Is TikTok Banned or What? Diversifying Strategies in 2025

00:00:05] Crystal Waddell: Welcome back to the Simple and Smart SEO show podcast. I'm your host, Crystal Waddell, and this is follow through Fridays, although yes, it is Sunday.

Breaking NewsTikTok Ban in the U.S.

0:12Crystal WaddellFirst of all, I got to talk about the breaking news that's happening right now.

0:15It's Sunday, January 19th when I'm recording this episode, and I went to log into my TikTok last night, and I got this blank screen.

0:22This is what the blank screen said for me, living in North Carolina.

0:25It says, Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now. That was in big, bold text, and then it had paragraph text underneath that said, A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U. S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that president Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office, please stay tuned.

0:45So my question for you, especially if you live outside of the U S.

0:49Will you let me know what the sentiment is surrounding this? You can email me at hello at simple and smart seo. com.

0:56I'm curious, does this impact your opinion of us in terms of free speech?

0:59And if you think it's gonna last forever or if you think it's temporary. So yeah, hello at simple and smart SEO dot com. Tell me where you're from and what you're thinking.

1:08And if you have built your business on TikTok, I would love to hear from you. Like, what does it feel like right now? Did you decide to start diversifying once you heard the ban could happen? Did you really think it was going to happen?

1:21Honestly, I didn't really think it was. Actually gonna happen. I don't know why I didn't think it was possible.

1:26I just thought, oh. They're just saying that.

1:28They're never gonna ban Tik Tok. And then last night. I can't log in Here's the other thing that was weird about it, too, Though.

1:33I could have swore that people were saying that the ban on Tik Tok wouldn't mean that Tik Tok would necessarily go away.

1:39I thought, according to some of the videos that I watched that We would still be able to access Tik Tok.

1:45We just wouldn't get further updates. So I logged in expecting to still see regular Tik Tok videos.

1:52Just knowing that over time, the quality might go down or something like that. I didn't expect it to just go away overnight.

1:58From an SEO and business perspective, it's just another kind of nasty reminder of how we cannot build our businesses on someone else's land.

2:07And unfortunately. Unless you own your own brick and mortar and just control the universe, there is a real chance that your business can be taken from you in some way.

2:18And the only way that we can minimize our risk is by distributing that risk over a variety of platforms.

2:27That way, if one gets shut down, it's not the entire system.

2:31It's just one piece of the system.

2:33If you only have SEO as your plan, that's not a good strategy either.

2:39It's got to be a diverse strategy that includes as many different online channels and offline channels as you can manage.

2:47I have subscribed to one philosophy since about 2020. And that is the only thing that doesn't change about our businesses is us.

2:56And that doesn't mean that we can't change things in our business.

2:59But we are the one constant. And so every social media marketer is going to come for me right now. But as a business owner, my number one goal is to show up as the same business on every platform.

3:12That way if someone's searching for collage and wood on Instagram, And then they jump over to Facebook, they find collage and wood, and they immediately know that they're in the right place.

3:21I'm not concerned with necessarily creating engaging content. I'm not concerned with any sort of, likes, follows, all of that type of stuff.

3:32I have a lot of lurking customers. You know? They want to check stuff out. And so what I want to do is I just want to reassure them. Build that trust. Build that authority.

3:44Show my expertise and show my consistency more than anything across all of the platforms and.

3:50Honestly, I think that's the strategy that's going to give my business and other businesses the best chance of being successful in the long term.

3:57We shall see what happens next, right?

3:59Okay.

Follow Through FridaysControversy and Visibility

3:59Crystal WaddellSo today on follow through Fridays, I'm still experimenting with the format of this show and I thought, you know what? There's been so much going on.

4:08When I post on LinkedIn and I talk about either my failures or the threats of a lawsuit against me, my visibility goes way up.

4:16So in case you didn't know, controversy sells. Your failures sell.

4:21And really just any drama involving your business is going to get people's attention.

4:27So for what that's worth.

4:28To your comfort level of sharing the negative things that happen in your business.

4:33Sharing my losses has definitely given me a boost in visibility. So I just wanted to share that with you.

RecapInsights from Sarah and Shay's Episode

4:38Crystal WaddellI definitely wanted to recap that amazing episode from Sara Jensen and Shea Karssing.

