Ep 86: What a TikTok Ban Could Mean for Podcasters

Welcome back to another episode of the Lazy Girl's Guide to Podcasting with me, Verity. Today we are talking all about TikTok, which might sound a little bit strange because long time listeners of the podcast will know that I'm no longer active on TikTok in terms of marketing the podcast and I did a whole episode a while ago, which if you haven't listened to, I will link it in the show notes. But But it was all about why I don't, why I don't promote my podcast on TikTok anymore. So NBC news reported just a couple of weeks ago. And I quote, TikTok's fate in the U S has never been more in doubt after Congress approved a bill that gives its parents company two options. Sell it to an approved buyer. or to see it banned. President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law on Wednesday. So in short, the Americans are worried that information from the app could be passed to the Chinese government, something that TikTok says it does not do and will not happen in the future. So, Should podcasters be worried about this? Well, I'm going to give you my take on this. Now, I'm not a politician, I'm not an economist, I know very little about the Chinese government and the way that it's structured and works in the scheme of things. I know very little, really, about American politics. I don't know the greatest amount about how TikTok works, or their algorithm, anything like that. You're probably now thinking at this point, Verity, why did you choose to do an episode on this? But I really answer this question of should podcasters, particularly in America, should they be worried? Cause we know that millions and millions of Americans use TikTok. A heck of a lot of podcasters use TikTok in order to promote their podcast. We know that the biggest consumers of podcasts are in the States, which stands to reason then that. There are a heck of a lot of podcasters in America. You get my point with this. So should podcasters be worried? Okay, this is my opinion only, but realistically, I don't think so. And here's my reason for this. You see, if this bill goes through, because remember this bill hasn't actually gone through yet at time of recording, So, if this bill goes through, it could take years for it to be approved. Now, we're going to be having a change in presidency within the next year of this being recorded. Will Donald Trump get in? Dunno. There are some people saying that if he does get in, then he is gonna be absolutely gunning for this legislation. But, regardless, when legislation comes in, it doesn't matter in which country or which democracy or whatever, these things have got a process and they take time to come in. And like I said, the reality is for this piece of legislation to come into effect is going to take, or could take, years. And I think that that's really, really crucial in terms of social media, because Years is a lifetime in social media accounts. You know, we don't know in the next 12, 24, 36 months what social media is going to look like, and we don't know what the new kid on the block in terms of social media is going to be. It could be in other threads, which, God love threads, but we all know that that's Probably didn't take off in quite the way that it was expected, because, you know, Twitter is still seeing more activity than threads, I do believe, at last, at last look at reports. But, and I say that because they were, it was supposed to be a rival, but my point is, is that, you know, TikTok itself kind of came out of nowhere and almost blew up overnight. We don't know that there isn't going to be another app that comes out and takes that spot. I mean, yes, we've had quite a few social media platforms that have come out in the last couple of years, which have kind of like, you know, they've tried their way, they've tried to be unique and they've garnered a bit of a fan base and maybe they've gone a bit of a cult following, but they haven't kind of, you know, taken the top spots of, you know, those dominated by Facebook, TikTok, Instagram. And whoever else, but as I said, years is a lifetime in terms of social media, so should podcasters be worried about a potential TikTok ban in America? As I said, I don't think so, because I think, and this is just my humble opinion, and obviously, reach out to me on Twitter if you want to, if you want to argue with me on this point, but I honestly feel that if Twitter, if TikTok, not Twitter, sorry, if TikTok did actually get banned, everybody is just going to go over to another platform. And people who have got a strong community following, their supporters, their fans will follow them. And as I said, we don't know before TikTok does get banned, if it even gets banned, then There is potential for another social media platform to come out and essentially make TikTok look so yesterday. In the words of Hilary Duff song. If anyone gets that reference, please tweet me and let me know if you get that. And if you do, then I'll know that you grew up on lizzie McGuire. So this is a shorter episode than normal, but I wanted to give a bit of voice to this conversation. I wanted to give my opinion to anybody who's listening, who's, you know, concerned about thinking, Oh my gosh, I need to pull all of my efforts on TikTok. I need to switch over to Instagram. Gram or any other platform. I wouldn't be too stressed about it at the moment. As I said, I'm not concerned about a potential ban of TikTok, but if you are, get in touch with me over Twitter at VeritySongon. Let me know your thoughts. Thoughts about a potential ban on TikTok? Are you worried about it for promoting your podcast? Are you completely laissez faire and au fait with it and just not, it's not really bothering you? You're just going to see what happens? I would love to know. Otherwise, thank you so much for hanging out with me on another episode of the Lazy Girl's Guide to Podcasting. I'm Verity and I will see you next time.