Beyond the Hype: 3 Content Lessons from Winning an AI Hackathon
Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2025 is ‘Slop,’ the A.I.-generated content that fills our social media feeds and is nothing but junk. And yet, agencies and brands are evaluating ways to incorporate artificial intelligence into their workstreams. As marketing leaders in the advertising industry, we want to make sure we’re leading those conversations for our clients, not following them. As the Integrated Solutions department, we set out to host an AI Hackathon to identify potential use cases for incorporating our AI systems into our work.
At the outset of our internal AI Hackathon, my team discussed whether tools like Gemini and Jasper could help alleviate a major pain point in influencer marketing: the "identification bottleneck." In highly regulated sectors like Cybersecurity and Financial Services, we aren't looking for "influencers" in the traditional lifestyle sense; we are looking for subject-matter experts (SMEs) with the technical "chops" and verified credentials who can authentically speak about a product or service.
Winning the hackathon required more than technical skill when it comes to crafting the ideal prompt; it called for using AI to solve the "Needle in a Haystack" problem in finding the ideal creator with an authoritative voice, whose audience primarily resided across niche social media platforms like Mastodon, Discord, and specialized Substacks.
Most agencies use a hybrid approach, switching between different software tools like a Popular Pays, Tagger, or Influential, and conducting manual searches on the Internet and social media. This fragmentation slows down influencer marketing professionals and can lead to inefficiencies. For example, an influencer’s audience data lives in one place, their contact info in another, and content vetting happens in the feed.
As a team, we acknowledged that influencer marketing for Highwire’s clients, specifically those in cybersecurity and financial services, is fundamentally different from selling lifestyle products. We aren't looking for 'Influencers' in the traditional sense. We are looking for Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). In these industries, a high follower count doesn't matter if the person doesn't have the technical chops to back it up.
Here are the key lessons I believe our team uncovered from this AI Hackathon:
1. Prompt Precision is the New Vetting Tool
A key insight from the hackathon was that the quality of output for expert identification depends on treating prompts as you would a standard creative brief. In highly-regulated industries, the "risk factor" is massive; recommending that our clients partner with a former analyst-turned-creator who you later find out left their role under bad circumstances is a brand nightmare. To improve the results of our prompts, we, as a team, moved away from broad requests and used specific persona constraints. An example of that would look like:
Persona: "You are an influencer marketing professional who works at an advertising agency which specializes in B2B organizations with a strong focus in cybersecurity."
Context: "Find influential voices and experts who are considered influencers that have a track record of creating sponsored content for cybersecurity decision makers.”
Constraint: "Exclude 'finfluencers' who focus on lifestyle; prioritize those shaping high-level technical conversations on LinkedIn and X."
2. Gemini vs. Jasper: Casting the "Wide Net."
As an agency, we have access to the enterprise versions of two AI-powered tools, Google’s Gemini and Jasper. This investment level grants us additional capabilities and, most importantly, keeps our clients’ proprietary information secure and prevents any outputs from our prompts from being accessible to everyday users. This removes a major concern for our clients who are hesitant about sensitive proprietary information being accessed by competitors or market analysts.
As an agency, we recognized that Jasper and Gemini serve distinct functions when ideating on how best to navigate a currently fragmented tool stack. This is exactly where we saw the opportunity; we needed a way to streamline these workflows. And the key thing to note is that our submission did not involve using AI to replace the human element, but rather to speed up the initial casting of a 'wide net.’ Helping us identify potential recommendations that empower us to scale our efforts and ensure we’re finding the right creators for our clients. So what does that look like in practice?
Gemini for Discovery: Gemini excels at analyzing real-time data to find experts who are sometimes "invisible" to the most popular influencer discovery tools. During our tests with the varying prompts, Gemini successfully identified two creators that our teams had previously identified through hours of manual research.
Jasper for Alignment: We found that Jasper is more effective at ensuring there’s alignment between our client’s brand voice and the creators when evaluating said content against the “always on” content we create on behalf of our clients.
