As per Reuters, the return of the Tiktok was confirmed after President Donald Trump delayed the ban on the Chinese app and reassured the tech giants that they would not be fined if they distributed its content. In January 2025 as well Trump signed an order to protect TikTok from getting banned in the U.S. but the order was temporary as it was only valid for 75 days.

The Ban and Its Reversal

The ban of TikTok from Apple and Google app stores emerged because of security concerns about user data alongside worries related to Chinese government relationships. The new President Donald Trump initiated an action to ban TikTok because he believed it endangered U.S. security and attempted to direct American operations to Oracle and Walmart. The latest delay in restrictions allows TikTok to return to the market while authorities inspect data security and allow the company to establish new terms to dodge permanent removal from the market.

The TikTok return happened during continuous dialogue between elected U.S. lawmakers and the ByteDance management team. The company keeps denying claims about data handling but regulators hold firm in their study of TikTok user data management and assessment of security threats to national defense. The government seems to be developing a strategy for making the sale of TikTok in the U.S.

Impact on TikTok and Users

The return of TikTok to the app stores represents significant benefits to its platform. The app maintains considerable social media dominance in the United States where it serves more than 150 million local users primarily from younger generations. The temporary removal from app stores created confusion for all groups including influencers and businesses that used TikTok for content creation and monetary purposes. Sensor Tower reports that TikTok received more than 52 million downloads throughout 2024. Each year Google Play and the Apple App Store collectively collected 102 million downloads during 2023 with Apple App Store performing 52% of the task and Google Play handling the remaining 48%.

The TikTok return to app stores provides users with access restoration alongside a show of TikTok’s capacity to defend itself against regulatory hurdles. The merger between Perplexity AI and TikTok was also revised as the AI maker decided to give 50% of the stake in the deal to the U.S.

The TikTok return received approval from Apple and Google because their executives faced complex challenges between government requirements and user needs. At the time of previous government directives, both tech companies complied by removing TikTok yet reinstated it after the ban was lifted.

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“Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US!,” TikTok’s welcome notification to users read.

Joint Venture

While committing to delay the US TikTok ban through an executive order, Trump said that America will be pursuing a joint venture to continue making the video streaming app accessible to over 170 million US TikTok users. The app had been inaccessible to US users since late Saturday evening.

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” A section of TikTok’s message read.

TikTok returned within hours of Trump’s announcement with millions of US users welcoming the news. Most users use the video-streaming app everyday to find entertainment, news, and communities, and earn a living. Trump said he would be extending the duration before the divest-or-ban law can take effect. He said the extension will enable his administration to strike a deal that protects US national security.

“I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands, and allow it to stay up,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said that the executive order extending the divest-or-ban law will place no liability on the company that enabled the social media app from going off before his order.

Political Victory

By reviving TikTok, Trump may well be on the way to scoring political victory by attributing continued usage of the popular social platform to himself. On Sunday, TikTok said that his promise made it possible for the platform to restore TikTok US service even before the executive order is signed.

“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States,” TikTok said in a statement.

Trump had met TikTok CEO last December, after which he said he could keep TikTok running in the US a little longer. TikTok’s appreciation of the incoming President, just a day before his inauguration, comes at a time when tensions between the US and China remain high.
Trump has expressed commitment to increase tariffs on China. He has also indicated willingness to meet the Chinese leader. When asked about Trump’s readiness to strike a deal on TikTok ownership, the Chinese foreign ministry held that companies should be allowed the leeway to divide on their deals and operations independently.

“TikTok has operated in the U.S. for many years and is deeply loved by American users. We hope that the US can earnestly listen to the voice of reason and provide an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory business environment for firms operating there,” Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said.

The Challenge Ahead

Trump’s executive order may not resolve the TikTok ban issue in its entirety. The order will likely experience challenges from members of Trump’s party who are opposed to extension of the ban.

“We commend Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft for following the law and halting operations with ByteDance and TikTok, and we encourage other companies to do the same. The law, after all, risks ruinous bankruptcy for any company who violates it. Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date,” Republican Senators Pete Ricketts – Nebraska and Tom Cotton – Arkansas said in a statement.

