What happened this past weekend to Tiktok is a loud reminder of how important owning where the content you produce lives.

Whether or not Tiktok survives in some fashion, the lesson is that platforms control what’s on them; that’s the value exchange for distribution. As we’ve seen, the rules and terms of engagement can change at any time.

What can you do? A personal web site is a good start. Squarespace and others like it make this easy to pull off. Let it be your source of truth and use platforms as a vehicle to funnel users back to it. In addition, build an email list and keep subscribers engaged. It may be more effort but it provides immunity against a changing algorithm, adjusted commission splits, or the wholesale collapse of a platform. Sometimes the old ways are best.