3. The "Human-in-the-Loop" as a Risk Mitigator
For many advertising and influencer marketing professionals, teams are facing a massive identification bottleneck. And that's why it was the crux of our build for the AI Hackathon. The reality of agency life is that we rarely get cookie-cutter requests for any social media or influencer marketing work. And on top of that, we often deal with timelines focused on major tentpole events, like a conference or a product launch.
One day, we’re looking for a cybersecurity analyst, the next it’s someone who can authentically speak about financial education. And because no two campaigns are the same, we can’t just rely on a static database of influencers we’ve researched in the past. We are effectively starting our influencer discovery efforts from scratch every time.
And I believe our submission was a success because we demonstrated that using AI to handle the initial "wide net" phase allowed our team to focus on the high-stakes verification process. While AI can quickly identify potential candidates for an influencer activation, it cannot verify whether or not a creator is the right brand fit. By letting AI handle the bulk of the identification, our team could scale our efforts without sacrificing the deep vetting required for brand safety and impactful results.
Based on my learnings, here are some things to consider as you look to implement AI into your workflows:
The 80/20 Rule: Let AI handle 80% of the initial expert identification and "wide net" research, but keep 20% of the effort focused on human credential verification.
Data Validity: Always fact-check credentials surfaced by Gemini. While it can find the "needle," it can hallucinate technical details when prompts lack precision.
Platform Diversity: Move beyond Instagram/TikTok; use AI to scan professional, gated platforms where SMEs actually reside.
Thanks again for spending time reading this latest update! If interested, you can check out more of my writing here.
How Brands Are Scaling Influencer Marketing to Hit 2026 Goals
Discover how brands are leveraging AI, social commerce, and long-term creator partnerships to drive measurable growth and hit ambitious 2026 marketing goals.
Reading Time: 7 min
The time when influencer marketing is treated as an afterthought, not grounded in strategy, is over. In 2026, brands see creators as key drivers of performance, not just digital billboards. With the global influencer market projected at $32.55 billion this year, the focus is on accountability, efficiency, and long-term brand equity.
For marketing leaders and influencer marketing strategists, 2026 centers on building a creator ecosystem that supports the full marketing funnel, from AI-driven discovery tools to directly attributing sales via social commerce.
The Shift to Performance-Driven Influencer
In 2026, marketers are under pressure to demonstrate tangible ROI through influencer marketing and social media. Metrics such as likes and follower gains are now secondary to conversion rates and customer acquisition costs (CAC).
Recent data shows brands earn an average of $5.78 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, with higher-performing campaigns achieving $18 to $20 returns (Aitken, 2025). To capture this value, brands are adopting a full-funnel approach to their creator strategies:
Top-of-Funnel: Garnering awareness through macro-influencers who can help improve reach.
Middle-of-Funnel: Consideration driven by the deep trust of nano- and micro-influencers.
Bottom-of-Funnel: Generate direct sales via social commerce integrations like TikTok Shop and Instagram Shopping.
Leveraging AI as the Operational Backbone
In 2026, AI has shiftedfrom an experimental tool to a core part of an agency’s operational infrastructure. And this trend is being reflected in the data, showing that nearly 60% of marketers now use AI to scale influencer operations.
I’ll talk more about this in a future blog post based on my learnings from an AI hackathon my team and I won during a work competition. The key takeaway is that AI does not replace the human ability to tell stories when it comes to creating an engaging campaign. Instead, it streamlines operations. Agencies are now helping brands activate creator marketing campaigns with the use of AI-powered platforms to:
Predict Performance: Using historical data of sponsored content to forecast which creators are likely to deliver the highest levels of performance, even before influencer outreach is signed.
Detect Fraud: Identifying influencers who may have purchased fake followers or unnatural engagement spikes that may be attributed to engagement farms to ensure brand safety and performance.
