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0 min read
August 24, 2020

Three platforms have a heart icon: Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Yet, this action means different things to each of the platform algorithms. For the purposes of our discussion, let's focus on Instagram and TikTok as these represent either a large share of advertisers efforts or the emerging trend.

In a great simplification, Instagram is 3 surfaces: Home Feed, Story Feed and the Explore page (this analysis removes pages related to searches as that behavior is not core to Facebook properties). It is important to note that the first two properties are entirely driven by who a person chooses to follow and which advertisers win impressions. Explore is the only section on Instagram where a user can find content from those they don't follow.

In a similarly simplified world, TikToK is a Story feed. A story feed that is consumed on average for 60 minutes a day! This story feed opens to a For You page and interestingly NOT the following feed. This gives us a glimpse at probable algorithm differences between the platform. This focus on the Story Feed also allows the app to deliver a tuned experience to the format. TikTok is of course a video-first platform but most interestingly an audio-first platform as well. Sound ON is the default in a disruptive move from the pack. This has interesting implications saved for a later day.

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How To Go Viralā€

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Instagram has a two main avenues for virality on an organic post. These options assume proper best practices of posting consistently at top periods during a day.

  • Option A - You have a large following. Your followers engage with your content which drives it up on the explore page. This allows the post to extend out of your follower network to net new people.
  • Option B - With an appropriate hashtag strategy, your posts are featured in the top 9 grid for popular hashtags. The larger the hashtag audience the harder it is to crack the top 9 grid which means hashtag use needs to be done with care for small time influencers.

The major factor being leveraged in the model are Likes (hearts) and comments. View time is probably incorporated but the specific algorithm is under lock and key :)

TikTok is an entirely different beast. Your posts are forced to go to people who do not follow your account. Posts are judged on the following factors and likely stacked ranked as follows: likes, comments, shares, followers gained, watch duration, and duets (again the algorithm is under lock and key so take this stack ranking as illustrative). As TikTok needs content to keep the For You feed fresh it leverages an interesting strategy to drive virality - what we're calling a round robin system.

TikTok takes a post and forces it to a small group of user's feeds. If it does well in the small group, it then graduates into a larger group of people on the platform. This process is iterative and allows the TikTok algorithm to leverage a Bayseian approach to predicting the success of the post for a large audience. It sacrifices a small minority of people for the enjoyment of the majority. Our guess is that overtime an account earns a quality score to help with this prediction. If you post a lot of winning content it could go through less tiers of audience before being featured in a large audience feed.

This means you want to design TikTok posts for high repeat consumption or high completion. Also, content that gets users to make their own videos in response are highly valued. What type of content does this favor - challenges, dance videos, "watch till the end" , etc.

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What This Meansā€

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Growing on Instagram is a steady grind while TikTok can be explosive and highly variable. One is not necessarily better or worse but it does mean that content needs to be tailored for each platform. Beautiful imagery, unlike Instagram, won't get you anywhere on TikTok as watch time is low.

If you're a photographer, you might want to provide a video tutorial on how you took a photo with a quick edit at the end showing the beautiful image. This would entice people to watch the tutorial twice to see the image again. On Instagram, you might just get away with posting a beautiful image.

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Thanks to Aaron Weiss for sharing their work on Unsplash

Nate Lorenzen
Founder
Jenner Kearns
Chief Delivery Officer
Jenner Kearns
Chief Delivery Officer
Jenner Kearns
Chief Delivery Officer
Kenneth Shen
Chief Executive Officer
Kenneth Shen
Chief Executive Officer
Kenneth Shen
Chief Executive Officer
Kenneth Shen
Chief Executive Officer
Jenner Kearns
Chief Delivery Officer
Kenneth Shen
Chief Executive Officer
Jenner Kearns
Chief Delivery Officer
Jenner Kearns
Chief Delivery Officer
Jenner Kearns
Chief Delivery Officer
Jenner Kearns
Chief Delivery Officer
Kenneth Shen
Chief Executive Officer
Jenner Kearns
Chief Delivery Officer
Kenneth Shen
Chief Executive Officer
Kenneth Shen
Chief Executive Officer
Isla Bruce
Head of Content
Isla Bruce
Head of Content
Isla Bruce
Head of Content
Jenner Kearns
Chief Delivery Officer
Isla Bruce
Head of Content
Kenneth Shen
Chief Executive Officer
Isla Bruce
Head of Content
Isla Bruce
Head of Content
Isla Bruce
Head of Content
Kenneth Shen
Chief Executive Officer
Isla Bruce
Head of Content

