Christian Schaaf's Blog + Portfolio

Tag: TikTok

  • Where Athletes and Audiences Meet: New Balance’s Social Media Strategy

    Where Athletes and Audiences Meet: New Balance’s Social Media Strategy

    Social media has transformed how brands communicate with their audiences. In Social Media ROI: Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization, Olivier Blanchard explains that communication has shifted from a monologue to a dialogue. Before social media, brands relied on one-way messaging. Organizations pushed out ideas through ads, and audiences either accepted or ignored them. There was little opportunity for response or interaction.

    Today, social media platforms allow consumers to share opinions, react to content, and engage directly with brands. Consumers can also communicate with each other, which Blanchard refers to as lateral engagement. This shift helps audiences feel included in the brand’s story rather than simply receiving a message.

    As Sharon Lee Thony explains in The Marketing Campaign Playbook: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs, Marketers, & Small Business Owners, social media has become an essential tool for brand building, promotion, and community growth through a balance of paid and organic campaigns. New Balance is a strong example of how these strategies work together in practice.

    Why New Balance? A Runner’s Perspective

    New Balance is an American athletic footwear and apparel company with deep roots in running and performance sports. As a runner and fitness enthusiast, I have been a long-time supporter and consumer of the brand, making their social media strategy especially interesting to analyze. I researched two of their platforms: Instagram and TikTok.

    Instagram: Athlete Stories and Brand Identity

    New Balance’s Instagram account has 8.7 million followers and features a mix of organic and paid content. A majority of their organic content focuses on athlete and community storytelling. Many posts highlight sponsored athletes and their accomplishments, helping build an emotional connection with followers.

    One example is a post featuring Sydney McLaughlin after she broke the American record in the 400 meters at the Track and Field World Championships. The image shows her holding the American flag and gold medal, celebrating both personal and national success. Posts like this show how New Balance supports athletes beyond products and helps consumers feel like part of the journey.

    These organic posts typically receive between 10,000 and 20,000 likes, with some reaching over 200,000. Paid posts on Instagram tend to focus more on product launches, such as Cooper Flagg’s signature sneaker, and often receive higher shares. This suggests that New Balance prioritizes storytelling for connection and paid content for reach.

    TikTok: Energy, Authenticity, and Interaction

    New Balance’s TikTok account has over 544,000 followers and more than 3.3 million likes. Much of the content overlaps with Instagram, but TikTok places greater emphasis on movement, behind-the-scenes moments, and high-energy visuals.

    The brand’s “We Got Now” campaign features athletes like Coco Gauff and Kawhi Leonard and focuses on living in the present and chasing goals with confidence. These videos give viewers a closer look at athletes’ training and daily routines, making the content feel more personal. The campaign has a balance between organic and paid posts, where organic posts show the athletes in action, and the paid posts promote the athletes’ specific products.

    New Balance also uses user-generated content on TikTok, such as reviews and product showcases from everyday runners. These posts rely heavily on likes and saves, allowing users to bookmark content and return to it later. This reflects Blanchard’s idea of lateral engagement, where consumers influence each other through shared experiences and opinions.

    Opportunities to Strengthen Engagement

    While New Balance has a strong social media presence, there are some opportunities to further improve engagement. One noticeable area is direct interaction in the comments section. When reviewing Instagram and TikTok posts, there were very few replies from the brand, even on posts that sparked conversation. Responding to comments could help strengthen the sense of community and reinforce the idea of social media as a dialogue rather than a monologue.

    New Balance could also encourage more participation through interactive features. Instagram tools like polls or question stickers could invite fans to engage with athletes, while TikTok challenges or branded hashtags could inspire more user-generated content.

    Finding the Balance: We Got Now

    Overall, New Balance does an effective job balancing organic and paid social media content. Organic posts build trust and connection through storytelling, while paid campaigns help amplify reach and product awareness. Engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and saves reveal how the brand tailors content for each platform.

    In the spirit of their campaign, New Balance doesn’t just say “We Got Now.” They show it by creating content that builds community and meets consumers where they are. The question now is: We Got Now…will you get New Balance today?

  • Under the Algorithm’s Spell: Breaking Free from Social Media’s Grasp

    Under the Algorithm’s Spell: Breaking Free from Social Media’s Grasp

    Do the negative aspects of social media outweigh the positives?