Optimize Creative: AI can help repurpose creator content into paid ads with varied post copy. Data shows that currently, 77% of marketers use this approach to give AI-driven ad engines the creative diversity needed to lower CPMs.
The Rise of Long-Term Brand Ambassadors
Single sponsored posts are just less effective. As marketers, we know it takes multiple touchpoints to get a consumer to take an action. So why would we expect a single sponsored post to drive an action? If anything, it should be a positive reflection of an influencer’s ability to get their audience to take an action.
In 2026, consumers continue to value authenticity and quickly recognize when a piece of creator marketing feels forced or inauthentic. To get ahead of that trend, agencies are guiding their brands to prioritize long-term partnerships over a single piece of sponsored content.
When a creator consistently uses and discusses a product over several months, it builds a narrative of genuine utility. It helps their audience visually connect the dots as to how a product or service could fit into their daily lives. From a brand standpoint, long-term partnerships also support better creative alignment, predictable content calendars, and often more favorable rates.
B2B Influencer Marketing Comes of Age
Over the past year, I’ve been helping B2B organizations across multiple industry verticals like cybersecurity, healthcare, and technology. And from what I’ve seen, is the rapid growth of B2B influencer marketing. Organizations that provide professional services and SaaS recognize that individuals can outperform brands at reaching the right people to take an action.
Across the major platforms, LinkedIn is the primary channel central to this shift. Brands are moving beyond organic posts content published on their corporate page. In the B2B space, influencers are often niche experts whose endorsements carry the weight of professional referrals and help shorten the sales cycle for complex products or services.
What I find exciting in the B2B influencer marketing space is that brands are looking to activate these creator partnerships on what many consider secondary platforms, such as Substack or through their podcasts. Long-form content, such as a newsletter or podcast, has true staying power for B2B organizations looking to collaborate with creators.
Key Takeaways
ROI is Essential: Move beyond vanity metrics like engagements or followers gained. Prioritize tracking higher-value KPIs like saves, shares, and direct conversions to justify future budgets.
AI is a Tool, Not the Creator: Use AI to automate influencer discovery and vetting. Reserve the content creation and storytelling for human creators.
Community Over Reach: Micro-influencers drive higher engagement than macro influencers, who often deliver better ROI because of their niche authority.
Diversification: A recent webinar on capturing attention in 2026 highlights that conversation-driven content is essential to building lasting trust and getting a user to take an action.
Further Reading
Unlocking B2B Influencer Marketing Partnerships
Strategic Considerations for Creator-Marketing in a Credibility-Driven Economy
The B2B marketing mix is undergoing a fundamental shift. For enterprise brands in high-stakes sectors like healthcare, cybersecurity, and AI, the center of gravity has moved. Trust is no longer manufactured through traditional headlines alone; it is cultivated in the niche ecosystems of LinkedIn feeds, specialized newsletters, and expert-led podcasts.
We are seeing the professionalization of the B2B Creator. According to LinkedIn’s research on the B2B creator economy, these aren’t just "influencers"—they are independent analysts, seasoned operators, and former journalists who have successfully decoupled their personal brand from traditional institutions. They own the one thing brands struggle to buy: unfiltered access to the decision-maker’s attention.
This blog outlines five strategic considerations to transition from transactional "shout-outs" to high-impact creator partnerships that drive measurable business outcomes.
Moving Beyond the Tactic
To win in a saturated market, B2B marketing leaders must stop treating influencer marketing as a campaign-level add-on. Instead, it should be viewed as a credibility engine that helps move people along the marketing funnel. Data from the Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report suggests that 73% of decision-makers consider thought leadership more trustworthy than traditional marketing materials. By strategically embedding expert voices across the funnel, brands can co-create content that doesn't just inform, but validates and de-risks the buying process.
Prioritize Audience Resonance Over Reach
In complex B2B sales, a massive follower count is often a vanity metric. True influence lies in "Topic Depth,” the ability of a creator to speak the specific, often technical language of the buyer.
