Software Developer Got TikTok Following by Testing Algorithm Theories

• Felecia Coleman is a former software package developer who helped develop the application for a key US financial institution.
• She’s obtained a TikTok adhering to by testing her theories close to the platform’s algorithm.
• In a number of months, she’s developed her account to more than 245,000 followers.

Felecia Coleman, a 30-year-aged former software developer, has invested the final couple months systematically hypothesizing and testing theories about TikTok, and in the method has developed her website page from to 245,000 followers.

About the past thirty day period, Coleman has been sharing insights and theories she has about TikTok. Though she has not been ready to verify individuals theories with TikTok, her followers are eager to know a lot more about the platform’s mysterious algorithm. Coleman thinks her TikTok expansion has been aided by her concentration on factors like engagement ratios, frequency of posting, and online video duration.

A spokesperson for TikTok did not directly react to Coleman’s theories, but directed Insider to the firm’s blog publish about its suggestion process.

The put up says tips are “based on a amount of elements,” which include things like “user interactions” “online video info” like “captions, sounds, and hashtags” and other inputs.

Coleman thinks posting commonly, and likes and comments, assisted her achieve a next

TikTok / @FeleciaForTheWin

Coleman didn’t immediately locate achievements on TikTok.

“I initial downloaded TikTok in November 2021, and I went into it with a method that I wished it to do the job. I was submitting outfits, I was displaying my condominium, I required to keep it super simple,” Coleman mentioned, incorporating that at initially she posted a movie or two a working day, and averaged about 100 sights for each online video. “But nothing at all was working.” 

Then, in mid-January, she said she stumbled upon a different user’s movie on her For You webpage that proposed putting up about 10 films a working day to velocity up the process of the algorithm flagging or getting your movies. She claimed she began dedicating four hours a day to producing and posting 10 movies, and was flabbergasted that it seemed to work.

“Within two weeks I had 10,000 followers,” she mentioned. “I was shocked. Just after that, I commenced to consider about [growth] intentionally.”

When questioned, the TikTok spokesperson pointed to a business blog site titled “5 suggestions for TikTok creators” that says posting frequency will not affect — positively or negatively — how a video clip is chosen for the FYP. 

“The total of films you write-up won’t influence how your written content is advisable in the For You feed, and views range from video clip to video,” the site says.

However, statistically speaking, putting up more video clips means a increased chance of receiving on the FYP. That is specifically real if TikTok isn’t really punishing you for putting up commonly.

Coleman also thinks engagement ratio is a important element in the algorithm and that the sights-to-likes ratio requires to be at minimum 10% and likes-to-remarks needs to be at the very least 2% for a article to unfold commonly.

Coleman normally takes a developer’s solution to TikTok 

Coleman previously worked on an app at a big US lender, exactly where she reported the crux of her work was changing and tests numerous codes.

She’s applied this imagined procedure when tests what is effective on TikTok, together with close to video duration.  

In past months, she explained her films more than two minutes very long seemed to perform improved than films underneath one particular moment extended. Having said that, in the previous couple of weeks, she reported she’d noticed a dip in views in her video clips above two minutes, although her video clips under 1 minute had received sights.

“As my adhering to bought more substantial I reduce again, and I started undertaking two or a few videos a day all of them are earlier mentioned two minutes lengthy,” she said. “But around the last a few months, none of people video clips were being around finding 10,000 views. So I reported, ‘Let’s do an A/B examination.'”

She started publishing two movies on the identical subject: a person close to three minutes long, and a further under a single moment long. She reported the 1 that was underneath one minute acquired 17,000 views, even though the extended one particular got fewer than 10,000 sights.

When asked about this observation from Coleman, the TikTok spokesperson stated “view time” — relatively than duration — was a better analyzing variable in no matter whether a video clip will get pushed to the FYP, pointing to this line in the organization blog: “Our recommendation technique takes observe time as a sign that customers are enjoying your written content.”

Over-all, for the reason that Coleman has established a sizable audience in a shorter time, she said she lower back again on the growth testing and is discovering how she can pair her qualifications in coding with her newfound highlight on TikTok.

“Men and women emailing me indicating they would shell out me just to make clear to them all the things I know,” she mentioned, laughing. “I was like, sure, but I’m not a TikTok promoting human being. I am a software engineer that has a point of view.”