TikTok Sale Update: What the Heck is Going on with the Algorithm

TikTok’s sale is official — and creators are already feeling the fallout. From zero-view videos to data changes and algorithm chaos, here’s what’s actually happening and how to protect your business before the next platform quake.

What You’ll Learn:
How TikTok’s sale is impacting reach, monetization, and video distribution
What to do when your core platform suddenly stops performing
Why audience ownership matters more than ever (and how to start diversifying now)

Timestamps:
 00:00 – Introduction
 02:10 – TikTok sale explained: what changed and who owns what
 03:45 – New terms, ads data, and what creators should turn off
 06:15 – Zero views, stalled videos, and algorithm instability
 08:30 – Why relying on one platform is a dangerous business move
 11:20 – Algorithm bias, news-heavy feeds, and content control
 15:10 – Creator responsibility, misinformation, and brand integrity

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Transcript

Joanna Newton: Hello, and welcome back to the Click Tease podcast. I'm excited for a very special episode today. Every episode is a special episode, but today we will be sharing updates about the TikTok. Sale, you've probably noticed some changes on the platform, some issues with the algorithm, so we're gonna break down what's happening and talk a little bit about what you as a business owner can do about it. Hi, my name is Joanna. I'm the co-founder of Millennial Marketer, an agency that helps people create their own digital products.

Michelle Pualani: Hi, I am Michelle and I'm founder of To Be Honest Beverage Company. It's a non-alcoholic spirit brand as well as business and marketing mentor. Let's dive in.

Joanna Newton: Also before we really dive in, I love that we match.

Michelle Pualani: We.

Joanna Newton: Technically. This is my second time seeing you today, so I think I did it. Subconsciously intentionally,

Michelle Pualani: I know I put the color on first. We'll just say that.

Joanna Newton: Yeah. And then I copied you. [00:01:00] Awesome. something we've been talking about for a while, uh, the TikTok sale has actually. Closed and now the sale of TikTok from Bite Dance on the US government's requirements is finally completed. So a couple of things for us to know about the sale is that the sale is a joint venture. It's between Oracle Silver Lake and some other parties, and that. By dance still retains 20% of the company so they're not completely out, um, but is a joint venture of a bunch of organizations. Um, and that sale is final and then the actual effects of that sale aren't fully in play. Right? There's gonna be a transitionary where things are changing, but we've already noticed some changes the updates are all in progress. Um, so things will be changing as we [00:02:00] go. We'll share what we know now and then continue to keep you updated on this podcast. So make sure you subscribe and follow us. Stay in touch, 'cause we'll be sharing updates as we go. The first. Big thing that I wanna mention is that you probably noticed this was on Friday when you logged into TikTok, if you logged into TikTok, that there were new terms, um, that you had to accept.

So the terms and conditions of the app has changed and there's also a new way TikTok is handling your ads data. So TikTok will now be, unless you turn it off, which you can go to our podcast, um, uh. The, our TikTok, we tell you how you can turn off this setting, but TikTok now will be using your data to show you ads both on and off.

TikTok, I'm sure this is a new way they're trying to monetize. I turned ours off on our podcast, um, TikTok and my personal, but something that you can do if you don't want those ads and you don't want that data is actually turn [00:03:00] off that setting.

Michelle Pualani: I think a lot of people like the larger discussion that has kind of been the through line of this. I almost feel like it was what, like a year ago that TikTok was gonna go down and that everybody was like freaking out. It feels like that at least is that this has been.

Joanna Newton: I mean, it's been longer than that. It's been, it's been like it's going away. It's coming back. It's going away for a long time. But last year was, there was a real threat and it actually like went away for less than 24 hours.

Michelle Pualani: Yes, definitely. So I think I want, you know, we're gonna address some of the things that we're actually seeing as changes and things you can do about it from like a factual, technical perspective. But I also wanna address the underlying, I think, fear that can kind of arise during these times and whenever these conversations come up, right?

