Hashtag Strategy, Content Visibility, and Audience Engagement on Tiktok: Evidence From the Spiderman Girl Phenomenon

Abstract

TikTok has become one of the most influential social media platforms in the contemporary digital communication landscape. Its recommendation-based algorithm enables content to reach large audiences rapidly, making content visibility and audience engagement important indicators of communication effectiveness. Within this environment, hashtags function as strategic tools that facilitate content discovery and support information dissemination across user networks. Although hashtags are widely used by content creators, empirical evidence regarding their role in shaping content visibility and audience engagement remains limited. This study examined how hashtag strategies contributed to content visibility and audience engagement in the Spiderman Girl phenomenon on TikTok. The study employed quantitative content analysis of 423 TikTok videos collected through a hashtag-based scraping process. Five dominant hashtags were identified in the dataset: #cosplayspider, #spidergirl, #cewekspiderman, #spidermangirl, and #sexyspiderman. Content visibility was assessed using play counts, while audience engagement was measured using comment and share counts. The data were analyzed to identify patterns of interaction and content circulation within TikTok’s platform ecosystem. The findings indicated that hashtag selection influenced both content visibility and audience engagement. Hashtags associated with cosplay and character identity generated higher levels of interaction than those emphasizing sensual attributes. In addition, comments and shares played a significant role in expanding content reach through TikTok’s recommendation system. The study concluded that content performance on TikTok was shaped not only by content characteristics but also by the strategic use of hashtags that enhanced discoverability and encouraged audience participation.