Some time last month, I became a TikTok creator. Of kpop contents haha.
I was on my Twitter stan account when I came across several tweets by the fanbase. Apparently, they wanted more fans to promote the idol group's contents on TikTok.
Didn't bat an eye at first. A couple of convincing tweets later, I ended up posting video edits on TikTok.
Although it was a short phase that lasted about 2 weeks, I learnt some cool things about the app from a fellow creator's perspective!
Fun fact. TikTok isn't the first app I use to post fan edits 🤭
I posted similar contents on Instagram back then - prior to it turning into Reels. So there were couple of things I notice rather quickly about TikTok.
The first thing that stood out to me was that literally everyone and anyone goes viral daily!
Personally, it took me just a couple days to go from 20 views per video to 10,000 views per video.
On the contrary, 100 views is already considered a lot by Instagram standard when you first started out. Mind you that I didn't have any followers until that 10,000 views video started blowing up.
My next video that went viral even reached 100,000 views overnight! Not to mention that it was the video right after the 10,000 views one.
It was insane to think about.
This left me dying of curiosity so I spent the next few days, trying to play around with the algorithm to figure out how the app works. Of course, I didn't manage to break all the codes, but there were some hints I discovered that could explain how my posts did so well.
Hint 1: TikTok is highly-based on time and region.
No wonder people go crazy on upload time. It is a game changer! Both of my viral videos were posted at 5pm on a weekday and I don't think it was a coincidence.
So if you're based in Malaysia, be wary on listening to non-Malaysian hacks! It probably won't work with our culture and social media habits as it works on the recommender's followers.
Hint 2: Your first 5 videos matters.
TikTok isn't an app where you should care about your feed looking pretty. The main goal is to be on the For You Page (FYP) and get people to engage as much as they should!
The TikTok algorithm will blast your videos to random niches and let various users decide the virality based on the engagements your videos are getting. It's why new accounts are the easiest to go viral. So avoid experimenting too much with your videos when posting on TikTok.
However, take note that once you've built some followings, that's when you should pay attention to your follower's active time instead. If you want your video to enter FYP, it has to do well among your followers first before TikTok shares it with non-followers.
Hint 3: TikTok values shares and comments over likes.
Unlike Instagram, I realize 'likes' didn't help much in terms of virality. Instead, shares and comments were the ones boosting the numbers.
So it's important to include some sort of call-to-action (CTA) in your videos such as asking people to share, comment, etc. Or try to make some share-worthy contents!
Hint 4: Make people watch til the end.
TikTok values average time for each post.
The longer people watch your video, the higher the average time gets. Considering how fast people swipe on TikTok, it isn't easy to get people to stay but providing titles or a captivating 3 seconds-intro really helps!
Hint 5: Sometimes you get viral NOT because of your video's main point.
Funny thing about netizens are that they could comment about something you totally didn't see when you first posted. I get mindblown whenever this happens and it wasn't just once or twice! 🤯
Even though you have little to no control over this kind of reaction, do know that this is also a quick and easy recipe to virality.
Plus, the comments get super interesting to read too!
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Although, my creative juices stopped after about 10 videos, creating on TikTok had been fun while it lasts.
I will probably return to it when I have more time to spare in the future. No promises though.
Shameless plug coming thru 😜
Dropping by,
Melynn.
