The Importance of Strong and Weak Ties in TikTok’s Massive Success.
In just a few years, TikTok has become hugely popular. According to Forbes, TikTok has quickly risen from 300 million to 800 million monthly users in just one year. TikTok has become the standard for quick entertainment, with diverse content ranging from dance routines or cooking tutorials to comedy skits. TikTok videos have appeared everywhere, with videos being posted frequently on other popular social media sites like Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter. The concept of strong and weak ties can be applied to sharing TikToks and how the app became so popular.
Strong ties with friends and family have a great influence on people downloading new apps. If many people who you share strong ties with have an app, they are most likely going to convince you to download the app as well. Applying the strong triadic closure property, if one friend follows two good friends on Tik Tok, those two friends are likely to follow each other as well. Those friends can then continue to share and spread TikToks to others.
It is said that jobs are most often found through weak ties, rather than strong ones. This is because the people you share strong ties with know similar information as you do. This concept can be applied to sharing TikToks on other social media platforms. TikTok makes it extremely easy to share content, as it has a permanent share button on the right side of the app. Every TikTok video includes a large TikTok logo, advertising the platform. TikTok utilizes a user’s weak ties so videos are quickly and easily posted to Twitter or Instagram Stories. This is essential, as it is common for users on these platforms to have hundreds, if not thousands, of weak ties, making it an extremely effective method of free and passive advertisement.
The combination of TikTok’s influence through strong and weak ties leads to social pressure and a cascade of users looking to download the app. Along with funny and memorable content which keeps users hooked, TikTok has led to millions of people being entertained each day.
Source:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2020/01/31/tiktok-why-the-enormous-success/#78f1e8b165d1