- Felecia Coleman is a former program developer who aided build the application for a important US lender.
- She’s acquired a TikTok following by tests her theories about the platform’s algorithm.
- In a handful of months, she’s grown her account to about 245,000 followers.
Felecia Coleman, a 30-calendar year-old former software package developer, has used the final handful of months systematically hypothesizing and testing theories about TikTok, and in the course of action has grown her web site from to 245,000 followers.
More than the very last month, Coleman has been sharing insights and theories she has about TikTok. Whilst she has not been capable to verify those people theories with TikTok, her followers are eager to know more about the platform’s mysterious algorithm. Coleman thinks her TikTok expansion has been helped by her focus on things like engagement ratios, frequency of publishing, and video duration.
A spokesperson for TikTok did not immediately respond to Coleman’s theories, but directed Insider to the firm’s blog site publish about its recommendation system.
The article suggests recommendations are “primarily based on a amount of components,” which include “consumer interactions” “video info” like “captions, sounds, and hashtags” and other inputs.
Coleman thinks posting usually, and likes and remarks, assisted her acquire a adhering to
TikTok / @FeleciaForTheWin
Coleman didn’t straight away locate results on TikTok.
“I 1st downloaded TikTok in November 2021, and I went into it with a method that I preferred it to do the job. I was submitting outfits, I was demonstrating my apartment, I wanted to retain it super easy,” Coleman stated, incorporating that at initial she posted a video or two a working day, and averaged about 100 sights per video clip. “But practically nothing was operating.”
Then, in mid-January, she said she stumbled upon another user’s movie on her For You web page that proposed publishing about 10 films a day to velocity up the approach of the algorithm flagging or getting your movies. She stated she started dedicating 4 hours a day to producing and submitting 10 videos, and was flabbergasted that it appeared to do the job.
“Within two weeks I experienced 10,000 followers,” she reported. “I was stunned. Soon after that, I started out to feel about [growth] intentionally.”
When questioned, the TikTok spokesperson pointed to a company blog site titled “5 suggestions for TikTok creators” that suggests posting frequency will not effects — positively or negatively — how a video is chosen for the FYP.
“The volume of videos you publish would not affect how your written content is recommended in the For You feed, and views range from movie to video clip,” the website claims.
Nonetheless, statistically speaking, posting extra movies indicates a better likelihood of obtaining on the FYP. Which is specifically true if TikTok isn’t really punishing you for publishing usually.
Coleman also thinks engagement ratio is a essential element in the algorithm and that the sights-to-likes ratio requirements to be at minimum 10% and likes-to-feedback needs to be at least 2% for a post to spread commonly.
Coleman takes a developer’s strategy to TikTok
Coleman previously worked on an application at a substantial US lender, where she reported the crux of her task was transforming and screening many codes.
She’s utilized this assumed method when tests what operates on TikTok, which includes close to video clip length.
In earlier months, she reported her films around two minutes extended appeared to perform much better than videos less than one particular minute lengthy. Nonetheless, in the final couple of weeks, she reported she’d found a dip in views in her movies about two minutes, when her videos beneath a single minute experienced received sights.
“As my following got larger I reduce back, and I commenced undertaking two or three movies a day all of them are over two minutes very long,” she explained. “But about the final three weeks, none of these video clips were above having 10,000 sights. So I said, ‘Let’s do an A/B test.'”
She began putting up two videos on the similar subject matter: 1 shut to 3 minutes very long, and an additional underneath a person moment extensive. She reported the a person that was beneath one moment got 17,000 views, while the lengthier a single obtained fewer than 10,000 sights.
When questioned about this observation from Coleman, the TikTok spokesperson explained “observe time” — somewhat than length — was a much better determining aspect in whether or not a video clip receives pushed to the FYP, pointing to this line in the business website: “Our advice process will take check out time as a sign that end users are taking pleasure in your articles.”
Total, for the reason that Coleman has made a sizable viewers in a small time, she mentioned she cut again on the development screening and is checking out how she can pair her track record in coding with her newfound highlight on TikTok.
“Men and women emailing me expressing they would pay me just to clarify to them all the things I know,” she stated, laughing. “I was like, sure, but I am not a TikTok advertising man or woman. I’m a software engineer that has a point of view.”