On Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that would force a sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or it will be banned outright from the U.S.
While the idea of a “TikTok Ban” has been looming for a couple of years now, the idea is potentially nine to twelve months away from reality. ByteDance has until January 24, 2025, to find a buyer but CEO, Shou Chew, has responded saying they will fight this bill in court.
As you can imagine the social media climate has been in a tornado-like state and not just from the perspective of some of our favorite influencers and storytellers, but for brands, companies, and communities across all industries.
While we could provide a POV on what this action says about our nation’s political focus or how many livelihoods will truly be impacted if this check cashes, we’re going to save that for coffee dates and happy hour conversations.
Here are Digital319’s five recommendations to brands and creators on navigating the potential ban of TikTok:
1.Don’t Jump Ship: While this has so much hype and buzz right now, there’s still so much uncertainty. Don’t rush to sunset your account or disengage with your community. Continue your cadence as usual.
2. Poll Your Audience: Lean on the community you’ve built and find out from them directly…” If this were to happen, where would you prefer to follow us?”. Don’t be afraid to get their opinions. They’re following you for a reason.
3. Save Ya Toks: We don’t know how or when or if the app may one day be gone so now’s the time to save all of your hard work, especially if it only lives on TikTok and nowhere else. There are so many sites you can use to download your Toks but we use: snaptik.app
4. Redirect Series & Campaigns: Do you have any influencer campaigns or exclusive series running on TikTok? With your timelines, deliverables, and performance analysis in mind make sure to be transparent with your content creators about expectations and pivots. If you have series-based content running exclusively on TikTok, if it makes sense, try to test them on other platforms.
5. Optimize Content Output: If the majority of your content distribution is TikTok-focused or made specifically for TikTok, now is the time to consider similar outputs. Yes, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. Now, what works on TikTok may not catch the same flame on IG or YT but that’s where a strategy pivot should be considered. And that’s where we come in! You know how to find us. 😉
Here's some more info on the matter:
Our ultimate goal, whenever it comes to the digital landscape, is to equip you with the confidence to build a lasting digital presence that is strategic and creative. In short, we want to keep you prepared and confident not burnt out and overwhelmed.
Stay connected to our blog & socials and subscribe to our newsletter (D319 Digest) for updates on the TikTok ban.
If you want more insight or help with pivoting your strategy, reach out to us at info@digital319.com.