Hey everyone,
I figured I should compile a bunch of the commonly asked questions or comments into one place so you don’t have to read through all of the comments.
- How do I get a shadowban or violations?
- TikTok is a community of users meaning that anyone can report any videos or users they deem violate community guidelines or if they feel like it (which is very unfair). Videos that show pranks can be deemed dangerous or illegal, videos with kids can be reported for minor safety, videos with a lot of skin showing or sometimes just wearing shorts can be reported for sexual content, business videos can be reported for promoting scams, etc. A good way to think about it is if you show a video to a grandparent, will they be upset by it? This can lead to some boring videos but should hopefully prevent a lot of reports. It should take multiple reports for a restriction to kick in.
- What happens when I have a shadowban or restriction on my account?
- Your videos will be shown only to your followers and not put on the FYP, so your videos won’t be shown to non followers. If it is a more serious restriction, you won’t be shown to your followers either unless they specifically go to your page and click the video. So views and new followers will all be affected negatively.
- If I have violations on my account and I get them cleared, will that history still hurt me?
- Yes, unfortunately they will. Even if the report was completely unfounded and you were cleared, the violation will live on your account. With every additional violation in the future, the chances of TikTok clearing it will be reduced. If you have violations on your account in the past or currently, please take extra caution whenever you are going live or about to post a video. Keep in mind that even if you don’t think it is offensive or dangerous, other people may and can report you.
- When the shadowban is lifted, is it immediate or gradual?
- When the restriction is removed from your account, you should see an immediate effect on your views. If your views are still low or less than average, that means you still have a restriction in place.
- How long does a shadowban last?
- It varies, most will last 7 days or 30 days, depending on how serious the report or violation was. If your restriction is longer than 30 days, you may be under a 6 month, 1 year, or possibly permanent restriction. Unfortunately there is no way to know how long your restriction will last. A few people have talked about how they have spammed the TikTok feedback form until they got in touch with a real person who then was able to help them remove the restriction, this has been much rarer though. The majority of the time you will be told that you are a valued creator and that your views should go back to normal if you continue posting.
- I have tried contacting TikTok but either there is no response or they uphold the restriction.
- The most common method of success I have heard is people spamming the https://www.tiktok.com/legal/report/feedback page over and over until they get an email from a real person. This does not sound very efficient but it has worked for a lot of people. Their customer support definitely needs help but there isn’t as much incentive to do so when you have millions of DAUs.
- Why am I getting a bunch of followers from certain countries that seem like bots?
- Someone may be buying your account followers or you may have been an account selected for bot accounts to follow to make their click farms look more legitimate. It will be harder for TikTok to detect the bots if they have videos, followers, and follow people. This is out of your control but yes, TikTok may put a flag on your account as suspicious. You can remove or block the followers but as you gain more and more legitimate followers, this is probably not scalable for you.
- The OnTrend tool gives me sounds that are not commercially licensed on TikTok
- This is because you have a business account and not a creator account, this means that you can only use the royalty free music (think elevator music). I know many people have requested a business music section on OnTrend so I believe they will be rolling that out soon.
- What’s the difference between a business and a personal account?
- A personal account means you have total access to TikTok’s music library and can participate in whatever trends, dances, challenges you want. A business account means you have limited access to all. Your music library will be only royalty free because all your videos are seen as advertisements for your business. Anytime you see an ad on TV that plays some popular song, that business had to pay the music label for permission to use it. A business account also can’t participate in all trends because sometimes they require the usage of something copyrighted such as a song or movie clip.
- How many hashtags should I use?
- I suggest not completely spamming your caption with irrelevant hashtags. I think 3-5 is safe to use, that’ll help creators find your videos and your caption isn’t so long where it covers too much of your video when people click to read your video caption.
- Will posting 3 videos a day help me grow?
- It can! Many creators that do this have reported that only 1 of the videos will get a decent amount of views. This is because TikTok doesn’t want to flood the FYP with all of your videos as that will usually annoy the user. TikTok will push out 1 maybe 2 of your videos, depending on how the users react. It is better to leave your followers wanting more. Less is more
- Should I delete or make private my videos that flop?
- Make them private. If you delete the videos, you will lose the views, likes, comments, shares from your overall total. Leaving your flops will make you look more realistic, that not all of your videos are hits and that is okay
- Is livestreaming worth it on TikTok?
- Many creators have been able to grow their following much more quickly and substantially by going live. There is the danger of getting banned though as TikTok takes reports of live violations much more seriously. Try to limit things people could report you for (clothing, language, weapons, minors, etc)
- If I am shadowbanned or feel I am shadowbanned, should I just start over?
- If you don’t have that many followers, sure, there isn’t that much at stake. But if you have a decent following and have had the account for a long time, it may take a while to get back to where you were (in terms of following). I would continue posting on your primary account and hope that it goes back to normal soon. Many creators have said they have backup accounts and will direct their followers to those accounts.
- Should I engage with people that comment on my videos?
- If you have the time, definitely! Make your users feel that you are a person, just like them and that you care about them. It can be as simple as hearting their comment. You can give follows back, comment on their videos, and really build that persona that you are one of the people. Of course with this strategy, it will involve a lot of time and effort
- If I have another social media channel (IG or YouTube), how should I direct my followers?
- If your username is the same on all social media channels, that would be ideal. If not, they should not be too different (i.e. you are “investingbob” on TikTok and on IG you are “investingwithbob”). TikTok allows you to link your IG or YT on your profile but many people have reported that their views dropped soon after linking them. This should not happen but you know, TikTok does sometimes do things to ensure they remain the number one app. I would then suggest adding your LinkedTree or whatever link in bio tool you use, TikTok doesn’t seem to target that at the moment.
- And as always, if you have questions, feel free to put it in the comments or DM me. I try to answer everything, it just takes some time!