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Real estate pro Glennda Baker was walking through the airport in Atlanta on Wednesday when a passerby instantly recognized her: “You’re that real estate agent from TikTok!”
Baker, an associate broker with Glennda Baker + Associates, Inc., in Atlanta, has long credited the social media platform for raising her profile and helping her earn six figures. Her authentic style in her TikTok real estate videos has resonated with her more than 870,000 followers. One of her recent videos about homeowners associations garnered more than 2,000 comments.
So, the potential U.S. ban on TikTok that is set to take effect Sunday—assuming there is no last-minute government deal—has Baker concerned and working quickly to shift her audience to other social media platforms.
“It’s difficult to duplicate the success of TikTok,” she says. “Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are often made up of who you know. But [people on TikTok] had never heard of ‘Glennda Baker’ and may have never thought of following real estate advice. TikTok gave me visibility, and I could give the audience value.”
In preparation for the TikTok ban, Baker has been sharing the hashtag “#GoogleGlennda” to help her followers find her on other platforms, and she has been cross-pollinating her content across social channels. “Everything I post on TikTok, I post on Instagram,” she says. The audience has been shifting: In 2020, the year she started her TikTok profile, she only had 3,000 followers on Instagram; now she has 300,000.
Fifteen percent of real estate agents say they use TikTok in their real estate business, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2024 Technology Survey. That’s a smaller portion than those who use Facebook (87%), Instagram (62%), LinkedIn (48%) and YouTube (25%). However, some like Baker have found TikTok to be a means to connect with a younger audience that gravitates toward short-form videos. Real estate TikTok channels tend to offer property tours, quick tips on mortgages and home inspections, housing market trends and neighborhood information.
TikTok boasts 170 million American users; it’s the fifth most popular social media platform worldwide and the most downloaded app in more than 40 countries.
Further, “TikTok has become a powerful tool for localized marketing,” says Cynthia Seifert, founder of KeyLeads, a lead generation tool for real estate professionals. “Real estate professionals will need to pivot their strategies to maintain visibility.”
Will TikTok Really Go Away?
On Sunday, the TikTok app will no longer be available to download in the U.S. The ban will take effect if TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, does not sell to a U.S. firm by that date.
While a social media ban is unprecedented in the U.S., most tech experts say they expect that people who already have the app downloaded on their phones will be able to continue to use it. But new updates and security fixes would no longer be available, which likely would lead to a gradual decline in functionality and, eventually, make the app obsolete. Other experts believe access to TikTok will immediately stop.
U.S. officials have claimed that TikTok poses a national security threat, accusing the company of misappropriating user and advertiser data—information that could potentially be shared with the Chinese government.
So, while TikTok users and content creators may miss the app, “what I think is most relevant to the potential TikTok ban is a reminder of how important data security is across everything we do,” says Dan Weisman, director of innovation strategy within NAR’s Strategic Business, Innovation & Technology group.
What Are Some Alternatives?
A ban on TikTok could significantly impact real estate agents who’ve leveraged the platform to educate home buyers and sellers or build their personal brands, Seifert says. “Exploring alternative platforms will allow agents to continue creating engaging video content while diversifying their audience reach,” she says. Before the ban, she urges agents to ensure they link from TikTok to their other social media accounts and post videos that inform their audience of where to find them.
The following are social media alternatives to TikTok that real estate professionals are turning to:
- Instagram Reels: Short-form videos that can be shared on Instagram. Reels can be 15 to 90 seconds in length. Public account users can make their Reels available to a wider Instagram audience in Explore.
- YouTube Shorts: Short-form videos can be up to 60 seconds in length and shared on YouTube.
- Snapchat Spotlight: Short-form videos can be shared among Snapchat users. Videos are typically between five and 60 seconds long.
- Facebook Reels: A short-form video platform, similar to Instagram Reels, but videos are usually 60 seconds long. Users can customize who can see their content.
‘My One TikTok Regret’—and a Lesson Going Forward
Baker says she quickly learned the power of content creation when she first started on TikTok in October 2020. Looking back, her only regret is that she wasn’t more proactive in capturing the email addresses of her TikTok followers.
That has emerged as a big focus for her now. Across her social media platforms, she’ll offer followers special real estate guides filled with homebuying and selling tips to help them in their journey. Followers share their email address—and she sends them the complimentary guides.
“My biggest regret was not understanding sooner to get the followers’ email addresses,” Baker says. “That way, if your Instagram account ever gets hijacked or suspended or TikTok ends, it doesn’t matter. You don’t own Facebook, X, Instagram or TikTok. There is so much value in being able to contact [your followers] from a source of your own.”
