It has been all the rage these days, pushing the young generation to create new dance moves, funny clips, and enact famous scenes from shows and movies by lip-syncing to them. Yes, we’re talking about TikTok, the short-form video-sharing platform that’s run by China-based company ByteDance.
Right now, TikTok is probably the only platform you can use to make a video go viral as quickly as possible. If you’ve been a regular TikTok user or if you’re someone who’s browsing through TikTok for the very first time, you might have noticed the FYP label in some of the videos or on the home screen. In the following post, we’ll discuss what FYP is, how does it work and why is it so important on TikTok.
What is FYP on TikTok?
FYP stands for the “For You” page which is present adjacent to the ‘Following’ tab at the top on Tiktok’s home screen. If the ‘Following’ tab shows you videos from the people you follow, the ‘For you’ page will let you explore a list of videos based on what you have liked or watched in the past.
Visit: TikTok FYP
For comparison, you can consider the ‘For you’ page as the Instagram-equivalent of the Explore tab, and videos that are displayed in this section are generated by TikTok’s recommendation engine.
The section gives you the ability to explore new videos that you would be interested in regardless of who you follow. This is here so that you can watch viral videos that are yet to make it to your friends’ accounts.
How does it work
Until now, there has been no explanation of how TikTok’s ‘For you’ page really works but it’s believed that the platform is powered by an algorithm that personalized to each and every Tiktok user in a different way.
TikTok’s Google Play listing doesn’t reveal much but indicates that the ‘For you’ page is “a personalized video feed specifically for you based on what you watch, like, and share”. The listing also says that TikTok can “adapt to your taste to offer the most relevant, interesting, fun, quirky, head-turning videos”.
According to a TikTok media brand official (via NYMag), the algorithm could favor videos that are fully watched and are also gaining likes at a consistent rate. Others believe that the recommendation engine looks out for how engaging a post is, how many, and the kind of hashtags that are used.
If this Hypebot post is anything to be believed, TikTok’s FYP is triggered by several factors which include:
- How the video performed when first uploaded
- For how much time the video is watched on average
- Number of likes, comments, downloads, and shares
- Substantially more likes in a single day
Why does FYP matter so much?
Despite the fact that no one really knows how the ‘For you’ page works, the feature remains the strongest trait of the video-sharing platform. Unlike on Instagram (its Explore tab), the ‘For you’ page is what users are greeted with when opening the app.
TikTok considers the ‘Following’ tab at the top to be the user’s secondary home screen and this proves how much it FYP matters to TikTok and its users.
Similar to Facebook’s News Feed, the ‘For you’ page, even though personalized, is universal to most. Brands, celebrities, and popular TikTokers use the ‘For you’ page to fight for space, gain more audience, views and make their videos a viral sensation.
If your video is visible on the FYP for even a fraction of TikTok’s user base, it could become an instant hit, get you more active followers for your other videos and get you viral.
How to get on FYP on TikTok?
If you want the For You page to host one or more of your videos, then you must up your TikTok game and be wary of the following things before creating the next viral video.
As is evident with anything related to getting famous, you can no longer use the “private” mode if you want to get on the For you page. For others to see your content, make sure your account is set to Public with the “Others can find you” option enabled. Likewise, you might want your videos to be shareable and downloadable as well as allow others to make duets, and use your original sound to get more users to engage in the video you just made.
Hashtags have been on social media platforms for as long as these platforms have existed and they’re going nowhere. If you want the video to appeal to a certain section of the TikTok audience, then use it as a hashtag. You can create hashtags based on the song your lip-syncing to, a dance move that you’re inspired from, or something unique that people would search for.
Since TikTok hasn’t been direct in terms of explaining how FYP works, some believe that using any of these three hashtags would get you onto people’s For you page – #fyp, #foryou, and #foryoupage.
Make videos on popular sounds
TikTok originated as the perfect replacement for Musical.ly and the platform still revolves around lip-syncing and dancing to popular beats shared by others. To get yourself on the For you page, use the sounds from the original sounds of other FYP videos when creating your own video. Videos with hit sounds where people imitate a scene from a show or movie or dancing your own way to the beats of a song are something that’s watched by millions of people on TikTok.
TikTok has certainly risen up from nothing in just a span of three years but it still is dependent on viewership from other platforms to garner a larger extent of audience. If you and your viewers share your TikTok videos to other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, TikTok could offer your video a gateway to a larger audience as you’re also promoting the platform in addition to your own content.
Lastly…make your content UNIQUE
We can’t stress this enough and at the end of the day, this is what matters the most. While you should follow up on the latest trends, use popular sounds and trendy hashtags, the most important thing is to post content that’s never been done before.
Viewers in TikTok like all kinds of things, sometimes even weird ones, or something that’s funny in ways you can’t explain. Your video is likely to get attention only if people see something different, so make sure you do that if you wish to get on everyone’s ‘For you’ page.
What do you think about the ‘For you’ page on TikTok?
