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How to jump on TikTok trends

How to jump on TikTok trends

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From dances and sounds to transitions

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

So you’ve started posting videos on Tiktok, and now you’re ready to up your game. One of the easiest ways to make your videos more entertaining and to potentially get more views is to jump on trends. 

The way the TikTok algorithm is designed, it rewards videos that use certain trending sounds, effects, or hashtags. These videos are more likely to receive views because they’re pushed to other people who also enjoy that trend, and they’re easier to find when browsing in the Discover tab. Here’s how to improve your TikTok strategy by using trends to your advantage. 

Identify trends

Trends can originate from a variety of features on the app: sounds, dances, transitions, or hashtags. One of the easiest ways to identify trends is to browse via the Discover tab, which will feature a variety of trending sounds or topics. 

In fact, there’s a hashtag that you can follow that does the work for you. #trendalert is a popular hashtag that some TikTokers use to identify trending features that others can follow. They take it upon themselves to scour TikTok and identify what is gaining in popularity, usually by watching the ratio of sounds to the videos made using those sounds, and looking for quick growth. The appeal of following this hashtag is that all you have to do is jump on whatever trend they’ve identified. 

TikTok’s Discover tab is useful for trending features.
TikTok’s Discover tab is useful for trending features.
#trendalert is a popular tag for TikTokers that identify trends for you.
#trendalert is a popular tag for TikTokers that identify trends for you.

Trends can also vary depending on what niche of the algorithm you are trapped in. For example, what’s trending on Tech TikTok may not be trending on Fashion TikTok. That’s totally okay, though, because this helps get your videos onto the For You pages of people who will appreciate that trend. If you are in a niche or want to be, finding trending features requires you to just pay attention to your For You page. If you notice a sound is appearing every few videos, it’s likely that it’s gaining traction. Same goes for hashtags, dances, or some transitions. 

Use a trending feature 

This can apply to anything that’s trending, but for the purpose of this article, I’ll be focusing on sounds. If you’ve found a song or other audio that is popular, add it to your favorites for easy access later. And don’t worry about repeating it — it’s common for a creator to use a sound multiple times. Once you’ve identified the sound, make a video using whatever matches that trend. Often, it’s a dance or lip-syncing skit. When you’ve finished recording your video, add your caption, slap on a few appropriate hashtags, and upload! 

The key to successfully using a trending sound to get more views, though, is to ensure the sound is still popular. TikTok’s algorithm is designed to tailor your For You page to show things you like — it doesn’t pay as much attention to when a video was posted so much as it does the content within that video. This means you may have been following a sound from weeks ago that is no longer popular. 

Trending sounds are easy and fun to use.
Trending sounds are easy and fun to use.
The date above the caption can help you identify whether a sound may be old.
The date above the caption can help you identify whether a sound may be old.

The best way to ensure the timeliness of a sound is to go to the sound’s page and look at the most recent videos that use it. Ideally, they’ll have been posted as recently as a day or two ago. If most of the videos are over several days or weeks old, it’s safe to assume the window for high views on a video with that sound has passed. 

Don’t let that hold you back, though! TikTok is all about having fun, so post your video anyway! 

Trends are a great way to boost your following and viewership if that’s what you’re interested in — but keep in mind that they change frequently and can be hard to keep up with. At its core, TikTok is a social media platform, and what makes social media so fun is participating in a way that’s fun for you! Bucking the trends and creating the content you want can be just as rewarding as learning the latest dance.

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