Memes on Tik Tok can easily get 20k to 1 million views and start trending sounds which other creators use to make their own memes. They are the fastest way to grow a following on Tik Tok and can rack you up millions of likes (which is what gets you respect on the platform) very quickly.
Memes on Tik Tok follow the same rules as normal memes but since they’re all in video form there are a few extra factors you need to account for. It’s takes more time to make memes, especially when it comes to editing and rewatching, but the additions to the comedy that you can make are endless.
How the Tik Tok Algorithm Works
It’s important to know how the Tik Tok Algorithm works so you know what makes a video go viral.
When you post a video, Tik Tok will send that video out to a small circle of people, usually anyone who follows you, and it will appear on their For You page. Their engagement with the video is then analysed and if there’s good engagement then the video will be pushed out to a larger audience, normally those who have engaged with similar content, and this cycle repeats until no one is engaging with the video anymore.
The great thing about the Tik Tok Algorithm is that it will randomly push out videos at any time so an older video could be pushed out to a group that engages with it and then that video starts it viral journey.
The 3 factors that Tik Tok looks at when considering the success of a video are:
- Watch time
- Engagement (likes, comments, shares, favourites)
- If the sound gets used (takes a video from success to viral)
The Average Attention Span on Tik Tok is 5 Seconds
The most important thing to remember when it comes to making memes for Tik Tok is that the average human attention span is about 5-8 seconds so aim to have your memes be 5.5 seconds to be safe. Anything longer than that, especially when nothing new or funny is happening, and people will swipe off but anything shorter than that and Tik Tok won’t push the video out to people.
In your videos it’s best practise to have something new happening or moving every 3 seconds and having a “moment” or the joke be at the 5 second mark. This way you achieve a high watch time and also keep retention. This does mean that you need to carefully edit media clips to suit these timings by cutting, adding edits, or using other video editing tricks to get to the 5 second mark.
1 of my favourite tricks for getting to the 5 second mark is to have a piece of music that crescendos around the 3 second mark because this will often keep the viewers interest because then they’re expecting something to come next. This does take a lot of editing and careful timing to make work, and you need the right music as to not interfere with the clip, but the results are very cinematic which can add to the meme.
Some other ways that you can keep a viewer engaged with a video:
- Have subtitles for characters dialogue (called captions on Tik Tok)
- Have “stuff” pop or move on the screen (like elements, icons)
- Play with the length of the text so the viewer reads the text and then receives the joke
Sounds Will Make a Meme Go Viral
One of the benefits of Tik Tok is that other users can use aspects of your videos for their own videos, usually being them duetting your video or them using your sound. Your “sound” is just all of the sounds of the video put into 1 file which you’re then accredited for unless there’s licensed music in the sound.
Other users can then use your sound in their own videos for their own purposes, usually to make their own memes with them acting it out. There are whole accounts that just use other sounds and act them out and you’ll see many businesses using this approach as it’s “professional”.
If you can find a clip that’s not been used much or is from a new film/show, create an amazing new context, and then share that to Tik Tok then if the video goes viral it will stay viral for longer due to others using the sound. Everyone will be able to see your name on the sound and a few of them will click through to your profile which will increase your following.
To find a sound that has potential to go viral, find a couple of lines of dialogue from a film or show and think of how many memes you could create from those few lines. The more memes you can think of then the more likely the sound is to go viral. Then all you’ve got to do is come up with a hilarious context and watch the meme go viral.
Edit the Clip to Make it Funnier
1 of the biggest benefits to video memes is that you can edit a clip to add more comedy to your memes. For example, you can zoom into characters faces to represent stupidity, you can increase the volume of dialogue from certain characters to add confusion and you can add backing tracks for emotional effect.
You don’t need to be an expert with video editing to do any of this and, especially with the right tone and context, sloppy editing can add to the comedy you’re going for. Think of it as if you’re drawing attention to aspects of the meme as it happens and that every aspect is another layer or piece of the joke.
You can also achieve a lot by adding background music to a meme (play around with the speed so Tik Tok doesn’t recognise the song) which can work with or against your context. For example, slowed down orchestral soundtracks have a gloomy feel to them while still sounding epic so can be used to emphasize small problems into world ending affairs. You will feel like a real director while doing this so have fun with it.
In Conclusion
- The average attention span on Tik Tok is 5-8 seconds so have new things going on every 3 seconds
- Sounds will make your memes go viral, always think about how many memes can be made out of your sound to judge how viral a video will go
- Edit the video by zooming in, messing with audio sound, and adding background music to add to the comedy of the meme
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