Less pressure, more focus: TikTok’s answer to creator burnout
Authentic community building is now a cornerstone of successful influencer marketing. More than 73% of brands prefer partnering with micro-influencers due to their stronger audience engagement and niche relevance (StackInfluence).
Yet, creators face mounting pressure. According to research from Billion Dollar Boy, 52% of creators report burnout, and 37% are considering leaving the industry due to creative fatigue, algorithmic demands, and performance anxiety.
TikTok’s Bulletin Boards offer a promising solution. This one-to-many messaging format allows creators to send direct updates to followers who choose to subscribe. These updates don’t allow replies and bypass the standard feed, offering a calm, focused channel for meaningful communication.
TL;DR: TikTok’s Bulletin Boards introduce a new format for direct, opt-in communication between creators and their most engaged followers. These tools reduce stress, enhance authenticity, and support community-first influencer marketing. Paired with Stellar’s platform features like the Catalog and Notes within My influencers, brands can build stronger, more sustainable partnerships.
What are TikTok Bulletin Boards?
Following the success of Instagram Broadcast Channels, TikTok is testing its own format: Bulletin Boards. This feature enables creators to share images, videos, polls, or updates directly with opted-in followers. These messages appear as DMs but only reach those who’ve actively subscribed (Social Media Today).
Bulletin Boards stand apart from the noisy For You Feed. Although followers can react with emojis, they can’t reply or initiate conversations. This keeps the environment light, feedback-oriented, and manageable for creators. As this tool expands, it may reshape how brands and creators engage their most loyal audiences.
Source images: Buffer
Why “community over reach” wins in 2025
The influencer space is evolving. Today’s audience values relevance and personal connection over sheer numbers. StackInfluence reports that micro- and mid-tier influencers (10K–100K followers) consistently deliver better engagement and ROI compared to macro influencers (StackInfluence).
In this content-heavy era, users crave niche voices and authentic interactions that reflect their personal values and interests. Creators, too, are feeling the need for more control and less chaos. They’re gravitating toward formats that allow them to engage on their own terms while preserving their mental well-being. Bulletin Boards directly address this demand by offering a quiet, opt-in communication space that cuts through algorithmic noise and fosters clarity.
Prioritizing community over reach means investing in a highly engaged audience – one that consistently interacts, supports, and stays connected well beyond a single campaign cycle. It’s not just a tactical decision; it’s a long-term strategy for building durable brand relationships.
This evolution mirrors what we’re also seeing on Instagram, where features like Reposts, Maps, and the Friends Tab push discovery back into trusted circles — proof that across platforms, community now matters more than sheer reach.
How Stellar enables smarter community building
To fully harness the power of Bulletin Boards, brands need intelligent creator selection and long-term tracking. Stellar offers three key tools to support this:
1. Creator selection via the Catalog
With Stellar’s Catalog, marketers can search and filter creators by engagement rate, audience growth, and demographic data. This ensures collaborations are based on authentic, high-quality communities – not inflated numbers.
2. Benchmarking and performance tracking
Benchmark creators’ content frequency and audience reactions using Stellar’s Social Listening and Benchmarking features. These insights help brands plan Bulletin Board content cadence effectively. We’ll soon include also TikTok and YouTube for our in-depth and holistic Social Listening tracking, but already today it helps you to navigate through the large amount of datapoints.
3. Relationship tracking with notes within My influencers
Stellar allows teams to document creator history, performance across campaigns, and internal feedback all in one place. This makes it easier to re-engage the most impactful creators, by simplifying leaving notes for each creator profile within our all-in-one influencer marketing platform.
These three pillars are essential to already yield out profiles that are not promising and focusing on those that have potential to bring in a strong community and to transform their opportunities into convincing sales performances.
5 practical tips to maximize Bulletin Board engagement
If you want to make the most of TikTok Bulletin Boards, it’s not just about adopting the feature – it’s about using it strategically. The following best practices derived from Instagram Broadcast Channels can help creators and brands alike to maximize reach, resonance, and results. From promotion to integration, here’s how to turn a simple broadcast tool into a powerful driver of engagement:
Tip | Why it matters | How to do it |
Promote opt-in visibly | Followers must subscribe to receive messages. | Mention the Bulletin Board in Stories, posts, and bios with CTAs like “Join for exclusive updates.” |
Stay consistent, not spammy | Too many messages cause fatigue; consistency builds trust. | Share 1 – 3 updates weekly, depending on audience size. |
Share valuable content | Relevance retains followers. | Offer behind-the-scenes content, early previews, polls, or exclusive offers. |
Track and reuse top formats | Emoji reactions signal success. | Monitor reaction trends and replicate high-performing messages. |
Integrate with broader strategy | Bulletin Boards should support – not replace – your content mix. | Link bulletins to Lives, Stories, or posts for broader reach. |
Conclusion: turning broadcast into belonging
TikTok’s Bulletin Boards represent a new frontier in creator-follower engagement. They offer relief from content fatigue and encourage stronger, more direct relationships.
For brands, the opportunity lies in choosing the right creators and equipping them with the tools to succeed. Platforms like Stellar provide everything from discovery to long-term performance tracking – making it easier to build communities that last.
In today’s fast-moving landscape, being heard by the right people matters more than being seen by everyone. And that’s exactly what Bulletin Boards make possible.
Grow authentic communities with Stellar
Use smarter creator discovery and transparent reporting to support lasting engagement on TikTok and beyond.
