Sean Soko is a TikTok influencer who recently gained popularity after posting a video eating spicy wings and rubbing his eyes on January 26th, 2024. The video garnered 1.6 million likes and 8.4 million views. Sean Soko uses his social media account on TikTok to gain followers through formulaic engagement while, in contrast, his other social media accounts such as YouTube and Instagram, focus on a more personalized outlook of who Sean is. This contrast between the type of content and the engagement with such content is that the persona creators choose to perform vastly influences the popularity they might get versus the popularity of the content they are producing. Beginning with content he produced before his “viral” video, he had 34 videos between the years of 2019 and up to his popular TikTok. …show more content…
Looking at all of Sean’s social media accounts such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, I would suggest his brand is built on the relationship he’s developed with his fans rather than the content of eating spicy food itself. While the content is formulaic because that has been shown to improve his engagement, his direct connection with his fans through the use of their comments as a motivation for what he will be focusing on in a video as well as his older videos not focusing on formulaic content showcase that he isn’t attempting to solely focus his personification within the continuous content he’s creating, but rather as a form of promotion to be able to continue getting engagement, followers, etc. Analyzing the three forms of social media Sean uses, it is clear that TikTok is where he gains success. On all three platforms, he posts the same content as himself, but the videos always get the most attention when posted on