What a potential TikTok ban means for marketers

TikTok has changed the way people share and consume content around the world. At a time when long-form videos, photos and text posts dominated social media, it filled the void in short-form video content (RIP Vine). Since then, it’s proved to be more than a trend.?

Although there’s lots to love about TikTok – it’s never been easier to binge entire videos of hockey, painting, kittens and baking all within 30 seconds – the platform’s real success lies in its algorithm.??

What makes TikTok... tick?

TikTok is extremely efficient at learning what (sounds, topics, trends, accounts...) individual users engage with to find other content they’d like. It’s so effective that most users would rather scroll the For You page than stick to content from those they follow—a unique trait of the platform.?

As a result, it’s fairly easy for content creators and brands to gain momentum. Even if you barely have an audience, you can reach a lot of people simply by using trending sounds and following other best practices. For marketers, this has been hugely useful in making content that target audiences enjoy (not tolerate), which can inspire real results. In fact, in California reportedly?40% of small-to-medium businesses say that TikTok is critical to their business.

Now the very algorithm that has made TikTok so successful is putting the platform in danger.??

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Breaking down a potential TikTok ban?

Because TikTok gathers so much user data, the US government has been concerned over what the China-based company could do with the information and if the government of China would use the app to share misinformation. The concerns are so serious that the US has passed legislation stating that TikTok must be taken over by a government-approved buyer to continue being used in the US. More than 30 states have already banned the app from government devices and in response to all this, TikTok is suing the federal government.

It’s a sticky situation.??

Ultimately, we don’t know if TikTok is here to stay. We can assume though that if it gets banned in the US, Canada might very well follow suit, especially considering that it banned the app from federal devices. However, many years will pass before a public ban would take place.?

Where does this leave organizations? Should your organization jump ship early? That’s what a lot of publicly funded American higher education institutions have done. In addition to deleting their accounts, many have blocked the use of TikTok on school devices as well campus Wi-Fi out of privacy concerns.

For the record, we don’t think it’s time for everyone to ditch TikTok yet, and that’s not just because we’re hooked on it.?

Our advice: keep on dancing?

Since the platform is currently so useful to marketers, it makes sense for organizations to continue to reap all the rewards they can from the platform.??

Most organizations already cross-post their TikTok content to Instagram and YouTube. This means that the time you take to build an audience on TikTok won’t detract from the resources you’re committing elsewhere. If you’re not doing this already, it’s time to start.?

There’s also a chance that the platform won’t get taken down at all, in which case, you’ll be glad your account has continued to grow and reach audiences.??

If the app does get banned, we predict that organizations will want to be there for it. Why? Because of what we’re calling The Great TikTok Migration.??

As the app approaches extinction, audiences will grow worried about losing their favourite creators/brands. As a result, they’ll likely begin following en masse those creators/brands to whatever platform replaces TikTok.?

One downside to the existing alternatives is that building an audience and gaining extensive reach is a bit more challenging to do without ad spend, as their organic targeting isn’t as great. So, if you build an audience on TikTok only to one day gain followers on those other platforms, it’ll be worth it.?

There’s also a chance that an entirely new app will take TikTok’s place, in which case, you'll start your account with a bang.?

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When one app closes, another opens?

Although it’ll be useful to keep cross-posting your short video content, there’s a question as to whether these other apps could go beyond a spike in popularity and truly replace TikTok. Of the current options, Instagram stands the best chance of winning out, but we’re not convinced it will.?

There’s a simple obstacle that holds a lot of social media platforms back from successfully expanding their services and that is, first impressions are the strongest.?

Despite their attempt to hop on the TikTok bandwagon with YouTube Shorts, YouTube is still generally thought of as the long-video content platform.

Instagram may have heavily pushed their Reels feature throughout the platform, but they’ll likely never be seen as a video-sharing app more than one for image posts.??

Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as X because the old brand “made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video” and because it’s more fitting for his plans to make it into a financing app.

Let’s face it, people still think of X as the short-form text platform. How often do you still refer to posts on the platform as “Tweets”? Exactly. People still see X for what it was, which makes it hard for new platforms trying to take their old niche. This could be just one of the reasons that Threads failed to be more than a flash in the pan.

There's a similar phenomenon with brands in general; successful ones become known for a single essence. Volvo = safety. Rolex = prestige. Once they’ve established who they are, changing that perception is no easy task. What this means is that if TikTok leaves, it’ll be hard for any existing platform to take its place.??

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"For the same reason that TikTok was so different than Vine, people are drawn towards evolution more than knockoffs."

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We’re betting that a slew of new apps will rise to the challenge, and whichever one wins will have to bring something new to the table. For the same reason that TikTok was so different than Vine, people are drawn towards evolution more than knockoffs.?

This begs the question: how can you tell if new apps are worth trying? It’s simple, by trying them.?

Unless there’s a new app by one of the big developers like Meta, you won’t necessarily need to try them on day one. But if a new platform starts building a buzz, it pays to be early. Even if it doesn’t seem like the kind of platform your audience would use, you won’t know till you try. If you don’t seem to be getting traction, there’s nothing wrong with leaving.??

Only time will tell how TikTok’s situation will shake out. As it does, we’ll be advising organizations on how to adapt.

If you need help making your organization pop off on the platform, let’s chat.?