Is TikTok Banned or What? Diversifying Strategies in 2025

In this episode of the Simple and Smart SEO Show, host Crystal Waddell dives into breaking news about the TikTok ban in the U.S. and its implications for businesses reliant on the platform. 

Crystal emphasizes the importance of diversifying business strategies, leveraging AI tools to enhance creativity, and staying authentic in branding efforts. Along the way, she shares personal insights on overcoming technical challenges, adapting visibility plans, and balancing family life with professional goals. 

Tune in to discover actionable strategies for thriving amidst change and controversy.

Key Takeaways:

1. Adapt and Diversify Your Strategy: Relying solely on one platform, like TikTok, can leave businesses vulnerable. Spread risk across multiple online and offline channels to build resilience.
2. AI as a Creative Partner: Tools like ChatGPT and Surfer can help structure and amplify your content while allowing space for your unique voice and expertise.
3. Authenticity Matters: Sharing your challenges and failures authentically—especially on platforms like LinkedIn—can foster trust and boost visibility.
4. Plan for the Future: Use current disruptions as an opportunity to reassess your strategies and align them with long-term goals.
5. Stay Grounded: Prioritize what matters most, whether it's family or personal values, while maintaining momentum in your business.

Episode Highlights:

• Breaking News: Crystal shares her experience with the TikTok ban and invites listeners to weigh in on its global perception.
• Business Lessons: Insights into diversifying your business beyond social media and building a consistent, omnichannel presence.
• AI Integration: Practical tips on using AI for blogging, social media strategy, and expanding creative potential.
• Overcoming Challenges: Crystal recounts resolving technical SEO issues and embracing growth through problem-solving.
• Personal Reflection: A heartwarming story about balancing business success with caring for her son during a challenging week.

Memorable Quotes:

• “You cannot build your business on someone else’s land.”
• “Sometimes, you don’t have to be in go mode to be in grow mode.”
• “Focus on authenticity to differentiate your brand and build trust.”

Listener Action Items:

1. Reflect and Adapt: Evaluate how diversified your business strategy is and identify areas to reduce reliance on single platforms.
2. Leverage AI Tools: Experiment with tools like ChatGPT for brainstorming and content planning while infusing your unique voice.
3. Share Your Story: Post on social media about your challenges or lessons learned to boost visibility and engagement.
4. Join the SEO Squad: Sign up for Crystal’s SEO squad for ongoing support and resources to grow your busin

Chapters

• 0:00 Follow Through Fridays
• 0:05 Welcome to the Simple and Smart SEO Show
• 0:12 Breaking News: TikTok Ban in the U.S.
• 1:08 Impact of TikTok Ban on Businesses
• 1:58 Diversifying Your Business Strategy
• 3:59 Follow Through Fridays: Controversy and Visibility
• 4:38 Recap: Insights from Sarah and Shay's Episode
• 5:05 Using AI to Enhance Creativity
• 11:23 Personal Wins and Key Takeaways

Transcript

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 News: TikTok Ban in the U.S.

[00:00:12] Crystal Waddell: First of all, I got to talk about the breaking news that's happening right now.

[00:00:15] It'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. 

[00:00:22] This is what the blank screen said for me, living in North Carolina.

[00:00:25] It 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.

[00:00:45] So my question for you, especially if you live outside of the U S. 

[00:00:49] Will you let me know what the sentiment is surrounding this? You can email me at hello at simple and smart seo. com. 

[00:00:56] I'm curious, does this impact your opinion of us in terms of free speech?

[00:00:59] And 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.

Impact of TikTok Ban on Businesses

[00:01:08] Crystal Waddell: And 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?

[00:01:21] Honestly, I didn't really think it was. Actually gonna happen. I don't know why I didn't think it was possible. 

[00:01:26] I just thought, oh. They're just saying that. 

[00:01:28] They'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. 

[00:01:33] I could have swore that people were saying that the ban on Tik Tok wouldn't mean that Tik Tok would necessarily go away. 

[00:01:39] I thought, according to some of the videos that I watched that We would still be able to access Tik Tok.

[00:01:45] We just wouldn't get further updates. So I logged in expecting to still see regular Tik Tok videos. 

[00:01:52] Just knowing that over time, the quality might go down or something like that. I didn't expect it to just go away overnight. 

Diversifying Your Business Strategy

[00:01:58] Crystal Waddell: From 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.

