The TikTok Taoiseach – Silly or Clever?

I’m not sure who the first person was to coin that phrase about Simon Harris our new Taoiseach but it certainly is “stuck” onto him now.

When the phrase is used do you think it is meant in a condescending way or is it a compliment?

When I Google ‘TikTok Taoiseach’ I see an article in Time Magazine about him that uses that phrase in the headline, the Irish Independent carries the same but reckons he could pose a security risk to the country because of the Chinese owned social media channel, The Guardian also uses the phrase and adds that he is “always in a hurry“.

The Limerick Leader had a brilliant headline “From mistaken ‘schoolboy’ on tour to TikTok Taoiseach“.

It goes on and on and the coverage does definitely lean towards flaky and insubstantial.

Anytime I have heard discussions about Simon I would definitely say it is used as a put down, a way of suggesting he is flaky, full of sound bites, a bit silly and insubstantial.

One serious political commentator heavily criticised some of his posts on TikTok – he felt they were juvenile and not becoming of someone in his position.

Since this character, who I think we would all admit hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of the “big” political conversations (except for a brief moment at the peak of Covid shutdowns), ascended to the top of the Fine Gael tree uncontested, many of the media conversations have been about trying to figure him out, and quite correctly assess his leadership credentials. After all, he is now one of the most important people in Ireland.

I had my own opinions about Simon and I was interested as to how I had formed these and I will get into this further on in this piece.

I was facilitating a marketing workshop very recently with some new and very clever entrepreneurs as part of the UCC Ignite start up programme, and the particular session was all about the importance of your “personal brand“.

While I’m not a big fan of that label, quite simply it boils down to the perception that people have of you and how important this can be in your life and career. As an entrepreneur you want people to buy into you, trust your expertise, feel your passion, believe in what you say, and yes even like you. That could result in a sale or an investment or some influential support.

How people arrive at that perception in 2024 is interesting.

So, I asked the group two very simple questions:

“What do you think of Simon Harris?” and “Where does that perception come from“

While I won’t go into the specific responses I can say:

• No one had any idea of what his policies were and what he stood for
• No one knew enough to say he could be a good leader
• A few had no impression of him at all
• One rejected all politicians and didn’t want to know
• A few felt he was ok but had no strong feeling either way

My biggest learning from this exercise (bear in mind it was a small group and there was a good mix of ages and genders) is that the main source that informed people’s perceptions of Simon was social media.

In my personal case I would say my impressions of him was formed as follows:

I had very little knowledge of him before Covid.

I thought he was brilliantly transparent during the early shutdown peak of Covid because he was prepared to go live on Twitter each evening to brief whoever was interested about the status of the pandemic. People were asking him about the Leaving Cert, the R number, when shops would open again, if Electric Picnic would be allowed to happen and they even joked with him about the length of his hair! He answered all of the questions put to him on the fly, openly and honestly.

As Minster for Health my conclusion (100% based on his Twitter performances) was that he did a good job and I was disappointed to see him being moved to Higher Education.

In that role he cut ribbons and turned up in various photos – I’m very sure he did a lot more than that but that is my perception.

Since his new role we have all learnt a lot more about his political career and we have heard many people talking about him.

I heard Eamon Dunphy saying Simon ignored him at some function – I respect Eamon and I love his podcast, ‘The Stand‘, so those words stuck with me. Maybe Simon isn’t very sincere at all?

When we stand back and look at the facts you must acknowledge that to rise to the very top job in the country, uncontested, without doing anything really significant to speak of, must require political skill so he does have something.

So, back to that label “TikTok” Taoiseach?

One of things that we do with all of our clients when we are formulating a communications strategy is:

• Who are your target audiences?
• What do you want to say to them?
• How can we reach them?

Once we have then established these facts we look at the different ways of reaching these audiences. When it comes to social media specifically it is relatively easy to segregate your audiences.

• Facebook is that older generation (non business)
• Instagram is the younger sibling of Facebook and thrives on pretty pictures and video (non business)
• Toxic Twitter used be great for debating issues and interacting (a mix)
• Snapchat and then TikTok are the youngest of all audiences (non business)
• LinkedIn is for the business types.

Is TikTok a clever way to reach a younger audience and when you are talking to a younger audience would you change how you speak to them? Probably.

Maybe Simon isn’t silly and flaky after all. Maybe he has figured out how to reach younger people in a way that others just haven’t?

Barack Obama was lauded for being the first presidential candidate to embrace social media (Facebook in his first campaign) and many reckon it was why he won that race.

And when we “tut tut” at how Simon comes across on TikTok, we should remember that he wasn’t talking to us, he was trying to relate to young folk.

Is Simon silly or extremely clever?

Greg

Greg Canty is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

Tags: Fuzion, Greg Canty, Simon Harris, TikTok Taoiseach