Notice: As extra particulars of the US TikTok ban emerge, we might be making updates to this text in real-time to mirror the most recent information. Final up to date January 21, 2025.
A federal regulation banning TikTok within the US is ready to enter impact. Present stories say that TikTok plans to utterly shut down its utility within the US after the ban goes into impact, impacting each people and companies.
Manufacturers based mostly within the US—or who’ve a robust follower base within the US—might want to reevaluate and diversify their community technique because the state of affairs continues to evolve. The ban would require entrepreneurs to pivot rapidly, adapt quick and make room for experimentation.
What’s the US TikTok ban?
The US TikTok ban is a federal regulation that will prohibit US app shops and web internet hosting companies from distributing or internet hosting the TikTok app. In keeping with current stories, the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court docket.
As a result of that is the primary time the US authorities has banned a social community, a lot continues to be unknown about how the ban might be enforced and applied for TikTok’s 170 million US customers.
4 steps to take now
Whereas this variation could seem daunting, social entrepreneurs can efficiently navigate it by doing what they do greatest: embracing adaptability and channeling a test-and-learn mentality.
Listed below are 4 steps you may take proper now to organize for the ban. Within the subsequent part, we’ll break down how you need to alter your long-term technique.
1. Obtain present TikTok content material and assets
Obtain your present TikTok content material, information and different assets and as quickly as potential, as it’s unclear what entry to the app will appear to be long-term.
2. Put together proactive messaging
Put together a message to inform your viewers how you’ll be altering your on-line presence if the ban goes into impact. Talk which different channels you’ll put up on, introduce new accounts (when you’ve got any) and reassure your group they may nonetheless have a relationship along with your model on social.
3. Evaluation your lively TikTok influencer contracts
Give influencers and creators permission to make use of their content material on different channels. Your influencer companions are prone to incur vital monetary impacts on account of the ban and might be keen to seek out new houses for his or her content material. Repurpose their content material to assist your model attain new audiences and foster optimistic long-term influencer relationships.
4. Repurpose TikTok content material and campaigns
Repurpose content material and campaigns you deliberate to put up on TikTok to be used on various platforms. Instagram Reels, Fb Reels, YouTube Shorts, Snapchat and LinkedIn might be particularly key for filling the short-form video urge for food left behind by TikTok. Leveraging present content material on new channels ensures visibility of business-critical messaging, whereas bridging efficiency gaps attributable to the ban.
Ongoing issues for model social
As the complete influence of the ban turns into clear within the subsequent few months, social groups should stay agile—prepared to regulate their technique to adjust to authorized precedent and evolving viewers expectations.
By making these changes to your technique, you may preserve (and even develop) your social efficiency and viewers engagement for the lengthy haul.
Diversify your platform technique
Customers are experimenting with many new apps, looking for one (or many) that may change TikTok of their day by day scrolls. Now could be the time to stake your declare in rising or untapped areas, and examine greatest modify your content material technique to achieve them. Keep updated on trending conversations about new platforms, and make the case to management once you discover a new community that’s the suitable match.
Bandwidth is usually a high barrier to new community experimentation. Sprout’s AI Help will help. It saves you time by creating a number of iterations of the identical message, all fine-tuned for various platforms. With a smaller studying curve to enter new areas, your workforce can dive into rising networks. Sprout’s Publishing Calendar makes it straightforward to cross-post and schedule content material on all of those platforms—creating extra time for strategic work.
In the meantime, you also needs to take into account which platforms current one of the best social commerce alternate options to TikTok. In keeping with Sprout’s This autumn 2024 Pulse Survey, most US shoppers who plan to purchase instantly from social platforms in 2025 will accomplish that on Fb Store. Instagram and YouTube are two different high contenders.
Digital commerce options like Shopify will help prolong your storefront onto these social channels. Sprout’s Shopify integration makes social commerce accessible and minimizes the hole between curiosity and buy—enabling you to fulfill shoppers the place they’re at.
Use information to drive decision-making and construct a resilient content material ecosystem
In mild of the ban, a lot continues to be unknown about how shoppers will change the place they spend time on social. It is going to be extraordinarily vital to faucet into conversations about community shifts and observe consumer tendencies intently. However monitoring each change and pattern is unattainable for groups to do natively 24/7.
Social listening options like Sprout’s will play a pivotal function in serving to you expect which community would be the subsequent “massive factor” and unearth altering client conduct. Listening will reveal viewers insights that inform the way you allocate your finances and assets, serving to you do extra with much less and enhance ROI.
The social panorama is unpredictable, and it’s vital to leverage totally different channels—together with search engine optimization, content material advertising, loyalty packages and model communities.
That doesn’t imply it’s worthwhile to create a model presence all over the place. As an alternative, make investments the place it counts.
Sprout’s My Studies preserve a single supply of reality in your efficiency throughout platforms—simplifying advanced, multi-platform information into actionable learnings you may take to management. These insights allow you to rapidly notice what’s working and what’s not, so you may transfer quick to refine your technique, particularly relating to experimentation on new networks.
Increase your attain with model advocacy
You also needs to discover different avenues to amplify your model, like influencer advertising on new channels. As US influencers migrate from TikTok, the success they’ve discovered on the app will echo throughout new platforms, creating new alternatives for manufacturers.
Use Influencer Advertising and marketing by Sprout Social, our all-in-one influencer administration platform, to find new influencers on Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and rising platforms like Snapchat. Browse influencers’ engagement price by platform, and study extra about them and their viewers to determine in the event that they’re the suitable match in your model.
And keep in mind: Partnering with TikTok influencers exterior of the US continues to be an possibility for worldwide manufacturers. Discovering them might be far more troublesome for social groups headquartered within the US with out options like Influencer Advertising and marketing.
Amplifying your model shouldn’t cease with influencers. Your workers are your hidden asset relating to directing audiences to your content material with out further paid spend—offsetting consciousness gaps created by the TikTok ban.
Use Worker Advocacy by Sprout Social to empower your workers to turn into model advocates. Instantly from the Advocacy platform, they’ll share pre-approved message concepts with their networks—multiplying your attain exponentially.
What’s subsequent: Adapting after the US TikTok ban
Navigating the US TikTok ban would require manufacturers to be nimble, strategic and proactive. By diversifying your platform presence, constructing a resilient content material ecosystem and utilizing data-driven insights to tell your choices, you may adapt to this seismic shift and preserve viewers engagement.
We are going to proceed to maintain our clients up to date concerning the evolving state of the US TikTok ban and what it means for Sprout’s performance.
