‘Why this video’ is like an official roadmap to success on TikTok

TikTok has added a feature designed to take the mystery out of why a video is recommended on a user’s feed that also offers creators strong clues on how to be more successful on the platform.

To help people understand why a particular video has been recommended to them, they are rolling out “Why this video” over the coming weeks.

Here’s how it works:

• In the users For You feed, tap on the share panel.
• Then, tap the question mark icon called “Why this video”

Click on the image for the “Why this video” popup

• From there, you can see reasons why a particular video was recommended

TikTok says that its recommendation system is powered by technical models that measure the following:

• user interactions, such as content that they watch, like, share, comment on and search for
• accounts they follow or suggested accounts
• content posted recently in their region
• popular content in their region
• adjusting for things that users say that they are not interested in.

“Our goal is to serve a range of relevant and entertaining content,” says TikTok.

A roadmap to success on TikTok?

A little time spent looking at the “Why this video” feed of TikTok videos by similar creators as well as their own short videos, should net some valuable insights on how to make content that is more successful on the platform.

Sometimes those adjustments may mean piggybacking new trends, but often they are also about content length, captioning, and other factors.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.