How Does Tik Tok's "For You Page" Work?
Understanding Tik Tok’s Algorithm and the #FYP
By: Caleb Correa-Marcy
At this point in time, it is clear that Tik Tok is taking over the internet, and it has been for quite some time now. While it has gained a massive surge in popularity in the past 1-2 years, it was originally created in 2016. According to DataReportal, the app currently has over 2 billion downloads on the App Store/Google Play and over 600 million monthly users. Whether it is a teenager from the various Tik Tok houses dancing in front of their phone, or creators making content related to just about every hobby/interest you can think of, there is truly something on Tik Tok for everyone.
The app is broken up into two primary sections. First is the “Following” Page which consists of content from the accounts the user follows, and the “For You” Page (FYP), which is the primary focus of the app and what the app is centralized around. One of the long-time mysteries of the app has been how exactly the For You page works, how the algorithm works, and how to understand it.
However, in June 2020, Tik Tok released a blog post that broke down the For You Page and some details of how it operates. First and foremost, the FYP runs primarily on a recommendation system. Tik Tok states that the videos on each user’s For You Page reflect the preferences unique to that person. Tik Tok monitors each user’s interactions while using the app to determine which types of videos are shown on their For You Page. According to Tik Tok’s blog post, the app makes recommendations based on a number of factors including user interactions, video information, and device/account information. User interaction deals with keeping track of which videos the users like, share, comment on, follow, and the type of content the user creates themselves. Video information consists of the captions, sounds, or hashtags the user interacts with. Last but not least, device/account information involves the user’s country setting, language information, and device type in order to provide the best viewing experiences. This allows us as users to understand how our For You Pages are run by personalized recommendations and show us content we want to see.
How are videos successful on the For You Page?
So now we understand why we primarily see videos about topics/creators we’re interested in on our FYPs’, but how do videos become successful on the For You Page in the first place? In an article for WIRED Magazine, staff writer Louise Matsakis breaks this other side of the algorithm down for us. Louise reports that according to Tik Tok, each video posted is run through a few steps and the success the video has within each step will determine the overall success of the video. When a user’s video is first uploaded to the app, the For You Page algorithm first shows it to a small group of users that Tik Tok has determined likely to engage with the post based on their previous interactions. When the video receives likes, comments, shares, or people watching the full length, it moves on to the next set of people and keeps repeating the algorithm until it plateaus.
When posting to Tik Tok, there are a few strategies to keep in mind that can boost the chances of a post getting more views/interactions.
Follow Trends - There are new trends on Tik Tok constantly. Pay attention to what is popular and if your goal is to get likes/views, posting videos that follow a popular trend can really boost a video’s chance of success.
Use Popular Hashtags/Sounds - This can go hand-in-hand with following trends, but it can be very beneficial to make use of trending hashtags and songs. When users are repeatedly liking videos with certain hashtags or sounds, they are more likely to be shown videos making use of the same elements.
Post Regularly - When a user posts regularly, they are more likely to build up a larger follower base, and thus each new video can begin to have more and more initial interactions which can help to boost its performance on the For You Page.
With that being said, some of the most viral Tik Toks has blown up with no use of hashtags or popular sounds, but rather just getting massive amounts of interactions in a short period of time. Additionally, famous Tik Tokers with massive follower bases don’t need to necessarily worry about using hashtags or popular sounds because they have such a large amount of followers that any video they post will instantly have thousands and even millions of interactions. However, for any regular Tik Tok user looking to have their videos get more traffic on the For You Page, it can be helpful to keep the tips that were mentioned above in mind.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/style/what-is-tik-tok.html
https://www.tiktok.com/
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-global-overview-report
https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-finally-explains-for-you-algorithm-works/
https://tenor.com/search/tik-tok-gifs
