This week in social media news, TikTok research shows which hashtags thrived in 2021 and which are on the rise, a new app aims to be social media with a higher purpose, YouTube announces the winners of its Super Bowl AdBlitz and more.
TikTok Report Reveals Top Performing Hashtags And Trends From 2021
TikTok has published its “Rising Trends” report, which provides a retrospective on 2021 performance by category in the US and worldwide to help brands plan for 2022.
The insights are based on platform performance on TikTok from October 2020 to October 2021 and reveal the categories that saw significant growth, the ones that were consistently popular and those TikTok felt deserved a special spotlight.
Why it matters: In 2021, TikTok hit a milestone of 1 billion monthly active users. The platform’s top hashtags saw a median engagement rate of 12 percent and the top 100 hashtags saw an average of 25 million videos published.
Eighty-eight percent of people on TikTok said that the sound on the app is central to the overall app experience. Plus as of December 2021, #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt amassed over 7.4 billion views.
The details: In the US, the first category TikTok says surged last year is beauty and personal care, every trend for which revolved around self-care in some shape or form. The #selfcare hashtag saw 3.4 billion video views total last year.
Many users showed the more messy and authentic sides of their lifestyles. TikTok notes the trend is here to stay and suggests keeping tabs on the #grwm and #beforeandafter hashtags, the latter which excites people to try a product for themselves and share their results.
Engagement and creation around haircare skyrocketed, with #hairtok surging by 20,000 percent in video views and 3,000 percent in videos created in 2021.
News and entertainment is the next category that helped strengthen community building on the platform, with #movie gaining 31 billion video views and #film seeing 14.5 billion views. Rising hashtags in this category from 2021 include #EpicMusical, which saw 15 million video views and #HuluSuggestions, which received 40 million video views.
TikTok advises entertainment companies to lean on popular creators to promote their upcoming releases on TikTok and to reveal unseen imagery from films like behind-the-scenes footage, bloopers and breaking down scenes.
The traditionally mundane category of finance also blew up on TikTok in 2021, increasing both literacy and participation. Videos about #inflation saw a nearly 1,900 percent gain and #nft videos rose 93,000 percent from 2020. The #crypto hashtag saw nearly 2 billion video views as did #finance. TikTok suggests brands keep an eye on these rising hashtags: #passiveincome, #taxtok, creditscore and #blockchain.
Food also satiated TikTok viewers’ appetites, with #foodtok videos seeing a 57 percent increase in views throughout 2021. Sixty-nine percent of those who watched food content said that cooking sounds like the sizzling of stir-fry or crunch of fresh bread immediately grabbed their attention.
The #Mukbang hashtag gained about 4 billion video views while #easyrecipe saw over 4 billion views. Hashtags gaining momentum in this space include #restockASMR, #guthealthtiktok and #cookwithme.
Last year also showed that gaming on TikTok can overlap with several other categories, as TikTok’s research shows the category grew by 415 percent. A few of the top hashtags here include #animation with nearly 11.8 billion video views, #otaku which saw 9.8 billion video views and #streamer with 7.7 billion views. TikTok expects this overlap to continue in 2022 and says to keep an eye on #minecraftmemes, #robloxfyp and #comics.
To download TikTok’s reports for the Middle East and Turkey, Latin America, Europe, Russia and Asia Pacific, click here.
YouTube Announces Brand Winners Of Its Super Bowl AdBlitz 2022
Amazon and Hyundai are among the winners of YouTube’s 2022 AdBlitz, the platform’s hub for Super Bowl ads and teasers that analyzes the commercials that received the most views.
Why it matters: YouTube launched AdBlitz 16 years ago as a place for users to watch Super Bowl ads. The account itself only has 176,000 subscribers but the commercials uploaded—posted from the brands’ accounts—have millions of views. YouTube chooses winners for its Super Bowl AdBlitz based on the number of views 2022 Super Bowl commercials received as of February 16, 11:59 p.m. EST, or three days after the big game aired.
The details: Amazon’s Alexa ad featuring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost came in first with 67 million views. In second place is Universal Pictures’ Jurassic World Dominion film trailer, which saw about 48 million views. While Hyundai didn’t air its commercial during the big game, it secured the third spot in YouTube’s AdBlitz with 83 million views. In fourth was Marvel Studios’ trailer for its new original series Moon Knight; the ad racked up 29 million views. Nissan’s ad featuring Eugene Levy and Brie Larson came in fifth with 34 million views.
New Social Media App Repitsocial Focuses On Mental Wellness
Social media runs on likes and algorithms but a new app called Repitsocial aims to give users more control over their experience while providing a mix of entertainment and fun. The app, available to residents in the Washington DC metropolitan area, allows its users to customize what content they see based on their unique tastes, community and culture.
Why it matters: Some studies show how toxic social media can be for users because of the effects of cyberbullying and feeling the need to present a perfect online life. Even Facebook’s own in-depth research found Instagram is harmful to the mental health of teen girls.
Repit’s chief executive officer Azalaya Fraser said:
“After all the focus groups and interviewing thousands about their motivations for posting or lack thereof, we discovered a real need to separate users’ feeds. Allowing them to share posts that mattered to them, with the corresponding groups of friends or communities who shared the same interest created more opportunities for positive sharing experiences.”
The details: Through Repitsocial’s proprietary, multi-feed flag functionality, users can create flags (feeds) that represent their country, culture and “many facets of themselves that make up the fullness of their lives,” according to the app.
In addition, the app asks users to post from the perspective of what makes them curious, what makes them feel inspired, what makes them think and more.
Repitsocial is available to download on iOS and Android.
TikTok Expands Video Length Limit From Three To 10 Minutes
TikTok will now start letting users upload videos up to 10 minutes long, according to TechCrunch. This marks TikTok’s third time increasing the length of its videos. At first, users had to stay within 15 seconds. Then TikTok upped it to 60 seconds and once more to three minutes in July 2021.
Why it matters: The update puts TikTok in a better position to rival YouTube, which created its own short-form video function called Shorts. In July 2021, YouTube Shorts became available in more than 100 countries globally and exceeded the 15 billion daily average views benchmark.
The details: A spokesperson from TikTok said that the app hopes the expansion will “unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.” In working with a three-minute limitation, many TikTok creators post tutorials and demos in multiple parts. This new update—which will roll out to global users over the upcoming weeks—will make it so they can showcase long-form content in a single video.
