Is there a secret to going viral on TikTok?
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Gone are the days of TikTok being an app for dance videos, it is now a powerhouse for viral moments and brand success. With users consuming over a billion videos daily, there’s a massive opportunity to get your brand on the ‘For You Pages’ of your target market through viral moments. But how exactly do you go viral? We’ve broken down the key elements to virality, as well as viral videos our own social team has created, to see if there really is a secret to going viral on TikTok.
Elements of a TikTok to consider
With everyone’s ‘For You Page’ being entirely unique to them, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact formula that will make your TikTok go viral and land on millions of those FYPs. However, there are a few key points that will help you use the TikTok algorithm to your advantage.
- Authenticity and niche- creating content relevant to your niche (e.g. #booktok, food, beauty etc…) that you’re genuinely passionate about or have a strong connection to will allow the TikTok algorithm to feed this to the people most likely to engage
- Sounds- using trending sounds is one of the easiest ways to get your videos on people’s FYPs
- Shareability- if your content is easily digestible, funny, relatable or informative people are likely to share this amongst their friends and family
- Value-based content- if your TikTok provides someone with valuable information the shareability and engagement will increase
Jenny
You might have seen some of Team Embryo on your For You Page as we’ve had quite a few viral moments among us. Paid Social Manager Jenny had 15 minutes of fame on TikTok in 2022 when a video of her on Channel 4’s ‘First Dates’ went viral. The clip shows Jenny walking into a restaurant and being mistaken as someone’s first date, just before their actual date walks in. Jenny puts the virality of this video down to how shareable it was due to the video being cut down and easily digestible.
Emma
Senior Paid Social Executive Emma had a completely different style of video go viral, with her TikTok about the popular book series ‘ACOTAR’ reaching 283K views. She put the success of this viral meme video down to ‘ensuring your captions, videos and profile are keyword-heavy to finding your perfect ‘tok’.’ In a LinkedIn post about her viral moment, Emma said:
- ‘Researched the ‘tok’ she wanted to appeal to, searching for new ideas.’
- ‘Created several pieces of content related to that ‘tok’. The one that went viral was my main focus, along with a few others, to build my profile and cater to audience interest.’
- ‘Used a few key hashtags related to the ‘tok’ to increase search potential.’
- ‘Replied to as many comments as possible, including a video response.’
The advice she’d give to anyone wanting to create a viral moment is ‘ensuring your captions, videos and profile are keyword-heavy to finding your perfect ‘tok’.’
Megan
I myself have had a video go ‘semi-viral’ with a Krakow Travel Guide reaching 107.4K views. My videos generally reach 1-2K views, but personally, I think what set this one apart was:
- Seasonality- I posted the video in November which is when everyone is jetting off to European cities for Christmas Markets and winter city breaks
- It was easily digestible and shareable- I used a rating system as a guide
- It was a carousel which TikTok is pushing more and more recently
Brands that have cracked the TikTok code
When it comes to brands going viral on TikTok, some have got it down to a tee. Duolingo’s TikToks regularly reach 1 million+ views, with their most viewed TikTok achieving a staggering 65.7 million views. The TikTok shows the Duolingo owl in various locations, edited in the style of a sad film montage with sound over it. The caption simply states ‘when you ignore my notifications’- a playful way to interact with their audience and make fun of the fact Duolingo is known for sending an aggressive amount of notifications. The video wasn’t overly produced or polished, proving it doesn’t take anything expensive or complicated to make an impact- just a simple idea that connects with the right people.
Duolingo has built its presence on TikTok not just through the videos themselves, but also with how they interact with their viewers. The Duolingo Owl (or rather the social media manager behind it) is known for its witty, direct responses to commenters. Duolingo aren’t scared to be blunt and dry with their humour, and they’re also not scared to push the boundaries when it comes to trends and staying relevant.
Most recently they’ve hopped on the ‘brat summer’ trend by sending multiple people dressed as the Owl to Charli XCX’s SWEAT tour and achieved 2 million views on a video of Charli herself giving them a shoutout. This video worked for multiple reasons:
- Charlie XCX is currently a hot topic as she started the ‘brat summer’ trend
- The video was current and reactive- Charli XCX’s tour is happening right now and is getting a lot of attention, so the algorithm will have favoured this video
- Duolingo happens to have the same brand colours as Charli XCX- they’ve recognised the connection and leaned into it
- The brand used self-deprecating humour
Things we can all take away from Duolingo’s TikTok strategy:
- It pays to be bold- TikTok is a young, fresh platform and therefore demands you keep up with it. Old-school creative that works on Meta simply won’t cut it on TikTok
- Audience interaction is key
- Keep it simple
In conclusion, there’s no formula or secret code to going viral on TikTok, but by prioritising things like sounds, shareability, and authenticity you will give the TikTok algorithm more to work with and boost your chances of success.
If you’d like to know more about how our expert social team can optimise your TikTok strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us.
