While most of us older folk are focused on other social sharing platforms like Instagram, Facebook and even Snapchat, TikTok has been growing for years. For part of 2018, it unseated Instagram as the top free app in the Apple Store and remains in the top five position of the free app charts. With 1 billion users, it’s safe to say TikTok is here to stay. Even celebrities (celebrity parents, that is!) are getting in on the TikTok craze. Reese Witherspoon made a hilarious IGTV video in which her son, Deacon Phillippe, attempts to teach her the ins and outs of TikTok. “Deacon teaches me how to TikTok,” the caption reads. “I think I nailed it.” Highlights include some pretty embarrassing (but still cute, because hello, it’s Reese!) dance moves and the Legally Blonde star cradling a Hydroflask like a baby. (See: What’s a VSCO Girl? for more context.) Let’s break down all the basics about TikTok:
What is the TikTok app?
TikTok is the world’s fastest-growing app. Formerly known as Musical.ly, TikTok is a social media app that enables users to make and share videos up to three minutes long (extended from the 15-second clips that the app started with!). These videos can be set to music and usually feature choreography. Other kinds of videos prevalently found on the app include comedy (a la 2013’s Vine app, but longer), and YouTube-esque skits, challenges and memes. Launched in 2016, TikTok had 150 million users when it overtook Musical.ly, a music-focused app that had 100 million unique users at the time. Whereas Musical.ly was mostly a platform for kids to lip-sync, dance and perpetuate popular choreography, the TikTok rebrand broadened the app’s horizons to more: dancing, viral challenges, lip dubbing (remember that short-lived app?!), comedy, parkour, magic tricks—you name it. What TikTok evolved into is kind of like the love child of YouTube and Vine—funny, shareable videos with a potentially “viral” quality. If you have an account, you can watch, like and share videos. You can also create your own video content. To recreate a “sound” or in layman’s terms, to use the same sound or song from another video, you simply click the circle in the bottom right-hand corner, then click, “Use this sound.” Bam—you can now make a video to that same song.
Who has the most followers on TikTok?
Wondering who is most TikTok famous? The person with the most followers right now is the hilarious Khabane (Khaby) Lame who is known for making fun of life hack videos. He has 154M followers! And based on the TikTok app’s strong roots in music and dance, it probably comes as no surprise that the TikToker with the second most followers is a dancer: Charli D’Amelio. She has 149.5M followers. Other popular TikTokers include singer Bella Poarch, with 92.7M followers, social media personality and dancer Addison Rae, with 88.9M followers, actor Will Smith, with 72.7M followers, and magician and filmmaker Zach King, with 72.5M followers.
How do you get TikTok famous?
It’s the question all TikTokers want to know: How do you get TikTok popular? Well, there’s no real math equation for getting famous or going viral on any social media platform. However, there are a few things you can do (regularly!) that will boost your chances.
Here are our top tips for getting TikTok famous:
How does TikTok work?
“In a nutshell, it’s a feed of (mostly) vertical content that is served to you through an algorithm powered by machine learning that predicts what you are interested in based on your engagement with the app,” explains Jacob Pace, CEO of leading global Gen Z media company Flighthouse—a popular media brand on the app. Flighthouse recently surpassed 28.3 million followers on the TikTok app and has used a technique of producing original vertical video content as a way to attract millions of followers and hundreds of millions of views per month. Though TikTok comes from humble dance-and-lip-sync-oriented beginnings, Flightouse (and Pace) maintains that comedy is one of the app’s richest categories. “Comedy is the leading category from what I’ve seen spanning to various other categories including DIY, dancing/music, and others,” he says.
How can I make a TikTok account?
Users have to be at least 13 years old to make an account. It’s totally free to sign up and all you have to do is make an account by downloading the TikTok app from the App Store. Once it’s installed, open the app and swipe up to explore your feed. After reviewing the Terms & Conditions, tap the profile icon in the bottom right-hand corner. Make an account using either a phone number or email. You’ll need to put in a birthday (to prove you’re over 13) and make a password. Alternatively, you can sign up using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Google.
