OMG! No TikTok?

Social media platform changes are pretty up-to-the-minute right now. At time of writing, a total shutdown of TikTok in the USA is 4 days away - but whenever you’re reading this, you’ll probably still agree that change is the only constant in the social media landscape. Here’s our quick guide to what is happening and what you can do to safeguard your employer brand content, whatever happens next.

What’s happening? 😵‍

In a nutshell, TikTok’s future in the US is uncertain. Fears over the Chinese ownership of the company, and data and privacy implications have led to a potential ban of the entire platform in the United States. Irrespective of this particular outcome, this is potentially not the last time the social media landscape will seismically shift in the US and globally.

What’s already happened globally 🚫

Some countries have already banned TikTok: India, Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan and Somalia. Additionally, the UK government and Parliament have banned it from staff work devices, as has the European Commission. The BBC also has advised staff to delete the app from corporate phones because of security fears. Simply put, this platform has faced plenty of regulatory tests already and there will probably be more.

Work-arounds and influx onto an alternative platform 🤫

Users could go for a VPN (Virtual Private Network) as a way of continuing access - logging on to a network that’s based geographically outside the US so that they can still see TikTok. Hopefully no knocks on the door from the FBI! Others have already hedged their bets by downloading a similar alternative app called RedNote, which on Monday 13 January, was the top downloaded free app in the US. It’s not exactly the same in its functionality but offers images, short-form videos, community building tools, shopping and more. It’s not owned by ByteDance but it is also a Chinese app so some people are seeing it as their act of protest, resisting the government’s will by having a Chinese company on their phone one way or another.

Preparing for social platform changes in a wild, wild world

Musk bought X… DEI policies are up for grabs… people are potentially mass-returning to offices… the US Supreme Court is genuinely prepared to let TikTok go dark on 170 million + users… and honestly, you never know what’s going to happen next.

Here are some ways you can protect your content against social channel unpredictability (we are refreshing the news feed by the minute)!

1. Save your content 💾

It’s tempting to use a channel’s native creation tools to make content. They make that really easy for you and that’s part of what gets us so ‘addicted’ to the channel. Make sure your content is saved outside of the channel platform itself. It might feel like the long way around, but ideally you want to create outside the channel and export in. It will keep your treasure trove of content protected in case a particular platform becomes inaccessible to you without much warning.

2. Diversify your channel mix 🌈

Don’t have all your eggs in one basket. Most communicators in employer brand and recruitment marketing are communicating cross-generationally, across demographics, and potentially internationally, so they’ll naturally have a broader channel spread. By making sure you’re running (relevant) multiple channels, you reach a wider audience as well as guarding yourself against a sudden panic if one channel stops operating in a jurisdiction, changes features or changes ownership.

3. Repurpose across formats 🎨

You can get a lot of mileage repurposing your content in multiple formats. One single video could also get you quote cards, carousels, blogs, simple feed posts, and plenty more. Using content to its full potential makes your work to maintain multiple channels so much easier day-to-day. And of course, it also means that you have your insights and assets captured across different formats so that it’s not lost if the world takes an unexpected turn.

4. One cheeky little last thing 😀

We somehow managed to have some great timing here. Our ✨NEW✨ content generator has just dropped (thank you product team!) and, handily enough, it allows you to automatically repurpose video into other content types. From graphics to job descriptions, we’re excited about what this new tool can do for you… not just to de-risk your feed in the face of constant change, but also to help you power-up your bank of content really easily and keep all your feeds looking equally loved and curated.

More on this… coming soon!