With TikTok’s future uncertain, media, marketing, and advertising professionals need a new game plan. Calvin Scharffs, VP of Marketing at Orange 142, explores alternative platforms, the role of owned media, and how brands and publishers can future-proof their content strategies.
Right now, just about every brand manager is talking about the same thing: What happens after TikTok goes away?
It’s hard to deny the platform’s value, especially given its users’ demographics. It has more Gen Zers than Instagram, and most creators are 18 to 24. It’s Gen Zers talking to Gen Zers, with many brands benefiting from that dialog. More than 71% of TikTok users said they purchased from brands they discovered on the platform, and 55% made impulse purchases.
For online publishers, TikTok served as an important conduit to hard-to-reach audiences, prompting 78% of Comscore’s top 50 to build teams to create content specific for that platform.
Looking Beyond TikTok
Even if TikTok fails to convince the Supreme Court that the ban violates the First Amendment, marketers, and publishers shouldn’t scrap their content investments. Their TikTok-style content can find new homes on Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snapchat Spotlight.
The main alternatives each have drawbacks. Instagram has more than twice TikTok’s user base but trails in engagement. TikTok’s posts get 5.53% engagement and 44% more comments than Instagram Reels, which sees 4.36% engagement. While Reels’ performance is solid, marketers must adjust their expectations. The same is more or less true for YouTube.
Meta’s recent decision to end fact-checking might push marketers to explore other options. While emerging platforms such as Triller (65 million users) and Clapper (300,000 users) have smaller audiences, they offer unique engagement opportunities.
Triller is making a play for influencers with AI-powered editing tools and has built strong communities around music, especially hip-hop and EDM. Clapper emphasizes community interaction through live streaming and group discussions of up to 20 speakers and 2,000 listeners. These features could help brands build closer connections with niche audiences.
This is actually a strategy that many publishers are already implementing in response to the “end of scale” (i.e. fewer referrals from search due to the rise of generative AI).
Time to Adapt Your Content Strategies
Each platform has its own content DNA. TikTok, Triller, and Clapper videos value authenticity over production value, but not so Instagram Reels. As you move forward in the post-TikTok world, you’ll need to customize their approach for each platform rather than simply reposting TikTok content. This means:
- Adapting video length (Instagram Reels prefer 15-30 seconds while YouTube Shorts can go up to 60)
- Adjusting production quality, as stated above, is more polished for Instagram and more casual for Snapchat.
- Rethinking music choices as each platform has different licensing agreements.
- Reconsidering influencer partnerships, such as seeking influencers with followings across multiple platforms.
These aren’t just format changes to videos. They’re fundamental shifts in how brands connect with each platform’s unique community.
Focus on Owned Media
Now is a good time for brands to dust off their owned media playbooks. Ten years ago, DTC brands built strong communities by featuring customer stories on their websites. It worked then, and with social media brand safety concerns mounting, it could work again.
Companies like Dove, Nike, and Warby Parker never stopped cultivating these spaces, and they’ve reaped the benefits. Owned media gives brands complete control over their message and community, without worrying about changing platform rules or content moderation policies. The key is keeping these spaces dynamic – with fresh content, interactive features, and opportunities for customers to share their experiences.
Email marketing, while not as effective with Gen Z, is still an effective way to reach older demographics on Facebook. And community-building tools have also made it easier to foster safe and effective discussions on brand websites. For instance, AI-powered moderation tools can help manage comment sections more effectively than a decade ago, making it possible to build vibrant communities without massive moderation teams.
Monitor Trends
Savvy marketers will need to stay flexible. Yes, TikTok might win in court, Trump might reverse course on the ban, or ByteDance could sell. But the key takeaway is this: 170 million Americans use TikTok regularly, and they won’t vanish. If TikTok goes away, they’ll flock somewhere else, possibly to a platform that isn’t even on our radar yet.
The only certainty is change. The only certainty is change. A multi-platform approach, anchored by strong owned media, gives brands the best shot at success. They must build adaptable content and engaged communities that can weather any platform’s fate.