TikTok trends – what goes viral, and how to predict it?

As 2019’s most downloaded app, TikTok has seen a huge surge in popularity over the last year, with not just individuals but brands, organisations and celebrities flocking to the platform in a quest to produce the next viral video. 

But what makes a successful Tiktok? In true OneFifty style we’ve turned to the data to find out. Every day for the past month we’ve been tracking the stats of the app’s top 3 trending hashtags as well as the videos that appeared on our “For You” page and mapping out the trends.

Here’s a roundup of what we noticed in January:

“Let the music play…” 🎶 

• The vast majority of high-performing Tiktoks and hashtags are centred around music. This is unsurprising, given the Musical.ly heritage in both product and audience terms. Dance routines occur very frequently and range from the more complex and skilled to the more basic and easily replicable 

Put your hands up 🙌🏻

• The “emoji hand gesture challenge” has recurred multiple times throughout the month, and in different variations.

Lip-sync battle

• Aside from dance, another popular feature is lip-syncing to song lyrics or dramatic voiceover clips from (mainly reality) television (think Gemma Collins’ hair-straightener meltdown in the Big Brother house).

It’s a ‘brand’ new world 

• Brands and organisations have featured frequently among the top trending hashtags this month, with the Red Cross and Samsung having created custom hashtags to promote their causes.

The latest news source?

• Many top trending hashtags are linked to, and driven by, current affairs or pop culture (the Australian bush fires, ‘Blue Monday’ or a recent episode of Love Island) 

Fame is fleeting

• Trending hashtags remain in the Top 3 for two days, but their content (a certain dance routine or song) can appear weeks later in the For You page. 

We’re continuing our analysis in February, so watch this space…

#tiktok