ST. LOUIS — A few years ago, just before Super Bowl Sunday, Dee Crawford posted a video to the social media app TikTok of her printing a football sweatshirt for her homespun apparel company.

Within two weeks, she had 500 new orders. The video had gone viral, she said. Six months later, she quit her corporate job in finance to pursue the small business, Do Me A Favor STL, full time.

“I’ve seen how TikTok can blow up someone’s business overnight,” said Crawford, 39, of Creve Coeur.

TikTok claims over 170 million monthly U.S. users who create, share and comment on videos that often last just a few seconds. Entrepreneurs across the country have learned how to tap that pool of consumers, by posting their own videos to promote their brands in ways that can feel casual or entertaining instead of commercial. Several St. Louis area business owners said they rely on it for far-reaching — and free — marketing.

Now they’re worried what a looming federal ban on the app could do to their sales.

Last year, President Joe Biden signed a law that requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the social media platform to a non-Chinese company by Jan. 19 — or the app can’t be used in the U.S. It’s already barred from devices owned by the federal government, many state government agencies and several public universities.

But TikTok and ByteDance have filed suit, saying the law violates the free speech of the app and its American users. And President-elect Donald Trump has supported pausing the law until after he takes office Jan. 20, saying he could negotiate a deal.

Security concerns have long accompanied TikTok’s existence. Some politicians worry that the Chinese government would be able to use the app to access U.S. users’ personal information, spy on them and spread misinformation.

The stakes are high for some local businesses.

Entrepreneurs on TikTok can build an audience for free, said Perry Drake, a marketing professor at University of Missouri-St. Louis. It isn’t a “pay-to-play” model like Facebook, which charges to advertise. Losing TikTok could cost nascent businesses, like those he sees in UMSL’s startup accelerator, a way to establish themselves, he said.

“That will be the sad part about it,” he said.

‘We saw the power’

Toy company Cepia, a family-owned firm based in Clayton, added TikTok to its marketing strategy during the pandemic, when it launched its Cats Vs Pickles plush line. People shared videos of themselves unboxing their new stuffed animals, said Laura Frerichs, head of marketing.

“We started to lean in on TikTok because we saw the power,” she said.

Cepia has targeted younger generations: Its animatronic Zhu Zhu Pets were ultra-popular with Gen Z. And it’s new line, Decora Girlz dolls, is aimed at Generation Alpha — kids born after 2010.

Cepia LLC TikTok

So TikTok is an obvious marketing tool for the company, Frerichs said. Cepia sends its toys to popular TikTok content creators to review and feature in their videos.

It has changed the trajectory of Sierra Stinebrook’s business, Grandma’s Playroom, an indoor play space for kids in south St. Louis County.

After purchasing the business in 2020, Stinebrook began documenting her life running it on TikTok. Now she has 2.9 million followers and said many of the playroom’s customers discover it on social media. Toy brands have also found her through the app, and sent her free merchandise.

The money she makes through social media — TikTok monetizes video views — helps pay for more staff, she said.

Stinebrook has utilized TikTok as a marketing tool for her indoor playground, helping her connect with new customers, get free toys through brand deals and generate additional revenue to hire more staff.

Some of Stinebrook’s popular videos include her opening the playroom in the morning, unboxing toys and sharing information on operating a small business.

“I was just like every other millennial out there, randomly posting on TikTok,” Stinebrook said. “I never thought that it could be a business idea.”

Stinebrook called a potential TikTok ban “a real concern.” She’s never had to pay for marketing.

Still, in preparation, she’s diversified her social media portfolio, making sure she has followers across platforms, and is prepared to pivot to YouTube, where she already has 1 million subscribers.

“I wasn’t going to be 75 dancing on TikTok,” Stinebrook said. “We always knew there would be something (else).”

Getting ready

Kisha Kandeh has been posting about her custom apparel business, The Woke Brand, on social media for years. She said many out-of-town customers who visit her St. Louis Galleria and Cherokee Street stores found her on TikTok.

The Woke Brand has a larger presence on Facebook and Instagram, but Kandeh still doesn’t want to lose the 10,000 followers the business has on TikTok. She is reaching out to them with personal messages and coupons and directing them to her website, before Jan. 19.

“To abruptly have a platform that you worked so hard to build, create, study, watch possibly be ripped away from you in a split second is something that can tragically damage a lot of small businesses, including myself,” Kandeh said.

The key for small businesses, said Emily Mclanahan-Hluzek of St. Louis Digital Media in Maryland Heights, is to be on social media, promoting their work, building their brand identity and engaging with their customer base — no matter the app or platform.

“If you’re not using social media, you’re not using the full potential of your business,” Mclanahan-Hluzek said. “I definitely think you’re missing a segment of your market that is on social media that may not hear about you otherwise.”

Frerichs, of toy maker Cepia, said she doesn’t want to see TikTok go away, but they’re ready to pivot.

“There’s always going to be another platform that comes up,” she said. “This is not something you can stop at this point in time.”

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