TikTok Newsletter 81
Virality does not easily transpose to viability
Hi. This is Understanding TikTok – your weekly update. My name is Marcus. Sorry for being late, i finally managed to write my PhD proposal on TikTok and disinformation. That took some time 🤞.
TikTok will overtake YouTube in the only metric that really matters, writes Jim Louderback in this week’s VidCon-newsletter. Of course he is speaking about time spent with the app (emarketer).
So now let’s spent some time on:
🌪️ Your Viral Moment
✡️ Jewish TikTok
🤡 Political Campaigning
🌪️ Your Viral Moment
Let’s talk about people complaining. These people include FKA Twigs, Charli XCX, and Halsey amongst others. They all say that their management is pushing them to find ways to go viral on TikTok, even if it requires faking a "viral moment” (Axios).
Charli XCX has – according to Pop Crave – confirmed that “her video about her record label asking her to make multiple TikToks to promote her songs was a lie: not me - i was just lying for fun.” But this is actually the point. Where does your viral marketing campaign start, where does it end and how do you treat the precious resource of realness on the platform? Is faking a viral moment a promising strategy?
All of this is certainly relevant for the world outside the music industry too. Dr. Crystal Abidin (TikTok Cultures Research Network) has published some intriguing thoughts on Twitter. Quote: “The pathways of TikTok attention are fraught. Visibility in a niche-Tok does not easily transpose to algorithmic visibility. Virality does not easily transpose to viability”. You better print out that last sentence. And here is more. Quote: “Attention is not attached to affect. The rhythm of content is mainly influenced by interest.”
So here is the question: Mum, am i interesting?! For whom? Why? And for how long? And what happens then? If there is one thing that seems to hold true throughout time it is change. At least Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, says that. While “people are [already] getting tired of the 'TikTok music formula'” (NBC), they will get bored of marketing campaigns and faking marketing campaigns. Be interesting. Balenciaga (High Snobiety) is still doing a good job here, don’t you find?! Oh, and here is Madonna arriving at Central Saint Martins.
✡️ Jewish TikTok
In #77 i covered The TikTok Bibliography, including Boffone, T. (Ed). (2022). TikTok Cultures in the United States. Oxford: Routledge. As more and more chapters of the book find their way to Twitter i wanted to guide you to this particular chapter written by Tom Divon and Tobias E. Hartmann, two researchers from Hebrew University.
It is a great read – as e.g. Theresa Lehmann has pointed out. Before you start reading i recommend to check out the brilliant Twitter thread above to get a first glimpse. If you want to dive deeper, here is more on the Digital Visual History @HUJI’s website: Is it possible to teach about the Holocaust in 60 seconds? Can we deal with religion in playful ways? How does GenZ users talk about serious topics such as antisemitism, racism and political conflict?
🤡 Political Campaigning
Australia has voted. There has been a shock to the system (BBC). And the climate catastrophe is obviously a thing. We come back to that in a second.
First i invite you to watch this TikTok video posted by the SPD (Social Democratic Pary of Germany) ‘s official TikTok account. Here is the background in german (Der Westen). Lucky for them, that it only has 5K views and that it was mainly debated on Twitter. It is just not good. How come no one involved in the process did not see.
And now back to Australia. The 2022 Australian federal election was held on 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia (Wikipedia). And – guess what – TikTok changed the campaign game of Australian politics (9news).
Pedestrian.tv ranked “Aussie Politician TikTok Accounts From Bad To Shithouse So You Don’t Have To”. I like the approach: We’ve split the list into 3 categories: “Wholesome & informative”, “chaotic but good” and “cursed & cringe”. It’s truly a hell-scape out there.
If you or a friend are somehow involved in political campaigning you should watch these examples representing the state of the art 2022. To be honest i just watched the “cursed & cringe” section. Enjoy. Sit. And come up with a better plan.
Marcus, I want more
🥐 Miro Dittrich recommends this episode of the QAA Podcast with Taylor Lorenz talking about her research on Libsoftiktok. I am just listening to that right now. Here is her Washington Post article if you missed that one.
🥐 A Taxonomy of TikTok Panics. I am in love with this headline. And the approach. Haven't we been through this already? From the bizarre to the dangerous ... the actual reach and impact of these challenges remain mysterious — or, more often, minimal (On the media)
🥐 TikTok reportedly plans a ‘major push’ into gaming and games livestreamers could play with viewers (The Verge). Wake me up, when your HTML5 mini-games mature. Otherwise i force you to watch the Disco Loco Trailer on constant repeat.
🥐 If you are into synthesia, this Wired story is just for you. And so is this four year old Reddit: Does Kanye really have synesthesia?
🥐 Older people using TikTok to defy ageist stereotypes, research finds (Guardian). Older in this case means people above 60. Not 35.
🥐 There is a huge debate about reach. And the actual decline of reach for german creators. Reichweiten-Einbrüche bei Tiktok-Creator:innen – das steckt dahinter (OMR)
This is the end. Would you please excuse me now.
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