In this research, we explored how different variables influence the user experience in the TikTok social media channel. The engagement of the users in giving meaningful feedback to the posts was the main variable being observed. This is important because in several business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications the companies are interested in using meaningful feedback from the users to improve their products, be it a tangible device or a media product. So, instead of focusing on getting more followers, in situations like that, it is more important the kind of feedback received from the users. In this research, a mixed methods approach was applied. Joining the quantitative results with the insights from the qualitative part of the research, it is possible to conclude that the algorithm used by TikTok to define the content in the timelines has a bigger influence on engagement than the kind of content. To achieve the desired result of an increase in the number and quality of feedback by the viewers, it was found that being more direct can produce interesting increases. The posts where the viewers were asked to comment and reply with a certain answer have the most comments. In some instances, the increase is almost 300% more when comparing it to the average amount of comments. Most interviewees also stated that they would love to help out and would provide meaningful feedback if this was directly asked. The same goes for Q&A’s and interaction-based posts.
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In April 2020, I was in my second month of lockdown. The particular state of isolation I was in made my digital life more tangible, and my ‘real life’ intensively more digital. Around that time, TikTok started to gain more popularity and to become a social networking phenomenon which I didn’t delve into until I found out about ‘lesbians on TikTok’ through a discussion on my Twitter feed. TikTok lesbians were talked about as a particular category of both platform users, and lesbians in general, which some perceived as either fun, cringe, attractive, educational and/or just purely fascinating. Driven by that conversation and curiosity it sparked in me, I joined the app and without giving its recommendation algorithm a chance to ‘clock’ me on its own, I started typing #lesbian in the search bar.
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