The two Senators claimed that TikTok should only resume usage in the US by cutting all ties with China to ensure that Americans are fully protected from the privacy and security threats it poses.

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The rush to download Chinese apps is proof that the over 170 million TikTok users in the US are ready and willing to explore alternatives.

Shrinking Timeline

ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, has until January 19 to get a US buyer if it wants to continue operating in the US. The Supreme Court, which is set to rule on the TikTok ban suit, is unlikely to oppose the legislation that imposed this condition.

Unless the incoming President Donald Trump reverses this policy, TikTok’s future remains uncertain. Last month, Trump met with the TikTok CEO. After the meeting, he said he had a warm spot for the social media app. ByteDance will be in breach of US law in a week if it does not find a local buyer. Officials from China are reportedly considering the option of selling US TikTok operations to X owner Elon Musk.

Such a plan would see Musk oversee both X and TikTok’s business in the US. However, it’s still unclear whether ByteDance is aware of the plans by the Chinese government and the involvement of Musk in the discussions.

But even as ByteDance struggles to beat the China TikTok ban in the US, It’s not in doubt that the implications of the TikTok ban appear to favor China more. Xiaohongshu, which is an Instagram-like app, was the most downloaded free application on Apple’s iOS platform. For the first time, the social app ranked among the top app downloads on Google Play.

“The ones benefiting from traffic from the TikTok ban are still Chinese apps,” Allen Zhu, MD at GSR Ventures posted on WeChat.

When joining the app, most new users tagged themselves as ‘TikTok Refugees’. The #tiktokrefugee attracted over 25 million views this week alone.

Highly Popular

Xiaohongshu, whose name is translated ‘Little Red Book’ is among the most popular apps in China’s internet space. It comes with an English version. However, it is mostly used by Chinese communities abroad. Launched in 2013, the app quickly transformed from a shopping guide to a community within a few years. As it grew, Xiaohongshu attracted investments from Tencent, Alibaba, and Temasek holdings.

Today, the Shanghai-based startup has built a huge army of influencers through cash incentives. The popularity of the Xiaohongshu app in China inspired the development of alternative platforms like Lemon8.

Xiaohongshu’s popularity in the US came as a surprise to many in the social media industry. Those familiar with the app use it as a live digital marketplace as well as a repository for videos. Last week, downloads for the Lemon8 app tripled across Android and iOS platforms.

Market Reaction

Chinese stocks that are linked to the Xiaohongshu gained on January 14, 2025. These include firms that provide digital marketing services and design ads. They also include consumer brands that sell their wares on the social media platform. Last year, the startup was on the path to double its net profit.

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Instagram over the years has brought many updates/features to the social media app. The update and features had made it a great and easy-to-use app. Today, Instagram is the go-to app for content creators to publish their content online. Content Creators affiliates, influencers, and the company promote themselves on these platforms while other users use the platform for content consumption and browsing.

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, on the IG broadcast announced that they will begin rolling out the feature in the United States. He further added that it will only be available to public accounts. Creators may turn off this feature and prevent their material from being downloaded. It is unclear whether the reel download feature will be available on all devices, and it will be worth watching.

How Do Instagram Reels Work?

The Instagram Reel was introduced on August 5, 2020, and is a method to make and discover short, amusing videos on the platform that is controlled by Meta. Instagram Reel enables users to record, edit, and share 15-second multi-clip Videos with audio, effects, and fresh design tools. Then, through Explore, these can be made available to the larger community as well as shared with followers on Feeds.

How to Download the Reels?

Simply, hit the Share symbol on a reel you like and choose Download. Reels shared by private users cannot be downloaded, and public accounts can disable the ability for others to download their reels in Account Settings.

Mosseri did not explain in his announcement whether the downloaded reels will bear IG’s watermark, as is the case with TikTok video downloads and YouTube clips. YouTube began including its branding in downloaded’ shorts’ to prevent cross-platform video sharing.

Instagram has 2.35 million active users globally. But since this feature is just for the US, Instagram can soon roll out this feature to the remaining countries. This can add to the popularity of Instagram and can increase its user base significantly.

