Campaigns considering getting on TikTok were already weighing the pros and cons of the platform before Congress passed legislation, which President Biden signed in April, that would ban the social media app if it’s not sold within a year.
But one expert believes that the ban is not going to happen before Election Day, so don’t let that be your excuse for ignoring short-form video content this cycle.
“No ban is going to happen until after the election,” Katie Harbath, CEO of Anchor Change, recently told C&E. “It is a place for voters. I think the calculation is, ‘Can you do enough on Instagram that you don’t need to be on TikTok?'”
Now, part of the appeal for campaigns to join the platform, in addition to its wide daily use among young voters, is that its algorithm allows for accounts to get viewerships regardless of how big their followings are because it focuses on “what types of content you watch and then serves you up more like that,” said Harbath.
For practitioners that do opt to have their campaigns join TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, Harbath recommended taking some precautions.
“Maybe use a burner phone, don’t use a phone that has all your other apps and everything,” she said. “Have some values and principles that you want to put into place around what you’re going to put on [TikTok].”
The same thinking applies to influencer marketing strategy for campaigns, she added: “How are you going to be transparent about [our influencer outreach]? How are you going to think about where you’re paying them versus not paying them, stuff like that,” she said.
“Go through thinking about those values and those trade offs … I think every campaign is going to have a different calculation of whether they’re willing to be on it.”
