Visual Communications in Social Media

TikTok is considered one of the most powerful social media that exist nowadays, it has grown potentially in the last 2 years if one of the first consumer-facing apps in the whole world. But is TikTok a threat to society? Governments from a lot of nations have the eye TikTok because of many reasons: -         Is a Chinese company that has the biggest user data information and can end up in the wrong hands. -         The format is extremely addictive. It allows not users to make videos using different tools and record them into very professional-looking short films. It also doesn’t require a network, you do have to search, and not even log in, you just have to scroll and automatically the algorithm will provide the viewers with what they like. -         It's also fast monetizing attention from the viewers and is expecting to attain almost 24 billion in 2024 for advertising. T...

  TikTok is considered a platform made for Generation Z and is considered one of the world’s fastest-growing social media platforms. This being said, this platform can help small and big businesses to grow potentially because researchers confirmed that TikTok users spend about 45 minutes per day scrolling through the app and opening it eight times a day. By 2020 TikTok has been downloaded by 2.6 billion times and 1.1 billion users per month have enjoyed explosively the platform. This is how it is considered one of the strongest social media to grow your business as short videos.   Here are some tips that you can use for your own starting business: 1.       Grow your Brand’s TikTok Presence. 2.       Collaborate with TikTok Influencers. 3.       Advertise on TikTok 4. Creative Content.                        Thomas, M. (2...

When choosing a new marketing strategy is imperative to know and list the pros and cons that might come with it. Even though Tiktok is shown to be a great tool overall, it still has its downsides. Below we will list some of the pros and cons cited on the website The Upcoming:    Pros   1. High exposure: the app has about 1 billion active users and gains over 650 thousand new users daily; those numbers can be very attractive to new and existing companies looking for big reachability. 2. Creativity: the casual and laid-back type of content present on the website provides enough space for businesses to be creative, as well as new trends being created on a daily basis that companies can use in their own benefit to promote their products and services and organically reach the audience that is consuming that content.  3. Automatic-playing ads: the ads are automatically played on the "for you page" with the tags "promoted" or "sponsored" to guarantee clarity...

Not only TikTok! All social networks take advantage of visual communication to transmit messages and information to the whole world. People worldwide communicate daily, all the time, through verbal or visual communication (Fahmy, Bock, & Wanta, 2014), and social networks allow communication to be natural and straightforward. Visual communication is vital in social networks since, for many people, images and visual content is the easiest universal language to understand and process. People unconsciously process images on their social networks like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube all the time. Even if they don't realize it, everything they see on social networks impacts their lives. All people who use social networks are exposed to all types of content; for this reason, marketers take advantage of the use of these platforms to easily reach users. In the image on the right, you can see some examples of large companies that promote themselves on different social netwo...

The platform mainly attracts the younger generations with their easy-to-consume media. Companies that seek to reach that demographic are increasingly investing resources (very little, for it is a cheap strategy) in that type of marketing. Even big businesses and artists that technically don't need Tiktok for their promotion, are on the platform making their moves. According to Battisby (2021), companies such Nike, Pepsi, Calvin Klein, and many others has paid and influencer promotion on the app. Big artists such as Charlie Puth and Meghan Trainor are avid posters on the social media, interacting with fans and promoting their songs, with the goal of making them viral and trendy. With so many big names on the app, Tiktok has become a very attractive social media for the young ones to consume and interact with their idols and favorite brands. Reference: Battisby, A. (2021, November 11). An in-depth look at marketing on TikTok. Digital Marketing Institute. Retrieved December 11, ...

 '' Visual communication, when combined with social media, has a powerful impact.'' (UCW, n.d.)   TikTok is a platform used daily by users from all over the world for all kinds of interests. This app is so developed that you can create videos of up to 60 seconds that can be edited with all sorts of creative tools. According to David White, visual communication transmits information and ideas through symbols and images, graphic design, film, typography, and more (White, 2021). Visual communication started in the primitive era with paintings in caves and stones, hieroglyphs and drawings, but as technology advanced, visual communication has powerfully transcended. How is visual communication transmitted on TikTok? TikTok has many tools that are incorporated into visual communication. Effects:  Thousands of effects contribute to visual communication on this platform, effects of all colours and all kinds for any occasion; the combination of colours, shapes, and disto...

