Hickory Dickory TikTok

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a homemade application developed in China that uses interesting and unique special effects to create short-duration, attention-grabbing videos that have the potential to go viral. TikTok provides the potential to create 15 seconds of video that give users recognition and popularity. This free app provides opportunities to create creative, ultrashort videos for countless viewers throughout the world.

TikTok is the fast-growing social media platform ever created, with over a billion users. It is especially popular among users 16 to 29 years of age. As of April 2021, TikTok had reached over two billion downloads worldwide. Every month, more than 850 million unique users log in to the video platform. It currently has more than 30 million active users in the United States alone and was the most downloaded social media app in the first quarter of this year. All of this means it’s something your practice should consider.

Here are some statistics worth knowing:

• TikTok is available in 75 languages worldwide. It is users’ first choice to post and share 15-second videos.

• Out of more than 800 million active users worldwide, the United States accounts for 39.6 million, with India leading the TikTok pack at 119.3 million.

• The average time spent by users on the TikTok app is 52 minutes every day.

• TikTok users are between 16 and 24 years of age, with 50% of users younger than 34.

• The male-to-female ratio of TikTok users is 56% to 44%.

• The number of adults in the United States using TikTok increased 5.5 times from October 2017 to March 2019.(1)

Brief History of TikTok

TikTok started as three different apps. The first was an app called Musical.ly, which launched in Shanghai in 2014. In 2016, Chinese tech giant, ByteDance, launched a similar service in China called Douyin, which attracted 100 million users in China and Thailand in just one year. ByteDance decided it was onto something and wanted to expand under a different brand—TikTok. So, in 2018 it bought Musical.ly and began TikTok’s global expansion. There’s little indication that TikTok is a flash in the pan.(2)

What TikTok Can Do for You and Your Practice

TikTok’s major advantage is that it serves as a great opportunity to offer entertainment to your patients. Your only limit is your creativity. The program is safe and suitable for people aged 12 and older. TikTok provides the opportunity for any doctor to make interesting videos and gain instant publicity.

TikTok does not require you to have any previous video experience or training.

The app is free, and beginners don’t require any specialized equipment to create videos. Everything can be accomplished with a mobile device that has video recorder capability. The TikTok app does everything for you, and the content you create has the potential to become almost instantly viral. The beauty of TikTok is its simplicity. You don’t need specialized training in editing videos and adding background music while using this app. This video app offers you the simplest interface by featuring audio and video editing options for ease of use.

The Potential for TikTok in Healthcare

Facebook and Twitter have held the attention of the public for more than a decade. The TikTok app provides another way to socialize with people online. Most users post their funny video edits with the intention of entertaining others. For the healthcare professional, however, TikTok could be used primarily for the purpose of patient and community education.

You can shoot a 15-second promo and upload it to attract potential patients. The main requirement to capture the attention of potential patients is to be relatable. This is your opportunity to present a new idea or concept that’s succinct—less than 60 seconds—and is understandable to the average person.

Being able to share your content in your community is one of the greatest uses of the TikTok app. This app goes beyond merely texting and sharing content. You are able to post your videos instantly for anyone any time you wish.

If a doctor comes up with a unique way of giving you a few facts about an illness in 60 seconds, it sticks.

TikTok does not require you to have any previous video experience or training. Do whatever you like and express yourself to your network of fans and let it reach the eyes and ears that appreciate your creativity and your message. Fame is just a few minutes away: the more viewers engage in your content, the more viral your posts become across the net. The best quality content deserves attention beyond boundaries, and attention is what everyone needs, after all.

TikTok has the potential to make learning about health fun. If a doctor comes up with a unique way of giving you a few facts about an illness in 60 seconds, it sticks.

The Downsides of TikTok

Some detractors will see this application as a waste of time and not an effective or meaningful marketing tool. Certainly, as with any new idea, especially in the realm of social media, there are disadvantages to using TikTok.

• Currently, TikTok is free to use. Because of that, it is loaded with ads that are annoying and sometimes lure users to pay. But—every app you download and install contains third-party ads and promotional content that have nothing to do with the application.

• The app has the potential to be hacked and used for nefarious purposes. For example, a Chinese email scam came to the attention of the U.S. Army, which instituted steps against the use of TikTok on government phones. This incident was triggered by a “me too” app called TikTok, which, when accessed, leaked some sensitive U.S. information. As a result, the Department of Defense had to take measures to avoid future risks.(3)

• Because this app tends to host more and more content, some children are demonstrating addiction and overuse of the app. Such addiction is resulting in distress among parents as well.

• Numerous users have displayed sensitive, distasteful, or violent content. In one case, a video displaying terror attacks against Israeli citizens went viral, but the video was quickly deleted by TikTok.(4) However, this example still causes concern among the rest of the world.