The Approach:
Audit for Alignment: Build a roster of potential creators that are based on audience overlap and technical authority, not broad clout.
The Diverse Mix: For multi-creator campaigns, deploy a multi-disciplinary roster. This could look like partnering with a high-level industry analyst for the "Vision," with a hands-on consultant for "Execution."
Niche Dominance: Focus on the "Micro-Experts" who are the definitive voices in specific industries.
The Strategic Takeaway: The right partnership bridges the gap between corporate messaging and the audience’s reality. As Gartner notes in their buyer journey research, buyers spend only 5% of their time with any given sales rep; the rest is spent on independent research. When a trusted voice validates your narrative during that 95%, it transforms "Marketing" into "Industry Insight."
Co-Creation In Sponsored Content as a Trust Accelerator
Enterprise audiences have a high "cringe" threshold for sponsored content that feels like a scripted ad. Ogilvy’s B2B Influence Report highlights that 75% of B2B marketers now report stronger brand credibility when collaborating with industry experts rather than going it alone.
The Approach:
The "Partner" Brief: Brief creators as partners in thought-leadership. Give them the "why" behind the product, then let them determine the "how" of the delivery.
Information Exchange: Grant creators exclusive access to internal data, product roadmaps, or subject matter experts within your organization.
Long-Form Continuity: Move away from one-off posts. Establish partnerships with multiple content deliverables that provide cumulative value.
The Strategic Takeaway: In a world of "me-too" content, authentic advocacy is the ultimate differentiator. When you co-create, you aren’t just buying an impression; you are borrowing hard-won credibility.
Take a Full-Funnel Approach
Influence is not just a top-of-funnel awareness play. Strategic partners can accelerate the journey from education to validation. LinkedIn data shows that 82% of B2B buyers say creator content directly influences their final purchasing decisions.
The Approach:
Top-of-Funnel (Education): Leverage an influencer’s podcast, Substack or newsletter to frame the problem and build brand affinity.
Mid-Funnel (Validation): Engage creators who have the expertise for a deep-dive "how-to" videos or use-case breakdowns.
Bottom Funnel (Decision): Leverage these influencers' expert POV to mitigate the risk of the final purchase.
The Strategic Takeaway: B2B influence is a dynamic marketing channel. By aligning creator content with specific funnel stages, you create a self-reinforcing loop that sustains engagement throughout a non-linear buying journey.
Leverage Earned & Paid for Integrated Amplification
A major announcement only has impact if it creates a ripple effect. Modern media strategy requires treating influencers as an extension of your media team. Sprout Social reports that 67% of B2B companies use influencer marketing specifically to increase product and organizational awareness.
The Approach:
Contextual Distribution: Identify creators who specialize in industry analysis and engage them before the embargo lifts.
Paid Support: Budget specifically for amplifying creator-led content. A creator’s post often yields a higher engagement rate than a standard brand ad.
The Strategic Takeaway: Influencers provide the "So What?" for your brand’s announcement or launch. They can help contextualize milestones for their audience, ensuring your story gains traction where traditional media might fall short.
Optimize for Partnership LTV (Lifetime Value)
The most significant ROI comes from the relationship cultivated, not just the surface-level metrics from an individual sponsored post. TopRank Marketing’s B2B Influencer Report notes that 43% of marketers now report "outstanding" results when moving toward long-term partnership models.
The Approach:
Multi-channel Repurposing: Secure usage rights upfront so you can repurpose your sponsored content for other social media and marketing channels like email.
Strategic Feedback Loop: Use your creator roster as an informal "Advisory Board" for product feedback and market sentiment. Leverage the strong connection they have with their respective audiences.
KPI Evolution: Measure results beyond impressions or followers gained. Track influence on brand perception, pipeline velocity, and high-value lead generation.
