Information Cascades Represented in TikTok Hashtags
TikTok is a growing social media platform with 1 billion users globally. The app allows users to create and share short videos and watch various videos by scrolling up and down. The platform aims to create a personal experience for the user through a page called “For You,” a curated feed of videos that TikTok’s algorithm shows the user based on their interactions with videos and interests. The videos can have hashtags, which helps to organize the content on TikTok. A hashtag can encourage the development of conversations and communities surrounding it. It is common for a hashtag to be associated with a challenge, classified as user-generated challenges and Branded Hashtag Challenges. A Branded Hashtag Challenge is when a business sponsors a hashtag challenge. It is a powerful way to connect to their target audience because users can actively participate in advertising branded products. When everyday users take on a challenge, they are helping to promote the brand by creating a video with a hashtag that resonates with their followers. The brand can achieve massive engagement when many users submit videos using the hashtag, and those videos rack up many views.
In class, we came across the concept of information cascades. It is common for people to make decisions based on their observations. However, an information cascade describes when people make decisions based on the decisions made by others, not their own. For example, a group of people might be voting on whether they agree or disagree with going forward with an action. The first person agrees with going forward with an action. The second person is aware that the first person agrees. The second person can either make a decision based on their personal or public knowledge, and they ultimately agree with going forward with an action. The third person can also agree with going forward with the action because the first and second person made the same decision to show support for the action. The third person began an information cascade by making a decision based on the decisions made by the previous two people.
To appeal to as many users as possible, brands increasingly use TikTok challenges for marketing. There is a keen interest among many users to participate in trending hashtags. Doritos created a challenge to relaunch their Doritos nacho chips called Doritos Roulette using the hashtag #DoritosDuetRoulette. In this challenge, two TikTok’ers utilize the duet feature to film themselves eating Doritos Roulette until someone gets the spicy chip first. Doritos received over 10 billion interactions because of the videos in response to the challenge created on TikTok, which caused the chips to sell out across stores selling them.
The #DoritosDuetRoulette challenge shows that a trending challenge can cascade when many users decide to create videos for it. For example, in a hypothetical situation, the first user, A, who created a video for this challenge, shows that they accepted it. A friend of the first user, B, notices that A created a video for this challenge, and B decides to accept the challenge because their favorite snack is Doritos. However, the third user, C, comes across the video made by B on their “For You” page and decides to accept the challenge because they saw that A and B accepted the challenge. C starts a cascade of people accepting the challenge. The fourth user, D, also comes across the challenge and decides to accept it because they saw A, B, and C accepted it.
It is possible that many people did the video because it was a trending challenge, which implies that they saw many people before them accepted the challenge. Without thinking if they should accept the challenge or not based on what they think about the brand of Doritos, since the challenge is popular, people might accept the challenge solely to follow along with what other did. The connection of this challenge to the concept of information cascades shows that a Branded Hashtag Challenge is a great way for businesses to blur the line between marketing and entertainment. People can join in the fun without necessarily thinking that their videos are a part of a promotion.
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- https://civileats.com/2021/03/22/are-junk-food-companies-using-tiktok-influencers-to-target-kids/
- https://www.tiktok.com/business/en-US/blog/branded-hashtag-challenge-harness-the-power-of-participation
- https://www.judgeseyesonly.com/doritos-duet-roulette