• Wired published a report of an incident in India where a man allegedly live-streamed his hate speech against a particular community (the Dalits) just a day before murdering a member of this underprivileged caste.(5)

• In the United Kingdom, United States, and India, TikTok also has grabbed attention for its rampant use as a tool for harassment. Trolls leverage this application to deliver distasteful, offensive, and often untrue remarks against people they disapprove of.

Social media apps have become a convenient tool for both expression of concerns and open mockery. Although everyone has the right to freedom of speech, you should be very conscious of the negative effects of defaming or disrespecting someone.

One Doctor’s Experience

Author SJ is a hematologist/oncologist who uses TikTok as a source of education and entertainment with hundreds of thousands of viewers. He has been an active TikToker for over two years and posts a video every week.

The number one factor that dictates whether something goes viral is how long the viewer stays engaged with the video before leaving the site.

Dr. Juneja realized that rather than using TikTok as a means for marketing, he could instead use the site to help disseminate credible information. He realized that TikTok could be a way to simplify and deliver what otherwise are fairly complicated topics. For example, he posted videos about cancer screening, the misconceptions regarding cancer treatment options, and common hematologic problems in young adults that could be missed by their primary providers. The number one factor that dictates whether something goes viral is how long the viewer stays engaged with the video before leaving the site. Holding your viewers’ attention can be accomplished with a hook at the beginning—a statement you are trying to address, or a myth you are trying to debunk. One way to accomplish this is to use a trend or a sound bite that is being used by many others where the ending is known to take a turn or end with comedy.

Probably the most encouraging thing about social media has been the observation that millennials want to learn. They love to be knowledgeable. Explaining how to analyze a CBC and differential and the problems it could signify in terms of iron or vitamin B12 deficiency, restless leg syndrome, and fatigue and signs of chronic inflammation or sleep apnea resulted in comments from several viewers, months later, that an undiagnosed problem was discovered and treated after watching one of our (SJ) videos. It is not unusual for healthcare providers, from nurses to primary care doctors, to offer positive feedback and appreciation for being kept up to date on little idiosyncrasies or nuances that result in better care for their patients. Here is how powerful the exponential reach of this platform is: you may reach 20 patients that you see in your office, but a 60-second video can potentially reach millions of viewers. It is a way to extend and perpetuate our knowledge not just to families within a one-hour radius of our practice, but instead across the country and possibly worldwide. Dr. Juneja has found that TikTok provides benefits that extend far beyond the small circle of his local community.

Some of the reasons for delivering healthcare information through the medium of TikTok are the widespread deficits in healthcare literacy and the fact that large segments of our population don’t have other access to credible information. Because of a serious deficit of healthcare providers, even in large metropolitan communities it may take two to six weeks before a newly diagnosed patient is able to obtain an appointment and receive answers or guidance from an oncologist. This leaves patients desperately searching for information online, with very little understanding of what does and does not apply to them. And despite the vast and comprehensive world that the Internet provides us, there is no regulation or system in place to discern fact from fiction. Anyone can post information on a domain they created and allege any degree of training and expertise.

Dr. Juneja first used TikTok as an educational opportunity and also included some levity and entertainment. Since then, Dr. Juneja has had thousands of messages from people on social media stating that the quality of their lives has improved because of a 30- to 60-second video that appeared on their homepage on TikTok. So many of our patients spend long days and long years with fatigue, depression, restless legs, and even neuropathy for reasons that are easy to reverse. For example, having an iron deficiency properly investigated can completely change a patient’s life, leading that patient to emerge from a state of fatigue and inactivity and become energetic and engaged.

Bottom Line: At this time, few medical practices and physicians have embraced the use of TikTok as a way to communicate with existing and potential new patients. It can be mindless fun and a source of entertainment, but it also has great potential to educate a younger segment of the population.

References

1. Mohsin M. 10 TikTok statistics that you need to know. Oberlo. February 2021. https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics

2. Smith G. The history of TikTok: from Musical.ly to the number 1 app in the world. Dexerto. May 2021. www.dexerto.com/entertainment/the-history-of-tiktok-1569106/

3. Barrett B. Security news this week: the Army bans TikTok. Wired. January 4, 2020. www.wired.com/story/army-bans-tiktok-cloud-hopper-email-scam/

4. Animated video glorifying Palestinian terror attacks posted to TikTok. Jerusalem Post. February 6, 2020. www.timesofisrael.com/animated-video-glorifying-palestinian-terror-attacks-posted-to-tiktok/

5. Christopher N. TikTok is fuelling India’s deadly hate speech epidemic. Wired. December 8, 2019. wired.co.uk/article/tiktok-india-hate-speech-caste