Is TikTok free?
The TikTok app is totally free. Anyone can download the app and have access to videos on TikTok and their own account on which they could make their own videos.
If TikTok is free, is it possible to make money off it?
Yes, but here’s where it gets a little complicated. Social sharing apps of the past have faltered—Vine and Musical.ly, may they RIP—due to a lack of monetization opportunities. YouTube, Instagram and IGTV? These platforms make monetizing videos easy and so most content creators flock to those in favor of others. That being said, media brands like Flighthouse and popular influencers make money off of their videos. What’s the key to monetary and viral success on TikTok? According to Pace, it’s “continuing to empower key creators, figuring out a monetization strategy, and diversification of its content genres.” Not sure what that means? Pace breaks it down for us. “First, TikTok working with its creators on the app (those making large volumes of viral content) supports them on the platform,” says Pace. You know—TikTok scratches the backs of influencers (people making a lot of popular content) and vice versa. Second, coming up with a monetization strategy is crucial to making $$$. “Figuring out a monetization strategy and how the platform will continue to sustain itself and its ecosystem of creators to potentially even make a living from TikTok,” Pace says, explaining that it’s an important part of creating content when you can earn dough. And third? “Diversifying the kinds of content on TikTok [means] expanding into content that is different than what is mostly seen on the app right now,” adds Pace. Evolve, evolve, evolve.
What about sending emojis for money on TikTok?
Say what?! TikTok is completely free, but you may have heard rumors of people paying money to send an emoji, also known as gifts, to users. What’s the deal with that? Live.ly is a separate entity from TikTok, but from the same parent company. Live.ly allows users to “go live” on TikTok, creating videos in real-time like YouTube Live or Instagram Live. When a user goes live, other users can send them gifts purchased with real money. The user that gets a gift can then trade in those gifts for real cash. The whole “gifting emojis” element is easily avoidable. Just turn off your child’s ability to make in-app purchases and they’ll never be able to spend any money inside the app, much less gifting it to other users.
Is TikTok kid-friendly?
If your child is spending all day, every day on TikTok, it’s no wonder you want to make sure it’s safe and of course, age-appropriate. This answer, too, is complicated. While a lot of the content is appropriate—lip dubs of Frozen and Baby Shark songs—there are song lyrics that are unedited. There’s also the matter of users being able to make their own sounds. Like YouTube or Vine, users don’t have to “recreate” a sound; they can simply record their own audio. So, are videos of comedians all “clean” versions without any profanity or mature topics? Definitely not. You’ll also want to be mindful of certain “challenges” (like the Blue Whale Challenge or Benadryl Challenge), or dangerous trends (like Nyquil Chicken) that might pop up every so often. “From what I’ve seen, a lot of it is ‘kid-friendly,’ but with any platform, its creators will push the limits,” says Pace. “For a parent though, it’s not a bad idea to check it out for themselves.” The short answer? It’s all in who the TikTok user follows and what settings are on the app.
How can parents make TikTok safer for their kids?
Though TikTok is full of all kinds of content—family-friendly, mature, and otherwise—there are a few things parents can do to make the app safer and more age-appropriate for their children. First off, you can enable the Digital Wellbeing setting. Digital Wellbeing is a feature in TikTok that reminds users (who’ve been on the app for a certain period of time) to put the phone down and take a break. #NECESSARY, seeing as all signs point to this app as 100 percent addictive. In addition to encouraging app users to take breaks, Digital Wellbeing also flags inappropriate content. Another option, of course, is making your own account, like Witherspoon did (you can follow her at @reesewitherspoon). TikTok is a bonafide phenomenon amongst teens and kids and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere at the moment. If you’re able to poke a little fun of yourself like Witherspoon, then, by all means, be the cool parent who downloads TikTok. Just don’t be surprised if every time you hear a song come on the radio or on a Spotify playlist, you start to recognize it as, “Oh, that’s a TikTok song!” Curious if you should or shouldn’t share your kids’ faces on social media? Experts weigh in on the safest strategy here.
