I did an experiment this past week. I posted a TikTok video with a very basic caption, no hashtags, and it took me all of 5 minutes to do. This TikTok now has almost 3,000 views and over 200 likes. I know this number is nowhere near the number of “TikTok famous” creators, but this is currently my most viewed and liked TikTok.
Here’s the story
On April 20th, I woke up and did my usual morning routine, which is to sit and scroll on TikTok until I make myself almost late to work. However, on this day I came across a mashup between two of my favorite artists (Harry Styles and Taylor Swift). I filmed a short get ready with me, which took 15 to 20 minutes with filming, trying to get the angles right, and editing. I finished editing this video in my car before I went into work and posted it.
Not even 20 minutes later, I noticed on my discover page a sound that was semi-trending and I could tell that there was a new trend coming with that sound. After watching a couple of videos and seeing what the trend was, I propped my phone up at my desk and recorded about a 7-second video of me drinking coffee and working. The couple of videos I watched on my discover page had really simple captions and no hashtags. I did a little experiment to see if this would work.
Relatable content
I knew for this TikTok to do well just with my followers, it needed to be relatable. The trend with this song starts off with a text over the video saying “one thing about me is.” The video I posted had the text over the screen saying, “One thing about me is I will binge-watch an entire season of a show but my memory is so bad that by the time the second season comes out I do not know what’s going on. Will I remember their names? Most likely. Will I remember their backstory? Probably not. Will I rewatch the first season to figure out what’s going on? No.” I posted this video and did not really think a lot about it.
Friday, April 22, my TikTok blew up. Before Friday the video had about 300 views. However, Friday night it had 1,842 views. I started taking screenshots to document what was happening. The first screenshot I took was at 9:23 pm and the video was at 1,842 views. The second screenshot I took was at 9:25 pm and the video was at 2,119. Then at 9:28 pm, the video was at 2,322 views. The video had over 200 likes and 5 comments. I took a screenshot before I went to bed and at 10:27 pm the video had 2,546 views. When I woke up the video was at 2,893 views.
Follow the trends
I think this experiment just goes to show that sometimes you do not need a long thought-out video with loads of hashtags to help reach people. Sometimes just looking at what sound is slowly growing and seeing what the trend is with that sound will help get your video on the for you page.