In case you work in social media (or tech and promoting extra broadly), then you might be conscious that TikTok has been underneath scrutiny over knowledge privateness issues for years. It’s not the primary time the platform is going through stress; most lately with the Biden administration demanding that ByteDance (the app’s guardian firm) divest its shares of the social media platform or face a complete U.S. ban. Any potential ban can be a major shift within the social panorama, particularly now that the platform has 150 million U.S. customers and is about to hit over $18 billion in advert income this yr.
So, what do manufacturers and advertisers have to know?
TikTok shouldn’t be prone to go anyplace, anytime quickly
There’ll nearly definitely be authorized challenges to the Biden administration’s actions that would take months and even years to resolve. It’s unlikely the platform will stop to function inside this time.
There could also be a settlement or state of affairs that appeases regulators and permits the platform to stay energetic
This could possibly be within the type of enhanced knowledge privateness and oversight from regulators and/or U.S. corporations. It may additionally contain a U.S. purchaser stepping in to fulfill U.S. regulatory calls for and hold the app operating. Oracle and Walmart are already in talks with the platform.
What’s TikTok doing to handle security?
TikTok’s response to regulators is taking form within the type of “Undertaking Texas,” a $1.5+ billion-dollar effort to shore up privateness issues and transfer U.S. consumer knowledge away from places which may be susceptible to Chinese language interference.
Beneath the plan, TikTok is creating U.S.-specific variations of the corporate’s inside programs, reminiscent of ones that monitor content material virality, have an effect on what customers see, and even the algorithm that powers the platform.
The brand new programs will embody all U.S. consumer knowledge and be hosted in servers owned and monitored by Oracle (headquartered in Austin, Texas). Moreover, the system can be restricted to a U.S.-based workforce that ByteDance executives can be restricted from accessing.
What does this imply in your model and the way must you proceed?
- Don’t panic: Hold producing compelling content material that satisfies the TikTok viewers and the platform’s algorithm. Brief-form video content material isn’t going anyplace, and, within the extremely unlikely case the place TikTok goes away, there can be one other platform that fills the void.
- Make a contingency plan simply in case: The excellent news is that a lot of the identical content material, tendencies, and artistic methods you’ll develop for TikTok will be utilized on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
- Ask your company (or in-house advertising workforce) to assist present methods that mitigate any fallout ought to TikTok be banned, together with methods to:
- Diversify your content material codecs and platforms the place your model reveals up.
- Analysis rising or underutilized platforms to which audiences usually tend to migrate.
- Enhance methods to “recycle” content material meant for TikTok on Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts.
- Create or increase your influencer advertising capacities to faucet into extremely engaged audiences, it doesn’t matter what platforms they’re on.
The scrutiny surrounding TikTok goes to stay excessive, but it surely doesn’t imply the platform goes to vanish (not less than any time quickly). Manufacturers ought to proceed promoting on the platform, whereas growing a “Plan B” that minimizes any disruption that would emerge from a ban.
