Defend Your Enterprise From A TikTok Ban: Diversify Your Social Media

It’s Marketing and Branding Month right here at Inman. As we enter a aggressive spring promoting season, let’s look at which tried-and-true techniques and cutting-edge improvements are getting offers finished in in the present day’s market. We’ll even be recognizing the trade’s advertising and branding leaders with Inman’s Marketing All-Star Awards.

TikTok is making headlines again, this time for being threatened with a ban by the U.S. authorities. We’ve been right here earlier than, with a number of makes an attempt to ban TikTok, each from the general public, which had been unsuccessful, and from authorities workers’ telephones, which had been profitable. Is that this time completely different? 

Time is the one method to understand how this can finish. What we do know is it’s sensible to hope for the very best however put together for the worst. A TikTok ban is completely attainable, so it’s a good suggestion to organize for one, simply in case. 

Does TikTok even influence actual property? Are brokers really posting there? They’re, and according to NAR research, the variety of actual property professionals becoming a member of and utilizing TikTok has tripled over the last few years.

Brokers have began utilizing TikTok for good cause: With 170 million customers, the app contributed a staggering $24 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023, with 69 % of small- to medium-sized companies on the app reporting a rise in gross sales from utilizing it. 

Even for those who aren’t utilizing TikTok, this can be a nice reminder that any skilled with a social media presence ought to by no means go all in on one platform, if attainable. 

It doesn’t matter what occurs to TikTok — and even Meta or X, previously generally known as Twitter — for you or me right here “on the bottom,” the plan of action stays the identical: Management what’s really in our management, which isn’t a lot.

Always remember that the platform you might be posting on owns that little piece of web actual property; we’re simply leasing it out. They maintain all of the playing cards and might change the phrases every time they need. 

Step 1: Diversify your presence 

There’s little shopper safety for our digital lives, so it’s finest to cowl all of your bases proactively. One of the simplest ways to try this on social media is to diversify your presence. Having an up-to-date web site, a very good e mail listing and common newsletters are different nice concepts, too. 

The concept is to attach along with your viewers in a number of methods, which is nothing new; we’re at all times attempting to try this anyway. So many issues can go incorrect within the digital world and compromise your digital advertising plans. From outages to platforms changing hands to having your account wrongfully deleted, you by no means know if you may abruptly be ranging from scratch once more. 

Deal with related content material platforms 

Suppose you’ve got a cultivated presence on TikTok now. In that case, I’d advocate including Instagram and YouTube since they each have options that will let you use brief or long-form video, and lots of TikTok customers are additionally customers of 1 or each of those platforms. 

Use scheduling instruments to handle 

Don’t have time for a couple of platform? I hear you, and that’s a really legitimate concern. Immediately, many beneficial instruments exist to handle your social media presence; a scheduler like Buffer, Hootsuite, or my favourite, Loomly, is a should. 

They will not be free, however the fee for one model’s accounts ought to be fairly affordable and, for my part, one hundred pc price it. With a scheduler, you’ll be able to push your content material out to a number of platforms, and with most, you’ll be able to deviate amongst publishing occasions and content material so it’s not too repetitive. 

You may nonetheless focus totally on one platform. Hopefully, it’s the one you might be most snug with and with which you’ve got probably the most viewers interplay.

However suppose you’ve got a constant presence on different platforms. In that case, if one thing occurs on one other platform, like a ban from the federal government, a change of possession or perhaps a technical failure leading to a chronic outage or lack of your account, your viewers will already be following you elsewhere or can not less than discover you. 

Step 2: Be sure that folks know the place to seek out you

One other instrument you should use is a catch-all hyperlink in your profile, one thing like a LinkTree, ShortStack, Linkinbio or one of many many different choices on the market. These enable your followers to seek out you wherever you’ve got a presence shortly and simply. They’re additionally a wonderful method to promote your web site, weblog or e-newsletter on a platform like Instagram, which doesn’t will let you share hyperlinks in posts. 

Take note of the guardian firm

Phrase of warning: Since Meta owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads (and WhatsApp), having a presence solely on these platforms is dangerous. You would lose entry to all of them ought to one thing go down or your accounts develop into compromised.

Use the identical warning when exploring up-and-coming apps; for instance, Lemon8 can also be owned by ByteDance, which owns TikTok — and the guardian firm has the U.S. authorities involved. As well as, smaller apps get purchased by extra outstanding firms typically; that’s how Meta has Instagram and WhatsApp.

There are numerous social media platforms in addition to the foremost ones everyone knows, like Fb, Instagram, X, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, and so on. Some will not be highly regarded now, but when one thing occurs to TikTok or one other of the foremost platforms, one of many smaller ones might develop in a short time.

At all times select a platform that appeals to you (and your viewers), and get on the market and discover. Listed below are a couple of to begin with: Go beyond: Alternative social media apps to try

Who is aware of? Chances are you’ll discover one you like and domesticate a wealthy, engaged following price greater than a large, unengaged one on a extra aggressive app. In case you are unsure the way to discover a brand new social media platform, right here’s a useful information: Getting social: 7 steps for exploring emerging platforms

Comfortable scrolling! 

Jessi Healey is a contract author and social media supervisor specializing in actual property. Discover her on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Threads.