In a previous blog post the role of network communities and the specific example of #BookTok was introduced. It spoke about the power a certain network community can have. In the case of #BookTok, it was how the people who created, shared and viewed content on TikTok, which massively increasing during the pandemic, actually influenced the real-world book market in terms of sales and popularity of certain authors as well as the TikTok app itself. #BookTok has enormous power as a network community.
However, in academia the topic of #BookTok has so far been talked about very little. An exception of this is the article Booktokers: Generating and sharing book content on TikTok by Nataly Guiñez-Cabrera and Katherine Mansilla-Obando which was published in 2022 in the Media Education Research Journal. The goal of the article is to find out about the reasons why people accept and use TikTok to create and share content about books as a so-called BookToker. It is therefore not about #BookTok as a Network Community but about the individuals themselves and why they participate in it which might still give an insight into how such a Network Community is created.
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About the authors
Nataly Guiñez-Cabrera is a Chilean researcher working as an assistant professor at the Universidad del Bío-Bío. Her main area of interest is Marketing.
Katherine Mansilla is also a Chilean researcher who works as an assistant professor at the Universidad Finis Terrae. She has a PhD in Management, and this is also her main area of interest together with sustainability.
About the study
The study on hand deals with the question of why do booktokers accept and use TikTok to generate and share book content? They argue that reading motivation is declining, especially among younger people, and that social media provides a great platform to encourage people to read. The authors introduce TikTok as young people’s favourite social media platform. In general, someone who is sharing content and has acquired expertise in certain areas, has a large amount of followers and has marketing value through their content is called a social media influencers (SMI). In the specific case of #BookTok, those people similar to SMIs are called BookTokers. Those BookTokers talk about books and create content about them through which they create a reading community in which recommendations, discussions of books, characters, writing and fictional places take place. Through this content and the community interest in books and in reading itself is aroused.
Methodology
To answer their exploratory research question, Guiñez-Cabrera and Mansilla adopted a qualitative approach and conducted semi-structed interviews with 13 BookTokers in Latin America. To study the acceptance and use of TikTok as a technology to share content about books, they use the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) by Venkatesh et al. which includes seven central determinants (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation/enjoyment, price value, habit) which influence the behaviour towards the acceptance and usage of technology. The interviews with the BookTokers were done in three parts interested with personal background, the book content produced and TikTok as a platform for this content. The approached the BookTokers to ask for participation in the study on TikTok itself after creating a database of BookTokers using the hashtags #booktok and #booktoker on the app. The interviews were performed by telephone which later were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis to identify, interpret and define categories.
Results
The research showed that there are eight categories which influence the acceptance and usage of TikTok to share book-related content:
- Performance Activity
- TikTok algorithm
- Content creation as dynamic and fastAttraction of sponsors
- Rewarding relationship with followers
- Effort Expectancy
- Easiness of generating and sharing content
- Habit and practice facilitate use
- Collaboration with other users
- Social Influence
- Support from others is important (family, friends, followers)
- Seeing others do the same influences them to create content themselves
- The pandemic and time spent reading influences people to post book-related content
- Facilitating conditions
- Only need a phone and internet
- Hedonic motivation
- Enjoyment of what is being done
- Enjoyment of sharing their passion for books
- Habit
- Routine of recording and posting content about books
- Feeling of being addicted to TikTok
- Price value
- Time investment/management
- Generation of community and Networks
- Common tastes and relating to others
- Formation of friendships
- Leveraging of individual work
- Influencing of others
As can be seen the BookTokers value TikTok as a platform to share content about the books they read for numerous reasons. For them, TikTok is a platform that is easy to use, and which algorithm helps them reach their audience. The influence they have over others in terms of buying books recommended to them is also attractive to them as well as possible commercial collaborations. The answers of the interviewed BookTokers in this study are in fact all related to the UTAUT2 theory including a new category which is concerned with community and network building.
The Power of Network Communities
Although the study on hand was concerned with the individual perception of and reasons for using TikTok to share book-related content, the study also shows that one of the reasons is the generating of a community. TikTok provides a platform to talk about the common interest of BookTokers and their followers in books and helps creates ties surrounding it. By connecting to other readers von TikTok the lonesome act of reading is becoming a collective, communal one. And with this community a lot can be achieved as the previous blog post has shown.
The study by Guiñez-Cabrera and Mansilla certainly has some shortcomings in terms of generalizability, however it is one of the first academic articles which focuses on the phenomenon of #BookTok. In order to analyse the power this specific network community has it is a step in the right direction. It might inspire some further research that is certainly needed to study this phenomenon more in depth which is strongly encouraged.
Source:
Guiñez-Cabrera, N., & Mansilla-Obando, K. (2022). Booktokers: Generating and sharing book content on TikTok. [Booktokers: Generar y compartir contenidos sobre libros a través de TikTok]. Comunicar, 71, 119-130. https://doi.org/10.3916/C71-2022-09
Media Prophets of Prague 
Interesting summary. I’m always curious as to how or why certain books tend to be elevated or ignored on social media platforms like TikTok or Instagram reels, but it always tends to be refreshing to see this kind of ‘content’ being produced. However, I wonder whether there is a certain skepticism we need to be approaching the phenomenon with considering the economic conditions of writers not working inside the mainstream of US and UK publishing houses, and what types of books (newer, older, independently published or not) are being circulated widely.
