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“It’s about drive, it’s about power.” Opps & Blocks by Drilla. “TikTok made me buy it.” If you’ve been on TikTok recently, these will all sound very familiar, and that’s probably because you’ve seen these trending TikToks all over your FYP. It’s great to know what the current trends are, but where can you learn how to start a trend on TikTok?
Quick TikTok Stats
TikTok as a concept and app is one of the greatest trends in history. TikTok was launched in September 2016 and in October 2018, it was the most downloaded app in the United States. In less than four years, TikTok surpassed 3 billion downloads and reached one-third of all social media users on the planet. It took Facebook and Instagram almost a decade to reach that user base. TikTok appears to have mastered the social media growth formula, and you would probably like to follow their lead.
Seeing as there are profits to be made from producing unique content, let’s look into a few TikTok stats in order to understand your potential audience when you figure out just how to start a trend on TikTok:
- Still rapidly growing – TikTok has been downloaded 3 billion times and was the most downloaded non-game app in the first six months of 2021, with 383 million installs between January and June. Between January 2018 and July 2020, the United States had a 787.86 percent increase in users. According to eMarketer, TikTok has 73.7 million monthly active users in the United States (and is forecasted to reach 88.7 million by 2024)
- Huge potential audience on a daily basis – In the United States, TikTok boasts 50 million daily active users, which translates to 18.68 percent of mobile internet users.
- Young demographic – In America, sixty percent of TikTok’s population is female, whereas forty percent is male. Sixty percent are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four. Twenty-six percent are between the ages of 25 and 44. Eighty percent are between the ages of 16 and 34. The benefit of a younger audience is that they typically spend more time per day viewing media.
Top creators make over $5 million annually, so knowing how to start a trend on TikTok is valuable information, for individuals as well as brands. TikTok trends with hundreds of millions (or even billions) of views and tens of thousands of participants are not uncommon. A trend is a movement, sound, or a hashtag (or all three) that people see and reproduce: a behavior is carried out by one user, then by another, and so on. The behavior can be altered or changed to fit each unique creator, but the core concept and execution stay the same. Trending sounds and hashtags almost often reflect a newly accepted behavior or cultural meme on TikTok.
https://www.tiktok.com/@duolingo/video/7038687298027900206?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
Why are TikTok trends generating so much interest?
The reason for this is that making a TikTok parodying someone else’s work is so simple that it leaves plenty of room for other creativity. Do you want to make a video with the sound of someone else? Simply add the sound as an audio track on your video. Do you want to offer your thoughts on someone else’s content? Just use the duet feature. In minutes, you can shoot, edit, and manipulate video using the app.
Check out this link for more simple TikTok tools. There’s no need to export files or edit them.
How to start a TikTok trend vs how to find a TikTok trend
The Discover page on TikTok includes a selected list of the most recent trends. It focuses on the most popular sounds and subjects. Within these trends, the best-performing material is given higher placement. As a result, everyone is looking for the next big trend to follow. Users join trends in order to gain a higher position and increase their following. This, in turn, encourages others to join in on the trend. Even the most well-known producers parody trends created by smaller accounts.
@kyraisgay99 pls tell me no ones done this yet 😅 #fyp #fypシ #brittanybroski #laugh #funny #onlineshopping
Many users even go out of their way to scour TikTok for rising trends. #trendalert has become a popular hashtag in its own right as a result of its widespread use. Following this hashtag has the advantage of allowing you to jump on whatever trend others have spotted.
Want to see just how influential trending content can be for your account? Read about how Duolingo boosted their followers and engagement by following TikTok trends here.
If bandwagoning on another person’s content isn’t your style, but you still want your content to blow up, and aren’t sure what to upload, start by looking at prior trends to find common ground. Some of them are necessary for a TikTok video to become a genesis video i.e. the start of the trend. How to start a trend on TikTok requires that your video has these components:
1. Simple
A great example of simplicity was the Dreams trend featuring: Skateboarding, Ocean Spray Cranberry juice, and Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams. These three components are all basic parts of the Dreams trend. But, to make recognizable remixes, each of those factors might be replaced with substitutes. People driving or walking were frequently shown on TikTok. Participants were frequently drinking anything other than Ocean Spray. There were also those skateboarding with Ocean Spray on occasion, but the music wasn’t Dreams.
2. Universal
Your video must be understood (and usually makes everybody smile). The more friction there is (i.e. the less universal it is), the less likely it is to become a trend. Take Khabane lame for example, his videos are primarily duet videos where people make something harder than it needs to be, he answers by giving a simple solution paired with a deadpan face.
https://www.tiktok.com/@khaby.lame/video/6989993956889169157?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
3. Reactive
It’s evident that there’s an X-factor in any popular TikTok fad. There’s a vague feeling that there’s something there that causes a visceral reaction (good or bad). “Surprising, emotionally complex, or extremely positive” are the typical tones of viral trends.
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4. *Large following
While having a large number of followers isn’t required, it does seem to correlate (somewhat) with the likelihood of making a genesis video. This makes intuitive sense. More visibility equals more chances to get people to participate. The great thing about TikTok, though, is that it is not required. Many genesis videos are made by people who didn’t have a lot of followers prior to starting their trend.
Final Thoughts
Whether you are a brand or an individual, starting a TikTok trend has a huge payoff. How to start a trend on TikTok does not have a straightforward answer, though studying trend characteristics might be beneficial in starting one yourself. Creativity is one thing that every trend has in common. Arguably the best move you can make is to create new, unique content, study the reaction, and work from there.