As a content creator, as a coach, as a service provider, as a business owner who relies. On digital platforms in order to secure their business. It can be really scary, daunting, frustrating, devastating [00:04:00] to think about one of your core channels going away. If you are a TikTok creator who creates specifically to generate commission based off of sales of products that you're doing, and you do a hundred thousand dollars a month in sales, and then that platform is the theoretically gonna go away, that can feel.

Really, really scary. That's like the best term that I can think about it. Right. And so a couple of things that Joanna and I have chatted about on this podcast is diversifying. And understanding your brand and your business is how are you monetizing? And then how do you either recreate that elsewhere, move to another platform, invest in platforms that maybe have a little bit more stability, let's say.

YouTube is something that I don't see ever, quote unquote, going away. There might be algorithm changes, there might be differences that we see over time, but YouTube has been a very long standing platform. That [00:05:00] continues to have reach that videos from five years ago, 10 years ago are still effective today.

So when you think about your marketing as a whole, when you think about your business and monetization and you think about your offers and like where you're generating income. Don't get sucked into the fear, the frustration of what could happen, what might be happening, but start to think a little bit more strategically and stay ahead of the game so that you are not solely reliant on a single platform.

Your account could be banned, could be deleted, could be hacked at any given time, and so it's very important that you not rely on that one single place.

Joanna Newton: Yeah, I always recommend when people are starting to pick two channels to start with and I don't recommend trying to be on all of them 'cause that can be way overwhelming. But if you only focus on one and you bank [00:06:00] on one, you could be yourself in a really tough position where you're fully reliant on that platform for your income and creators are seeing issues.

Right now with this exact thing that we're talking about, and not to scare anyone or like induce fear, but TikTok video distribution has been affected, and we'll talk a little bit about that. One of the things that's happening in the sale is that. The algorithm is going to be created by the new company. It does seem like either that new algorithm is in place or they are struggling to manage it in some way because videos that used to be posted and get views immediately are getting stuck at zero views. Videos are getting posted and. Not shown on people's accounts. They're being essentially held for review before posting, which happened sometimes on TikTok, like that could happen where a video just gets like [00:07:00] paused for review.

You don't see it for a while, and it pops up a couple of hours later. But lots of creators, including like our own podcast, my personal, um, TikTok, all of those things are seeing this behavior where videos are just getting stuck and not pushed in the way. So if you were a creator that was reliant on sales from TikTok, shop commissions or the Creator fund, your views are likely low right now on TikTok and your income is being.

Affected by that. So that's why having those multiple channels and not being reliant in one place is so important. So if you're someone who's experiencing that low, low view count, or those issues, don't freak out. Don't just like jump off the platform and quit TikTok unless you, you want to for your own like political reasons. But if it's something that's making you money, like I would recommend you stay the course, keep posting your content and then just start trying to be [00:08:00] aware of what the algorithm is liking. 'cause right now it is being rebuilt Rechanged. and is that something that you can navigate? Yes. As a business owner, that's our job to navigate change and to come out on top, and so we're here to help with that, but it's definitely good to be aware that right now TikTok appears to be broken.

Michelle Pualani: Yeah, and that's, you know, knowing that that's this period of time, thinking about, we've talked about this before, but ownership of your audience is really important here. If you are on Instagram and you have a hundred thousand followers, 10,000 followers, a thousand followers, if you're on TikTok, you have a bunch of people, you don't own that audience.

Again, that audience can be taken away from you at any time, and your main communication channel with them can just go away. So you're always wanting to think about how you can transfer that traffic, transfer that audience to something that you own, whether that is an email newsletter, whether that is maybe a substack I.

Like Substack is theoretically something that could be taken away [00:09:00] from you, um, or even getting that traffic onto your website. So now you have the information and the data about that person via IP address for pixel data, meta, et cetera, to use in other places or even Google Analytics. So there are ways that you can kind of like capture that traffic in different ways.

