COMMENT | Beware the TikTok ceramah circuit

COMMENT | Everyone wants to be a TikTok star these days. Nothing surprising about that since, as a phenomenon, the desire for fame re-emerges each time there is a fast-growing social media application that appears to be overtaking more mature ones.

The pivot to video, or more specifically short-form videos, too, is not as new as it is made out to be. In 2016, Facebook CEO (now Meta’s) Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company was pursuing a “video-first” strategy through all of its platforms.

He believed that within five years, most people would mostly consume videos online. Despite the ensuing controversy, he’s not wrong.

Whichever the platform or application (and yes, that includes WhatsApp), “going viral” is a goal for any content creator. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business entrepreneur, a singer-songwriter, or even a stand-up comic, a preacher, or an aspiring politician (they are not the same).

If you’re serious about making content on social media, you would want as many people to watch what you’ve produced and pray very hard that the algorithms smile upon you on a daily basis.