The TikTok ban highlights another issue: Audience consolidation

Is having most of your audience on one platform the best move? (That answer is complicated.)

TikTok is the 5th most popular social media platform in the world, with over 1.58 billion users. Of those, 170 million (~10.8%) are in the United States. With the TikTok ban looming just a day away from writing this (on January 19th, 2025), there’s something that I believe is going to be one of the biggest issues that comes from this: the loss of audiences of thousands, hundreds of thousands, to millions of people for creators, businesses, artists — anyone who uses TikTok as a creative and monetary medium.

What is important to mention before anything else, in my opinion, is just how lucrative TikTok’s algorithm is. (In all honesty, even researchers are, while getting closer, still trying to figure out exactly how it works.) It destroys basically any other social media platform’s short video algorithm, even in my own experience. TikTok has mastered how to make it so your feed is personalized to exactly what you like, exactly what will make you click the like, or comment, or share button, or, hell, even the TikTok Shop. For as much as I’ve seen people memeing and making fun of the TikTok Shop, it has, qualitatively, given people an outlet for extra income and more content.

But that’s to the viewer. What about the creators on TikTok? Again, the TikTok algorithm has played a huge role. Whether it’s an elderly person accidentally posting a family picture on TikTok, a kid showing off their dad’s book, a brother showing off their brother’s YouTube channel, or a business learning how to get creative in their marketing, the algorithm has, undoubtedly, propelled some of these businesses and individuals into the spotlight. And, in some cases, even helping people get out of homelessness “with nothing but an Android phone.”

Now, let’s talk about the effects of the TikTok ban. Let’s first talk about the viewer. When TikTok goes away, are they going to know every single person they followed or watched? Most likely not. Will they have every other social media platform that someone might be on? Again, probably not. A lot of viewers are, in my opinion, going to lose at least a few of the creators they watched almost daily, because now, there’s going to be that multiplatform disconnect.

Now, about the creator. A lot of creators are going to lose the very platform that they grew most of their audience on. Where they were able to engage with people the most. Where they were able to make their money and still be themselves. Where they were able to showcase cool products they found on the TikTok Shop. And no matter who they were, the algorithm could pick them up and bring hundreds and thousands of new people to them, sometimes everyday. They’ll be forced to scramble to a new platform (or multiple) just to keep posting the same content they were on a central platform. And, unfortunately, with this, a lot of them will lose some of their following and their income, which some people rely on for a living.

The trouble for these creators as well is: will they have the tools to keep the same consistent quality that they did on TikTok? Well, that depends. But I know a lot of creators who used the TikTok editor because, again, TikTok knew what they were doing and had so many expansive and creative tools on the app, where it just made it easy (and fun!) to create content for people. It let people feel that they can genuinely be themselves, and it didn’t feel as competitive like Instagram or YouTube do.

Now, I want to talk about the headline of this article: audience consolidation. Should people have their entire audience on just one platform? Well, it’s easy to say “no” — and while I would personally agree — let’s think about the creator from a very basic start-to-current timeline. Not all creators join a platform with the intent of creating a giant audience or brand — from what I see, most don’t. It’s just a fun hobby project, and they want to put up whatever they feel is interesting to them. They don’t care about the “top 5 perfect tips to grow FAST on TikTok!”, because they aren’t doing it for that. They’re just expressing themselves.

Now, what if they blow up on TikTok? Well, even then, now they’ve got even MORE incentive to stay solely on TikTok and focus on growing that audience. One thing with the TikTok algorithm is that you do have to be consistent and active. You can sometimes get away with not doing it, but short-form content creation lends itself to being a consistent cycle. And, if people are liking your content especially on one platform? Well, doesn’t it make sense that you’ll focus on that one platform where it’s giving you the most results?

Compare that with the culture of Instagram or YouTube. They, by far, are not anywhere as easy to blow up and get a following on, even with short-form content. YouTube isn’t nearly as bad — you can gain a pretty decent following — but what about the engagement features? Being able to shout out a link to a product somewhere, for example, or another side-project you’re working on? Well, considering that on Instagram, you can’t click links on an Instagram caption, and that YouTube removed the ability to put links on Shorts comments and descriptions, those avenues of engagement are cut down. It’s also not always consistent. TikTok made it extremely easy to follow a person just from the video page, and while YouTube and Instagram does as well, it hasn’t always been like that, and isn’t as much of a part of the central core theme of those platforms as it is on TikTok. (In short: while TikTok prioritized engagement and watching content, YouTube and Instagram primarily love when you watch a full thing in its entirety. But how many people actually do that?)

And yes, creators can make their own website and host a shop, their own content, and other things on there — but not everyone wants to do that or has the money to do so. Not everyone wants to post their content on every single platform either — it takes time and often, you have to do some downloading of your own content making sure it fits perfectly for the other platform with multiple captions, hashtags, formats, etc. That’s not only time consuming, but also energy consuming.

So, let’s revisit the question I posed at the very beginning: is having most of your audience on one platform the best move? I think at least having one or two other social media platforms you’re on, even if you don’t post content all the time, is still a good idea so people have other options. If you have the time and ability to crosspost on multiple platforms? Even better. In my opinion, having only one account on one platform can restrict some of the opportunities you may have. But, thinking back to everything else I’ve talked about here — for some people, that works perfectly. This isn’t a business for everyone. It’s just making content, and I think it depends on who you are, what your needs are, and what you want.

And if you enjoy a creator? Follow them, even on multiple social media platforms if you have them. It may just make situations like these a little bit easier for not just them, but also you — and it doesn’t cost you any extra money. Just a little bit of time.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.