The Strategic Takeaway: High-performing B2B brands don't just "do" influencer marketing; they build ecosystems. Every collaboration should strengthen your brand’s long-term equity and ensure your message travels through the right networks with maximum authority.
Influence as an Asset
The future of B2B leadership belongs to those who understand that paid doesn’t mean passive. Strategic partnerships are not about buying a distribution channel; they are about integrating your brand into the conversations that matter. By treating creators as co-architects of your narrative, you unlock a level of sustained credibility that traditional advertising cannot replicate.
The Social Media and Influencer Marketing News You Can Use in June
As we get closer to the Juneteenth holiday, I am reminded of the progress we as a country have made so far, and how progress requires consistent effort. I hope we can all enjoy the time off and to reflect on this country’s history.
Let’s dive into this week’s news you can use, where we’ll cover the latest social media and influencer marketing news that you need to be aware of in June. This week, we’ll discuss two potential platform updates coming to Instagram, Snapchat’s user base is growing older and get a brief introduction on how influencer partnerships come to life behind the scenes.
Need a Gut Check Before Posting? Instagram’s Got Your Back With New Features
Instagram is testing out two exciting new features to enable users to get feedback on their Reels prior to posting them to the public. Both features are currently being tested on select accounts.
The first feature lets users send a preview of their in-progress video creation to friends. On a personal level, it's a chance to ask, "Do I look ridiculous in this outfit?" For brands, it's an additional review step to catch spelling errors, evaluate background music choices, check cuts, assess video length, and more. This process is completely private and visible only to those you choose to share it with.
The second feature allows users to share their Reels with a randomly selected audience of non-followers before officially making them public. For brands, this could be a way to test new concepts or edgier ideas and gauge reactions. You have 24 hours to decide whether to post it publicly or archive it.
Instagram's goal with these features is to improve content quality and encourage more users to give posting Reels a try by offering these safety nets.
Snapchat’s User Base is Growing Up and That’s A Win For Advertisers
Think Snapchat is just a playground for Gen Z? Think again. The platform is experiencing a significant demographic shift, with a growing segment of mature users. In an interview with Marketing Brew, Patrick Harris, Snap's President of the Americas, revealed that nearly a quarter of Snapchat's user base is 35 or older. This data point presents a compelling business opportunity for advertisers seeking to engage a diverse audience beyond younger audiences.
Snapchat's evolving brand positioning is underscored by a new ad campaign that sets the platform apart from its competitors. In conjunction with this campaign, Snapchat has rolled out an array of innovative advertising capabilities, including enhanced Dynamic Ads, generative AI and AR capabilities, and a suite of tools designed to empower advertisers and brands.
With a growing segment of older users and a revitalized ad platform, Snapchat is positioning itself as a potent force in the advertising landscape, ready to cater to the needs of a broader range of brands and businesses. And these efforts are yielding results as an advertising platform, with a reported 85% year-over-year growth in its small and medium advertiser base in Q1. This momentum is further bolstered by Snapchat's expanding user base, which recently surpassed 422 million daily active users.
A Brief Introduction to Influencer Partnerships (Through Legal)
Having a clear partnership agreement is crucial for successful collaborations. We wanted to share some behind the scenes info as to how we bring their content to life, while protecting our clients from any serious issues. Now you’ve probably heard the terms "contract" and "agreement" thrown around on status or internal calls, and are sometimes used interchangeably, but understanding the distinction is vital.
Agreements typically outline the partnership's scope, defining each party's responsibilities. For example, a brand might want an influencer to create content around a certain product and promote the product page on their Link in Bio.
Contracts, on the other hand, often delve deeper, specifying the terms under which the work is carried out. They might include restrictions on language use, guidelines on discussing competitors, and payment details.
Ideally, an agreement and contract are finalized and signed before any creative work begins. Now why are contracts and agreements important? They provide clarity by eliminating confusion by defining roles and responsibilities, ensuring everyone understands their part in the collaboration. And they help our clients mitigate risk by addressing potential disputes by outlining content expectations, how creative revisions happen, ownership of intellectual property, usage rights and termination procedures.