[00:02:07] And 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. 

[00:02:18] And the only way that we can minimize our risk is by distributing that risk over a variety of platforms. 

[00:02:27] That way, if one gets shut down, it's not the entire system.

[00:02:31] It's just one piece of the system. 

[00:02:33] If you only have SEO as your plan, that's not a good strategy either. 

[00:02:39] It's got to be a diverse strategy that includes as many different online channels and offline channels as you can manage. 

[00:02:47] I have subscribed to one philosophy since about 2020. And that is the only thing that doesn't change about our businesses is us. 

[00:02:56] And that doesn't mean that we can't change things in our business. 

[00:02:59] But 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.

[00:03:12] That 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. 

[00:03:21] I'm not concerned with necessarily creating engaging content. I'm not concerned with any sort of, likes, follows, all of that type of stuff.

[00:03:32] I 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. 

[00:03:44] Show my expertise and show my consistency more than anything across all of the platforms and. 

[00:03:50] Honestly, 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.

[00:03:57] We shall see what happens next, right?

[00:03:59] Okay. 

Follow Through Fridays: Controversy and Visibility

[00:03:59] Crystal Waddell: So 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. 

[00:04:08] When I post on LinkedIn and I talk about either my failures or the threats of a lawsuit against me, my visibility goes way up. 

[00:04:16] So in case you didn't know, controversy sells. Your failures sell.

[00:04:21] And really just any drama involving your business is going to get people's attention. 

[00:04:27] So for what that's worth. 

[00:04:28] To your comfort level of sharing the negative things that happen in your business. 

[00:04:33] Sharing my losses has definitely given me a boost in visibility. So I just wanted to share that with you. 

Recap: Insights from Sarah and Shay's Episode

[00:04:38] Crystal Waddell: I definitely wanted to recap that amazing episode from Sara Jensen and Shea Karssing. 

[00:04:43] They did an amazing job and they were the first guest hosts of the Simple and Smart SEO show podcast.

[00:04:48] They'll be back this week with part two. 

[00:04:51] Four takeaways that I had from Sara and Shea's episode:

[00:04:53] I needed to evaluate my AI use, invest in human creativity, focus on authenticity, and plan for 2025. 

[00:05:00] So I just want to share a little bit about how I'm already doing that or how I plan to do that this year.

Using AI to Enhance Creativity

[00:05:05] Crystal Waddell: I'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. 

[00:05:13] I've made chat gPT my default search engine. 

[00:05:16] This 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. 

[00:05:29] And also for repurposing that content across all of these different platforms, just like I was talking about to start off. 

[00:05:35] So 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.

[00:05:43] But 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. 

[00:05:55] When 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.

[00:06:03] I also like using surfer to help me generate ideas and generate outlines and different things. 

[00:06:10] And like I share with the members of the squad. 

[00:06:12] Even if you use an LLM slash AI tool to help you generate content. 

[00:06:18] You want to go back through and and just make sure that you're infusing your voice and your experiences into that content. 

[00:06:26] I spent about two hours on a blog post the other day.

[00:06:28] That I actually had AI write for me. 

[00:06:31] And the number one reason why I did this was because I have a hard time putting things in order. 

[00:06:35] So 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.

[00:06:48] So that it reflected my tone of voice. 

[00:06:50] That it was written for maximum information gain rate as suggested by Andy Holland. 

[00:06:56] And it took a while, you know, it took a while to go through there. 

[00:06:59] But I felt really proud and confident. 

[00:07:02] That 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.

[00:07:12] Because if you can't tell, I have a bit of a squirrel brain. 

[00:07:15] So 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. 

[00:07:22] Like people seem to really enjoy these stories of failure that I experience on a regular basis.

[00:07:28] And 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. 

[00:07:39] I 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. 

[00:07:46] And it was crazy So, you know, I panicked I went to chat GPT.

[00:07:49] I 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. 

[00:07:54] And so when I couldn't figure out how to fix it, I went to linkedin to ask my network. 

[00:07:59] I'm connected with some super smart people. So I'm really, really grateful for all the feedback they gave me. 

[00:08:03] The number of technical SEO issues that were exposed through this exercise was kind of overwhelming. 

[00:08:11] And so being as we use a third party platform on top of wordpress. 

[00:08:17] There was lots of the technical issues that are not, they're not things that I can actually fix, even if I wanted to.

