One in four viral videos featured at least one animal, with dogs being more popular than cats. Sorry, fellow cat lovers.
This is according to a Semrush study, which found 46% of viral animal videos showed dogs, while only 28% featured cats.
They analysed hundreds of popular TikTok videos by watching the first three seconds of each and recording tons of information about their “hooks”.
The study also found that happiness was the most common emotion triggered by viral TikTok videos. A total of 58% of these videos were made in a way that inspired happiness over other emotions.
More than 1 in 3 viral TikTok videos focused on a person speaking within the first three seconds.
Popular dance videos received more plays. However, they were also among the least shared and commented on.
Many viral videos focused on the person speaking directly to the camera. This might be because many content creators try to broaden their horizons and develop more personal relationships with their viewers.
Here are some more interesting findings:
. A total of 60% of viral videos featured one person visible on screen. Only about 17% had no humans visible, and less than 10% featured more than two.
. Some 83% of viral videos analysed came from non-verified accounts. That’s right. The everyday person can gain exposure and go viral.
. Viral dance videos had almost 3 million more median plays than the next most popular genre, the outdoors.
. Regarding median likes, people also highly approved of dance videos, as they tied with pet videos with 1.1 million each.
. People also couldn’t help themselves from commenting on cute animals, as these TikTok videos had a median of 9 900 comments — the highest of any genre.
Using FYP and viral doesn’t make your video go viral
To fast-track their way toward internet virality, some users tried adding keywords in their captions and hashtags such as “FYP”, “trending” and “viral”. However, compared to other videos with other keywords, ones specifically using variations on these underperformed on all engagement metrics (except for shares).
It is better to use specific and targeted keywords than using broad, unfocused terminology.
IOL