Being an entrepreneur is hard enough, but folks in the adult industry have it even harder. Every single day, tens of thousands of social media users open their smartphones to log in to their profiles and engage with their networks, only to realize that the worst has happened: account deletion. All too often, these account deletions — even if temporary — seem senselessly arbitrary.
In September of last year, Instagram appeared to initiate a sweep of its platform, targeting sex workers and adult brands and permanently deleting accounts without notice. Considering that social media has become a central pillar of building a business and offering fans and clients a direct and instant channel of communication, this is very damaging. Not to mention how much time, resources and money it takes to produce the high-quality video and photo shoots many content creators invest in in order to keep their profiles robust with top-tier content meant to attract top-tier business.
While censorship bots crawl profiles to scan for any reference or allusion to adult content, there are still ways to play with words and the way you spell certain words in your captions.
The rule of thumb to keep in mind is that Twitter and Reddit allow folks to play in NSFW sandboxes, while TikTok and Meta brands Facebook and Instagram are as SFW as can be, banning users for so much as hinting at pleasure-seeking and sexuality. Funny how some people conceive of morality — and how certain folks in power are completely obsessed with burying the simple fact that all of us are pleasure seekers. Alas, this is the sandbox we are forced to play in if we want to continue to syndicate our content across various social media platforms.
The beauty of TikTok is that its algorithm is designed to help creators get discovered by new audiences. Unlike Instagram, on which users are mainly exposed to folks they’re already following, TikTok users are often organically directed to other areas of the platform beyond the creators they currently follow, thus exposing them to new creators more easily. This means that the platform provides consistent opportunities for growth, going viral and getting discovered by brand-new fans, all of which can have a huge impact on your bottom line as a content creator.
So, how do folks in our industry not only survive but thrive under heavy-handed SFW censorship while tapping into lucrative traffic? It’s time to get creative!
Become an Expert on the Guidelines
When it comes to any social media platform, you must act as if there are folks with their trigger fingers constantly at the ready, eager to report anybody who even tangentially alludes to sex — because these sad, boring individuals, for whom hitting “report” is their only shot at feeling important, are unfortunately real. The only way to navigate this clownery is by being smarter than thy enemy and becoming an actual expert in the community guidelines of each platform to which you post your content.
The quickest way to lose your profile is by posting NSFW content or directing folks to your NSFW content via your TikTok account. The rule of thumb here is that there need to be three clicks between your TikTok profile and the adult platforms that house your adult content. This means link aggregates like Linktree, which many folks house in their TikTok bios, cannot link directly to an adult platform, as that is only two user clicks between TikTok and your adult content.
What you can do is create an SFW landing page or bio site that is linked to your Linktree, or any other link aggregator you’re using, and then offer links to your adult content from said website. This makes the user journey three clicks, and thereby compliant with TikTok’s rules. It’s strange and byzantine, but it seems to help with thwarting bans and suspensions.
Jump on Trends Quickly
If you’ve spent more than two minutes scrolling TikTok, you know it’s based on trends: trending dances, challenges, experiments and songs. So scroll away and create a list of trends you’d like to jump on. Participating with the right hashtag or dance, or using a song that’s dominating the TikTok airwaves, is a sure way to get pushed in front of new audiences via TikTok’s algorithm model.
Create ‘Day in the Life’ Content
Once folks become fans, their curiosity is piqued. They inevitably become curious about different facets of your life and start to crave more from you. Why not give your fans a different kind of show via TikTok? Without a heavy allusion to what you do on other platforms, inviting fans and new audiences into the behind-the-scenes of your life is a powerful way to connect and build fans’ desire to engage with you further. The great thing about being in this industry is that the curiosity about our lives is unrelenting.
Start with a Bang!
The thing about TikTok is that you have two seconds — literally! — to catch the attention of passersby, meaning folks scrolling the app looking to discover and engage with new creators. This is why, when scrolling through TikTok, you will encounter a ton of videos that start with the creator screaming at you to stop what you’re doing and stay tuned to the content in their video.
You don’t necessarily need to start off with something that obnoxious, but when crafting video content, you do need to come up with a powerful opening line for each video. If you’re sharing some behind-the-scenes goodness, perhaps start with something like: “Ever wondered what my life really looks like?” to cook up interest and compel folks to stop scrolling.
Tell Us What You Do Without Telling Us What You Do
Let’s face it, regardless of how tightly platforms restrict and censor content, folks in our community always find a way to share and promote their NSFW work. While censorship bots crawl profiles to scan for any reference or allusion to adult content, there are still ways to play with words and the way you spell certain words in your captions. For example, we’ve seen industry folks play with the spelling of the word “sex” with phonetic euphemisms like “secks,” “seggs” or “s*x.” There is also an art to being vague yet informative enough that your TikTok followers can pick up what you’re putting down. Phrases like “You know where to find me” and “Come say hi in that ‘other room’” are often used to promote shows and adult content without blatantly promoting NSFW stuff that would likely get you banned instantaneously.
Create and Maintain a Backup Account
The stark reality is that you can do everything right, follow the guidelines to a tee and yet still wind up losing your account or experiencing a temporary suspension. This may not seem fair, but these are private companies running platforms that we are allowed, rather than entitled, to use.
That being said, the final and most important key to thriving on social media is to have a contingency plan, and the best way to do that is to create a completely mirrored backup account. This way, you will not lose all of your photos and videos should TikTok or any other platform choose to kick you out. You simply move on over to your pre-populated backup account and continue your social media life from there.
My biggest piece of advice is: Don’t shy away from social media because you fear being banned! You are an interesting, intriguing human and people are dying to know more about you, so there is definitely space for you on TikTok and other platforms. Just be sure to invest some time in understanding the guidelines, get creative with how you present yourself so you’re not an easy target for the TikTok censors, and maintain backups.
Social media has truly become an art form, especially for folks in our industry. There are plenty of challenges, but the rewards for getting it right are vast and well worth your time.
Johnny Diamond is a senior account manager at camming platform CAM4. Follow him @JDiamondXXX on Twitter and contact johnny@cam4.com for more information.
