I've been on TikTok recently. Well, I've been watching for a while now, but I thought I'd try my hand at it. I started out with a few singing videos and a few production videos. I noticed that some of my videos were doing better than others. So, I decided to try and "beat the algorithm." which was mainly me only doing singing videos. That's as far as I got.
I've read different articles and seen videos on how to do this but, to be honest, they didn't get me very far. I uploaded a singing video last week that got zero views. How does that happen? I wasn't on the for you page, and none of my 7 followers saw the video. I'm not upset at it, but I am confused. It seems as if, at least when you're starting out on TikTok, views and engagement can have a lot to do with luck. It can be like a gamble of whether or not TikTok decides to show people your videos. If they do well with everyone that sees them, they get in front of more and more people. This leads to more engagement and then more views.
To me, TikTok feels very casual. It's short-form, so it's easy for me to film and upload them. I figured out how to use sounds, effects, and filters. It can be pretty fun. Most of my cover videos have been acapella, but I'm going to add music to them. I realized I can do this with their "add sound" feature. So instead of me just playing the instrumental in the background, it will sound more like a proper recording. I can also try to get more creative with the video aspect of it. Maybe this will bring in more engagement. It will also be exciting.
Interesting enough, the videos that got the lowest views were duets. These are videos where I'm singing along with someone else's videos. I thought, "TikTok encourages the use of their features like duets and stitches." So, when it comes to "beating the algorithm," sometimes it seems like there isn't one. Like it's all just random. I know it's not but, I have more questions than answers right now. Oh well. I like making these videos. So I'm going to keep doing it. Maybe they get somewhere, maybe they don't. Either way, I think this app is pretty cool. See my TikTok here :)