Read next

*This article originally appeared in Forbes on February 26th, 2024. Link HERE

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Innovation doesn't always scream; sometimes, it whispers. This is a lesson I've internalized as the founder of Dysrupt, where we've navigated the fine line between groundbreaking advancements and the comfort of familiarity. The 3% rule of change, championed by the late Virgil Abloh, a visionary in both fashion and design, offers a compelling lens to examine this balance. Abloh's ethos, focusing on the transformative power of subtle alterations, challenges the conventional push for radical innovation. It's a principle that resonates deeply in the tech world, particularly when comparing the strategic approaches of Apple's Vision Pro and Meta Quest Pro.

Abloh's influence extended beyond the realm of fashion; he was a cultural icon who redefined creativity, making his principles universally applicable, including in technology. His 3% ruleā€”the idea that significant innovation can be achieved with minimal changesā€”underscores the importance of nuanced, thoughtful alterations.

The 3% Rule In Technological Innovation

Abloh's 3% rule is epitomized by the advent of Apple's "spatial computing." This term, much like "horseless carriage" in its day, melds the familiar with the novel, bridging the gap between traditional perceptions and forward-thinking technology. It suggests a nuanced evolution rather than a complete overhaul, offering a linguistic framework that makes new technologies more accessible and understandable.

Spatial computing, as introduced by Apple, allows for the integration of digital enhancements into our physical environment, enabling users to place virtual screens within their actual surroundings. This approach is contrasted sharply with Quest Proā€™s goal of creating a fully immersive virtual environment, which, while technologically impressive, may alienate users who prefer a connection to their physical world.

This distinction is demonstrated in Casey Neistat's review of the Vision Pro in Times Square. Neistat's experience underscores the unique proposition of Vision Pro: the ability to seamlessly blend digital content with the real world, enhancing one's immediate environment rather than replacing it. By choosing what to see and where to see it, users retain control over their experience, embodying the essence of the 3% rule by making technology adapt to the individual's needs and preferences.

Expanding The NBA Viewing Experience

The divergent paths of Vision Pro and Quest Pro are nowhere more evident than in their partnership with the NBA to redefine the fan experience. While the Quest Pro aims to place fans directly courtside with its fully immersive VR experience, Vision Pro takes a different route. It introduces an enhanced viewing experience that transcends traditional limitations, offering "better than courtside" content. This approach leverages spatial computing to allow fans to enjoy multiple screens in their living space, offering various angles and aspects of the game in high definition, without losing touch with their immediate surroundings.

Meta Quest Pro's ambitious VR technology has the potential to transport fans into the heart of the action, offering an unparalleled sense of presence at live games. This full immersion into a virtual courtside experience represents a significant leap in how technology is used to bridge distances and bring the game to the viewer. However, this approach, while groundbreaking, may not align with all fans' desire for a more integrated viewing experience that maintains a connection to their physical environment.

Apple Vision Pro, in contrast, capitalizes on AR's potential to subtly enhance the real world. By allowing users to overlay multiple screens onto their physical space, Vision Pro offers a customizable viewing experience that can be tailored to each fan's preference. Whether it's accessing different camera angles, real-time statistics or social media feeds, Vision Pro provides a multidimensional viewing experience that enriches fans' engagement with live sports. This "better than courtside" experience doesn't remove fans from their reality; instead, it enhances it with layers of digital information and entertainment, embodying the essence of the 3% rule.

The Future Of Viewing

The introduction of Apple's Vision Pro into the marketplace heralds a nuanced shift in how viewers engage with broadcast entertainment. This principle, which advocates for impactful innovation through minimal adjustments, suggests a future where broadcasters will increasingly lean into subtle, AR-enabled enhancements to enrich the viewing experience. Instead of propelling audiences into fully immersive virtual realities, the trend is toward augmenting the physical environment with digital overlays that complement rather than replace the live viewing experience.

This evolutionary step, subtly integrated by technologies like Vision Pro, signals a move toward more personalized and contextually rich experiences within the familiar confines of viewers' existing environments. It represents a pivot in strategy for broadcasters, who now have the tools to create and distribute content that enhances reality, offering audiences the ability to customize their viewing experiences with information, graphics and interactive elements that were previously unimaginable.