And even though people are. Leaning away from email to some degree at like, there's still a way to own that traffic a little bit differently. Um, it's not a perfect science and it is a process and you're never gonna capture the entirety of your audience, but it's just, again, something to diversify and think about critically.

I'm definitely seeing a change in the algorithm on TikTok from a consumption perspective. When Joanna shared this and mentioned with me, I'll be completely transparent. I don't watch the news. I hear about everything secondhand because for me, it's not worth it mentally to be constantly [00:10:00] inundated with what's happening.

And so I get my news sources secondhand either via my husband if something is important and he's relaying something to me. Joanna shares more with me than most, um.

Joanna Newton: up to date.

Michelle Pualani: You, Joanna, keeps me up to date and aware so that I'm not completely clueless. Uh, or if something again is like specific related to my industry, like I stay up to date and abreast of what's happening regulatory with non ALK and with.

We're a hemp product, so there are things that affect us. So we're, you know, I stay in the know in that regard, but my algorithm has started integrating a lot more news and talk of things that I am 1000% not interested in. So it'll be interesting to see how this shakes out and where whether there is leveling.

Or if there's a skew of content toward a certain perspective, and that is something that is more worrisome [00:11:00] as a whole, is whether platforms are feeding you what it is that you really want to absorb and you want to take part in or you want to hear about versus what they would like you to either think, see, or act.

And I'm not saying it's going any particular way, but I will say there's a surprising about a new amount of news content. Which is something I wholeheartedly stay away from. Um, and other types of content that are not of my typical variety. So I'm, I'm, I'm thinking it's just a shift and the algorithm has to now relearn for each of us perhaps.

Um, but we'll see what happens with that.

Joanna Newton: Yeah, and I'm finding it's harder to find the creators that I do follow and interact with their content. Um, there's issues with the search search functionality. Like if you search for a creator, a lot of times you'll get like an internet is out notification and your net. Or you're having network issues even though you're not.

So there's lots of [00:12:00] issues. People were even having issues with cap cut. So cap cut is owned by, by dance as well. And so if you're adding, adding in content, you might see issues, downtime and all of that. And, and you just have to keep in mind with everything if, if you're a business owner. On these platforms, your message is always going to be somewhat filtered and affected by the company that owns that brand.

Right? And. They're gonna push the kind of content and let through the kind of content that meets their standards or not. That's what community guidelines are for, right? They have community guidelines, and a lot of times those things are to protect things like sexual content, bullying, violent content and things like that. But they're private companies who can do what they want with that information. So as a creator, know that. You are affected by that AL algorithm [00:13:00] as a consumer. Also know it's your job to make sure you are sourcing information in a way that sees all sides, right? Like, don't let the algorithm push you into believing things that might not be fully true.

Right.

Michelle Pualani: Absolutely. I think we always have to be discerning as consumers one, you know, we wanna be in the influential, influential space authorities. I will comment on this because I mean, it's slightly related to what we're talking about. It's not necessarily about like the TikTok and the TikTok shift, but we do see a lot of content, and we've talked about this a little bit before, when it comes to, um.

Cancel culture and spreading information, and I think a lot of creators jump on the bandwagon of what's. Being talked about now. So what is culturally relevant and from like, we have a responsibility essentially in the content that we create and what we put out into the [00:14:00] world. And yes, we make mistakes and yes, there are issues that can come up, but, but ultimately we wanna try to not create from an unethical perspective.

And I think there are a lot of creators who wanna jump on that bandwagon of. Hating on people that cancel culture, energy, um, and everything else. And then also noting. How that content is going to be dispersed. So not only what are you bringing to the forefront, but then how is the platform going to manage that content and what is the type of energy or people that are gonna be brought in for that reason.

So you have to think of your directive, your choice as a creator, as a coach, as a business owner, service provider, someone who is creating and using platforms for their marketing channels. Is, what is the voice that you wanna bring forward? And thinking through how is that voice gonna be received? And then who is it gonna draw in?

