Ep 86: What a TikTok Ban Could Mean for Podcasters

Welcome back to another episode

of the Lazy Girl's Guide to

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Podcasting with me, Verity.

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Today we are talking all about TikTok,

which might sound a little bit strange

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because long time listeners of the

podcast will know that I'm no longer

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active on TikTok in terms of marketing

the podcast and I did a whole episode a

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while ago, which if you haven't listened

to, I will link it in the show notes.

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But But it was all about why

I don't, why I don't promote

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my podcast on TikTok anymore.

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So NBC news reported just

a couple of weeks ago.

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And I quote, TikTok's fate in the U

S has never been more in doubt after

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Congress approved a bill that gives

its parents company two options.

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Sell it to an approved buyer.

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or to see it banned.

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President Joe Biden signed the

legislation into law on Wednesday.

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So in short, the Americans are worried

that information from the app could

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be passed to the Chinese government,

something that TikTok says it does not

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do and will not happen in the future.

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So, Should podcasters

be worried about this?

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Well, I'm going to give

you my take on this.

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Now, I'm not a politician, I'm not

an economist, I know very little

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about the Chinese government and

the way that it's structured and

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works in the scheme of things.

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I know very little, really,

about American politics.

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I don't know the greatest amount

about how TikTok works, or their

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algorithm, anything like that.

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You're probably now thinking at

this point, Verity, why did you

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choose to do an episode on this?

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But I really answer this question

of should podcasters, particularly

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in America, should they be worried?

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Cause we know that millions and

millions of Americans use TikTok.

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A heck of a lot of podcasters use TikTok

in order to promote their podcast.

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We know that the biggest consumers

of podcasts are in the States,

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which stands to reason then that.

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There are a heck of a lot

of podcasters in America.

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You get my point with this.

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So should podcasters be worried?

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Okay, this is my opinion only, but

realistically, I don't think so.

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And here's my reason for this.

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You see, if this bill goes through,

because remember this bill hasn't actually

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gone through yet at time of recording,

So, if this bill goes through, it

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could take years for it to be approved.

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Now, we're going to be having a

change in presidency within the

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next year of this being recorded.

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Will Donald Trump get in?

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Dunno.

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There are some people saying that if

he does get in, then he is gonna be

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absolutely gunning for this legislation.

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But, regardless, when legislation

comes in, it doesn't matter in

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which country or which democracy or

whatever, these things have got a

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process and they take time to come in.

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And like I said, the reality is for this

piece of legislation to come into effect

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is going to take, or could take, years.

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And I think that that's really,

really crucial in terms of

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social media, because Years is a

lifetime in social media accounts.

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You know, we don't know in the next

12, 24, 36 months what social media

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is going to look like, and we don't

know what the new kid on the block in

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terms of social media is going to be.

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It could be in other threads, which,

God love threads, but we all know that

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that's Probably didn't take off in quite

the way that it was expected, because,

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you know, Twitter is still seeing more

activity than threads, I do believe,

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at last, at last look at reports.

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But, and I say that because they

were, it was supposed to be a rival,

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but my point is, is that, you know,

TikTok itself kind of came out of

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nowhere and almost blew up overnight.

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We don't know that there isn't

going to be another app that

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comes out and takes that spot.

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I mean, yes, we've had quite a few social

media platforms that have come out in the

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last couple of years, which have kind of

like, you know, they've tried their way,

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they've tried to be unique and they've

garnered a bit of a fan base and maybe

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they've gone a bit of a cult following,

but they haven't kind of, you know,

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taken the top spots of, you know, those

dominated by Facebook, TikTok, Instagram.

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And whoever else, but as I said, years

is a lifetime in terms of social media,

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so should podcasters be worried about

a potential TikTok ban in America?

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As I said, I don't think so, because

I think, and this is just my humble

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opinion, and obviously, reach out to

me on Twitter if you want to, if you

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want to argue with me on this point,

but I honestly feel that if Twitter, if

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TikTok, not Twitter, sorry, if TikTok did

actually get banned, everybody is just

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going to go over to another platform.

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And people who have got a strong

community following, their supporters,

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their fans will follow them.

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And as I said, we don't know before TikTok

does get banned, if it even gets banned,

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then There is potential for another

social media platform to come out and

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essentially make TikTok look so yesterday.

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In the words of Hilary Duff song.

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If anyone gets that reference, please

tweet me and let me know if you get that.

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And if you do, then I'll know that

you grew up on lizzie McGuire.

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So this is a shorter episode than

normal, but I wanted to give a

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bit of voice to this conversation.

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I wanted to give my opinion to anybody

who's listening, who's, you know,

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concerned about thinking, Oh my gosh, I

need to pull all of my efforts on TikTok.

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I need to switch over to Instagram.

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Gram or any other platform.

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I wouldn't be too stressed

about it at the moment.

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As I said, I'm not concerned

about a potential ban of TikTok,

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but if you are, get in touch with

me over Twitter at VeritySongon.

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Let me know your thoughts.

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Thoughts about a potential ban on TikTok?

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Are you worried about it

for promoting your podcast?

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Are you completely laissez faire

and au fait with it and just not,

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it's not really bothering you?

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You're just going to see what happens?

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I would love to know.

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Otherwise, thank you so much for hanging

out with me on another episode of

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the Lazy Girl's Guide to Podcasting.

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I'm Verity and I will see you next time.