I got distracted by all the current events, but I meant to post about TikTok back when it went down and back up again. It all felt to like a publicity stunt designed to upset as many users as possible, but what it also reminded me of is something I've heard a lot of marketing experts and self-published authors talk about: the importance of never being dependent on somebody else's platform for your audience.
If you weren't aware of the TikTok controversy, in 2024 the United States Congress banned TikTok unless the company divested from its Chinese interests before the deadline, which was in January. The concern is that China could use the app to surveil Americans, since Chinese companies by law must comply with any data requests from their government.
When the app went down on a Saturday night in January, just a couple of days before the inauguration, I saw posts from many of my friends (who apparently didn't think it would actually happen). Of course a social media post from our then-president elect resulted in the restoration of TikTok the very next day.
The app was down for less than 24 hours, but the panic was widespread. I saw lots of complaints on other social media sites about what the loss of the platform was going to do to small business owners, and I couldn't help wondering: If they were so worried about their businesses, why didn't they take advantage of the advance warning (the ban was made law last April, nine months before the deadline) and start preparing for the change months ago?
Social media provides a great tool for marketing your book or business, but it is just that — a tool — and should never be your entire business model. Good use of social media accounts should encourage followers, but also drive those followers to a platform you control. You need a website and ideally a newsletter with an email list, so that if your favorite social media sites were to ever go down, change their rules, or lock you out for some reason, you wouldn't lose everything you've worked so hard for. Ideally you should have social media accounts on multiple platforms — it's unlikely they'll all go down at once — as well as your own branded website.
(Note that Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, so all of those could feasibly go down or lock you out at once. So be sure that you diversify between different companies as well as different platforms.)
TikTok users: Right now you have a second chance. Yes, TikTok has been spared for now, but it's just that — for now. There's a new deadline coming up on April 5th. So far I haven't heard of any business deals that would satisfy the requirements to avoid the ban, and there's no telling whether they'll get another reprieve. So set up other social media accounts, get set up as an influencer on other platforms, or set up a blog and a mailing list — whatever suits your business model. While you still have TikTok available to you, start building your presence on other platforms. Most importantly, start looking for ways to make your audience actually yours instead of just TikTok's, such as through the use of a website and mailing list.
Seriously. Start working on it now, if you haven't already. You only have a month left before a potential repeat of the same scenario could play out. Don't get caught out a second time!
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