Ever got the feeling that social media knows you better than you know you?

We definitely do (hence the marketing memes flooding our recommended feeds on social media), and yesterday we got an inside look into how one of the largest social media platforms out there recommends its content.

TikTok is the name, and a genius algorithm is the game – here’s what the company revealed:

• It all starts with 8 videos. When a user opens TikTok for the first time, the algorithm presents them with 8 popular videos based on a variety of trends and topics. Based on their engagement with those videos, the algorithm begins to build a profile of what the user likes and doesn’t like.
• Once the user and the algorithm have gotten to know each other pretty well, the user is grouped into a cluster. TikTok puts you in groups with other users who have similar preferences – it does the same with videos, too, so it can match user and video clusters together.
• The algorithm tries to avoid redundancy. If a user has recently watched a video with a specific song or creator, the algorithm will try to avoid serving similar videos to that user.

You can check out the full list of updates, reported by Axios, here. There’s more information on ‘filter bubbles’ and security, but the features we mentioned above are the most relevant for marketers.

It’s not too often we get an inside look at social media like this – if you’re on TikTok, this might explain how the app always knows what you want! This information is also great for understanding how you can better serve your audience with the right content.