If you enjoyed this week’s “news can use,” you won’t want to miss the latest on TikTok in my blog update surrounding the latest legislation that is forcing TikTok to be sold or be banned in the United States.
Social Media and Influencer News You Need To Know In May
Welcome to this week’s news you can use, where we’ll cover the latest social media and influencer marketing news that you need to be aware of. Today, we’ll look at a TikTok user who brings his branding takes to the platform. Instagram is preparing a new feature similar to BeReal, and Sprout Social releases their latest influencer marketing findings now so that they can leverage Tagger insights.
Before you dig in, don’t miss my blog update about the latest legislation that is forcing TikTok to be sold or be banned in the United States.
How A Branding Expert Uses TikTok to Share His Professional Takes
Ashwinn Krishnaswamy, a TikTok user with a truly innovative approach, is bringing his branding takes to life on TikTok. His videos, a departure from the usual Twitter threads or LinkedIn thought leadership posts, offer a breath of fresh air. With his diverse background in design, product, and branding, Ashwinn adopts a unique 'teardown' approach to critique brands and provide builds.
For instance, he meticulously analyzed Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy’s watch brand Brick and then unveiled his vision for a rebrand. In another video, he even reimagined ad copy for Allbirds running shoes, with a "strong" suggestion (looking at Terry and Stefan): "All nerds wear Allbirds." Even for something considered more niche to the average consumer (e.g., branding), it's clear that entertaining and relevant content continues to be prioritized even if the topic isn't broad.
Instagram Working on a “Peek” Feature to Encourage User Interaction
Instagram is trying to revive the BeReal trend. According to researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Instagram is developing a new Peek feature. This feature allows users to share a quick, unfiltered snapshot of themselves or their lives with friends. The recipient would then be able to view the image once before it was permanently deleted. The Peek feature is a response to the growing demand for more authentic and real-time content, a trend that is also shaping the influencer marketing landscape.
The Peek feature is similar to the BeReal trend in that it encourages users to share simple, real-time images that capture their daily life without the performance pressure of a regular Instagram feed. Like BeReal, the Peek feature is a response to the growing dissatisfaction with the curated, edited, artificial portraits that many people post online, depicting an idealized version of themselves. This dissatisfaction reflects a renewed desire for more 'realness' and authenticity in communications, a trend that is also influencing the evolution of influencer marketing.
BeReal is struggling to maintain its usage due to insufficient demand for its services. Such an option may make more sense in a larger platform like Instagram, where private group chats are increasingly used instead of public posts.
Sprout Social’s Influencer Marketing Trends Across Industries
As consumers grow more discerning, they are turning to influencers they trust for recommendations, bypassing traditional advertising channels. This shift underscores the importance of authenticity in introducing a brand to an unaware audience. It's a reassuring trend, indicating that consumers are seeking genuine connections with brands.
This article from Sprout Social delves into some recent influencer marketing trends relevant to advertisers and brands. Our goal is to help our clients recognize the growing importance of influencer marketing as part of their overall marketing approach, as it reflects their audience's values and enhances their brand's credibility.
If you’re looking for more of the latest and greatest in social media, ee sure to check out more of my writing. Such as, my favorite social media tools, like GoCharlie.ai. And you can also get the keys to gaining success with influencer marketing and more deep dives on other social media or influencer marketing topics.
What a Potential TikTok Ban Could Mean For You
Note: This piece was published on April 25, 2024 on The Motion Agency’s blog. We expect the below to change as ByteDance plans to contest this legislation in court.
On Wednesday, President Biden signed legislation banning Chinese-owned TikTok unless it is sold within a year. It is the most serious threat to the social media app’s future in the United States, escalating the country’s technological conflict with China. The legislation was included within a bill that included international aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan and requires ByteDance to sell its ownership in TikTok within 12 months or risk being shut down.