This approach does not aim to upend the viewer's world with drastic changes; instead, it seeks to introduce enhancements that seamlessly integrate with their reality, offering a glimpse into how minimal shifts can have a profound impact on the collective viewing experience. In this emerging landscape, the 3% rule becomes a guiding principle for broadcasters and technologists alike, emphasizing that sometimes the most meaningful innovations are those that refine and redefine our experiences without displacing them.

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Dysrupt is a šŸ’Žāœ‹ marketing firm and not above the occasional meme trend. With all the news of r/wallstreetbets, RobinHood, $GME, etc. we want to take a step back and deep dive on this often used internet term with an interesting history - *meme.

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Origin

Meme as a term predates internet culture. Originally coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his groundbreaking book The Selfish Gene.Ā 


Dawkins conceived of memes as the cultural parallel to biological genes and considered them, in a manner similar to ā€œselfishā€ genes, as being in control of their own reproduction and thus serving their own ends. Understood in those terms, memes carry information, are replicated, and are transmitted from one person to another, and they have the ability to evolve, mutating at random and undergoing natural selection, with or without impacts on human fitness (reproduction and survival). - link


Dawkins himself defined meme as a noun that "conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation."


The Selfish Gene was groundbreaking due to meme kicking off a deeper investigation in **academia around the extent of evolutionary processes that are unrelated to genes.Ā 


Memes though are units of cultural significance. If they are repeated then they carry more significance than those that fail to replicate.


Here is a silly example: the cleaning crew in a hotel folding the toilet paper into a triangular shape is a meme. This happens worldwide now - even in some gas station bathrooms - and is an artifact of culture. It is a transfer of information in the network of humanity. This is a recent invention of culture which now carries a significance. Namely that the room was cleaned by a professional who spared no expense as they even decided to fold the toilet paper end into a small triangle.

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In this light, the modern use of meme just being easily shareable phrases, images, gifs, etc. is a limited use of the term. It can extend to anything that is imitated within culture. Everything from the mundane - Fork, Knife, Spoon placement on a table - to the absurd - Qanon.



r/WallStreetBets and Community

We are a marketing firm and the recent explosion of meme stocks has been a fascinating watch in the power of community and how it empowers a movement. If you are in the business of brand building, you are trying to gain attention and direct it to action.


r/WallStreetBets created a movement of directing a group of disjointed individuals via the glue of memes. These memes allow the group to have a shared language and jokes that bond via an in group mentality. Their ā€œunits of imitationā€ are simple to replicate and share.Ā 


The brazen ridiculousness of all the terms makes them even more mockable which requires sharing and imitation and bonding of the in-group.Ā 




Iā€™m an Advertiser and Donā€™t Care about Stonks

Budweiser made a meme with its ā€œWassuppā€ ad. TikTokā€™s Duet feature and many other product features on platforms are meme engines. (Memegins?)Ā Share buttons are littered throughout the internet. Every piece of content screams to be replicated.


Yes r/WallstreetBets has a lot of weird language but after about 15 minutes youā€™ll start typing šŸš€ šŸŒ• with little thought and will start judging the šŸ“œ āœ‹ in the midst who cost you tendies.


Easy to imitate and through the imitation the group improves upon the original idea. The successes are repeated and become even more shareable and immitatable. This is the evolutionary process Dawkins keyed into. Failure is easy to define as it is just content that is not replicated and shared.


The flywheel is that the sharing and imitationĀ increases further sharing. Understanding how to bring this to your brand, your community, can be key to kickstarting your own movement.


Whatā€™s the Difference Between a Bad, Good and Great Story?

Bad stories are forgotten. Good stories are remembered. Great stories are retold.


The retelling and sharing within culture is the power of brand advertising.Ā 


In fact, this might be the easiest way to differentiate between brand and direct response ads. Direct response ads are judged on product sales and perhaps help define a brand.


Brand ads should be judged on the great story criteria - are they retold? Shared? Imitated? Sales will come from causing this replication.



* How to pronounce: meme rhymes with gene.Ā 

** Aaron Lynch in his book Thought Contagion defined 7 patterns of transmission for memes: Quantity of parenthood, Efficiency of parenthood, Proselytic, Preservational, Adversative, Cognitive, Motivational.