Is your store a brand or do you carry “RELEVANT” brands in your store? We have a good discussion in this episode of the Dos Marcos Podcast about these questions and much, much more. How do you know if you even have a brand? Listen to find out!

My daughter Gabby is 17 and my son Nick is 15 so thanks to them I am fairly up to speed on some of the recent Social Media trends that could impact your business. But before I get to that, I want to bring you up to speed on some of the new language being used today (by my son and his crew), so you can clearly communicate with the younger generation. Ready?

Salty: When someone says, “That’s salty bro.” this is a bad thing. It would be like me saying “that is unfortunate” or “the outcome of this event fell short of my expectation.”

Sweaty: This one is tricky because it can be both good and bad. My daughter was named 2nd Team All-Conference in softball yesterday so my wife actually said, “that’s so sweaty” and according to my son, she used the word in its proper context. Well done Bridget. Now…you could also say…”that dude is so sweaty when he plays”, which would be a reference to the fact that he is diving all over the court and he plays at a 10 all the time, even in a casual pick up game.

Tryhard: Normally we praise someone that is trying hard to achieve success in their life. Evidently, you can go too far in that pursuit. You may hear someone say, “DUDE, you are such a TRY HARD” after watching the aforementioned kid on the basketball court. It could also be used to reference an ass kisser who is going that extra mile at the office to gain favor with the boss. Used in context…ass kisser brings the boss coffee before the Monday morning meeting begins and so you say…”Jim, YOU’RE SUCH A TRY HARD! SIT DOWN.”

EXTRA: This is typically used in the negative when someone does too much with their appearance or with a social media post. I INCORRECTLY used this word on my wife at a basketball tournament in an effort to compliment her. She was a little late and was approaching a group of us parents sitting courtside waiting for the game to begin. She was all dolled up and looked terrific so I say, “Honey look at you!!!  All “EXTRA” for the game today.” Apparently you should not use this word as a compliment or in a way that would cause them to feel like they are overdressed. My advice…don’t try these words out in large groups of people until you get the hang of it.

The real reason I wanted to talk about trends today was to point out something that could be very relevant to your business which is the app called Tiktok. TikTok was launched in 2017 but has popped up on my radar in the last six months or so. As with most things in the social media space, apps like TikTok become popular with the younger generation, grow in popularity, and then dorks like you and me get interested and start checking them out. Once that happens and we start using the platform, we ultimately ruin it for the younger crowd requiring them to invent another creative outlet that their parents don’t know about. (My Space, Facebook and now Instagram have all suffered this fate.)

TikTok is a vlog of sorts where you can create your own video 3-60 seconds in length and share it with your followers. There are dancers, singers, comedians, politicians and other bizarre things being posted and it’s awesome, but I warn you…once you start scrolling the feed, it’s a very easy way to lose an hour of your life. Or more.

TikTok was the third most downloaded app in the U.S. in the first quarter of this year and now boasts over 14.3 million users. Before you discount this as a marketing platform, consider that almost 50% of its users are between the ages of 25-65. Give this a look and let me know what you think and send me a note on creative ways you could create your own TikTok videos, and for you “TRY HARDS” out there, send us a link when you get your first one done. If you want to have some fun, make your customers feel something about your company or brand, and tell a story at the same time, then see what you can do. Greg and Katy Law at Sweet Dreams….this is ALL YOU!

I would share mine with you HOWEVER, my kids have threatened pain and suffering for me if I start doing my own stuff. So it’s up to you! Get SWEATY.

***Today is a gift. What are you going to do with it?