With the very recent headlines about a potential ban of TikTok here in the US, marketing leaders will do well to remember the old adage, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” But in this case, the eggs are your brand’s active social media platforms, and the basket is your brand’s owned—or in some cases, earned—media mix.
Smart marketers have already diversified the number of social platforms they use for marketing themselves, and have advised their clients to do the same. Taking it one step further, some well-known organizations began banning TikTok usage when questions around the platform’s security risks became more prevalent.
But what about those brands and organizations who have leaned very heavily (or only) into TikTok for brand awareness and engagement instead of incorporating a more diversified multi-channel approach? With a potential platform ban looming, now may be the time to turn (at least a some) of their focus to other, more-stable-for-now social platforms.
Yes, TikTok has fun, fabulous in-platform functionality. Yes, TikTok appeals to a younger demographic who is more digitally savvy, with more online purchasing prowess than previous generations. But, if you consider recent Pew Research data on overall social platform usage, more young adults in the U.S. aged 18-29 actually use Instagram (78%) and Snapchat (65%) than use TikTok (62%). Yeah, we didn’t see that one coming either. So, if you’re a marketing leader who wants to reach the 18-29-year-old crowd on a non-TikTok channel, Instagram and Snapchat are two obviously awesome places to start.
One marketing tactic many brands rely on heavily in the TikTok space—and one that will likely be hit hard if the platform is banned—is influencer marketing. Regardless of industry, 61% of marketers say they use TikTok as their main channel for influencer promotion. Team Crawford will be keeping an eye on the impact of a potential ban on these numbers and influencer marketing overall.
We’ll end this blog with one piece of advice: if you invest your owned (and/or earned) media marketing time and energy into multiple social media channels that all work differently and effectively in lieu of putting one big “egg” in your social channel “basket,” it’ll be much less painful for you—and your clients—if that big egg ever breaks wide open.