How to go viral on TikTok? – The secret of brand promotion
Over the past few years, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms and the influencer label. Many companies set up their accounts to promote the brand and attract new customers. However, for many, the TikTok algorithms and understanding of the app remain a great mystery.
What affects the number of views and interests of certain videos? How is it that one video has a million views and another is completely missing?
In this article, I will try to present the secret of how to go viral on TikTok.
Social media plays an important role in the context of brand promotion. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are an important part of the marketing strategies of major companies. Not long ago TikTok – a big player, joined the game. the platform quickly gained popularity thanks to its algorithms and creative creators making it possible to achieve a large reach, at a low cost.
The TikTok algorithm
In 2021, TikTok had 689 million users with a variety of interests and viewing preferences. To keep users’ attention, TikTok created an algorithm that is responsible for displaying content of interest to viewers on a so-called “for you page”. This algorithm collects data about users and the content itself, this data can be divided into three groups:
- User interactions – videos liked, shared, and commented on and accounts followed
- Content on the site – this directly relates to hashtags, sounds, video descriptions, and categories of them. This category includes “trends”
- Account information – such as language and location
This algorithm allows you to match content, keep users interested longer and increase their engagement, which positively affects the spread of videos that gain rapid popularity.
Viral videos
Viral videos can be compared to a virus because they spread very quickly. To create such a video, first of all, you need to have an intuition of what will interest users. These can be trends, interesting stories, or unique or controversial topics, but recently it’s the trends that are the most popular.
Trends include sounds, filters, effects, dance routines, and duets, which allow users to respond to a different video. Trends are characterized by the fact that many users follow them. Additionally, TikTok promotes them through its algorithms and if the video is tailored enough (for instance quality, creativity, and distinctive), chances are it will go viral.
The Winners
To better illustrate the magic of trends, I will rely on examples. The mastery of trend imitation has been achieved by two well-known companies – Ryanair, the Irish airline, and Duolingo, the language learning app.
The people responsible for their social media marketing understand perfectly how to go viral on TikTok. Imitating the most popular trend, in the same way, promoting their brand.
Duolingo
For people who use TikTok, the Duolingo mascot is something familiar. The company is one of the most popular brands on the platform. It has over 3.3 million followers and 63.6 million likes. The most popular video has over 25 million views. The company does not sponsor its posts, but only follows trends and takes a creative approach to the published content.
Ryanair
The most popular Ryanair video has over 11 million views. Many videos are over the 3 million limits and most of them have at least a dozen thousand views. Ryanair has 1.6 million followers and 25.9 million likes in total. The company, apart from following trends, is also distinguished by its self-distance. The company creates content based on users’ negative comments by turning them into a joke. Finally, Ryanair became one of the most successful companies in social media.
So how to promote your brand on TikTok?
In summary, TikTok allows companies to promote themselves in the same way that ordinary users share content. The most important thing is to follow trends, further have a “feeling” of what users may like, and be creative! This way you can gain a new audience and succeed on one of the largest social media platforms.
