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MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

TikTok v YouTube v Twitter – Riddle me This?

4 March 2024 By Alan Straton

How is is possible that a brand new TikTok Account with zero subscribers beats long established Twitter and YouTube accounts with thousands of subscribers?

I recently restarted my TikTok Channel after hearing titans of business (Dragons and Sharks) wax lyrical about the selling power of the platform.

This past weekend I uploaded four videos to my virgin TikTok Channel which has NO followers and no presence at all.

One of the videos I chose for my A-B Test and, to make it harder for TikTok I uploaded THAT video as landscape and not portrait, whilst uploading to my YouTube Channel as landscape. In addition I uploaded the same video to my Twitter Channel.

Global Number of users on each platform:

  • TikTok: 1 Billion
  • YouTube: 2.9 Billion
  • Twitter: 500 Million

My Channels Subscriber Comparison:

  • TikTok Subscribers: 0
  • YouTube Subscribers: 1 395
  • Twitter: 7 238

I first uploaded to TikTok, then YouTube, then Twitter.

16 Hours after uploading the results were:

  • TikTok Views: 460
  • YouTube Views: 2
  • Twitter: 18

And we wonder why YouTube is losing the battle? Is it because they are not delivering views or not willing to report “fast and loose”?

To re-iterate: I have ZERO followers on TikTok and 1 395 on YouTube and still got more views for the SAME video that was more BIASED towards presentation on the YouTube platform.

BUT it has to be said that TikTok’s analytics is HIT and MISS as, looking closely, some of the analytics is reporting only 390 views for the uploaded video whilst the OVERALL analytics is reporting a total of 311 views for ALL uploaded videos leaving one with the sense that the lies are not even being synchronised properly.

OKAY – I do understand that any decent tech will tell you that there will mainly be timing issues when it comes to reporting, escpecially for a brand new account. But, if that is a known issue, then rather delay the reporting to every 24 hours for new accounts until we have a decent run of numbers to report on.

Is there some ‘fast and loose’ reporting of views on TikTok happening here OR is the platform far more powerful than YouTube with short videos?

I have long suspected that certain social media channels play “silly buggers” with front facing viewer and visitor numbers and worry that a lot of people may be fooled by this “fast and loose” reporting should it be occuring by design.

BUT, the proof of the pudding is in the eating so later on we will run an experiment to see if we actually get some orders from each platform.

@myprcoza

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.
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Latest posts by Alan Straton (see all)

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Filed Under: Editorial Tagged With: TikTok, twitter, video, views, youtube

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