TikTok’s “For You” Page Selection System Unveiled

Your Weekly TikTok Insider Report: TikTok’s sharing how it recommends content, plus a video shot in landscape is topping the charts. Here’s why. 

TikTok’s Sharing How Content Ends Up on Your For You Page With Everyone

Ever wonder how that super weird video got in your For You Feed? TikTok’s releasing a new tool to help you better understand why it’s chosen to serve you certain content. 

In the coming weeks, when you tap on the ‘share’ panel of a video, there will be a button that says, “Why this video,” that will give you deeper insights into why the algorithm thinks you’ll like this TikTok. 

Reasons could include that that piece of content is popular in your country or city, or because it’s similar to accounts you follow. 

What does this do for you? For one, it gives you a little more transparency behind the mysterious algorithm. It also helps to remind us that our actions and interests play into what we see, more so than who we follow. As a creator, this can be important to remember, so we can create content that better fits within the ‘genre’ we want to be known for. This will help users and the algorithm know who might like our content best. 

What’s Trending: 

For the first time (at least that we’ve seen in our years of watching short-form content) a video in a traditional landscape format is having massive viral success on TikTok. In only five days, this fascinating video amassed 83 million views.

Why?

Well- for starters, this is a RARE video. The opening visual is a man pouring a bucket of water into the trunk of an elephant, who’s lying down. The elephant goes on to take the water and put it in its mouth, creating the most interesting sound. 

How cool! Does that mean that vertical video is out?

Don’t go breaking out your horizontal content just yet. While this video has certainly outperformed expectations, our belief is that this has to do with the sheer shock and awe factor of what we get to see. 

We’ve watched thousands upon thousands of videos. Never have we seen someone share a video like this. Plus, with the elephant lying down, it’s generating a lot of conversation in the comments about why. 

Your takeaway: If you have an absolutely one-of-a-kind unique video that creates wonder in the viewer and generates natural discussion, people will watch. Most of us fall into the camp of needing to follow best practices. But this is a great example that it’s the content that drives virality more than any post-production strategy.