cool, but why LinkedIn? What’s wrong with the B2B selling happening there now?

Well, if you’re there, you know it can be annoying. As a buyer you have no agency. You’re just waiting to be marketed to. And creators aren’t involved in the sales process at all. The only revenue model creators have is selling their own stuff, which is all good, but can make the platform more cringe than it needs to be.

So the current set up is not great. But also, important things are changing. Two things, to be precise - two changes that could mean an inflection point for LinkedIn Shop:

A TikTok style ForYou page is coming to LinkedIn. That means vertical short form videos you can swipe through. It’s actually already here. You can check it out even if you don’t have the “video” tab yet. Just click on any video in your feed and you can swipe from there like you were on TikTok.

B2B companies are bringing big affiliate offers to the table especially SaaS companies. CPCs (cost-per-customer) are through the roof, so companies are offering 20%-40% commissions. Some of these are big ticket products, which can yield thousands per sale for affiliates. Here are a few examples as of August, 2024:

• Fanfuel - up to 50% commission on their health and beauty products

• Shopify - Up to $2000 for each referral to their Plus affiliate program

• WP Engine - Affiliates earn high-ticket commissions by selling hosting plans and StudioPress website themes. Payouts range from $200 to $7,500,

• Liquid Web - Partners receive up to 200% of the sales amount, up to a maximum of $7,000. 

• Moosend - Up to 40% lifetime recurring

• Smartproxy - Up to 50% on all sales

• BigCommerce - 200% of client’s first monthly payment

• Flywheel - 300% of the first monthly payment

• OceansCaptain - Up to 50%

Let’s GOOOOOOOO?

Conditions seem perfect to Linkadink the TikTok Shop (sorry, seeing a lot of Snoop Dog on the Olympics rn), but there are key things LinkedIn must do to make this happen.

Let’s go back to the three things that make the TikTok shop work:

1. Product Market Fit

2. Video + Data

3. Aligned Incentives

Aligned incentives are going to mean a better LinkedIn for all of us. Better content from better creators… a more organic buying experience… a stronger community.

So LinkedIn… get your alorithm ready, build a marketplace, and get obsessed with showing us data. LET’S DO THIS🔥

Now read this

YouTube says short form video is closing the monetization gap, seeing an increase in watch time and subscribers (Jenny Hoyos inflating the numbers😝)

Here’s some creator on creator litigation. Sydney Nicole Gifford (800k on insta) is suing Alyssa Sheil (380K on insta) for blocking her and then stealing her vibe… allegedly.🕵️

Is the jig up? Nearly half of workers using AI say they have no idea how to get the productivity gains their employers expect, and over three fourths say AI tools have decreased their productivity and added to their workload. 😧

Gary totally thinks the jig is up. That’s my favorite AI critic Gary Marcus. He thinks the end is nigh for Generative AI (ooh, that rhymes). ☢️

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading🙏

Until next time…

Be Spontaneous, ae

☯️