[00:08:24] And 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. 

[00:08:33] She even sent me a screenshot. She can get into the admin. She can click on a blog post. She can edit the blog post. 

[00:08:39] So I had to send her my edits for her to take care of. So, go team! 

[00:08:43] But it turned out that all of those technical errors that I saw had zero impact. 

[00:08:48] Were not the cause of my problem My problem has to do with my computer. 

[00:08:52] And I'm still not sure what it is because I have two Macbooks. 

[00:08:56] I've cleared my cache. I did a forced refresh.

[00:09:00] What 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. 

[00:09:08] I 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.

[00:09:19] Deleted all the cookies, all the stuff that you're supposed to do, right? 

[00:09:22] And I still am not able to log in. So if anybody knows how to solve this problem, please let me know. 

[00:09:27] But my point here is two parts. 

[00:09:29] Sometimes 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.

[00:09:38] And 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.

[00:09:47] It was an interesting exercise, kind of in futility. 

[00:09:50] But also in learning where it's like, look, some of the problems can be big and bad, but they can also be very simple.

[00:09:56] And depending on what you're using your technology for. 

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

[00:10:05] There was a time where maybe I wouldn't have wanted to say, Hey, I have this problem. 

[00:10:09] Because I wouldn't want somebody to know that I couldn't do it.

[00:10:12] And I think that's one of the areas where I've really grown as a person. 

[00:10:15] Where I can say, Hey, look, I am not sure why this is happening. This is not working. 

[00:10:20] But I'm going to do my best to figure it out. I'm working on it, you know. 

[00:10:23] Instead of pretending like everything's okay when you can.

[00:10:26] Communicate from the get go that, Hey, there's an issue. I'm aware of it. I'm troubleshooting it. 

[00:10:31] That's just so much better than if it had been an issue that would have impacted other people. 

[00:10:36] And they would have found out about it themselves. Instead of me as the blog manager, letting them know.

[00:10:41] So, you know, I felt like that was a win. 

[00:10:44] Now, the last thing, planning for 2025.

[00:10:47] Again, this whole Tik Tok situation reminds us that our visibility strategies may need some adaptation.

[00:10:55] We can create super fast with chat and all of the other LLMs. 

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

[00:11:04] And how, you could generate, you know, 100 pieces of content.

[00:11:07] Right? But it's like, does that really have anything to do with my goal? Will this help me reach my goal? 

[00:11:13] And 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. 

[00:11:21] And so it's been kind of cool. 

Personal Wins and Key Takeaways

[00:11:23] Crystal Waddell: Last week was also an interesting week from a personal perspective. 

[00:11:28] So my son Asher was sick. He got sick. Super sick on Thursday. I'm talking every 15 minutes. He was sick. 

[00:11:35] The most thoughtful kid though. Because like where I used to vomit in my bed, make my dad clean it up.

[00:11:39] He got up every time went to the restroom. But every 15 minutes on Thursday night. 

[00:11:44] We were exhausted on Friday. We're in the doctor's office for a couple hours on Friday. Meanwhile. 

[00:11:49] My Shopify e commerce store Collage and Wood generated 800 over those two days. 

[00:11:55] And it was fantastic. I count that as an SEO win. 

[00:11:58] Because I was able to take care of my number one priority, which is my son. 

[00:12:03] And, you know, in the meantime, I had set up that GPT tool for my SEO squad members.

[00:12:08] And 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? 

[00:12:24] And I have a personal motto that is remember the mission. 

[00:12:28] And I have it on a sign downstairs in our living room. I have made t shirts that I work out in . 

[00:12:34] And that kind of keeps me grounded. 

[00:12:36] It 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.

[00:12:47] So, yeah, it was a rough week. But still some great stuff, right? 

[00:12:51] So here are some key takeaways from all my rambles today. 

[00:12:55] Number 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.

[00:13:02] I 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. 

[00:13:10] And I also hope you have a plan for adapting your visibility strategies. 

[00:13:15] Especially in light of events around Tik Tok being removed from the app stores.

[00:13:21] It'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. 

[00:13:32] You can find that link in the show notes. 

[00:13:34] So, 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. 

[00:13:44] And yeah. We'd love to have you in the squad. 

[00:13:46] I'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. 

[00:13:53] So email me at hello at simple and smart seo. com. And in the meantime, good luck and keep moving forward.