Reasons For TikTok Content To Go Viral Faster

Illustration (Raga Granada/VOI)

TikTok fever is sweeping cyberspace. The Chinese social media has succeeded in promising wealth and thrones to its users. But not everyone can easily get it. Here is VOI's signature Article Series "Tactics to Up the TikTok Stage", about becoming a TikTok star.

Nowadays we commonly encounter people dancing in front of their devices. We can easily find it in many places. Starting from the neighbor's yard, mall, restaurant, to public toilets. All for one goal: to become a TikTok celebrity. Many admit content originating from TikTok can go viral more easily. The question is, why did this happen?

TikTok is a social media platform created by Zhang Yiming who lives in China. His company, ByteDance, has experienced tremendous growth. According to Forbes in 2020, Zhang Yiming's fortune is more than 16 billion US dollars making him the number 13 richest person in China.

Most of the users use the application to create, share and view content such as lipsync, dance, skits, comedies, and other physical activities. Obviously, this is something that is of interest to young people around the world, with the app's popularity increasing during 2018 and 2019.

In 2020 Billboard recorded how TikTok catapulted the name of Sony artists, such as Doja Cat with Say So and 24kGoldn with Mood. Columbia then signed viral TikTok artists such as Lil Nas X, Powfu, StaySolidRocky, Jawsh 685, Arizona Zervas, and 24kGoldn. Nielsen said, there is no other application that can "blow" songs more awesome in 2020 than TikTok.

General Manager of the entertainment company in the United States (US) Fullscreen, said TikTok's success can easily be attributed to how TikTok supports the human ability to go viral. With TikTok, users can maximize reach by growing a huge fan base and an algorithm that values content above all else. Most of its users, who are Gen Z, put themselves in the shoes of themselves and inspire their followers.

TikTok illustration (Source: Unsplash)

Promises security

In general, the challenge faced by large social media platforms is data privacy. Facebook is one of them. This social media made by Mark Zuckerberg has come under fire repeatedly for its privacy policies throughout history. But TikTok is arguably succeeding in getting through that challenge right now.

Former president of the United States (US) Donald Trump has repeatedly tried to ban the application from entering the US. The reason is the potential for ByteDance to share user data with the Chinese government. Even US President Joe Biden called TikTok a "matter of serious concern."

Many cybersecurity experts say that the security issue is just a perspective. "Of all the serious cyber risks that the average consumer faces, TikTok is not at the top of the list. Most Americans should be more concerned about credit card fraud and password protection than TikTok," said co-founder and head of Chargebacks911 operations, Monica Eaton. -Cardone.

Giving birth to celebrities

After successfully attracting millions of users around the world, TikTok was finally able to create the stage to give birth to a celebrity who has the nickname TikTok celebrity or Tiktokstar. Currently, there are several examples, both domestically and abroad.

Domestic TikTok celebrities include Emil Mario, Kaffa Nugroho, and Remaja Raishu. While on the world stage, there is one name that stands out the most. He is none other than Charli D'Amelio. The number of followers is proportional to the total population of Indonesia, which is around 111 million people.

D'Amelio said her first TikTok that went viral was a duet with user "move_with_joy". D'Amelio usually performs simple dances on his TikTok account. This type of video propelled D'Amelio's quick success. Within five months, D'Amelio gained more than 5 million followers.

D'Amelio is from Norwalk, Connecticut, where she grew up with her sister Dixie D'Amelio and her parents Marc and Heidi D'Amelio. Her father ran for the Republican Senate in the State of Connecticut in 2018 and lost to the incumbent.

Before starting a TikTok account in June 2019, D'Amelio was an ordinary teenager who took part in dance competitions. She often uploads videos and photos from competitions on her Instagram. D'Amelio creates her own choreography and uploads several of her videos on TikTok every day. Charli D'Amalio's most popular TikTok content of all time is her dance to the song 'Lottery (Renegade)' by the group K Camp.

Charli D'Amelio became the first TikTok star to get a Super Bowl ad sponsored by Sabra Hummus. The ad was shown during Super Bowl LIV and continued to be promoted on social media.

Why does TikTok content go viral faster?

Social media users may already understand that sometimes when using Instagram or Twitter, content from TikTok is distributed. Usually, this content is very viral and makes people interested in installing TikTok, then seeing content from viral accounts.

We interviewed one of TikTok's content creators in Indonesia, namely Syifa Aulia Putri. Much of Syifa's TikTok content has to do with education, which targets students. Especially for students who want to enter the world of campus, because Syifa often shares information about lectures. Not only education, but Syifa also sometimes creates beauty-themed content.

Syifa explained that the reason why TikTok content went viral faster was inseparable from user behavior. Unlike other social media users who expect a large following, TikTok users usually only need the entertainment or information they need.

"If on TikTok, they (TikTok users) see a relateable video, they immediately want to follow it. Because my video enters fyp, it immediately follows. That means that user behavior they are not afraid or embarrassed to follow people. "Whether they have seen my content or not," said Syifa when contacted by VOI.

Apart from the content connoisseur side, TikTok is also easier to use by content creators or creators. TikTok itself already provides a variety of easy editing features and doesn't require creators to use other applications. This is what makes TikTok even more special because not only are content connoisseurs entertained, but creators also don't spend a lot of time creating content.

"The problem is that on Instagram, I still have to edit it in Adobe Premiere. Then we have to struggle with sounds that might suddenly get copyrighted. Meanwhile, if on TikTok the sound has been provided and it is really fixed if it's already on TikTok it means free of copyright," explained Syifa.

Infographics (VOI/Raga Granada)

Another thing that makes TikTok more popular and its content easily viral is its solidarity. So, there is a community so that they can follow and support each other's content. Even fellow TikTok content creators can collaborate to create one community. Things like this are rarely found on other social media.

However, along with the increasing popularity of TikTok, there are also more users, which of course the competition is getting tougher. For this reason, it is also important to pay attention to personal branding that suits us.

"Because now there are a lot of people who are in TikTok, they must have an image or something that will differ from other people's content. Because later, if you don't have segmented, who leads it to, it will be really difficult," said Syifa.

In addition, content creators must also dare to try some of TikTok's features, dare to trial errors, and test the format. It aims to find out what content formats the audience accepts and which ones the audience will not accept.

Follow the Writing of this Issue Series: TikTok's Upstage Tactics