Over the weekend of Jan 18-19 2025, TikTok shut down (temporarily, as it turned out) in the US following a Supreme Court ruling upholding a law that required its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations or face a ban.
Incoming US President Donald Trump has promised to introduce a 90-day suspension of the shutdown order, pending negotiation for a more enduring solution. The TikTok application is now returning to US users.
In recent days, TikTok feeds have been filled with messages from some of the 170 million US users of the app, saying goodbye, asking their followers to join them on other platforms and otherwise mourning the loss of TikTok.
What can marketers learn from the situation?
Here are eleven key takeaways:
1. The Power of Emotional Connection
- Emotional Engagement: The potential loss of TikTok created a sense of urgency among users, prompting increased activity and emotional engagement. The emotional responses to the shutdown (e.g., goodbye messages, nostalgia) demonstrate the strong emotional connection users had with the platform Marketers can learn from TikTok’s success in creating an emotional connection with its users and strive to build similar connections with their target audience.
- FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): The fear of losing access to a beloved platform drove users to seek alternatives and stay connected. Marketers can utilize FOMO by offering exclusive, limited-time offers to motivate prompt responses.
2. Importance of Diversification in Marketing Channels
- Multi-Platform Presence: Brands should not rely solely on one platform for customer engagement. The TikTok shutdown underscores the need for a presence across multiple social media platforms to mitigate risk.
- Content Adaptability: Learn to adapt content for different platforms. TikTok’s unique content might need reformatting for Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or other platforms.
- Audience Reach: Engaging with audiences on various platforms ensures broader reach and reduces dependency on any single channel.
3. Leveraging Scarcity and Urgency
- Creating Urgency: The shutdown created a natural sense of urgency among users to act quickly—either by downloading content, moving to other platforms, or engaging with brands one last time. Marketers can mimic this by implementing time-sensitive promotions or limited availability products.
- Scarcity as a Sales Driver: With TikTok’s availability in question, users felt a sense of scarcity, prompting increased activity. Marketers can use limited edition products or exclusive events to drive similar behaviour.
4. Community and Engagement
- Building Loyal Audiences: Even in the face of potential disappearance, TikTok users showed a strong community bond. Marketers should focus on building loyalty that transcends a single platform, ensuring followers will follow the brand wherever it goes.
- Engagement During Crisis: Brands can learn how to engage with their audience during unexpected events by being transparent, offering solutions (like moving to another platform), and maintaining communication.
5. Crisis Management and Agility
- Quick Response Strategies: The urgency to adapt to the shutdown scenario teaches marketers to have contingency plans for platform-specific crises, including rapid content strategy pivots and communication plans.
6. Adaptability and Agility
- Rapid Response: The swift migration of users to alternative platforms like Xiaohongshu (REDnote) demonstrates the importance of agility. Marketers should be prepared to quickly adapt strategies in response to changing digital landscapes.
- Monitoring Trends: Staying informed about platform policies and user trends enables proactive adjustments to marketing strategies, ensuring continued engagement. Have strategies can be quickly altered based on external changes like regulatory decisions or platform availability.
7. Learning from User Behaviour
- User Migration Patterns: Observing where users migrated after the shutdown can provide insights into where similar audiences might be found, helping in targeting alternative platforms for future marketing efforts.
- Content Consumption Preferences: Analysing what type of content users produced or sought out during the shutdown can inform content strategies on other platforms, focusing on authenticity and community-driven content.
8. The Power of User-Generated Content and Advocacy
- Encouraging Advocacy: Users promoting alternative ways to stay connected or rallying around the potential loss of TikTok shows the power of user advocacy. Brands can encourage similar actions by fostering a community spirit.
- UGC for Brand Building: The situation highlighted how user-generated content can serve as a brand-building tool, especially when official channels are unavailable.
9. Legal and Political Awareness
- Monitoring Legislative Changes: Marketers must keep an eye on political and legal developments that could impact digital marketing landscapes, preparing for potential disruptions.
10. Long-Term Strategy Over Short-Term Gains
- Sustainability in Marketing: While immediate reactions like urgency can spike engagement, the lesson is to build strategies that are sustainable for the long term, beyond any single platform or event.
11. Tactical Preparedness
- Strategic Planning: Develop contingency plans for sudden platform changes, including identifying alternative channels and content strategies.
- Audience Engagement: Foster strong relationships with audiences through consistent and authentic interactions, encouraging loyalty beyond a single platform.
- Data Management: Collect and manage audience data independently to maintain connections regardless of platform availability.
- Content Flexibility: Create adaptable content that can be easily modified for different platforms, ensuring continuity in brand messaging.
By analysing the TikTok shutdown, marketers can better understand the dynamics of scarcity and urgency, the necessity of diversification, the power of community, and the importance of adaptability in digital marketing strategies.
PS Even though TikTok wasn’t at any danger of disappearing in New Zealand, this whole exercise highlights the importance of TikTok as a platform, especially for reaching Gen Z and Gen Alpha. If you’d like to know more about reaching NZ’s nearly two million TikTok users, join us here: https://socialmedia.org.nz/ecourses/tiktok-marketing-course/
