Analysing Key Moments in Content Generation
Continuing my content generation journey within the ‘Female Hormonal Health and Fitness’ media niche has been enlightening. I’ve come across pivotal moments that greatly improved my understanding of this niche and enhanced my content creation process. In this blog post, I’ll use auto-ethnographic research skills like Contextualising, Mapping, Narrowing, and Exploring to delve into the importance of these key moments and how they shaped my content and perception of the platform and community.
Contextualising: Understanding TikTok’s Unique Culture
Contextualising content creation involves grasping the context in which content exists. In the ‘Female Hormonal Health and Fitness’ niche, this means recognising the distinct cultures, norms, and audience behaviours specific to various social media platforms.
One moment that underlined the importance of contextualising was the significant difference in views between my first post and the posts that followed.
My initial post garnered over 8000 views, giving the impression that replicating this success would be straightforward. However, my newer post, despite following the same content generation methods, received only 1900 views. This unpredictability highlighted the complexity of TikTok’s algorithm and the need to adapt to its ever-changing environment. It emphasised the significance of consistency and ongoing experimentation in content creation.
Understanding TikTok’s unique culture, as highlighted by Schellewald (2021), encompasses platform-specific languages, memes, trends, and aesthetic styles. When creating content for the ‘Female Hormonal Health and Fitness’ niche, recognising TikTok’s cultural dynamics and norms is vital. This emphasiSes that TikTok is more than just a tool; it’s a dynamic cultural space where content takes on nuanced meanings.
Mapping: Navigating TikTok’s Trend-Driven Landscape
Another significant moment involved observing a shift in engagement ratios between informative posts and vlog-style videos. I noticed that informative posts received more saves, while vlog-style videos received more likes. Recognising this divergence in audience engagement, I adjusted my content to cater to different preferences. Informative posts became a platform for providing practical advice, while vlog-style videos focused on immediate enjoyment. This highlighted the diverse engagement behaviours within the niche across its various sub-niches.
Navigating TikTok’s trend-driven landscape is another crucial aspect. Successful content often follows trends. Understanding this aspect of TikTok’s mapping informs my content strategy. By mapping trends and adapting my content accordingly, I can better engage my audience. This enables me to create content that resonates with ever-changing interests within my niche.
Narrowing: Building a Supportive Community
Another key moment came when I noticed that my ‘day in the life’ posts received comments primarily from supportive females within the niche, while my informative posts received minimal interaction. This led me to realise that presenting an authentic persona makes the audience more inclined to engage, particularly through interactive tools like comments.
To narrow my focus, I engaged with creators and viewers, consistently commenting and following others in the niche. This not only deepened my connection to the community but also fostered engagement. For example, commenting supportively on others’ posts created a positive feedback loop of engagement. This reinforced the concept of Narrowing – focusing on specific aspects of the niche to build a supportive and engaged community, enhancing my content creation process.
Exploring:
The final significant moment was realising that the majority of my followers and likes came from female users within the niche. This prompted me to tailor my content to resonate with and empower this female audience further. I recognised that understanding the specifics of this female-centric audience was critical within the niche. This moment highlighted the concept of Exploring, as I delved deeper into my audience’s intricacies to create more relevant and engaging content.
Overall, these key moments helped me gain an understanding of the unpredictability of content performance, diverse engagement behaviours, the importance of community support, and the need to address the specific challenges and goals of the female audience within the niche. These observations have significantly influenced my content creation process within TikTok, deepening my understanding of both the platform and my niche.
Bibliography:
- Schellewald, A 2021, ‘Communicative Forms on TikTok: Perspectives From Digital Ethnography’, International Journal of Communication, vol. 15, no. 0, p. 21.
- Moore, C 2023a, BCM241 Content Generation 2, www.youtube.com, viewed 13 October 2023, <https://youtu.be/m8d1Ebx4Bh4>.
- Creswell, JW 2016, 30 essential skills for the qualitative researcher, SAGE Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, California.
This post was created with the assistance of Chat GPT