You must have already read that TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media with over 800 million active users, making it the seventh most popular application in the world. You must have heard too many times that this is a social network that you must be on if your target group is a young population, teens. But also, if you went onto this network, did you feel like you were getting into an internal joke where you don’t understand anything, and the rules aren’t so clear to you?
Well, welcome to the TikTok world!
3 Eras of TikTok
TikTok can be divided into 3 eras:
- Musical.ly (LipSync)
- Transitions (Musical.ly &TikTok)
- TikTok (Dance & Comedy)
As we already know, TikTok was Musical.ly in “previous” life. The most popular clips at the time were pure lip-sync clips with the most used accelerated video effect. Subsequently, transition videos appeared. Transitions are forms of video editing and recording to make the change of frame interesting.
Many tiktokers have been masters in this and gained their popularity in incredibly good transitions: Falco Punch, Shay Bar, Maria Jeleniewska, Federica Scognamiglio, Freja Rehnström, and many others. As the time of transitions passed, they were no longer interesting and their popularity subsided. All of them are still active on TikTok but they no longer appear on the For You page (a page on TikTok that ejects popular clips by parameters similar to YouTube trending).
Celebrities vs.Tiktokers
Celebrities try this social network for the same reason as “normal” people. It’s interesting to them and the others in their niche are already there, so why not be them. Some of them have a good grasp of what the point is and what format fits this social network, such as BebeRexha. Some of the celebrities totally missed the point of TikTok but that didn’t stop them from getting a blue verified profile badge and millions of followers, deserved by the name alone. This fact is quite annoying to the tiktokers, who have garnered millions of followers with their content but haven’t yet been verified.
That topic was pretty current in clips and parodies for one period. It’s important to note here that the fact that a person has many followers doesn’t mean he/she is a good tiktoker. The secret is in the total number of likes on videos – if it’s big that’s a real deal. This is where the difference is made between celebrities who initially have a large number of followers just because of their name and tiktokers who have earned that number of followers and likes with content they provide.
“It’s Corona Time”
TikTokjoined other social networks when it comes to coronavirus-related content. As for the platform itself, every video that has to do with this topic (whether it was audio made for a virus, or some of # was used) is separated from the rest by the information bar at the bottom of the video. When a user clicks on the bar, the link takes him to a special page where it can learn more about how to protect himself from the new virus. Tiktokers also launched the “#HappyAtHome: LIVE!”– a sort of socializing with the famous tiktokers, as well as with actors, singers…
New trends have been launched regarding the virus as users record various choreographies such as dance to the song “Corona”, the dance explaining proper handwashing, the dance related to distance… Other trends include “It’s Corona Time” songs, which record mostly empty stores, home furnishings with disinfectants, toilet paper and the like. Further, there’s the song “I’m Bored in a House” on which creators record themselves getting bored in the house. It’s noticeable there are more and more users at home, there are clips of famous tiktokers who regularly inform their followers what they are doing while quarantined or comic clips about how online schooling works.
Image source: Betway