How Much Does a TikTok Ban Cost Influencers?

The new law threatening to ban TikTok in the U.S. has marketers speculating and influencers worrying over potential fallout. The actual outcome is anyone’s guess, but President Biden and TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, are playing a massive game of chicken.

Under the law, ByteDance has about nine months to divest the app with the possibility of a three-month extension if there’s an imminent sale. If TikTok isn’t sold in the next year, the U.S. government will make it illegal for hosting services to support the app and require Google and Apple to remove it from app stores. TikTok CEO Shou ZI Chew says they’re not backing down – they’ll take the issue to court for infringing on free speech.

Social media trends are constantly shifting, and influencers expect platforms to have a certain shelf-life. We cut our teeth on Facebook and Twitter (now X) over 20 years ago, but younger users have gravitated toward Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok as they’ve come online. Trends typically track with generational preferences over several years. The top platforms stay fairly consistent, while smaller niche apps get their moment and slowly fall from cultural relevance.

A TikTok ban would radically shake the norm, taking a top platform down in less than a year. For an influencer who worked hard to build their following, the TikTok ban could pull the rug from under them.

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What do influencers have to lose from a TikTok ban?

Lost Time

Building an audience on TikTok – or any platform – takes a lot of time and effort. Social media is an overwhelmingly crowded space, and successful influencers have to be true creators to attract a following. The casual TikTok user doesn’t see the hours of planning, scripting, production and editing that influencers put into a short-form video. Livestreams take planning, too, with carefully curated topics, audience engagements and tailored activations.

Content creation can be a full-time job, and it goes well past a 40-hour workweek for many influencers. Taking TikTok away will cost them thousands of hours of lost time and work.

Lost Momentum

Without TikTok, users will likely migrate to competitor platforms like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels or one of the inevitable new apps moving fast to fill the void. Influencers who invested most or all of their focus on TikTok will have to pivot quickly and adapt.

Shifting and expanding to new platforms isn’t easy or immediate. TikTok is known to be the most viral-friendly algorithm. Some of the biggest TikTok influencers skyrocketed to relevance when their early posts hit the FYP jackpot. Unfortunately, the YouTube and Instagram algorithms aren’t quite as kind. It could take months or years to build the same size following elsewhere.

Lost Income

Finally, influencers will absolutely take a financial hit with a TikTok ban. This may be the most significant loss, especially for creators who earn their primary income from affiliate marketing, sponsored content and TikTok programs like its Creativity Program and Effect Creator Rewards.

Every influencer’s situation is unique, and compensation varies wildly depending on their audience size, content approach and brand partnerships. An influencer’s income from TikTok could range from a few hundred dollars a month to over $100,000 a year.

Here’s a quick summary of the possible TikTok revenue streams and how much an influencer might make from each. (Keep in mind, these are ballpark figures based on influencer feedback, and no figure is typical.)

Source: Business Insider, "How much money TikTokers make, according to top creators," 1/8/24

What Should Influencers Do?

Whether or not TikTok is actually banned, here are a few steps influencers can take now to protect their brand and audience reach.

1. Articulate your brand and value proposition.?

Most successful influencers have this covered, but it’s critical to the rest of these steps. If you’ve clearly communicated your personal aesthetic, content narrative and audience focus, celebrate yourself and move to step 2. If you don’t, take the time to define your unique offering and pinpoint what attracts your followers to you.?

Then, tell your audience – on TikTok and everywhere else. Share your values, your purpose and your focus with your followers. Build your content around these differentiators. When your audience feels connected to who you are and what you stand for, they’re more likely to extend (or migrate) to your other channels.

2. Diversify your content strategy.?

Identify and commit to a few platforms that naturally align to your personal brand. Ideally, this will extend beyond apps to offline channels like audience meetups, product collaborations, professional speaking or a book deal.

A diversified approach protects your income from the instability of any single platform. It also opens doors for cross-channel promotion – where an offline collaboration feeds your online reach, and vice versa – to amplify your efforts and scale.

3. Find ways to repackage and repurpose content. ?

Minor tailoring to your core content can be an efficient way to deliver a consistent, cohesive brand experience across multiple channels.

Every platform has its own personality. While content has to authentically fit, you don’t have to start from scratch on every post for every platform. Keep the overall direction and message, and tweak the format and style to what works for each platform’s audience and algorithm.

4. Pay attention to what legislators and business leaders are saying.?

TikTok won’t go away overnight, but its fate will play out in the coming months. Legislators are sure to talk about it – especially during an election year – and they’re not shy about their predictions. Take everything with a grain of salt, but staying informed can help you see what’s coming and when.

On the flip side, also listen to what C-suite executives from major U.S. companies have to say. For better or worse, money talks and big business has the ear of our elected officials. If industry leaders make noise, legislators are likely to follow.?

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So, is this the beginning of the end for TikTok in the U.S.? Only time will tell… but influencers can take this as an opportunity to grow, either way.