DO NOT DELETE THIS LOADS THE ROCKSTAR FONT

Add Your Heading Text Here

BLOG

Turbulent waters for social media managers to navigate 

Where to start on this one? At the time of writing, we’re 16 days into the new year and we’ve got a TikTok ban on the horizon, Meta removing fact-checks and saying offices need to be more masculine, X being X, and the top downloaded app in the US is one no one outside of China had really heard of before a couple of weeks ago. 

It seems if you fancied a straightforward start to 2025 as a social media manager, you need to buckle up, sister. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.  

Wait, is TikTok actually being banned?  

It’s crazy that the answer to this two days out is still “maybe”. According to Reuters, TikTok is planning to shut down its US operations on Sunday 19th January. Some 170 million American users will no longer be able to access the platform.  

It may not be lost on you that Sunday 19th is one day before President-elect Trump returns to the White House. The Washington Post reported that Trump is considering suspending the ban by 60 or 90 days, via an executive order. Although the ban has been put in place by federal law, so who knows how that will work? 

We’re veering dangerously close into a political conversation, it’s not Christmas with your drunk Uncle anymore, so let’s swiftly look at some practical things instead.  

Things to consider: 

Performance metrics

If you’re a brand or creator based outside of the US, you might find that your viewing figures will drop. In all future social reports to stakeholders, it’d be prudent to add a “Viewing stats impacted by US TikTok Ban” statement somewhere.  

Communicate with your audience

If you’re a US-based account or have many followers there, get something out on your channels about where people can find your content. Push them towards your Instagram reels, or YouTube, or wherever else they can follow you and keep enjoying your content.  

PIVOT!

You might need to pivot your strategy around where you post certain content types. We’re not saying you need to start posting all your what-would-be TikTok videos on LinkedIn now, but you do need to consider that just because TikTok may be banned, doesn’t mean people no longer want that content. They will look elsewhere for it.  

Download your data

You may have a lot of this data recorded in monthly reporting etc anyway but take a look within the app at what you might want to refer back to. If you start posting your videos on another platform, benchmarking performance would be useful.  

Influencers

You may have recently signed contracts with TikTok influencers that are yet to be fulfilled. If so, you’ll need to have conversations with them or their agents and look to renegotiate. They may have had many more followers on TikTok vs Instagram for example, so the value of the content’s reach will change. Or vice versa. 

Other platforms (such as RedNote)

Explore other platforms. Chinese social media app RedNote has 300 million monthly users (mostly in Mandarin-speaking countries) and as of a few days ago had 63,000 posts on the topic “TikTok refugee”.  

RedNote has similarities with both TikTok and Instagram in how it looks and works.  

We wouldn’t be surprised though if RedNote gets itself banned too. If the US is banning one Chinese social media giant over security risks, why wouldn’t they ban another one? Taiwan has banned public officials from using the platform over the same concerns.  

To conclude 

The big lesson here for any marketer is to diversify your strategy. If you successfully built an entire business based on TikTok videos and have no presence elsewhere, you’re very vulnerable.  

It’s the same with any other platform – they can be taken away or bought by someone you don’t want to associate with (ahem, X).  

Do not put all your eggs in one basket.  

Buckle up, sister. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.