TikTok Recommendations for "Barks of Love" Dog Rescue

The fast-growing video-sharing social media app known as TikTok is connecting millions of people globally on a variety of shared interests. TikTok is a fun and energetic app to connect people who share interests. When researching what TikTok is and popular trends, I have produced a few suggestions to try. This section of our report will give an insight to how to use TikTok to your advantage, the current dog lover community on TikTok and trends they participate in. Looking at the dog lover community on the app, they have dominated many hashtags, trends, and verified users on their homepage.

The first suggestion on how to use TikTok to your advantage relates to being put onto the For You Page/FYP or the homepage. The TikTok algorithm to be shared on the FYP for millions globally to see, seems difficult and complex but, it is simple to follow. Later Blog explains that “the algorithm considers what your personal user interactions are on the app, what video information the post has, and your device or account settings”. Regarding personal user interactions, as in the comments you post, the accounts your follow, or the videos you share and like, if they are currently main trends that indicate a group interest, it is more likely that you will be on the FYP. It is also important to tailor your FYP when you are not posting. When clicking on videos to state that you are “Not Interested” in them, it creates a specific group interest from your user interactions which is ideal for when you want to post media. Regarding what information the post has, as in the hashtags, captions, and audio used, if they are being used by many people or have been found from the FYP, TikTok will tend to recycle similar posts in hopes that they also do just as well. Regarding your device and account settings, as in language preferences, country of origin, and device type, TikTok wants to personalize your feed to such an extreme extend that most media you see may be right down the road. By engaging in this personalization, it will help you to find people interested in your feed from your community.

Now that you are familiar with how to create and personalize your community, it is important to familiarize yourself with the current dog lover community on TikTok. The dog lover community on the app have dominated many hashtags, trends, and verified users on their homepage. The community is so large that it has over 78.6 billion views on one of their many hashtags. The community has fallen in love with dogs to such an extreme extend that there are “Petfluencers.” A few of the verified petfluencers that are making money and being loved by millions are @tuckerbudzyn, @marniethegoldenlab, @crusoe_dachsund, @tofu_corgi, and @bandit.thehusky. These accounts have fans that regularly view and share their posts which has led to their fame. A few of the verified and most followed rescue accounts are @adoptingdogs, @gofetch, @cedarvalleyhumanesociety, and @bestfriendanimalsociety. These rescues and petfluencers all partake in the same trends to be noticed, even though they deliver different messages and have slightly different target audiences. These rescues partake in the same trends as the petfluencers because they are wanting to hit a larger target area than a smaller one since TikTok's main goal is to categories videos by group interest.

The second suggestion is to partake in the following trends, hashtags, and duets that popular rescues and petfluencers are also partaking in. Firstly, trends are constantly changing, however there are staple trends that take months to stop being viral. Most trends are easy to film and attract a large group interest. Elite Daily, Buzzfeed, and The Verge go into depth on staple trends. One of the many staple trends would be #somethingsreact challenge, or in this case #dogsreact challenge. This trend films dogs reacting to familiar sounds such as a doorbell or squeaky toy. The hashtag on TikTok has 14.9 million views. Another staple trend would be the #blanketchallenge where dogs watch their owners or rescuers disappear behind a blanket. The hashtag on TikTok has 80.3 million views. Another staple trend would be the #obstaclechallenge where pet owners set up traps and courses for their pets to fail or complete. The hashtag on TikTok has 9.9 million views. Another staple trend would be the #levelup challenge which is similar to the obstacle challenge where pet owners or rescuers test their pet's agility by having them jump over a toilet paper wall that slowly gets taller and taller. This hashtag on TikTok has 1.4 billion views. These easy to film videos are constantly on FYP rotation and are staple trends. When running out of current trends, a way to stay alert of what is about to trend is viewing the hashtag #trendalert or viewing the popular hashtags on the search bar. This will allow you to constantly be releasing relevant and trending media. Secondly, or every post, you should include hashtags of who you are, what the video is about, if there is a trend, and where you want the video to be found. These hashtags should always be on every post made and you should have more added to the description depending on the video, #DogsOfTikTok, #adoptadog, #foryoupage, #FYP, #dog, #adoptdontshop, #doglove, #doglife. These hashtags vary from 6506.5 billion to 29.7 million views are essential to reach the target market you want. Thirdly, to be recognized by verified accounts, they do not need to be from your area to make joined content. Many verified accounts when direct messaged on their profiles tend to duet videos with fellow petfluencers, fans, or rescues. When duetting videos, it can be to deliver a message, or participate in a trend. By duetting videos, you can share your message with a larger target audience.

To conclude, TikTok is an app that is meant to be explored since it is constantly changing. However, do not let that deter you from experimenting with the research provided because many people can join for one common interest or message. Ensure that you stay on top of trends and participate in as many as you can to remain a part of TikTok’s algorithm. There are many opportunities waiting on TikTok for Barks of Love Rescue.