Ohio small business owners worry banning TikTok could be bad for business.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill earlier this month that would lead to a nationwide ban of TikTok — if its China-based owner ByteDance doesn’t sell its stake. Lawmakers are worried ByteDance would share user data with the Chinese government or push propaganda and misinformation. 

President Joe Biden said he would sign the House bill (which is currently in the Senate), even though his reelection campaign has an account on the popular video app. 

But the Ohio Capital Journal talked to a handful of small business owners around Ohio that rely on TikTok to promote their products and build community. 

“TikTok is the best social media platform for small businesses without a doubt,” said Kimberly Ochsenbein, who owns Akron Lights Candle Co. 

More than 70% of her customers come from TikTok and she is concerned her business might not survive if TikTok is banned. 

“The viral potential and the expanded reach that you get from TikTok, you can’t get that from any other social media platform,” Ochsenbein said, who uses the app to interact with viewers and give them a behind the scenes look at her candles.

TikTok is appealing because of the quick and original nature of the videos, said Alexa Fox, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Akron who teaches a social media marketing class. 

“It’s intriguing to people because they’re easy to watch,” Fox said. 

TikTok can be especially appealing to small businesses because there is so much potential to gain traction quickly, Fox said. 

“Discoverability is high on a platform like that,” she said.

Akron Lights Candle Co. 

Ochsenbein launched her business in 2021 as a way to make some extra money as a stay at home mom. Her candles resemble various drinks, desserts, and foods. 

“I tried to figure out a way to make my candles stand out instead of just a traditional jarred candle that you can buy anywhere,” Ochsenbein said. 

She joined TikTok in 2021 as a way to edit her videos for her other social media platforms, but then her videos started going viral with millions of views and she watched her sales spike.  

“I started posting more and more,” she said. “And that’s the good thing about TikTok is you can make a huge community of your business, you can grow a quick community, and it has viral potential that goes beyond anything that I ever thought possible.”

Coco’s Confectionary Kitchen

Adrianna Wise launched her bakery business Coco’s Confectionary Kitchen with her mom and sister in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and started using TikTok that same year to promote their Columbus-based business.

“You actually get to see that you’re having a global reach, which is even better for your brand recognition and your business,” she said. “It’s the elites, there’s nothing like it.”

She uses her TikTok account to show her followers baking tips and tricks and how she makes her cakes, and in turn, she uses TikTok to learn the latest trends. 

“A lot of us use TikTok as a search engine,” she said. “Without TikTok being a platform, not only is your business going to experience a deficit in their overall marketing agency, but I think also in the way that they’re able to be innovative and creative.”

About half of her content on TikTok goes viral and people will often reach out to with orders her after seeing her on TikTok or people will send her messages asking for specific baking advice. 

“It’s been beneficial for me too because I’ve helped influence a new generation of bakers,” Wise said.

Banning TikTok could bring small businesses to a standstill, she said.

“I know that it’s very difficult to have such a humongous change happen to your (marketing ) strategy,” Wise said. 

Hello Happily Co.

Sarah Hall opened her boutique Hello Happily Co. in Greenville 2018 and started using TikTok to promote her business a year later. But it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that her online sales increased as her videos really took and became viral.

“I mostly use it to help showcase different kinds of styles,” she said. “I just have fun with it.”

Hall tries to post a video once a day and people from Illinois, Michigan and Kentucky have traveled to the store after seeing her TikToks.

Sixty percent of their current sales are from online orders and TikTok is their main source of social media to the website, so a TikTok ban could mean a loss of sales and reaching potential customers, she said. 

“Right now, we really don’t pay for any social media marketing, any ads, anything like that, and everything was organic for us,” Hall said. “It could definitely hurt the business — sales wise and even getting exposure to people that might be looking for something like us but can’t find it as easily.”

Ohio House Bill 17 

In Ohio, House Bill 17 would prohibit state employees from using apps like TikTok on their state-issued devices. The bill would not apply to state employees personal devices. 

State Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, and Rep. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, are co-sponsors on the bill. HB 17 passed in the House over the summer and is the Senate Financial Institutions and Technology Committee. 

The bill wouldn’t just limit TikTok. It would also ban certain apps like Weibo, Xiaohongshu and Alipay among others. It does take particular aim at TikTok and the messaging app WeChat by prohibiting any service “developed or provided by their respective parent companies ByteDance and Tencent.”

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