- Content creators and brands are aware of the importance of TiKTok for their visibility
- The internal algorithms of this app are constantly changing, but they keep a few things
- What elements can you not lose sight of if you want your videos to reach more followers?
Undoubtedly, TikTok has become one of the leading social platforms out there today. Millions of young people from all over the world want to be professional tiktokers, and brands know that they must show products and services in it to stand out. Therefore We could affirm that understanding, even interpreting, the TikTok algorithm is key to taking advantage of this network. But, what are the keys to position in it?
The first good news that we can give you in this regard is that, around the year 2020, the CEO of TikTok, Kevin Mayer, shared a manifesto regarding the relevance of transparency in technology companies. It seemed like a direct challenge to both Meta and Google, which are often dishonest with internal algorithms.
for now, TikTok has been fulfilling that promiseand we have more information about their algorithms than about any of their rivals, so in the following lines we are going to focus both on what they themselves comment, and on what we have been learning in our own experience dealing with this system .
This is how the TikTok algorithm works
At first, as soon as we create an account, TikTok will access basic information such as gender, age, and location. You will be able to find out in a matter of seconds that we are male, young and British, or some other combination.
But as we use the social network, it will learn from the contents that we stop at, and those that we don’t. will discover then what topics interest us and show them more often, and remove the rest of the topics. So far there is not much difference compared to other social networks and how they work in practice.
In fact, like the others, TikTok classifies its users by audience groups and specific interests. Connect themes according to how related they are to each other, associating that if we are attracted to one, we will be attracted to another.
How to pop the filter bubble effect?
That being said, TikTok suffered the same criticism as Meta and Google over a propensity to spread false information. But unlike those Its managers assure that they are trying to combat this problem. In this sense, it must be considered that human psychology affirms that we react more to what automatically causes an emotional reaction, so fine-tuning the algorithm so that it establishes exceptions is not easy.
His idea to prevent this from happening is that, every certain period of time, we will see random content. This will ensure that we do not fall into a spiral or filter bubble effect, and we are open to new themes.
This is probably not enough, because we will continue to act with the contents that we really like. Studies on the matter indicate that we would have to observe close to 50% of random content to definitively break what is known as “behavioral learning”, that tendency towards subjects that attract us. Surely TikTok will never reach those percentages, because your business could be compromised.
Top Ranking Factors on TiKTok
Commitment to videos
One TikTok ranking factor is engagement, which basically includes likes and comments. The display time of the contents and visits to the profile also enter here the user in general. We should also mention the repetitions, the follow-ups and even tagging videos as I’m not interested.
Evidently, Not all forms of participation are the same, or not all are equally positive, of course.. Likewise, follower count does not directly affect video ranking, as in others. We are facing one of the most paradigmatic changes in network positioning that TiKTok has introduced.
Interactions beyond that
The rest of the interactions are transcendental, like clicking on a hashtag exploring a trending topicnavigate between videos with common music, and other searches that are made from the most specific details.
What is the content about?
It goes without saying that content creators and influencers They should make it clear what they are proposing.. As long as TikTok doesn’t know what they are offering to the public, they will have a hard time standing out.
To be sure that the algorithm understands you, use tools such as the images of the videos, accompanying music, text on the video, titles and hashtags, and complementary sounds that facilitate understanding.
Devices
We have a problem, and it is that although TikTok points out in its documentation that the user’s device alters the videos that are shown to users, they have not specified exactly howSo we can’t explain it.
And they do not only refer to the brand and model, but also affect the operating system, access to networks, etc. We could assume, in any case, that old devices or those with poor coverage see shorter videos.
Nevertheless this is nothing more than a theory on the air, since there is no way to verify it.
Ineligible or unoriginal content
Finally, TikTok has two ways to moderate content: remove it or make it ineligible for ranking. Violence, nudity and hate speech are some of the reasons why they can moderate them. Regardless of the reasons, try not to fall for them because you will ruin the positioning.
The same as if you have copied the content from another side, and you do not add anything new to it.
