TIKTOK

TikTok is the new social media platform which has really taken over the industry recently. TikTok is a Chinese video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based company founded in 2012. It became available in the United States after merging with musical.ly on August 2, 2018. The app allows users to create short music and lip-sync videos of 3 to 15 seconds and short looping videos of 3 to 60 seconds. After merging with musical.ly in August, downloads rose and TikTok became the most downloaded app in the US in October 2018.

I personally never used Musical.ly when it was at its peak in about 2017 as I always found it quite cringe so I didn't really start to notice TikTok until late 2019. It's so true that literally everyone will refuse to download TikTok and have no idea why people find it so interesting until they actually download it and start watching the videos and you instantly become hooked. With the current pandemic the amount of people downloading and using the app has definitely risen, it's such a great way to get entertainment in such a boring time. It's also great because you can make all the content from your own home, which is all we can do at this time, you don't have to be on a sunny beach or on nights out to get great content like you usually do on platforms such as Instagram.

I read an article in The Times; TikTok’s Hype House: home of Chase Hudson, Charli D’Amelio and friends, which I found very interesting. I was already aware of 'The Hype House' as I have seen a few of their TikToks on my FYP and a documentary on it on YouTube, but they really don't interest me. I think they are very dull, with repetitive, cringey content and nothing that is very entertaining. I honestly don't understand how they get the hype that they do, one of the biggest creators is Charli D'amelio who has nearly 50million followers and 3.3billion likes, all of her videos get millions of views. Her following grows so quickly and I really don't understand how, most of her videos are just of her doing simple dances, trends and lipsyncing, something that most people could do, but no one else gets that kind of following.

This article also talks about how TikTok is a more genuine platform and how it's successful as Gen Z are so much more interested in authenticity. I agree with this to an extent, many videos are ones that just ordinary people create from their bedrooms, not dressed up and putting on an act and expressing their humour or experiences which I really enjoy. However I don't believe that The Hype House are an authentic example, in the documentary I watched about them they said that to be a member of the house you had to produce at least three videos a day, so it's not something that they just do for a hobby or enjoyment anymore, they filter and are under strict rules to remain in the house. Not many of the group actually live in the house and there is barely and furniture or life in the house, its very bare, perfected and almost like a studio which really takes away from the authentic quality.

I do feel like the app is really set up and filtered as most people who use it just scroll through their 'For You' Page which is all selected by TikTok, they completely filter who you see and I feel they are pushing influencers such as The Hype House onto your FYP and giving those creators a huge following. They definitely look at what you like and interact with as I once liked an at home work out video and then I was bombarded with so many similar ones on my FYP. I love seeing the funny cat and dog videos so I searched the hashtag and then suddenly all my recommend videos were of cats and dogs. I don't really know how they chose the videos to go on the FYP because I see so many people who have about 1 or 2 videos that just blow up with millions of views and the others only have a few hundred views.

I don't really ever see brands use TikTok as a promoting platform. I don't think it is the right platform for sponsorships as again it's trying to be a more authentic platform and sponsorships usually have set requirements and rules that the influencer has to follow when creating the post. I have seen companies such as LUSH create accounts for specific stores where they make short videos with the staff and play on viral jokes about the store. I think this is a successful way of using the platforms as it shows the brand is playful and a energetic place to be. I found a great qoute in an article called Everything Social Marketers Need to Know About Generation Z which said "While you never want your brand to have a ‘how do you do, fellow kids?’ moment, there are ways businesses and organisations can authentically use the platform. If your brand voice is more playful or irreverent, TikTok could be the perfect place to create and share content.

Collaborate with TikTok influencers, post content using a branded hashtag, or participate in one of the countless TikTok challenges, as long as it aligns with your brand."Which I completely agree with as it needs to be appropriate to your brand voice and image. As I saw a video that Charli D'amelio did with Prada, where she just simply wore a Prada bag with a colourful background and captioned it @prada #prada, that was it, @prada don't even have any content on their page so I really don't see the point in this post.

A big trend on TikTok recently has been all the cooking videos, DIYs and at home workouts, with the pandemic keeping people at home. I enjoy these videos so much more than the dancing as they show us how to create things quickly and easily. So I think an opportunity for brands would be for restaurants, or food brands to show how they make the food or using their products, the same with stores showing how to style their clothing pieces in outfits etc.

It's a known thing that all teenagers are trying to become TikTok famous because it can be so easy to blow up but then also so hard, I know people who put in so much effort to only get a couple hundred views then others put in no effort a blow up. I just think it's a really entertaining platform where everyone can do anything they want to express themselves.