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Social media has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. From individuals to businesses, everyone is actively using social media platforms to connect, share and engage with others. As social media has gained prominence, so has the importance of having a seamless approval process for social media posts. With multiple stakeholders involved, it can become overwhelming to keep track of everything. However, with a well-defined social media approval process, businesses can ensure consistency, brand compliance, and effective messaging.

Let us discuss the best ways to build a seamless social media approval process.

Define Your Social Media Goals

Before diving into the approval process, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of your social media goals. Are you trying to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales? Depending on your objectives, the tone, style, and content of your social media posts will vary.

Defining your social media goals will help you create a consistent messaging strategy. Ensure that your posts align with your overall marketing strategy. To achieve your goal faster you can choose the shortcut and real Instagram followers for quick growth.

Identify Your Social Media Team

Identify the key stakeholders involved in your social media approval process. Depending on the size of your organization, you may have multiple teams responsible for social media, such as marketing, sales, or customer service. It’s essential to have a designated point of contact for each team to streamline the approval process. This person should be responsible for reviewing and approving posts for their respective teams.

Define Your Social Media Approval Process

Once you have identified your social media team, it’s time to define your approval process. Depending on your organization’s size and complexity, your approval process can be simple or complex. Here’s a sample approval process that can work for most organizations:

Draft the Social Media Post – The first step in the social media approval process is to draft the social media post. This involves creating the copy, selecting images or videos, and adding any necessary links or hashtags. When drafting the social media post, it’s important to keep in mind the overall social media strategy and goals.

What message are you trying to convey? Who is your target audience? What platform are you posting on? These questions will help guide the content creation process and ensure that the post is aligned with the overall social media strategy.

Initial Review – Once the social media posts have been drafted and reviewed by team members, the designated point of contact for the social media team should conduct a final review of the post before it is scheduled for posting. This final review is critical to ensuring that the post is accurate, compliant, and consistent with the brand’s messaging and tone.

Approval – Once the initial review is complete, the designated point of contact should submit the post for approval. The post should be reviewed and approved by all stakeholders involved in the process, including legal, compliance, and senior management.

Scheduling – Once the posts have been approved, they need to be scheduled for publishing on the appropriate social media platforms at the right time. Most social media management tools, including Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer, offer scheduling features. That enables you to schedule your social media posts in advance.

You can specify the exact date and time that you want your posts to be published on each social media platform. Which can help ensure that your content is published at the most optimal times for your audience.

Use Approval Tools

Using social media approval tools can streamline the approval process and help you avoid costly errors. Here are some popular approval tools you can consider:

Hootsuite – Hootsuite is a social media management tool that allows you to schedule, publish, and manage social media posts across multiple platforms. Hootsuite also offers a built-in approval workflow, allowing you to set up an approval process for your social media posts.

Buffer – Buffer is a popular social media management tool that enables businesses and individuals to manage multiple social media accounts from a single dashboard. One of the key features of Buffer is its approval workflow feature, which allows team members to collaborate on social media posts before they publish.

Trello – Trello is a project management tool that allows you to manage tasks, workflows, and processes. You can create a Trello board to track the status of your social media posts. Assign tasks to team members, and set up notifications for approvals.

Train Your Team

Training your team on the social media approval process is critical to ensuring compliance and consistency. Provide your team with training materials, including best practices, compliance guidelines, and templates. It’s also a good idea to conduct regular training sessions to ensure that your team is up-to-date on the latest social media trends and platforms.

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Conclusion

Having a seamless social media approval process is crucial to ensuring that your social media posts are consistent, compliant, and effective. By defining your social media goals, identifying the key stakeholders, and implementing a robust approval process. You can ensure that your social media posts are always on brand, on message, and on schedule.

There are a variety of tools available. That can help streamline your social media approval process, including Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer. These tools enable you to create, review, and approve social media posts from a centralized dashboard, ensuring that your team is always on the same page.

Ultimately, a seamless social media approval process requires a combination of clear communication, defined roles and responsibilities, and the right tools and technologies. By implementing these best practices, you can streamline your social media workflow and drive better results from your social media marketing efforts.

