The Metricool TikTok 2023 Study confirms the platform's consolidation as a professional channel. Business accounts have grown 165% and videos published from those accounts 241%. Videos over 54 seconds get more views and engagement. Accounts with fewer than 100 followers ("tiny") and very large ones ("huge") dominate the highest engagement rates.

What's interesting for a public organization isn't these figures themselves. It's the question almost never asked before opening a channel: Does TikTok fit my communication mandate, or am I trying to fit my mandate into TikTok?

Why so many institutions arrive late to TikTok

There's a predictable pattern: TikTok comes up in a meeting when an executive or elected official flags it as a "must-be-there." The communications team, under pressure, opens the account without first resolving what separates a useful channel from one opened out of internal pressure.

The cost isn't the account itself (it's free). The cost is real:

  1. Dedicating people who already manage other channels.
  2. Producing content in a format the team doesn't master.
  3. Exposure to comments and cultural dynamics the institution doesn't control.
  4. Reputational risk if the institutional voice clashes with the platform's code.

Being on TikTok isn't free. Opening the account is free. Maintaining it with institutional dignity costs time, judgment and tolerance for noise.

When TikTok does have institutional fit

There are contexts where TikTok delivers real value to a public organization. Three conditions separate the useful case from the forced one:

The three conditions for real fit

  • The target audience is mostly there. If the organization needs to reach people under 30, particularly under 25, no other channel matches it. If it needs to reach senior professionals, no effort on TikTok will be efficient.
  • The message has a natural short-video format. Some topics live in video (visual explanations, case studies, processes) and some die in it (public consultations, complex transparency, dense data).
  • The organization accepts an adapted voice without losing its identity. This isn't betraying the brand: it's knowing that the platform's code demands naturalness, not a press release.

Operational takeaways from the study that do apply

Three findings from the study that change concrete decisions:

  1. Account size doesn't guarantee views. Starting from zero isn't a disadvantage on TikTok the way it is on other platforms. This lowers the barrier for an institution coming in fresh.
  2. Longer videos perform better. It's counterintuitive, but it gives the institutional format (which needs some context) more room than in older versions of the platform.
  3. Posting time and day matter. This, which seems anecdotal, is operational: it justifies a disciplined calendar and refutes the idea of "post whenever you can."

What still doesn't serve institutional context

There are three elements of the study that are operational in private-sector marketing and noise in an institutional context:

  1. Aggregate engagement rate. It measures what it measures well for creators and brands; it doesn't measure what an institution needs (resonance with its specific audience).
  2. Trending hashtags and sounds. Riding trends works for brands; in institutional use it tends to turn into forced tone and reputational damage.
  3. High frequency as a recipe. The study suggests posting more yields more; in institutional use, posting less but with judgment performs better than filling the feed with empty content.

The test before opening an institutional TikTok

When a public organization asks us about joining TikTok, before touching the platform we ask them to answer five questions. If they can't answer yes to at least three, we recommend not opening an account:

Five questions first

  • Is the target audience mostly on TikTok?
  • Is there someone with editorial judgment and knowledge of the platform's code?
  • Is the organization willing to adopt a more informal tone without internal panic?
  • Is there real video production capacity (not just scriptwriting)?
  • Is there a clear editorial mandate, not just "being there"?

When to close an institutional TikTok

A decision almost no manual covers: closing is sometimes the best strategic move. If the account has spent months posting weak content, drawing criticism that doesn't fit the institutional role, or consuming time disproportionate to its impact, keeping it open out of inertia communicates worse than closing it with a brief, honest statement.

Closing a channel by reasoned decision isn't failure: it's strategic discipline. Keeping it out of fear of looking weak is failure, because every weak post wears down institutional reputation.

If your organization is weighing whether to open, maintain or close a TikTok channel, that's exactly the kind of decision that deserves independent outside judgment.

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Conclusion

The TikTok 2023 Study confirms that the platform is now a professional channel. That doesn't mean it's a channel for every organization. The decision to join, stay or leave must pass the filter of three conditions (target audience, natural format, adaptable voice) and five prior questions that separate the strategic channel from one opened under pressure.

In a public context, where every piece carries reputational consequences, opening a TikTok account without first resolving the fit means taking on a cost without having verified the benefit. And in public communication, what isn't decided also communicates.