This is the first time the United States government has tried to ban an app on a national scale. However, it has already ordered that all federal employees remove TikTok from government-issued phones, and 34 states have prohibited it from government devices. A Montana law prohibiting everyone in the state from using TikTok was put on hold after a federal judge ruled in November that it “likely violates the First Amendment.”
Why a TikTok Ban?
The FBI has warned that TikTok poses national security dangers due to the Chinese government’s alleged link with ByteDance. This link might allow the Chinese government to “control” software on millions of devices in the U.S. and conduct influence operations through the app by prioritizing specific pieces of content.
Many other countries, including members of the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, have also banned the app on their employees’ work phones. India and Nepal also made it illegal to use TikTok in their respective countries.
The advocates of the bill, as well as other countries that have banned the app, argue that TikTok is a question of national security and provides the Chinese government with a powerful instrument for spreading propaganda. They cite the Chinese national security legislation, which requires enterprises to comply with the Chinese government’s intelligence collection.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Chinese government plans to prevent ByteDance from forcing the sale of TikTok, potentially leading to its prohibition in the United States.
Critics of this bill argue that if passed, other governments may force American corporations to sell or transfer their local operations to a foreign entity. And based on the new law’s broad phrasing, it may also affect ByteDance’s other apps, such as Lemon8 and the AI-powered homework app Gauth.
Even if TikTok is sold to a new U.S. owner, creating it as a distinct firm with its own shares, ByteDance may diminish the strength of the transaction by not including TikTok’s algorithm in the sale. Without the algorithm, U.S. TikTok would not be as popular as it is now.
What Does a Potential TikTok Ban Mean for Your Brand?
Due to the nature of how the law is structured, TikTok users are unlikely to experience any immediate disruption. The app’s sale will likely be delayed for months as TikTok looks to challenge the legislation in court, and the earliest TikTok could be banned in the United States is January 2025.
So, if TikTok adds value to your business through organic content or paid advertising, the newly signed bill should not affect any aspect of your present TikTok strategy. Don’t get rid of an efficient media channel that can still have a positive impact on your business for nearly nine months. If you’ve developed an audience on TikTok, and you’ve fostered that community’s growth, there’s no need to abandon that audience just yet.
However, if your brand is primarily focusing its content efforts on TikTok and nowhere else, it may be time to align your content approach on TikTok to other social media platforms that have similar post formats Many view Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts as potential alternatives for brands looking to reallocate their TikTok resources to another platform. The TikTok ban might result in billions of dollars in additional ad revenue for Meta and Google, the owners of Instagram and YouTube, respectively, according to recent eMarketer research.
Because Motion encourages clients not to invest too heavily in any one platform, we believe our clients will be well insulated from any significant changes stemming from a TikTok ban. Being more agnostic when it comes to your content strategy and the channels you’re active on means there is less risk to your brand long-term, and you can weather turbulent changes like this.
If you were planning to launch your brand’s TikTok channel in 2024, don’t let this news dissuade you from doing so. Even if the ban takes place, you have nine months to help your brand garner greater reach, grow your online community and potentially create new sales opportunities.
While many advertisers continue to invest in more established marketing channels, TikTok has untapped potential for reaching new audiences that aren’t on other social media platforms. In January 2023, Sprout Social data showed TikTok had 850 million global users, with 40% of them not on Facebook, and 63% of them not on Twitter.
What Happens Next?
Currently, it appears more likely that TikTok will be sold off in some fashion, or the bill could be nullified after the election, as Donald Trump has reversed his position, saying that he is opposed to a ban.
Depending who you talk to, this legislation is either the culmination of months of work on Capitol Hill or a complete shock. Motion has been tracking the latest TikTok news in our monthly social media roundup, Social Commotion, for months. We’ll continue to provide updates as news progresses.
Don’t forget to follow Motion on LinkedIn to stay up to date on the latest.