Because if you're looking to draw in a certain type of audience, who's gonna be your community, who's gonna be your clientele, who's gonna buy [00:15:00] from you, that might look different based on your choices of content. So. As we're going through this shift, you might feel pulled to make dramatic choices or take drastic effort because you're seeing certain types of content be pushed.

I don't want you to feel like you have to jump on the bandwagon if it's outside of the authenticity of your brand and what you feel like you wanna bring to the market. Be thoughtful.

Joanna Newton: That's such a good point and I think something to remember as a business owner and a, and a consumer of content and of messaging, like how many times do we see someone share something where. It's not a firsthand account, right? So I can't think of a good example right now, but sometimes I see people saying, oh my gosh, this thing happened in the world this group of people is so angry. Right, but that person's not angry. They're [00:16:00] saying, this other group of people is angry. And then I hear everyone talk about how angry this group of people is about this thing. But I am not hearing that group of people actually talking about being angry. It's only people talking about them. Being angry, which then becomes this, that all of a sudden a bunch of people could be mad about something that has never actually happened. And when it comes to mindset, we know there's this reality that our perception is our reality, right? then social media is this weird, unchecked place where people can say anything and do anything, and it may or not. Be true so you can get yourself in a tizzy about something that actually never happened, and then it can create things that happen and it, it's this weird very like meta thing.

If you are online and you're paying attention to content, that's why you always like. [00:17:00] Facts. Look at things before you reshare, before you share about it yourself. And, and check what's going on. Um, to not encourage and repeat misinformation. Now we're all gonna mess up, but then you can come and say, oh, I was wrong.

Take the video down. Tell people that you, you had information. I see people do that all the time too, like, oh. I got wrong information, but I think that's so important with all of these shifts that are going on.

Michelle Pualani: Yeah. As your community starts growing, as you have a larger audience, it feels like you have. Have more of a responsibility and you get to take that any which way you want it, right? 'cause you're the one who's ultimately in charge of your personal brand, your persona, what you bring to the world, and how you impact your audience in that way.

Obviously we can't control how people react to us, but we can be thoughtful about, again. How things might be received and be a little bit more [00:18:00] strategic about that. It's almost like this little bit of a cycle. ' cause we are consumers of the media and so we have to be thoughtful about how we respond and how we receive content.

But then we are also turning back around and creating content, whether that's educational, entertaining, or culturally relevant. And we're looking for that. Reach those views or to hit something, you know. To change people's perspectives or narratives in some way, whatever the directive of the goal is here.

And then we're back to being consumers. So we have to be thoughtful at every single point in the process. And we grow and we evolve, and we learn over time. You know, we might make a mistake, but again, like you said, we can respond to that accordingly and hopefully move forward and do better next time. So I'll be watching from a consumer perspective, and then also we'll be putting out more content on our click tees.

Podcast TikTok account and seeing how that is distributed. So it'll be interesting to see, and I'm grateful that we get both sides of things. You know, [00:19:00] we get to test and we get to experiment, and I think that's the beautiful thing about business, that business and marketing that I have been trying to see more now than ever is that it's about experimentation.

It's about trial and error. It's about giving it a go and seeing what happens. And, you know. Dot water dotter off a what's back? Water off a ducks back. That's what it was trying to say. Water off a ducks back in terms of like responding and, and knowing that we can move forward, uh, independent of what happens.

So let's do what happens.

Joanna Newton: Yeah, we'll see what happens, and we will make sure to keep you up to date on this podcast as we go through this transition with TikTok. So make sure you subscribe and if you've noticed anything that's been going on. On TikTok that we did not mention, please leave it in the comments. This is changing minute by minute.

There's probably something that happened literally as we were filming this that we are unaware of, so leave it in [00:20:00] the comments to share with anybody who is watching and following this story. Thank you for listening, and we will see you next time.