I feel like I’m working ‘round the clock right now. Between onboarding team members (I have a team now?!) and training to pay pro basketball as a broken-bodied 36-year-old, my life is computer, exercise, repeat. My Oura ring’s still shaming me about how little sleep I’m getting, too.

BUT, lots of exciting things happening on the Future Social front, including moreee content. So, if you’d like to work together on partnerships or workshops or speaking or whatever, gimme a shout: [email protected] (or you can reply right to this newsletter).

Til then, let’s talk about

• A FREE online social strategy summit you’re gonna wanna attend

• How the TikTok sale works & what it means for brands

• What happens to the TikTok algorithm and your perfectly-curated FYP?

—Jack Appleby

There’s a FREE online social summit next week that’s hitting paid social strategy, how to win on TikTok, & even how to staff social teams!

My pals & partners at Motion do a grrrreat job grabbing big brains to teach social, and their Creative Strategy Summit 2025 is totally free! Even if you’re more of a creative marketer, I reallyyy think you gotta learn the paid side of things, and what better way than a free day of classes?

Some of the sessions I’m personally attending + scribbling notes about:

• 📋 The Creative Strategist’s new playbook w/ Dara Denney

• 🧑🏻‍🏫 Lessons from TikTok’s Organic Edge

• 🌎 Creating Campaigns That Move Culture

Grab your free ticket with this link right here. I know a few of these folks personally, and lemme tell ya, they’re the people you wanna learn from.

What the TikTok Sale Means For Brands, Creators, and Scrollers

I never for a second thought we’d lose TikTok in the United States. Foreign fears aside, you can’t just pull an app enjoyed by 170 million Americans. But I honestly never thought China would allow a forced sale, either.

Yet, here we are. Trump just approved a $14 billion U.S. spin-off deal that officially keeps TikTok ticktocking in this country. Even more shockingly, it’s looking like the outcome’s a best-case scenario for both brands and those of us scrolling all day long.

Let’s talk about why I think it’s more important than ever for your brand to be on TikTok, how the sale will affect the platform, and of course, the mighty mighty algorithm.

What Actually Happened? How’d The Sale Go Down?

You probably know the basics of how we got here. Congress passed the PAFACA law in 2024, forcing adversary-owned apps (read: TikTok) to divest or get banned. Then we had that 24 hour TikTok blackout. Then more 75-day extensions than any of us can remember as brands, creators, and social media managers kept wondering what it means for their jobs.

What’s new: we finally have some buyers!

Software company Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and investment group MGX have partnered to purchase 45-50% of a new spin-off that’s essentially “TikTok U.S.” ByteDance will own 20% of the spin-off, and the remaining ownership will likely be split among other U.S. based investors.

Translation: TikTok U.S. has American investors in charge, Oracle babysitting infrastructure, and ByteDance still cashing algorithm rent checks. Speaking of the algorithm…

ByteDance owning 20% is a huge win for U.S. TikTokers

The algorithm is TikTok’s crown jewel. The For You Page revolutionized social media. Retaining the algorithm in a sale was always what’s most important for those of us scrolling the app.

This deal has ByteDance licensing their algorithm to TikTok U.S., creating a half-measure:

• Oracle oversees infrastructure and data handling

• ByteDance gives us access to their world-class algorithm

• Regulators can claim oversight without fully severing ties

It’s truly a best-case scenario for scrollers in this forced sale. With ByteDance retaining 20% of TikTok U.S., they’re incentivized to continue growing TikTok U.S.—we’re only 10% of their global monthly active users, but America is one of TikTok’s largest ad markets thanks to high CPMs and big brand spends. They’re gonna wanna keep making money, and that means continuing giving U.S. users a great TikTok experience.

TikTok should feel exactly the same as always…

There’s been a lot of speculation and other deal structures explored through all this hoopla, but with what’s been approved, we should barely feel any effects.

• We stay on the same app. Don’t need to download anything new like that annoying HBO Max becoming Max ridiculousness.

• We get the same algorithm. your FYP stays your FYP.

• We still get global TikTok content. There’s no U.S. only content wall or anything like that, we get to see all of the world’s content.

Buttt you know us Americans. We love to tinker! A few reports have said the algorithm will be “retrained and monitored” by Oracle. It’s easy to wonder if our feeds will feel different one day, we’ll all complain, and Trump/Oracle will claim it’s due to “national security risks.”

Personally, I don’t think it’s worth losing sleep over. Again, all parties want TikTok. U.S. to succeed because it could make everyone a fortune. The whole reason Oracle & the investors want TikTok is because it works, and it’s amazing. Their job now is to not screw it up.

Your brand absolutely must be on TikTok

I totally get why brands were slow to adopt TikTok & dedicate proper resources to a social network they weren’t sure would stick around, but now?

Pretty much every brand should sprint full speed at TikTok for a whole slew of strategic reasons.

• TikTok is the 5th largest social network. 1.5 billion global monthly active users. 170 million U.S. users. That’s not a pond, that’s an ocean, and you should be swimming in it.

• Meta dependency is dangerous. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are 3 of the 5 largest social networks. You thought being on TikTok was unsafe? Your brand’s social presence only existing under one parent company is unsafe.

• Short-form vertical video works across all platforms. Those Instagram Reels you’re making? Yeah, you should put those on TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, and Facebook, and every social network. Get more bang for your content buck by increasing your distribution.

• Cultural leadership. TikTok isn’t just where trends start. It’s where music charts, memes, and aesthetics are minted before bleeding into every other app.

The benefits of your brand TikToking are crystal clear, you can dip your toe in through content repurposing, and you can’t ignore a social network that big.

But hey, what are your thoughts? You can reply directly to this newsletter—I’d love to hear from ya.