Agencies underestimate young people by filling Tiktok mostly with humor videos.
“Confidence, cooperation, summer together”, begins the video that became a viral hit on Tiktok. In it, employees of the Tax Administration and a presenter known from Temptation Island Sami Kuronen present “Taxation Island”, i.e. the Tax Administration's summer job search.
Memes, sketches and humor: this is what the Tax Administration's Tiktok account is known for.
The account has also received attention in traditional media. Helsingin Sanomat has toldhow “The Tax Administration has chosen the path of humor in serving people”. According to Yle “The tax administration is such a gray agency that marketing had to be pulled over.”
Recently, other “gray agencies” have also learned from the example of the Tax Administration. Today, for example, many TE offices and municipalities make humorous content for Tiktok.
Meme videos are fun, but what purpose do they serve?
Tiktok is still fairly new as a platform, and many companies and agencies are joining it to reach young people.
However, young people also deserve real information in addition to humorous videos.
How do I register as unemployed? How is the employment plan made? What should be taken into account when filing a tax return?
These are questions that agencies could also use their expertise on social media to answer. It is an underestimation of young people to fill Tiktok with mostly skits.
According to the EU accessibility directive, the information produced by public services should be clear and understandable. This is also stated in Yle's story, where a lecturer in communications at the University of Helsinki was interviewed about the Tax Administration's Tiktok account Salla-Maaria from Laakso.
“You can improve accessibility with humor and a more relaxed style. It helps to reach new and wider audiences and helps clarify difficult issues and processes,” Laaksonen said in Yle's story.
For example, from the Tiktok account of Ostrobothnia te services, I've mostly learned which of the office's employees would most likely participate in a reality show.
To the joke line Vaasa has also left. On the city's official Tiktok account a video was released in Februarywhere they joke about how difficult it is to cross the crosswalk in Vaasa.
“When you have to dig out a real winning attitude, so that you can cross the crosswalk in Vaasa,” the video reads.
So the city has noticed a flaw in the safety of its crosswalks and decided to make a meme video about it on Tiktok instead of doing something about it. This is also questioned in the comments.
“The city of Vaasa, you are the problem”, one commenter points out.
Influence it seems that the main purpose of public administration Tiktok accounts is to enliven the agencies' brand image, not to serve customers in the best possible way.
I don't mind if the agencies are gray in my images. As long as they work well and are cost-effective.
The author is a social producer of HS.
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