Why going viral on TikTok is more likely than Instagram
I was reading an article on The Drum earlier this summer, the headline hitting me: ‘TikTok will 100% kill Instagram.’
Authenticity is really what drives social engagement right now. Users are looking for something - and someone - real. According to Earth Web, TikTok has more than 680 million active users every month around the world, compared to Instagram, who has 1 billion active users every month. Both apps have extremely high engagement rates when it comes to likes and views and every day, TikTok receives 1 billion video views. As far as likes go, Instagram receives 4.2 billion likes per day.
Let’s talk algorithms.
Similarly, Instagram’s algorithms favor the user’s historical activity on the app by feeding certain posts in such a way that users see more than one post at a time. For example, if a person prefers images with certain themes, subjects, hashtags, etc., then Instagram will show more of that same type of content in the person’s Feed and Explore pages.
By contrast, TikTok recommends content it thinks a person would like one video at a time. People can toggle between Following and For You. Following showcases only videos from those accounts a user follows, while the For You page shows videos from a mix of follow and non-followed accounts.
The app offers an entirely different experience in this approach, and as a result, users tend to give and receive more full views. Showing one video at a time encourages full views instead of partial ones, thereby increasing impressions.
The viral factor.
Knowing how to go viral on TikTok means understanding – and making use of – how the TikTok algorithm values and distributes content. Once you’re aware of the key factors that go into the measurement of value in the algorithm, you’ll be one step closer to creating content that people want to see on the ‘For You’ pages.
The top piece of advice that our team of talented paid ads experts will give to you is that you need to know about the 3-second rule. What’s that? As soon as you share a video on TikTok, the algorithm will always send the video onto users’ ‘For You’ pages, but only for a short period of time. The reason for doing this is so that the platform can identify whether your video is relevant and engaging for viewers (and if it is, it’ll show it to more people).
The key metrics here that TikTok measures here are watch time and completion rate.
Try it out.
Getting started and ready to dive right in? 3 quick tips: 1) provide a CTA/description/call out in the first second of the video; 2) use trending audio; and 3) keep it short and sweet, A short video is not only more likely to get engagement but it will loop and replay encouraging the viewer to rewatch. Algorithm boost for the win!