So I want to address the elephant in the room, The potential ban on TikTok. Without getting into the politics i just want to talk about it a little, and then give you a couple of ways you can actually benefit from it if it does pass, and here at Twisby, we normally focus on artists and musicians, but part of that scope is now content creation, so this should help both musicians and content creators alike.
If you aren’t familiar with what’s going on, the US government is making an argument to ban TikTok, If you aren’t USING TikTok currently (which if you read the ebook you see why I think you should be), there are still things you can use as well.
The congressional hearings on the safety of TikTok have started, and lets just say, they don’t seem to be going well. It’s looking more and more like a ban is in the realm of possibility.
With Facebook and IG announcing that they will no longer pay content creators on their apps (a program they implemented to compete with TikTok), it seems that Facebook (Aka “Meta”) is confident that they will have a monopoly on the industry.
With 150 million users in the US alone on TikTok, they will be looking for a similar experience elsewhere. So exactly where will they be going, and how can you prepare for the potential exodus?
Meta Platforms AKA – Facebook and Instagram
Now this is an interesting one, people are mad at Meta, as recent news articles have proven that Facebook funded a multi-million dollar campaign to take down it’s biggest competitor. People have even gone as far to say that they will be deleting both their IG’s and Facebooks. It will be an interesting thing to see play out if it does happen, but I will believe it when I see it.
What should you do now?
To benefit from this you should start focusing on building your presence with both Facebook and Instagram. I don’t like these platforms necessarily, especially with their new pay to play structure where if you buy their blue checkmark, your content will get pushed out more often and the fact they refuse to pay creators, but if the majority of your audience is on TikTok, start posting videos about the ban and get them to move over to IG and Facebook (as well as the other apps mentioned in this article.) The last thing you want is to just lose that audience. So make sure you update your linktree in your bio and tell people where they can find you.
Start moving your TikTok videos onto these platforms into the “Reels”. Just make sure you remove the Tiktok watermark (You can use SnapTik to download them). Only post 3 to 5 videos per day, and only use 3 to 5 hashtags per video. You can use Longer Captions to describe the video. I will also recommend cutting your videos after downloading them and just stitching them back together inside of the IG afterwards, because Instagram rewards people that use their god awful editor. And consider buying the checkmark, I HATE pay to play, but when there’s a monopoly you don’t really get a choice. Creator should be paid, and not have to pay.
You’re also going to want to start posting more stories than you ever wanted to …. Sigh…. I hate this part, because IG wants you to “Ideally” post 20 …. Yes ….. 20 stories per day. That’s not something I said … that’s something THEY said. (I really hope everyone does leave).
Youtube Shorts
Alot of us forgot that Youtube Shorts exist, but they actually have a fair amount of people watching them, and not alot of creators actually using them, as they still see youtube as a long form content platform. Which can benefit YOU! Right now, regardless of the ban. There’s not as much competition on the platform as you’d expect with tiktok, and anywhere there is an audience, it’s a chance to find new listeners. BUT just because you are getting viewers and subscribers from your shorts, doesn’t mean your long form content like music videos are going to do well, so be sure to throw a few videos in the rotation of your content that direct them to those to improve your reach.
I’m still dissecting the best way to approach Youtube shorts, and when I gather this information I will update this article, but for now, just follow the same rules as IG. No watermark, post regularly, move content over, just don’t upload in mass spread everything out over a few Days.
MYSPACE!!!!!!
THE TOP 8 MAY BE BACK!!!!!!!….. My elder millennial is showing, but I’m excited at the idea of brushing off my HTML skills. For all of you young bucks, myspace was the completely customizable and cooler older brother of Facebook. It was a haven for music fans, and just an all around better app than FB, but for some reason …. It died.
Alot of people have been talking about moving back to Myspace and deleting Facebook, and if you can’t tell, I’m all here for it. There is absolutely NO data on how to be successful on Myspace, but I would go ahead and open an account and set it up so IF this happens, you’re already ahead of the rush. I’d make sure your music is up at the very least. I will be very curious as to what Myspace does with this newfound interest and how they will react, and of course as data comes in I will update this article and send out an email with the up to date strategies if it does come to fruition.
Clapper
Clapper currently has 2 million users and a reputation, but regardless of the reputation, it’s just tiktok with worse video quality. It isn’t exclusively for conspiracy theories and political views. It’s not an alt right platform like, suspiciously, alot of news outlets have claimed. Alot of big name creators have stated their intent of moving to clapper, and you should do the same.
Absolutely. Start building your audience NOW. Like right after this article build it. If you can already have the algorithm working in your favor, if this exodus happens a large chunk of those 150 million will be moving there, and if you have your brand built and content already up and doing well, you could EXPLODE overnight making you the some of the first viral content on the platform.
I’m, approaching this just like I did TikTok, so I would use the same strategy in my Ebook (If you haven’t read the ebook you can Download it Here). If anything changes I will send out an email to our email subscribers and I will post an entire article on it by itself.
This is going to be an ever-evolving article as this whole process plays out and other options and information becomes available, but for now, continue posting to TikTok as if nothing is wrong. Feel free to bookmark this to check back alter, and any updates will be posted in italics. Be sure to start working on the other platforms in this article, as well as update your Linktree in your bio’s and letting people know, where the can find you.