    I was late to the social media game, mainly because my parents encouraged me to stay off the platforms in high school. Looking back, I’m actually thankful they did. It wasn’t until the summer after graduation that I created my first social media account—a rare occurrence in today’s world. The reason? To stay in touch with high school friends as we went to college.

    Since then, I’ve found myself falling into the same social media traps that millions of people experience. During the pandemic, I joined TikTok and quickly found myself scrolling endlessly. Platforms like TikTok are designed to keep us hooked, and the more time we spend on the app, the more we engage with its content.

    The “Foundations of Humane Technology” course from the Center for Humane Technology sheds light on this. It defines “persuasive technologies” as scientifically tested design strategies that manipulate our behavior toward a specific goal, such as spending more time on a website or app. TikTok’s algorithm tracks the content you interact with—videos you like, recent searches—and then curates a feed to keep you scrolling. This might sound harmless, but it’s all part of a larger strategy to maximize user engagement, even if it means hijacking our attention.

    The more I learn about inhumane technology, the more I realize how platforms are intentionally designed to capture and hold my attention. TikTok, for example, delivers an endless stream of content it knows we’ll enjoy – not just to entertain, but to keep us scrolling. It’s a time trap we fall into without even realizing it.

    That being said, there is one feature on TikTok that hints at a step in the right direction—an occasional pop-up that encourages users to take a break after extended periods of scrolling. It’s a nice gesture toward promoting mental health, but from my experience, it doesn’t appear until hours of usage. By then, has the app already achieved its goal of keeping me engaged for as long as possible?

    Overall, I believe technology, especially social media, takes advantage of users to serve its own purposes. Yet, there’s a shift happening. According to the Center for Humane Technology, harmful technologies are no longer getting a free pass. More people are recognizing the value of their attention and pushing back against these manipulative designs.

    The question remains: How long will it take for significant change? While we wait for stronger regulations, we have to take matters into our own hands—setting screen limits, finding other ways to connect with loved ones, and spending more time outdoors. In this fast-paced digital world, taking care of our mental health and protecting our attention has never been more important.

  • Doom Scrolling to Strolling: My TikTok Detox

    Doom Scrolling to Strolling: My TikTok Detox

    Giving up something in your daily routine is always a challenge. We’re creatures of habit, and, let’s be honest, change is tough. In a world that’s increasingly digital, we rely on our screens for connection, entertainment, and distraction. I know I do. So, this week, I gave up my favorite social media platform: TikTok.

    Before diving into the experiment, I did what no one ever wants to do: look at their screen time. TikTok was my most-used app—by far. I wasn’t surprised. I love the creativity that TikTok brings to my feed—new recipes, travel inspiration, incredible artwork. But, like many of us, I’ve fallen victim to the infamous “doom scrolling.” What starts as 15 minutes can quickly turn into two hours of endless swiping. I thought to myself, “can I actually give up TikTok…and survive?”

    For a week, I tracked two types of data: behavioral and emotional. On the behavioral side, I focused on how many times I reached for my phone, how long I spent on it, which apps I opened, and what I did to replace TikTok. Emotionally, I tracked how I felt each day, how productive I was, and whether I felt more present in my daily life.

    Before starting the experiment, I reviewed my last three weeks of phone usage. In total, I spent 80 hours on social media—about 26-27 hours per week. TikTok accounted for 42 of those hours, averaging 14 hours a week. I was captivated by TikTok like a bug is drawn to light, but this was a wake-up call. I couldn’t justify saying, “I don’t have time to do that” anymore since I spent so much of my time on TikTok.

    Inspired by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec’s “Dear Data” project, I decided to approach my experiment in a similar way—tracking the data and then illustrating it with hand-drawn visuals.

    The first two days were the hardest. I kept reaching for my phone and accidentally tapping the TikTok icon out of habit. I also found myself using Instagram as a replacement for TikTok, but even that didn’t last long. By Thursday, I didn’t feel the need to check TikTok at all. I filled my time with walks during lunch and going to bed earlier.

    By the end of the week, my phone usage had dropped significantly, and I was mostly using just Spotify. Without the constant comparison that comes with social media, my self-esteem improved. I was more focused at work and felt less distracted by notifications. I wasn’t losing time to what Hari describes as the “switch cost effect” in Stolen Focus. Instead, I felt genuinely happier because I was more productive and present.

    Moving forward, I plan to continue this progress by setting social media time limits and taking my watch off during the day to avoid distractions. After completing this experiment, I now know that I can still function with less social media.

    The question is, can you survive a TikTok detox?