What Businesses Can and Can’t Post on TikTok – Community Guidelines for TikTok for Business Accounts
It is no surprise that TikTok has become a hub for businesses and brands to showcase their products and services. With over 750 Million users worldwide, businesses have recognised the power of TikTok as a marketing tool.
But using a TikTok Business account changes the game for business owners. The tools, sounds and features on a Business account are very different from a personal account.
However, a Business account does also have features that personal accounts do not.
Need help with your brand’s TikTok? Check out what our TikTok experts have to say
Why does the TikTok Business account even exist?
Why does TikTok differentiate between business and regular accounts?
The key reason a business account came to be on TikTok is the concept of ‘Commercial Use’.
When you create content on a personal account you don’t need to worry about whether the music, images or fonts are for commercial use, because you are not using them for a commercial purpose.
As soon as you want to use images, music or any kind of content that you did not create yourself for business purposes, you need to remember that licencing is important. If you do not hold the correct licence for commercial use, it can result in some serious legal consequences.
Thus, TikTok Business Accounts were ‘born’.
What are the differences between a Tiktok business account and a personal TikTok account?
A TikTok Business Account is a powerful tool for your business. TikTok totes its Business account as a place for your business to unleash its creative potential.
However, they do not necessarily mean advertising. In fact, advertising is the one thing they do not want businesses to do on their Business accounts. Although if this is a route you want to go, there is the option for paid advertising on the business account too.
A key difference between a personal TikTok account and a business TikTok account: you have access to more tools to help your business:
- Develop a TikTok marketing strategy
- Communicate and engage with your audience
- Analyse what working and what is not
- Make it easy to shop straight from TikTok
- Make it easy to cross-post on different platforms
These tools paired with their Commercial-Use Music Library (CML) helps business accounts create organic content without the hassle of having to independently obtain commercial use licences for the music they use.
This does however have its drawbacks as not all the catchy trending sounds are available in the CML, which can be limiting.
What are the community guidelines for a business account? What can’t you post on a TikTok business account?
The community guidelines for a Business Account tend to be similar in nature to the general community guidelines for the app. TikTok has some comprehensive guidelines in place to help individuals, creators and businesses make the best content for everyone.
TikTok community guidelines for everyone
The primary concerns in the community guidelines are as follows:
Safety of Minors
TikTok is expressly concerned with maintaining appropriate safety measures for users who are minors. This includes strict guidelines ranging from sexual exploitation to dangerous acts performed by or around minors.
Dangerous Acts and Challenges
The video-sharing platform is interested in the general safety of its users. It outlines rules around dangerous acts (which usually have a disclaimer attached) and the dangerous or inappropriate use of any item.
Suicide, Self Harm and Disordered Eating
Content that promotes any of these is prohibited.
Sexual Activity
Overly sexualised content or content that includes explicit sexual behaviour is not allowed on TikTok. The display of body parts (breasts, buttocks, genitals etc) as well as actions that mimic or imply sexual acts are prohibited.
Bullying and Harassment
TikTok takes a strong stance on Bullying and Harassment. Ultimately they do not approve of content that shames, bullies or harasses any individual, company or group.
The general community guidelines go on to include:
- Hateful behaviour,
- Violence and Extremism,
- Integrity and Authenticity,
- Violent and Graphic content and more.
Community guidelines for businesses
Listed below are the community guidelines have the following to say about businesses specifically:
- TikTok does not allow content that contains illegal activities or goods
- The platform does not allow the promotion or depiction of controlled substances, drugs, alcohol and tobacco
- TikTok does not allow the use of content that promotes fraudulent behaviour or scams
- Any content that depicts or promotes gambling is not allowed
- TIkTok does not allow violent or graphic content
- Content that violates copyright or trademarks is prohibited on TikTok
- TikTok does not allow content that compromises personal privacy and personal information security
Click here to check out the full list and details for each checkout TikTok’s Community Guidelines page.
Conclusion
It is important to consider the rules and intended use of any platform your business markets on. This includes TikTok. They need to have strict rules and regulations around what kind of content is allowed and what is not.
TikTok’s rules are in place both to protect users and the businesses using their platform to market themselves.
By using a business account, you may feel limited in what you can do. A business account does however come at a huge benefit: you are less likely to end up in legal trouble.
If you follow their community guidelines and keep your content clean and above board, TikTok can be an infinitely powerful tool for businesses to grow and glow.
If you enjoyed this article or found it helpful, check out more e-commerce marketing content on the inSyte blog or listen to the inSyte Podcast.
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