TikTok for organisations: should you be there?

For years many communications teams treated TikTok as a platform for teenagers and dance trends. The data no longer supports that view. In its 2026 Digital News Report, the Reuters Institute found that the share of respondents using TikTok for any purpose grew from 15% to 37% in the five years since the pandemic, and that 20% now use it for news.¹

East Africa stands out. More than half of respondents in Kenya and Thailand use TikTok for news, compared with 10% in the US and 7% in the UK.¹ The Kenya country report describes TikTok and YouTube as central entry points to news and current affairs, particularly for younger audiences.² Note the caveat: the Kenyan sample is mainly English-speaking, younger and online, and the authors say the findings should not be taken as nationally representative.²

Being on TikTok because everyone else is will not help you. In our own practice, we ask clients to answer five questions honestly before opening an account. If the answer to most of them is no, a strong presence on one or two other platforms is usually the better investment. The same test applies to TikTok for NGOs, UN agencies and ministries:

• Audience: are the people you need to reach, often under 35, actually on TikTok in your country?
• Purpose: do you have something to explain, show or answer, rather than just announce?
• Capacity: can someone film, edit and post short vertical video at least weekly for six months?
• Voice: will leadership accept a more informal, human tone and quick sign-off?
• Risk: do you have clear rules for consent, comments and sensitive topics?

The organisations that do well on TikTok rarely post their press releases as video. They show people and process: a nurse explaining what happens at a vaccination visit, an engineer walking along a new water line, a staff member answering the three questions the public asks most. Short video for public sector bodies works best when it is useful, specific and presented by a real person rather than a logo.

Creators matter too. The Reuters Institute found that 27% of respondents globally get some news from news-focused creators or influencers, and 46% from creators of any type.¹ In Kenya, the report notes that the prominence of this creator layer stands out globally.² Partnering with a trusted local creator can reach audiences your own account will not, provided the partnership is transparent and properly managed.

Use a Business Account rather than a Personal Account. TikTok describes Business Accounts as public profiles with performance metrics, audience insights and creative tools, and it describes Blue-V Verified Business Accounts as suited to official entities, businesses, organisations or public figures that need verification for authenticity and trustworthiness.³ For a ministry or an agency, a verified account helps the public tell you apart from impostors.

Music is the trap most organisations fall into. TikTok's business help centre states that businesses cannot use the general music library for commercial usage, and points them to the Commercial Music Library, a pre-cleared library that is free for businesses to use in organic posts, ads and branded content.⁴ If you use other licensed sounds, TikTok advises checking with your legal team that you hold a proper licence.⁴ Original audio, such as a voice or field sound, avoids the issue altogether.

TikTok has not allowed political ads since 2019. Its policy covers paid ads that promote or oppose a candidate, current leader, political party or group, or issue at federal, state or local level, including advocacy and issue ads.⁵ For NGOs running advocacy campaigns, this means you should plan for organic reach and creator partnerships rather than paid promotion of issue messages.

Since 2022, accounts belonging to governments, politicians and political parties have had access to advertising features turned off automatically, and cannot use gifting, tipping or e-commerce features.⁶ TikTok said it would continue to allow government organisations to advertise in limited circumstances, such as supporting public health and safety and access to information, working with a TikTok contact.⁶ Platform policies change often, so check the current help centre before you budget for paid activity.

TikTok rewards speed, and speed is where ethical shortcuts happen. A trend audio or a quick clip filmed at a community meeting can travel far beyond the audience you imagined. Apply the same consent standards to a 20-second clip as you would to a documentary, and never use programme participants as props for a trend.

Rwanda's data protection law, Law n°058/2021, defines personal data as any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, including identifiers such as a name, location data or online identifiers.⁷ For children under 16, processing requires the consent of the holder of parental responsibility.⁷ In practice, that means written consent from parents or guardians before a child appears in your videos.

Treat your first three to six months as a pilot with a clear question: are we reaching people we cannot reach elsewhere? Use the analytics in your Business Account to track views, completion, follows and comments, and read the comments themselves for the questions people ask.³

Then decide. If a few formats clearly work, double down on them. If reach is low and the effort is high, it is a sound decision to pause the account, post a short note pointing followers to your other channels and put that time into channels that perform. In our view, a dormant account does more harm than a closed one.

• Audience check: are your priority groups on TikTok in your country?
• One named person responsible for filming, editing and posting
• Business Account set up and verification requested
• Music from the Commercial Music Library or original audio only
• Consent forms ready, including parental consent for under-16s
• Rules for comments, corrections and sensitive topics agreed
• Paid activity checked against TikTok's current ad policies
• A three- to six-month pilot with a clear decision point