2: Visibility and Engagement^*

In my early ethnography of internet celebrity cultures on TikTok,¹ I offered a framework for how TikTokers were generating and engaging in visibility labours. Recalling that internet celebrity is contingent upon high visibility on the internet, the following sections review some of the key strategies in which TikTokers engage to solicit the attention of followers. Visibility labour is the work that social media users perform to be noticed by their intended audiences, comprising self-posturing and the curation of self-presentations to be ‘noticeable and positively prominent’ among viewers.² Given that TikTok’s propriety algorithmic is a well-guarded black box,³ TikTokers have had to rely on repeated attempts, observed patterns, and gut feelings to figure out how the algorithm works, how to please the platform to facilitate their visibility, and how to have their popularity grow.