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Fandom on TikTok can give way to influencers monetizing their content
TikTok has long encouraged interactions betweens its viral content creators and the people who follow them - incorporating everything from the Duet feature to private messaging on the platform. This has given way to fandom culture that influencers have been able to monetise. But when do fans become ‘stans’? And what do the subjects at the heart of its speculation think of TikTok’s fan culture?
Last September, near a shopping centre in Brent Cross, London, screaming kids, irate mothers and bewildered pedestrians all collided for a sunny afternoon of moderate chaos. The UK’s first TikTok Hype House, ByteSquad, had decided to stage an impromptu meet and greet near a local Apple store. Within seconds of stepping inside, however, a change of plan was required.
Thousands of young fans had shown up, red-faced parents in reluctant tow, to take selfies, exchange gifts and dwell in the presence of their TikTok idols. The team evacuated swiftly to a local park, which was soon inundated with fans while a queue for selfies snaked between the trees. In the end, the gang had to be escorted away by the police. The day’s fast-moving events were recorded by squad member KT for her YouTube channel. “We’re so sorry,” she says to one distraught fan. “You should be!”, someone’s mum fires back.
Given the age of the average TikTok user, the presence of fans, fandom and ‘stans’ on the platform shouldn’t come as a surprise. In fact, among the memes, trends and genre-coded content that abound on the platform, a good chunk of TikTok belongs to its various fandoms. 27% of users worldwide are aged between 13 and17 years old, and many younger users have created accounts entirely dedicated to fan content. For others, engaging with and aping creators is treated with the same weight as their own TikToks.
“It’s quite cute, really,” says fellow ByteSquader Lily. “If they’ve seen one of your videos, they’ll try to remake it on their account. It goes from being a fan page to any actual copy of what we’re doing.”
The team estimate that at least 100 individual accounts exist just to shadow Sebb and Monty’s digital dealings, and Sebb points to one fan-made edit video featuring himself, Monty and KT that received a million views on the platform.
TikTok faces many of the same issues with moderation and abuse that other platforms have experienced, as a recent Gal-Dem investigation into racism on the app showed. But for the ByteSquad creators – themselves young performers operating under the limelight – fans are a source of support. “Social media can be stressful, so having a web of people that tell you, ‘We love you, don’t worry,’ makes you feel better about everything,” says Monty.
All six members of the squad operate across Instagram and TikTok, and all but Lily utilize YouTube as well. But for each, TikTok is the primary outlet and the platform with their largest following.
Sebb, with over 2 million followers on TikTok and almost 150,000 on Instagram, says his audience overlaps between the two platforms. “I’ve got the same fan base on both apps. There’s content you’d rather put on TikTok or Instagram, but I don’t feel like there’s something I can or can’t do on either app,” he says.
KT, meanwhile, holds a significant secondary following on YouTube and often features her ByteHouse roommates on the channel. “Some fans aren’t even on TikTok or Instagram, and they still stan us,” explains Lily.
In fact, many of the ways fans interact with their heroes on TikTok were developed on Instagram and YouTube prior to TikTok’s emergence. From fan accounts publishing edits and supercuts of favorite moments to ‘tea’ accounts tracking inter-influencer drama, each arose elsewhere. But TikTok’s focus on native video production and the DIY aesthetic that so many creators adopt has reduced the distance between influencers and followers.
TikTok has encouraged interaction between stars and their followers with the Duet feature, which allows one user to set their audience a challenge to sing along in a split-screen. Sebb says: “If I do a video inviting users to duet something, our fans will be straight on it, trying to promote it to help it grow more. They’re always the first to comment, the first to like. It helps a lot – we wouldn’t be where we are without our fans.”
While all four assert that astroturfing a fandom is essentially impossible, they try to maintain direct relationships. “Monty and I are very in touch with our fans and we’ll talk to them a lot and see how they are,” says Sebb. “I think our fans respect us because we respect them – that’s why they want us to carry on the journey.”
KT says: “We’ve always felt quite blessed because we have a really supportive fandom. Part of that is because we make the effort to speak to them and interact with them – more than other creators do.”
Those relationships help each of the creators inform their future content, too. “They tend to love everything we do, but constructive criticism’s always good to take on,” says Monty. Lily agrees: “I’ll take everything on board and try to make better content. I want to make work that’s up to standard for my supporters.”
A burgeoning fandom isn’t just proof of an influencer’s organic reach. It’s a potential income stream for both creators and brands, and maintaining a highly engaged core of followers can help influencers stand out from the crowd.
But brand involvement directly targeting an influencer’s audience “must be done responsibly”, says Monty. He points to the practice of fans paying creators to follow them on the app, using TikTok’s gifts function – virtual, in-app gifts that users can purchase with real money – as a proxy currency. “You shouldn’t be trying to milk them,” he says.
In March, the ByteSquad released a limited range of squad-themed apparel, including T-shirts and hoodies. Although it’s a revenue stream in its own right, the range will also function as a brand-building asset for the squad. “I can’t wait for the next event,” says Lily. “We’re all going to be wearing the merch – we’re going to be like a little tribe.”
Branded hoodies aside, those scenes at Brent Cross are unlikely to be repeated any time soon – and not just because of the pandemic. Fan engagement, for many years, has been mediated through ticketed conventions and events, and after testing the waters (and the patience of their followers’ parents) last year, the squad decided to move to ticket-only events for safety reasons. In doing so, they’re taking yet another step towards professionalizing their engagement with fans.
