Last summer, Savannah Campbell made a commitment to herself to post on TikTok every day to boost her business.
Campbell’s original strategy was working. In a matter of months, she had multiple videos gain tens of thousands of views and other creators with hundreds of thousands of followers reposting them. The attention led to a sharp increase in sales for Campbell, who sells simple syrups with Caribbean-inspired flavors through her business Caribe & Co. LLC.
Then TikTok got banned.
The app may have only gone dark for 12 hours, but the uncertainty about its future has shifted the way Campbell and other business owners approach social media for marketing.
“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster,” Campbell said. “To have a resource like that just disappear was very discouraging.”
Despite the ban, Campbell kept posting on TikTok when she could because that’s where she’s built a following. But now she’s started marketing on other platforms like YouTube as well.
“TikTok might be on the chopping block in a couple months, so I have another outlet already working for me,” Campbell said.
This is a strategy that all businesses that use social media for marketing should implement, said Stefanie Boyer, a marketing professor at Bryant University.
“It’s not a good strategy to create your brand and keep it in one place anyways because you never know what’s going to happen with that platform, it’s just too dangerous,” Boyer said.
While TikTok is live again, its future is still unclear.
The app, which has 170 million users, went dark in the U.S. on Jan. 18 after its owner, China-based ByteDance, failed to sell the U.S. assets of TikTok before the Jan. 19 deadline imposed by federal lawmakers. Then, when President Donald Trump took office, he directed the Department of Justice to delay enforcing the TikTok ban for 75 days, bringing the new deadline to April 5.
Meanwhile, users and creators have flocked to new short-form video platforms such as Lemon8 and RedNote.
When new social media sites become more popular, Boyer says it’s a good idea for businesses to at least create an account so they can secure a username they want. That way, it’s easier for customers to find them no matter what platform they’re on.
“They should be starting to monetize in other ways,” Boyer said. “They really need to drive their audience to these different platforms.”
Chris Parisi, CEO and founder of the marketing firm Trailblaze Inc., said he wasn’t surprised by the ban, as it’s been discussed for years now, and Trump’s administration appears like it’s looking for a way to keep TikTok operating. But he agreed it’s better not to go all-in on one platform.
“We just don’t want to put all of our eggs in the TikTok basket, and the ban was short-lived, so it didn’t have a huge impact,” Parisi said.
However, he acknowledged that the ban certainly affects businesses that rely on TikTok Shop, a feature that allows users to purchase products through the app.
Different social media platforms also work better for different businesses, Campbell said. For more product-based businesses, sites like TikTok, with built-in shops, are usually best.
Those with more-local audiences could host events either online or in person in the community, Boyer said. The events are also one way businesses can engage with their audiences, instead of just marketing their products.
“A lot of these businesses offer only one-way communication. They’re just talking about promotion, selling, or sharing,” Boyer said. “The businesses should really focus on creating those conversations and those genuine connections with their audience.”
Campbell says she noticed an increase in viewership as the date of TikTok’s ban approached and after. This was likely because people were paying more attention to the platform. But Campbell also said she started including buzzworthy subjects – such as the ban itself – into her videos.
Her method is simple – talk about those topics while making a coffee with one of her simple syrups. In one video, Campbell gives advice on how to have a self-care day because she noticed a lot of mixed emotions about President Trump’s inauguration.
But not every customer is on TikTok, so Campbell uses email marketing and sends newsletters with recipes.
“Even more-old-school forms of marketing still have a place in today’s world because there are different age groups and people who really are drawn to those different mediums,” Campbell said.
Boyer said it’s best to be tactful with email because customers’ inboxes get flooded with marketing messages. But overall, it’s best to market where a business’s audience spends time.
“Nothing is 100%,” Boyer said. “I think at the end of the day, wherever the audience is, that’s where a business or a creator needs to focus their attention.”
(Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Stefanie Boyer first name.)
