Momentum Moment: TikTok Activism

By Mike Berland
June 25, 2020


TikTokers disrupted the original disruptor: President Trump
How Political Activism on TikTok gained momentum


Earlier this year, we stated that TikTok was clearly the Momentum Master of social media for 2020. The “anti social media” platform (because it is inclusive, authentic, unfiltered and encourages participation) hit an MFactor of 100 and has stayed there for months. 

We cautioned that the challenge for TikTok is continuous transformation, which is critical to maintaining velocity (or engagement). Elizabeth Warren jolted the app into a broader cultural dialogue in her SNL skit, and the quarantine made TikTok the darling of celebrities and the new pastime for a population that suddenly had a lot of time at home. But with more people joining TikTok between March and May, we started seeing signs of stagnation as the app became normalized and less of a “must discuss” topic. 

The latest evolution? Enter: TikTok and political activism. 

TikTok is sustaining momentum, but not because of product innovations or evolutions in the technology. TikTok’s momentum is credited to TikTok’s user-generated content, which has now moved beyond just dancing and entertainment into political activism. Authentic to TikTok’s brand, political activism on TikTok is user-generated, short-form content that gains velocity quickly.

The MFactor for “activism on TikTok” (a narrowed analysis from the MFactor of TikTok more broadly) surged from 10 to 49 in a few short weeks. And, the core users were responsible for the momentum -- it is transforming from within.


TiktokActivism_MFactor_Updated.jpg

ACTIVISM ON TIKTOK HAS MOMENTUM BECAUSE IT HITS ALL 5 DRIVERS

  • DISRUPTION: Mary Jo Laupp (the grandma of TikTok), K-Pop and Gen Z disrupted the original disruptor: President Trump. They integrated themselves into the Tulsa rally planning and managed to hack the crowd-building effort. By heightening the expectations for the event, they ultimately disrupted the narrative Trump hoped to walk away with: huge crowds gather for Trump’s first rally back.

  • INNOVATION: Political activism on TikTok is a relatively new use case for the app, which is similar to the way Trump used Twitter and Facebook Live to host digital “rallies” in 2016. Gen Z and TikTok users are now innovating and driving a new sense of FOMO on TikTok, transforming it from an outlet where they engage in trending dances to a platform where they can rally others together in a digital protest. 

  • POLARIZATION: Organizers have previously used TikTok for awareness efforts around Black Lives Matter, Women’s rights and LGBTQ causes. This “prank” on President Trump’s rally sparks polarization as people question why it “worked”. Was it really just a successful example of Gen Z banding together to prank President Trump? Or was it TikTok’s algorithm? Similar to why Fake News had momentum on Facebook (Facebook’s algorithm “allowed” Fake News because Facebook’s metric was time spent on the site and Fake News is inherently interesting and gets people to engage) was this movement an example of TikTok’s algorithm prioritizing targeted content to keep users on the platform longer?

  • STICKY: The timing of this movement made it memorable -- it was well timed with President Trump’s first rally post quarantine. Rather than people remembering the rally for what President Trump said, everyone will remember it as the day TikTokers pulled off a successful prank.

  • SOCIAL IMPACT: Even though this movement was US focused, it engaged and brought together Gen Zers from across the world. And regardless of what the actual cause for the low turnout was, Gen Zers across the world believe they drove it. Momentum begets momentum and that belief will lead to more activism led by Gen Z and content creators on TikTok. 

THE TAKEAWAY 

TikTok continues to be a momentum master, yet it’s sustained momentum is not credited to product innovations or evolutions in the technology. TikTok has sustained momentum from the constant transformations in how the content creators utilize the app. Gen Z, and the niche C.A.R.L.Y demographic within Gen Z -- have such short attention spans that as content creators they are naturally evolving, innovating and pushing the boundaries with the content they create. The users of TikTok are momentum masters by nature.

What is MFactor?

The MFactor is our proprietary algorithm that quantifies Cultural Momentum. The MFactor is a single score that is based on the Newtonian definition of Mass times Velocity. The MFactor can be tracked over time to compare anything you google:

  • People of interest (any political candidates/politicians, celebrities, artists, etc.)

  • Political issues / movements / trends

  • Brand/Product (e.g. across any industry or subcategory)

Our data has consistently been ahead of trends. Why?

We go beyond traditional methods (social media analytics, polling, etc.) by using data science algorithms to compute new metrics that reflect polarization and how “sticky” the issue is — how much people want to talk about and debate it and how emotionally invested they are in their position (velocity) — which is how things work in the real world.

kate strassman