  TikTok is a new platform of endless stream videos, no longer than one minute each. The app can indicate your interests and with a swipe up you can skip videos you don’t like. For this reason, the algorithm of the app adapts what is served up next. This automated content recommendations system makes the addictive for their consumers. Like other platforms, TikTok allows following your favourite video creators, posts and comments. The special thing that TikTok has is that you can make a duet with other users, allow two videos at the same time, place them together side by side, and make connections worldwide.    References :  Tidy, J and Smith, S. (2020). TikTok: The story of a social media giant . BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53640724

  TikTok was created in September 2016 by the Chinese start-up company named ByteDance. Tiktok is named like that to suggest the short format of the video. They increased their potential social media in 2017 when they acquire a rival app, Musical.ly with 200 million accounts on Tiktok. Now is considered the most valuable start-up in the world. TOOLS TikTok is a social media app that allows for making short-form videos. The length of each video is between 15-60 seconds. There is no specific theme for the videos, they can be just to entertain the users. However, it is increasingly used for formal services and to promote and sell products. Some of the main industries that Tiktok referred to are beauty, fashion, personal finance, and cooking . All users, amateur or professional, have access to create videos using or adding an effect like filters, background, music and stickers. Also, they can split-screen videos even if they are in different parts of the world.  References :...

 According to Forbes magazine, Tiktok is a platform that has touched on important issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQA+ rights and more (Paoletti, 2022).  The content that this platform has is extensive because, in addition to being an entertainment application, people also use it as a source of information; this is thanks to the fact that the spread of news is faster and more viral. TikTok refers to itself as a platform that is ''not just for entertainment, but also for learning something new, picking up a new skill, or just being inspired to do something you've never done before.'' (Paoletti, 2022).  TikTok, as a source of information, is a tool that facilitates teachers, doctors and specialists from different branches so that they can connect with society and thus transmit an educational message. Ty pes Of Educational Content On TikTok:  Consistent Formats And Video Series:  TikTok works as a tool to focus on certain specific topic...

Access to information about what is happening in the world has always been available through different sources such as newspapers, radio, and television, but as society has changed, the methods of consuming information have also. Social networks have recently taken a very important role in society, this is because a large part of the population has them. Among the main social networks most used worldwide are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok (Lua, n.d.) Despite the popularity of this platform being very great, one of the main cons of TikTok is that for the very reason that anyone can upload all kinds of content, the information sources may not be true and people will find false information. REFERENCES: Lua. (n.d.) 20 Top Social Media Sites To Consider Your Brand in 2022. Buffer. https://buffer.com/library/social-media-sites/  Arcane. (n.d.) Tik Tok is Changing The Way We Consume Media. Arcane. https://thearcane.com/field-notes/blog/tiktok-and-advertising/ 

According to the marketing specialist Sabrinna Veloso, Tiktok has five different types of advertisement, being them:    Topview ads: are ads that you see as soon as you open the app. Their format is like the other videos on the feed, with options to share, like, and comment.    Brand takeover ads: are like the topview ads but without call-to-action, share, like, and comment options.  In-feed ads: are usually in between the videos, disguised as any other videos you see on the platform. It has CTA and interaction options like the topview ads.    Branded hashtag challenges: consist in having real users participate in a challenge involving the brand or product, being one of the most organic types of advertising on the website.    Branded effects: are special effects and filters created by brands to encourage people to use them in their videos. With many options to choose from, companies are striving on their own and with help of content cr...

It is undeniable the impact and huge reach that TikTok has, with an exponential growth the past year. With thousands of brands and products advertising on the website with a high reach rate, the platform was responsible for $2.3 billion dollars spent on the app (Cyca, 2022). The app is still behind the Instagram and Facebook giants but shows a promising future in its last few years’ reports. The age range of users is quite varied, but naturally the majority is between 18 and 24 years old, being almost 40% of all users according to the website Oberlo. The social media is available in 175 countries, has over 1 billion active users, and gains 650 thousand new users, on average, every day. With that being said, companies are increasingly investing in the short-video format to advertise their products and services and raise brand awareness, from big companies to small businesses. Besides being extremely popular, the cost to create content can be very low. Simple videos make as much success...