{"id":141975,"date":"2020-09-11T13:32:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T13:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=141975"},"modified":"2020-09-11T13:32:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T13:32:21","slug":"unpacking-the-tiktok-algorithm-three-reasons-why-its-the-most-addictive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/09\/11\/unpacking-the-tiktok-algorithm-three-reasons-why-its-the-most-addictive\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpacking the TikTok algorithm: Three reasons why it&#8217;s the most addictive social network"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h3>30-second summary:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>TikTok has quickly become one of the most popular, addictive social networks.<\/li>\n<li>President Trump issued an executive order threatening to ban the platform in the US, and TikTok filed a lawsuit in response. If it can continue to operate, it&#8217;s slated to become one of the most powerful marketing tools for brands.<\/li>\n<li>Beyond creative users and an open, democratized essence, TikTok is designed for the user.<\/li>\n<li>CEO and founder of Heartbeat, Brian Freeman, dissects the TikTok algorithm and highlights three key features that make it one of the biggest consumer engagement platforms on earth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>TikTok is quickly dominating social media. In less than 18 months, the app has seen its adult user base in the US multiply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omnicoreagency.com\/tiktok-statistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">5.5 times<\/a>. Its revenue has <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2020\/01\/03\/tiktoks-revenue-said-to-skyrocket-over-300-in-q4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">grown more than 300%<\/a>, and it boasts nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/wallaroomedia.com\/blog\/social-media\/tiktok-statistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">60 million<\/a> active monthly users in the US. In recent months, as people have quarantined at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, TikTok\u2019s average daily traffic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2020\/04\/07\/technology\/coronavirus-internet-use.html\">increased by more than 15%<\/a>. What&#8217;s the secret sauce to this global craze, you may think? That&#8217;s where the TikTok algorithm comes into light.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"de\" dir=\"ltr\">TikTok has its best quarter ever\ud83d\udcb0 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zLhasaDhgq\">pic.twitter.com\/zLhasaDhgq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adam Blacker (@AdamBlacker25) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamBlacker25\/status\/1213105079936528386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 3, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>With the latest news on TikTok about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2020\/08\/24\/tiktok-sues-us-government-over-trump-ban.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">President Trump issuing an executive order<\/a> threatening to ban the app from operating in the US, added to the summer heat. In response, TikTok filed a lawsuit against the US government on the grounds that the ban prevents due process for the company. While we&#8217;ll have to watch how the legal proceedings pan out, if TikTok is allowed to keep operating, it is slated to become one of the most powerful marketing tools for American brands.<\/p>\n<p>TikTok\u2019s power goes beyond its democratized, creative essence. While the app\u2019s design and ability to foster a creative community caused it to surge onto the social media scene, it\u2019s exploding because of the way it gathers and harnesses data to enhance the user experience. Personalized content has become even more important as brands compete for the attention of people spending significantly more time online while navigating stay-at-home orders.<\/p>\n<p>A big part of this is influencer marketing, which is also known as \u201ccreator\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/02\/11\/tiktok-the-next-marketing-platform-for-brands\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">marketing on TikTok<\/a>. Audiences connect with influencers because they provide a sense of authenticity \u2014 and during stay-at-home orders, normalcy. Seeing someone advocate for a brand or products that they\u2019re using is an incredibly personal form of marketing. People are hypersensitive to the messages brands are putting out during this pandemic, which means this personal touch matters more than ever.<\/p>\n<p>The best, most masterful platform to let brands and influencers do this? TikTok. Let&#8217;s dissect the TikTok algorithm to point three key features that set it apart:<\/p>\n<h2><strong> The TikTok algorithm offers a streamlined feed<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Within the app, the main feed is a stream of content curated for individual users each day. It\u2019s quite literally called the \u201cFor You\u201d page, and it\u2019s where 99% of people spend their time on TikTok. As a marketer, this gives you a ton of real estate to showcase relevant content and generate <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/08\/05\/linkedin-algorithm-boost-engagement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">high engagement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The TikTok algorithm pushes engaging content to the top of its feed, which gives those trending videos more exposure, more frequently. And views, shares, comments, and likes, relative to how often a video has been seen, determine distribution on TikTok \u2014 not the number of followers. Momentum builds quickly on this platform and can keep going for multiple days.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>2. It leverages what you love (and what you don\u2019t)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>TikTok has an intuitive way of assessing user preferences. When a user watches a video through to the end, it triggers TikTok to pull similar content into that user\u2019s feed to keep them coming back for more. Of course, this can backfire (like when I watched a pimple-popping video all the way through), but users can easily tell the app they don\u2019t want to see more of a particular type of content.<\/p>\n<p>The result? Creative matching leads to relevance and can help your brand\u2019s and influencers\u2019 posts go viral. While Instagram influencers focus on getting impressions and increasing engagement, and Twitter posts go viral largely when key distributors such as Ellen DeGeneres or Jimmy Kimmel share them, TikTok doesn\u2019t demand that users or influencers have a global platform. If your brand influencers truly create content relevant to and aligned with your target, it\u2019s likely going to be far more visible on TikTok than on any other social network.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>3. The team hand-picks content<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Everything you see in TikTok isn\u2019t picked by robots. The user experience also relies on a creative team that combs through content and decides what to push to the top every day.<\/p>\n<p>Why does this matter to you as a marketer? Never before have you had this opportunity to get a fantastic distribution because you create fantastic content. It\u2019s not like Instagram, where you have to buy your way in with brute force. It is organic, authentic power through content, which is precisely what all brands and influencers should want.<\/p>\n<p>These features are clearly working for TikTok. ByteDance\u2019s ad revenue for the first half of 2019 reached <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moreaboutadvertising.com\/2019\/12\/bytedance-tiktok-is-building-a-new-social-media-empire-how-is-the-the-chinese-advertising-landscape-changing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seven billion USD<\/a>, which far surpassed Twitter\u2019s $1.4 billion. The platform has reached critical mass \u2014 now it\u2019s just a question of how businesses will embrace yet another new social platform. There will be billion-dollar brands built on TikTok and market share lost by companies that don\u2019t act quickly. The race is on.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/author\/brianfreeman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Brian Freeman<\/em><\/a><em> is the CEO and founder of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartbeat.com\/heartbeatinfluencerblog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Heartbeat<\/em><\/a><em>, the first platform for ambassador-powered marketing at scale. Driven by empowering real women, Heartbeat has more than 140,000 on-demand female brand ambassadors for launching turnkey ambassador solutions and has done campaigns with Amazon, Laura Mercier, Saks Fifth Avenue, Warner Bros., Netflix, and other big brands.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TikTok has taken the marketing world by storm with personalized content and unique design. Three algorithm features are making it the marketing tool brands can&#8217;t survive without.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":141977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27893,7,15],"tags":[105,75,53,27760,27934,1112,350],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-141975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-marketing","category-industry","category-video","tag-algorithm","tag-content-2","tag-digital-marketing","tag-tiktok","tag-tiktok-algorithm","tag-video-content","tag-video-marketing"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Unpacking-the-TikTok-algorithm-Three-reasons-why-its-the-most-addictive-social-network.png","category":"Digital Marketing","timeago":"5y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141975"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=141975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}