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The study is original and following the previous publication on the booktok phenomenon, it is suggestive to make a study on the influences and power indexes of the Tiktok community.
As you rightly say, research on this topic can be of great help to initiate studies related to the impact of networks like TikTok and their impact on the promotion of reading. An interesting approach could also be how the book took phenomenon has helped to boost new writers and to what extent it has helped them to gain followers for their readings.
I would like to recommend, related to this topic, this thesis from Assumption University. Also very interesting relates the marketing techniques of Booktok and how they have helped to boost the popularity of independent bookstores: https://digitalcommons.assumption.edu/honorstheses/112/. And with these new trends, social media can benefit other sectors. In this case, reading is the precursor to helping small businesses.
In conclusion, I believe that the subject can have many approaches and is something that will begin to be studied in greater depth, as the rise of movements like this in social networks has only just begun, as they say.
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I’m a book freak but I don’t use TikTok. I often complain about it, so it was interesting to read how the two worlds intersect. I was, however, disappointed by the manner of this study. I expected the researchers to show in some way whether more people actually reached for books under the influence of BookTokers. Nevertheless, the trend itself should be appreciated. Putting books in a mainstream space, for that is what TikTok is, is bound to influence their popularity sooner or later. I don’t use TikTok, but it is surprising that another post on the subject mentions community building. If a trend is being created on this platform around such a niche topic as book reading and it even has a name and influencers who are building their brand and marketing around it – that is amazing. It is a bit regrettable that, since researchers have taken an interest in this topic, the impact of this group on regular users and reading itself, and perhaps even the perception of books and reading, has not been explored more widely.
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Thank you for your enlightening blog post on an intriguing subject. I too have come across videos related to the #BookTok phenomenon on my ForYouPage, despite not being an avid reader nor having a particular interest in books. Nonetheless, I found myself engaged in these videos and even discovered new books through them. It is plausible that other users could have had a similar experience, and thus, social media platforms could be utilized to promote reading and foster a sense of community among young individuals.
Given TikTok’s growing significance among the youth, there is immense potential in leveraging this platform to raise awareness about pertinent topics. By creating and sharing videos on a diverse range of literary works and themes, the reading culture could be instilled and strengthened among the younger generation. This, in turn, would enhance their cognitive abilities, broaden their horizons, and enable them to explore the world through different perspectives.
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First of all thank you for your post. I found it really interesting as I did not know a lot about the Book Tok phenomenon and the community that is linked to it. As I see it, it is really important that current social platforms like TikTok, which is one of the most used applications by the young people, include this kind of content in their algorythms.
It’s true that most of the childs do not read, maybe it is because they don’t have the habit, but also because it seems that since we are just kids the action of reading is categorized as boring if we compare it to the hundreds of options that technology gives us.
So the fact that TikTok is showing book content it’s fantastic, because on the one hand, it encourages young people to read, and on the other hand, it can be useful as a marketing strategy for writers, so more people get to know them.
Even though I am happy that TikTok shows this kind of content, and I see it as a progress, I think that the part that the platform dedicates to the books and readings is just a very small part. Most of the content belongs to people dancing and nonsense (in my opinion) trends. But I am happy that every time there’s space in these social platforms for more diverse categories.
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Thank you for choosing this topic, it is quite challenging to find academic articles about recent happenings in the media, as you acknowledge yourself. The topic hits close to home for me as I was deeply obsessed with reading in my teen years and it wasn’t a common thing with my peers. As a result, I relied on the internet as a source of recommendations and sharing opinions about books. One of my main sources has been YouTube, which still seems to be active in that regard, but not in the same capacity. Remember that before BookTok, there was BookTube. The other one was – Tumblr. That experience has similarities and differences from BookTok. One difference that struck me the most is the influence of the TikTok algorithm. If it influences what BookTokers post, it would mean that they are going to push already popular books that are going to bring more engagement, instead of talking about any book that they want. I don’t know if that is precisely the case, but it would make me sad if it did. Also, talking about books on Tumblr and internet forums was not monetized back in the day, so there was no outside influence and you could find people that were genuinely into the same niche readings as you yourself. The biggest similarity between the two must be the building of a community, which often leads to friendships and is a really nice way of connecting people.
All in all, even though TikTok doesn’t have the biggest appeal for me, I am glad that there is an outlet for all people, but especially teens, today that offers them that experience and encourages reading.
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What an interesting summary! I use TikTok occasionally and have always wondered how the #BookTok phenomenon actually works and how it came about. I’m a reader myself, but so far I’ve always enjoyed doing it on my own. It’s refreshing to see that there’s an incentive so widespread that makes the hobby doable and fun as a collective. To me, this is a perfect example of how we can bring people together through social media and make a difference in a positive way. As mentioned in another comment, this is a great way to motivate young people to read, since TikTok is such a great platform used mostly by the younger crowd.
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This topic is so interesting. It always seems to be reviving to see this kind of ‘content’ being made, but I’m always intrigued as to how or why certain novels tend to be prioritized or disregarded on social media networks like TikTok or Instagram reels. But I wonder if we should approach the phenomenon with some skepticism given the financial circumstances of authors who don’t work for the major US and UK publishing houses and the kinds of books (newer, older, independently published or not) that are being widely distributed. also it raises one big question about the value of art(books) in term of their financial status which they already hold in society.
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