Brandwatch Bulletin #113: The Inescapability of TikTok

From Reddit to Twitter, it's everywhere.

01 April 2022

Even if you’ve never downloaded the app, you’ve probably seen a TikTok video by now. They’re often shared on other platforms, with plenty going viral too. Today we’re looking at just how well TikToks are spreading beyond the app, and what kinds of videos are popular.

Let’s get to it.

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The TikTok takeover

It’s been months since TikTok broke the 1bn monthly users barrier, and we can expect numbers to climb and climb as time goes on. It’s not just people using it either, brands of all kinds and sizes have set up accounts to see what they can get out of TikTok.

For our readers who aren’t familiar with TikTok, it’s a video-based social media platform where users create and post their own content. It has its roots in music and dancing, but now creators of all kinds post there. Even BBC News signed up this month.

While we’re on the topic, if you’re considering getting your brand or organization onto TikTok, our handy beginner’s guide will get you set up in no time at all. Anyway, let’s get back to the data.

How TikTok goes beyond its boundaries

What we’re interested in today is seeing how much TikTok is talked about online, and how well its content spreads to other social platforms. This is a key way to get the brand in front of more people (without the ad spend) and increase membership.

To do this we set up a Brandwatch Consumer Research query to find mentions of TikTok, including links to TikToks themselves, on Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr. Turns out there were a lot to find.

There was little crossover in TikTok’s early days, but in 2018 things picked up with an acceleration in the second half of 2019. This increase was then dwarfed by the sharp uptick we saw in March 2020.

This coincides with the arrival of Covid-19. We can’t say for sure this was the main cause, but we do know the pandemic increased social media use. It’s logical to assume TikTok benefited from this too, seeing a slew of new sign ups.

Growth in TikTok mentions has generally increased ever since, aside from a fall in late 2020. March 2022 saw over 4.5m TikTik-related posts, the most for any month ever, being sent, with the vast majority being on Twitter.

A quick data note: These numbers don’t include shares of ripped TikToks where the platform isn’t mentioned in the post or a source link isn’t attached. This means the numbers above are likely lower than the true number of social media posts featuring TikTok.

There are so many kinds of videos made on TikTok, but we’re going to focus on a few of the big conversation drivers.

K-pop

K-pop makes regular appearances in our bulletins thanks to the sheer number and enthusiasm of fans online. They post about their favorite acts constantly, especially when they perform or make appearances. When a video message from BTS was broadcast at the Oscars, their fans went into overdrive on social.

TikTok video shares are no exception. When we look at global TikTok mentions from the last year, K-pop acts dominate. They’re the most-mentioned people in TikTok-related content (more than even Presidents Trump or Biden, who also get a lot of mentions), while the 30 most shared videos are all K-pop related.

The most shared video of all is the one below from BTS featuring their collab with Coldplay. For their TikTok account, the 42m views and 8m likes it generated are pretty average, but it’s by far their most successful TikTok video on Twitter from the last year, generating over 300k shares.

All in all, hundreds of thousands of these types of shares are being made every month, featuring a range of K-pop acts. This isn’t too surprising considering the popularity of K-pop on TikTok, but it’s clear off-platform shares are a major tool for the music industry to find new fans.

Comedy

Another common type of TikTok video is comedy. These videos have always been on TikTok, but in recent years we’re starting to see comedians make their name off the platform. One of the most famous examples is Sarah Cooper, whose TikTok impersonations of Donald Trump quickly broke out to other platforms and led to her own Netflix special.

These types of videos seem to be particularly popular in the US, with many of the most shared TikToks being comedic. Interestingly the music influence of the platform also remains. For example, one of the most shared TikToks in the US and the UK is this one, mimicking someone introducing their friend to Rage Against The Machine.

Meanwhile the various functionalities of TikTok lend themselves to interesting formats. Duets allow you to take another person’s video and put your own one alongside it. The idea here is to allow people to create dances to songs, or to literally duet with them.

Of course, you can duet with anything, leading to endless videos of talented musicians playing music alongside animals making weird noises. A prime example is this TikTok, which is one of the most shared in Japan.

Animals

We know we just mentioned an animal video, but that’s just how common they are. This won’t be a shock to anyone who has spent more than five minutes online, but it’s interesting to see how well TikTok has fit into this gap.

No matter which country we looked at, we soon found an animal-related video amongst the most shared TikToks. Many are simply owners showing off their pets being cute or acting weird, but others are slightly more dramatic. Take this example from the Sawnee Dog Retreat.

What this all means

For many TikTok is just a platform for teenagers doing silly dances. That reputation is starting to fall away, especially with research being published that shows TikTok and Twitter’s age demographics aren’t that dissimilar in the US.

But as TikTok content gets increasingly shared elsewhere, especially when it showcases the platform’s variety, we can expect people’s opinions to change ever faster. This should help the platform expand its user base and cement it as a place for all types of content and interest, just as Twitter and YouTube have done before.

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Thanks for reading

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Stay safe,

The Brandwatch Bulletin team