BCM206 Contextual Essay

Project Summary:

Throughout this semester in BCM206, I have curated content on ‘TikTok’, a popular social media platform that allows you to produce short videos following trends and popular sounds. I had previously made videos on this platform for BCM112 and BCM114. I wanted to make more videos after previous success on the application when I reached around 400k views on one of my videos. Based off my research and previous experience, taking part in trends and using viral sounds as early as possible can aid in getting maximum views and likes, with this information I tried my upmost effort to catch trends early yet also incorporate my own interpretation of the trend.

I made an audience starter pack in order to lay out what I expect from viewers. I decided I would post around 3-4 videos each couple of days, tracking my views, likes and followers. With an established 7000 followers, I hoped I would have them boost my engagement and share the videos around. Due to the large growth on TikTok, as I prerequisite I researched how many people had downloaded the application since I last did a digital artefact. Oberlo stated that over 100 million users had downloaded the application since May 2020.

Learning Moments:

The subject’s topics of anonymous resistance and digital feudalism strung true with my digital artefact. With a viral application such as TikTok, comes trolls, hacks and insensitivity as we learnt in anonymous resistance. As I learnt this, I contributed it to my work, making sure it was censored and remaining respectful to avoid backlash. Digital feudalism remained coherent in my digital artefact as well, the algorithm of TikTok being a large part of short-lived success. TikTok according to Later, the algorithm of TikTok relies on the amount of followers one has and how the engagement is preceded.

One learning moment that strung true for me was the beginning of my digital artefact when I first posted. I used an audio with moderate amount of views and users, the videos received over 42k views and 9000 likes. Little did I know, the timing of when I posted my video and the sound I used. Each were both effective in my engagement. I learnt timing is everything when comes to posting on any social media platform, due to the average amount of people online at any time. The Influencer Marketing Hub stated that the best times to post on TikTok (EST) where on average 6am, 10am, 4pm and 10pm.

The most important learn I gained from this subject was likelihood. Due to my viral content in other subjects, I became overconfident in this subject, expecting some (if not all) my videos to go viral and I would somehow become and influencer overnight. For obvious reasons, this didn’t happen. Oberlo stated that out of the 800 million users on the application, 41% are aged between 16 and 21. The average user opens TikTok at least 9 to 10 times a day and spends around 52 minutes on the app per time. With these statistics, my goals became more realistic and I changed my plan to do videos for myself and my own enjoyment rather than for others.