Brandi Smith is a Digital Anchor at Tegna’s KHOU (Houston) and has over 8 million “likes” on TikTok.

I know what you’re thinking, TikTok, Tegna Anchor, millions of likes… she has to be posting dance videos…right?

Wrong!

Smith’s TiKTok is filled with actual news stories. The link in her bio directs back to a KHOU.com article where she includes links to all the stories that she covers in her TikTok videos.

And, get this, it’s working, more than half a million people have clicked through to the station’s website from her TikTok this year alone.

“After experimentation, I learned there is definitely a hunger for news on TikTok,” Smith says.

It does prove that you don’t have to dance or act like a fool to get people to come to your TikTok. I knew it was always possible and I am glad that there is someone out there that proved me right.

So, let me ask the GM’s and News Directors out there, would you rather have an employee that posts dancing videos from the studio that brings nothing to your website and, quite frankly, embarrasses your station? Or, would you like to have a person like Brandi Smith that is not only informing the viewer but bringing eyeballs to your station’s website?

Just asking….