When you work in social media (or tech and promoting extra broadly), then you’re conscious that TikTok has been beneath scrutiny over knowledge privateness considerations for years. It’s not the primary time the platform is dealing with stress; most lately with the Biden administration demanding that ByteDance (the app’s father or mother 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 just isn’t prone to go anyplace, anytime quickly
There’ll virtually actually 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 situation that appeases regulators and permits the platform to stay energetic
This might be within the type of enhanced knowledge privateness and oversight from regulators and/or U.S. corporations. It might additionally contain a U.S. purchaser stepping in to fulfill U.S. regulatory calls for and preserve 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 “Venture Texas,” a $1.5+ billion-dollar effort to shore up privateness considerations and transfer U.S. person knowledge away from areas which may be susceptible to Chinese language interference.
Beneath the plan, TikTok is creating U.S.-specific variations of the corporate’s inner techniques, resembling ones that monitor content material virality, have an effect on what customers see, and even the algorithm that powers the platform.
The brand new techniques will embody all U.S. person knowledge and be hosted in servers owned and monitored by Oracle (headquartered in Austin, Texas). Moreover, the system will likely be restricted to a U.S.-based workforce that ByteDance executives will likely be restricted from accessing.
What does this imply in your model and the way must you proceed?
- Don’t panic: Maintain producing compelling content material that satisfies the TikTok viewers and the platform’s algorithm. Quick-form video content material isn’t going anyplace, and, within the extremely unlikely case the place TikTok goes away, there will likely 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, developments, and inventive methods you’d 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 exhibits 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 develop 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, nevertheless it doesn’t imply the platform goes to vanish (not less than any time quickly). Manufacturers ought to proceed promoting on the platform, whereas creating a “Plan B” that minimizes any disruption that would emerge from a ban.