4:43They did an amazing job and they were the first guest hosts of the Simple and Smart SEO show podcast.

4:48They'll be back this week with part two.

4:51Four takeaways that I had from Sara and Shea's episode:

4:53I needed to evaluate my AI use, invest in human creativity, focus on authenticity, and plan for 2025.

5:00So I just want to share a little bit about how I'm already doing that or how I plan to do that this year.

5:05I've shared a little bit with you about how I use chat GPT as a brainstorming partner, as a therapist, all sorts of different stuff.

5:13I've made chat gPT my default search engine.

5:16This last week in the SEO squad, I created a new GPT that take the blog posts that we're creating and then develop a personalized strategy for their social media.

5:29And also for repurposing that content across all of these different platforms, just like I was talking about to start off.

5:35So I already got some really great feedback from a few of our members who have tried it out and I've used it. And so, yeah, it's pretty cool.

5:43But my point is. Using AI to really expand upon our creativity is a more impactful use of, you know, like a chat GPT than just saying, Hey, write a blog post for me.

5:55When you use it to expand your reach and your visibility, now it becomes a really powerful tool, a powerful partner to help you grow your business.

6:03I also like using surfer to help me generate ideas and generate outlines and different things.

6:10And like I share with the members of the squad.

6:12Even if you use an LLM slash AI tool to help you generate content.

6:18You want to go back through and and just make sure that you're infusing your voice and your experiences into that content.

6:26I spent about two hours on a blog post the other day.

6:28That I actually had AI write for me.

6:31And the number one reason why I did this was because I have a hard time putting things in order.

6:35So I really appreciate the content outline that Surfer has and just making sure that everything's in order and makes sense. And then after that, I took each paragraph and I reworked it.

6:48So that it reflected my tone of voice.

6:50That it was written for maximum information gain rate as suggested by Andy Holland.

6:56And it took a while, you know, it took a while to go through there.

6:59But I felt really proud and confident.

7:02That once that blog post is out in the world, that it's not going to be something generic, you know, because it's got me infused all through it just in a more organized fashion.

7:12Because if you can't tell, I have a bit of a squirrel brain.

7:15So that kind of leads us into number three, focusing on authenticity. And this also kind of goes back to what I was telling you about LinkedIn.

7:22Like people seem to really enjoy these stories of failure that I experience on a regular basis.

7:28And I had an another one this week where one of my clients has a WordPress blog and I experienced what is. Called on the internet the white screen of death.

7:39I went in to log into the admin console I could see all of the posts, but when I went to edit the post the screen just turned white.

7:46And it was crazy So, you know, I panicked I went to chat GPT.

7:49I searched online. And I was like, okay, how am I going to fix this? That's how I found out about the white screen of death.

7:54And so when I couldn't figure out how to fix it, I went to linkedin to ask my network.

7:59I'm connected with some super smart people. So I'm really, really grateful for all the feedback they gave me.

8:03The number of technical SEO issues that were exposed through this exercise was kind of overwhelming.

8:11And so being as we use a third party platform on top of wordpress.

8:17There was lots of the technical issues that are not, they're not things that I can actually fix, even if I wanted to.

8:24And so at the end of the day, fortunately, one of the other team members was able to log in on her side and there's no problems. Everything is working like normal for her.

8:33She even sent me a screenshot. She can get into the admin. She can click on a blog post. She can edit the blog post.

8:39So I had to send her my edits for her to take care of. So, go team!

8:43But it turned out that all of those technical errors that I saw had zero impact.

8:48Were not the cause of my problem My problem has to do with my computer.

8:52And I'm still not sure what it is because I have two Macbooks.

8:56I've cleared my cache. I did a forced refresh.

9:00What else did I do? I emailed the, you know, help desk of the third party that manages our WordPress blog. No issues on their end.

9:08I updated my Mac because it was running some super old operating system, but I don't even know. And, um, so I updated that and, you know, then I cleared my cache again.

9:19Deleted all the cookies, all the stuff that you're supposed to do, right?

9:22And I still am not able to log in. So if anybody knows how to solve this problem, please let me know.

