Here is my take and one-month experience with the platform as a newbie and a business owner.

I finally installed the app! The curiosity got the best of me and after contemplating it for a really long time I decided to give it a go. And now I even have a feature that is my favourite! 😁 More about this is below.

Follow me on TikTok.

But first, let me answer your question about the ban!

As of now, it’s not definitive that TikTok will be banned in January 2025.

But what the United States wants from TikTok is their data! That’s why they are forcing the company that owns TikTok to sell.

What about the European Union? They are a bit more chill about this topic, unlike the US approach of potential outright banning, the EU is more focused on strict regulation and forcing changes in TikTok’s operational practices.

Those regulations focus on:

• More transparent algorithms
• Better protection for younger users
• Clearer content moderation policies

So for all European TikTok users, there is nothing to panic about!

Is TikTok better for your business than Instagram?

1. Engagement-wise — potentially yes! It seems that people on TikTok show up more authentically and effortlessly. I have created more short clips since I downloaded the app than before just using Instagram. I have already a couple of comments, likes, saved, and shared stats which helps me see which content performs better.
2. Visibility — I haven’t breached the 1000 views yet, but at least I can see that real people are seeing my content. TikTok even shows you if friends have liked and checked your post.
3. Features: smooth in-app editing, x2 speed — my favourite, who viewed your profile, creator search insights — helps you create content that is considered interesting and searchable, TikTok Studio — gives you analytics about how your post performs.
4. Complexity — it took me a while to get around and realise that I can’t post links in my profile bio, or schedule content within the app and also figure out the stickers (add yours).
5. Removed comment — I did write a comment under a creator post about dressing warmly during the winter and on TikTok my comment was inappropriate and removed it. After I appealed, they revised it and the same day my comment was published again. So be cautious that your engagement might be lower because TikTok might have been flagging some of the comments.
6. Restrictions — you can’t create livestreams until you reach 1000 followers.
7. Weird activities — As every social media platform there are some weird niches you might bump into and get weirded out. For example, the teamwork live streams where people try to “help each other” by saying they will follow anyone engaging within the stream. I encourage any user to give an indication to TikTok (or any other app) for content you are not interested in so it stops showing up on your feed.
8. Your content is most likely shown to a local audience — what I have noticed is that my content is 63.3% pushed to users based in Croatia, 15% from Slovenia, and 10.2% to Others.
9. Get more insights once you reach 100 followers — to find out more about your current followers like Most active times, locations etc you need to reach 100 followers.
10. Memes perform as well as value-based posts — there is no rule on what will appeal to a certain audience so sharing everything you think your target audience might resonate with is worth trying. Since TikTok does not keep track of how many posts you have, post away.
11. When you repost content your friends can see it — this is another great way to see what else you have in common with your followers aka friends.
12. You can see spies 🥷🏼 — TikTok has a feature where you can see who has visited your profile. I like it since it shows me that my content has spiked interest and it hasn’t turned into a following or like, might not have been the right audience.

These are all observations so far about the app and I am quite excited to try other features like the effects, duet, stitch and of course the live stream so I can do design and development live with my audience. ☺️

What do you like about TikTok? Send me an email if you want to chat about this!

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Thank you for reading my stories, and hello from Zagreb, Croatia! 🌤️

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