And for the moment you have all been waiting for… one of my very own Tik Toks has made it to the “for you” page *insert applause here*! I wouldn’t call my Tik Tok viral per say, but achieving 1,150 views overnight since posting it was a pretty great response in such a short amount of time, and it proves that I must be close to perfecting the viral Tik Tok formula. As you can see below, not only does this Tik Tok have more views than all of my other videos, but it has 26 likes and a comment from a friend who informed me that my video had made it onto their “for you” page, indicating my short but sweet 5 minutes of fame.
Along with my Tik Tok’s brief fame, I subsequently gained 11 followers and nearly a hundred more views on my previous Tik Toks from new followers, a substantial leap from a few weeks ago. When these new followers came as my video gained more views and likes, people I did not know (not my close friends who typically comment on my videos) began to comment on past Tik Toks like this one below.
When it came to my caption and hashtag choice, I stayed true to my last post and stuck with the #viral and #fyp hashtags because I have seen that every popular video possesses these, and for my caption, I was just trying to be honest and relatable to my fan base in my journey to discover Tik Tok fame.
The inspiration for my “semi-viral” Tik Tok came from my diligent scanning of the discover page and popular #hashtag trends. This is where I found the #youcanreallydance thread and fell in love with @derekhough‘s hilarious dance featuring the quirky tune “Wow You Can Really Dance” garnering 4.5 million likes and thousands of comments. Immediately after seeing that video I thought to myself, I must recreate this, and so I did. I did plan on actually being in this Tik Tok, but after presenting my idea to my friends, they wanted to be featured so badly I could not refuse. And as Van Dijck outlines, my friends, just as I, have hopes to self-brand themselves in order to become influencers.
Since I posted the #youcanreallydance video, I have been actively engaging in other niche areas of Tik Tok besides classic humor, thus I have been particularly active on #healthyeating channels as well as #strengthtraining being I am quarantined in my home and still want to utilize my social media as best as I can. In doing so, I have been actively liking and commenting on fitness and food tutorials, and the Tik Tok algorithm has intuitively placed more of these videos on my popular feed. I plan on continuing to build more of a community around these videos and comment on other users’ comments for tips and advice as well!
On Tik Tok, especially with this global pandemic, there seems to be a trend of users posting more “real” or relatable content about the Coronavirus and how they are coping with it. This is a clear shift from Baym’s idea that we show the world a heavily filtered “strategic representation of self” on platforms such as Tik Tok because prior to this, and still today, there are a lot of “tiktok girls” who are using their beauty for clout. Because of this, I really wanted to join in on this fad and treat my account like a visual diary of my life, just as millennials do with “finstas”.
That is why, out of sadness and despair that my friends and I were being relocated to our respective homes due to the pandemic, I decided to create a tribute Tik Tok with the hashtag #coronavirus, #viral, #fyp, with hopes to take a comedic yet solemn take on the current situation my friends and I were facing. Although it garnered significantly less likes and views than my #youcanreallydance video, this Tik Tok still garnered 340 views and counting, more than my first 2 video view-counts combined! I chose the song, “In the Arms of an Angel” because it is quite possibly the saddest tune I have heard, thus it was perfect for the deeply saddening departure of my pals from Berkeley. Sticking with the theme of being more authentic and real on Tik Tok, I captioned this video exactly how I was feeling at the moment, hoping to achieve fame naturally.
In these following weeks to come where I will be all by my lonesome, with just my dog to accompany me, I aim to not only spend a sickening amount of time on Tik Tok, but to do so with greater purpose. Being that I cannot see my friends in the physical space, I have made plans to use the “duet” feature of Tik Tok to collab with friends on the app and make joint videos. As you can see from my liked videos and repertoire of sounds to choose from, I plan to make a visual diary of my quarantined life through the use of trending sounds such as “It’s Corona Time” as well as comical effects to not only pass the time, but to as always: go #viral.
kai's world! 