The post How to Build a Seamless Social Media Approval Process appeared first on Tech Research Online.

Businesses are growing rapidly and so is big data. It has significantly transformed the way businesses operate. It has the potential to save both time and money for the business as analytics allows for improved ad targeting. It has changed the way people work and impacted multiple sectors including retail, healthcare, marketing, and others. Today, social media marketing agencies are developing media strategies based on the insights found with the help of big data analytics.

Previously, social media start with the purpose of connecting with friends, however, it has taken a whole new direction, to become one of the biggest marketing platforms. Now, these platforms are being utilized by brands to expand their customer base through advertising and paid promotion. It has become an output for marketing campaigns and input for future social media strategies.

A company can learn about their consumers and behaviors from likes, comments, shares, following, and followers. Social media platforms can provide an enormous amount of data to brands and marketers to get actionable insights. Every two years, the data doubles and is estimated to reach more than 44 trillion gigabytes by the end of 2020. The rising amount of data is opening up new opportunities for businesses both small and large for innovations on social media platforms.

Businesses that are utilizing big data for social media marketing are at a huge advantage as they enable the marketer to closely understand their customer base and purchasing decisions which and encourage consumers to pull the trigger. Social media has become the best medium to get an edge with your competitors.

So let’s find out some of the interesting ways to use big data to your advantage and boost social media:

1)  Omni-channel Sources

Marketed can use AI strategy to process data across several channels. This can be simply implemented by using synchronization and log-in technology. They can gather information about customers from numerous business websites as they require sign-ups via Google or Facebook accounts. This can help you understand the social media activity, desktop, and mobile applications, browser history, cloud storage, and other information about the target customer base.

2)  Algorithms

One of the most crucial parts of social media is the algorithm. Algorithms are crucial as they determine if the content is worthy to be seen by potential customers or not. To determine this they factor quality of content, followers count, engagement of your previous posts, and others. Sometimes they snub some of the posts and promote others. To understand how they work it is important for managers to study analytics.

The analytics also provide useful insights that can help determine factors such as customer engagement of each post, post-performance, content that resonated with customers, the best time for customer engagement, and others.

3) Customer Base

Marketers can improve all social media campaigns just by understanding their target audience. Once a marketer understands its target audience it becomes easy to develop content according to their preferences. Here, big data can help enormously as it is designed to provide pivotal customer insights on social media platforms. It can provide information such as trending topics, demographics, and other details about the targeted customer base.

4) Personalize Social Media

Once a marketer understands its consumers it becomes very easy to personalize the social media profiles to answer the questions they might have. A marketer can obtain all the information from analytics provided by social media. After implementing this strategy customers will start following your page for unique and valuable information. They will also be increasingly interested in the products and services offered by them.

5) Customer Acquisition and Retention

Social media has become of the most important platform to improve customer acquisition and influence their decision making.  Big data can make both acquiring and retaining customers simply. By helping marketers apprehend new trends that were effecting to encourage purchases in the past to target them through email marketing and create a sense of impulse purchases.

If a brand wants to retain its customers they can maximize its social media presence. This is as customers like to engage with brands that offer them real value. Using post insights in such cases is more helpful as they can help in curating content that is entertaining, educational, and useful for the customer base.

6) Social Media Advertising

Advertisement is the backbone of marketing strategies; however, knowing it yields no result is painful. There is a lot of work required to create successful advertisements but the most crucial element above all is proper research. Being the most important part of an advertisement there is an immense need for good quality research. Nevertheless, as brands have very minimum time to work on a successful as implementing big data for the research can prove to be effective. It can save time and give you insights about customer behaviors and targeting and retargeting advertisements.

7) Real-time interaction

Marketers can also engage with their audiences in real times as social medial platforms offer updates of user activity on social media such as pages visited and followed, ads clicked, links saved, comments posted, friends added, and other details that can help with a market study. Marketers can also plan their product placement as big data provide an updated and precise picture of market demand such as performance, popularity, and customer satisfaction.

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