9:27But my point here is two parts.

9:29Sometimes we can get distracted by some of the really scary looking bright red problems like, Oh, my gosh, look at this error in this error in this error.

9:38And at the end of the day, those weren't the problems that I really needed to solve. Like, yeah, it would probably probably be good to take a look at that in the future.

9:47It was an interesting exercise, kind of in futility.

9:50But also in learning where it's like, look, some of the problems can be big and bad, but they can also be very simple.

9:56And depending on what you're using your technology for.

10:00It may not be worth fixing all of the red. When what you have is doing the job.

10:05There was a time where maybe I wouldn't have wanted to say, Hey, I have this problem.

10:09Because I wouldn't want somebody to know that I couldn't do it.

10:12And I think that's one of the areas where I've really grown as a person.

10:15Where I can say, Hey, look, I am not sure why this is happening. This is not working.

10:20But I'm going to do my best to figure it out. I'm working on it, you know.

10:23Instead of pretending like everything's okay when you can.

10:26Communicate from the get go that, Hey, there's an issue. I'm aware of it. I'm troubleshooting it.

10:31That's just so much better than if it had been an issue that would have impacted other people.

10:36And they would have found out about it themselves. Instead of me as the blog manager, letting them know.

10:41So, you know, I felt like that was a win.

10:44Now, the last thing, planning for 2025.

10:47Again, this whole Tik Tok situation reminds us that our visibility strategies may need some adaptation.

10:55We can create super fast with chat and all of the other LLMs.

11:00I'm actually taking a little bit of pause to think about strategy.

11:04And how, you could generate, you know, 100 pieces of content.

11:07Right? But it's like, does that really have anything to do with my goal? Will this help me reach my goal?

11:13And I actually had to stop myself a couple of times and say, Hey, while this may be a good idea, this actually doesn't align with a business objective.

11:21And so it's been kind of cool.

11:23Last week was also an interesting week from a personal perspective.

11:28So my son Asher was sick. He got sick. Super sick on Thursday. I'm talking every 15 minutes. He was sick.

11:35The most thoughtful kid though. Because like where I used to vomit in my bed, make my dad clean it up.

11:39He got up every time went to the restroom. But every 15 minutes on Thursday night.

11:44We were exhausted on Friday. We're in the doctor's office for a couple hours on Friday. Meanwhile.

11:49My Shopify e commerce store Collage and Wood generated 800 over those two days.

11:55And it was fantastic. I count that as an SEO win.

11:58Because I was able to take care of my number one priority, which is my son.

12:03And, you know, in the meantime, I had set up that GPT tool for my SEO squad members.

12:08And so they were getting to play around with that. And so I was getting messages from them about how they were using it. And it was just, it was just a great lesson in how sometimes you don't have to be constantly in go mode to be in grow mode. You know what I mean?

12:24And I have a personal motto that is remember the mission.

12:28And I have it on a sign downstairs in our living room. I have made t shirts that I work out in .

12:34And that kind of keeps me grounded.

12:36It helps me focus on what's most important, which is supporting my son, supporting my family and showing him how to advocate for himself when I'm not there to advocate for him.

12:47So, yeah, it was a rough week. But still some great stuff, right?

12:51So here are some key takeaways from all my rambles today.

12:55Number one. I hope that you've gotten some more ideas about how you can use AI as a support tool for your creativity and your efficiency.

13:02I hope you've seen some examples about how you can focus on your authenticity so that you can differentiate your brand from everybody else you're competing with.

13:10And I also hope you have a plan for adapting your visibility strategies.

13:15Especially in light of events around Tik Tok being removed from the app stores.

13:21It's a great time to plug the squad. If you're interested in becoming a member, we meet every Wednesday. Before you join. We do have a quick call just to make sure that it's a good fit for you.

13:32You can find that link in the show notes.

13:34So, if you would like more crystal. Or more resources related to some of these things that we've talked about, please go to simple and smart seo. com.

13:44And yeah. We'd love to have you in the squad.

13:46I'm so thankful for you as a listener . And I can't wait to hear what your thoughts are on this whole Tik Tok ban.

13:53So email me at hello at simple and smart seo. com. And in the meantime, good luck and keep moving forward.