Individual employees decide what goes viral
TikTok has admitted that individual US employees can decide what content goes viral – although it’s against company policy. The backgrounds.
How do videos go viral on TikTok? Now, while many may think that the right combination of topic, format, and hashtags will bring the desired success, certain content seems to be successful for other reasons. Because how different media report, employees of the company seem to be pulling the strings in the background.
Contents
As TikTok spokesman Jamie Favazza told the forbesMagazine recently confirmed that some US employees have the ability to boost videos. They can do this thanks to the so-called “heat” button.
Employees use this function to ensure that selected videos appear on the user’s “For you” page. By doing so, they bypass the algorithm of the short video platform and generate more views for content.
TikTok employees are boosting family videos
Favazza explained that the “heat” feature is actually designed to introduce celebrities and aspiring creators to the TikTok community. In addition, the content experience of the user should be diversified.
However, the promoted content on TikTok is not labeled. It therefore remains hidden from users that the videos do not have a “natural” success.
In the past, some employees of the company have jumped at the opportunity and pushed videos of their friends, partners and even their own accounts. In one case, according to one source, it even resulted in an account receiving more than three million views.
Viral: TikTok consciously chooses winners and losers
Although the practice violates company policy, the deliberately heated videos make you noisy forbes about one to two percent of views. By deliberately interfering with the algorithm, employees consciously decide which videos are successful and which are not.
Because while individual videos are pushed, creators as well as sponsored brands lose their place in the “For You” feed.
Working method known for a long time
However, the fact that TikTok employees are interfering with users’ feeds does not necessarily come as a surprise. For years there have been reports that the platform has convinced politicians and companies to use the channel with promises of sponsored content.
In addition, other companies, especially in the music industry, have made no secret of the fact that they use TikTok to promote their brands. According to forbes Customers even have a lot of discretion in deciding what content to promote.
Viral next to it: TikTok could lose users
Other social media channels also use this form of manipulation. For example, Facebook is said not to have corrected excessive access numbers in order to lure advertisers and media companies to its platform.
It remains to be seen whether this way of working is so clever. Because other creators could feel disadvantaged and turn their backs on the company. At a time when social media companies are scrambling for members, that could quickly become a detriment.
Also interesting:
