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ikTok grew to be one of the most popular social media platforms in the world for good reason. Like its predecessor Musical.ly, TikTok focuses on short-form video content while supplying a range of quick editing tools, sound bites, and filters for users to create unique content. For creators, TikTok lets you find and connect with audiences who share the same interests and values. For virtual influencers, though, it's an immersive, expressive way to introduce yourself to the world.
Virtual influencers are masters of sharing transmedia storylines to connect with their fans. “Transmedia” is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies. While Instagram, a platform for static image content, is highly conducive to virtual influencer storytelling, TikTok is rising in popularity as a platform of choice among the virtual influencer community.
Popular virtual characters like Lu do Magalu, Miquela Sousa, APOKI, Yameii Online, and more host vivid TikTok presences, showcasing their personalities while hopping on the latest trends. A TikTok presence creates more awareness around virtual influencers both as fan-fueling devices and individual, humanized beings in their own right. TikTok also provides audiences a way to engage with the character in a more intimate way, be that through expression of emotion, or through more animated humor, and more.
Fashion is a large vertical on TikTok, and fashionista virtual influencers are taking notice. While Lil Miquela made a virtual name for herself as a streetwear Instagram model, she also follows the latest TikTok trends using self-awareness, style and humor. Further, she showcases behind-the-scenes glimpses of her fashion content, magazine shoots and more.
Other virtual influencers choose to take a musical approach on TikTok. For example, the virtual influencer and musician Yameii Online creates TikTok videos to promote her music—often going viral in the process.
Right now, Yameii Online’s track called “Baby My Phone” inspires multiple TikTok trends, as well as various mashups and recreations. While the original track on TikTok currently has 21,200 videos made using the official audio, mashups such as this one are well on their way to half a million audio uses, showing the potential for virtual singers like Yameii to reach popularity equivalent to that of human beings on TikTok.
Virtual influencer APOKI also uses TikTok to showcase music, but puts a popular dancing spin on her content. Dancing videos have been a cornerstone to TikTok ever since its inception, and still remain a large part of the TikTok community today. APOKI engages with the dance part of TikTok by recreating dances to trending audios, while adding her own dance-style content to promote her music.
Although virtual influencer FN Meka raps, Meka uses his TikTok presence to further his character storylines in incredible ways. Meka uses TikTok to showcase his passion for video games, streetwear, and luxury cars in short video format. Whether he’s doing rare item unboxings like a Lamborgini-green laptop or a limited-edition Starbucks PS5, FN Meka uses TikTok to get deeper into the ethos of the character’s persona.
FN Meka also famously engages in beef with another virtual rapper named FN Nxrmal, creating intricate TikTok videos showing action-based content around their fights. For virtual character storylines pivoting around large-scale animated sequences, TikTok is a way to promote those scenarios to a wider audience. Whereas normal humans would be unable to engage in such complicated and dangerous events, virtual influencers are not bound by the same limitations, making their high-quality fights possible.
TikTok also lets virtual influencers reach their fans. For virtual characters like Lu do Magalu, TikTok allows her to engage with fans by reposting their original content. For example, for Pride Month, Lu do Magalu openly expressed her support of the LGBTQIA+ community by using her platform to boost other creator videos. This creates a more engaging space for Lu’s fans to create content, and builds a connection with, and among, her community.
Lu do Magalu also creates her own DIY videos, giving tips on how to create new items and life hacks for daily lifestyle content. These types of videos are also extremely popular on TikTok and give Lu do Magalu the ability to share her interests with a larger audience outside of other social media platforms.
Overall, TikTok opens virtual influencers to limitless opportunities. No matter the interest of each virtual influencer, a niche on TikTok specifically exists. By expanding a virtual presence to TikTok, virtual influencers increase their awareness and find fans who share the same interests and values. Authenticity is a key driver in influencer relationships, and TikTok lets fans deepen their bond with their favorite virtual characters in a surprisingly authentic way.
TikTok gives virtual influencers the opportunity to be themselves in new, creative ways. TikTok gives virtual influencers life.
