From FYP To TBR: Decoding The Social Influence Behind #Booktok

This thesis investigates the persuasive strategies behind TikTok’s BookTok community, a niche yet influential subculture that significantly impacts book sales and consumer behavior (Stewart, 2021). Utilizing Robert Cialdini’s (1984) framework of social influence heuristics, this study examines how BookTok creators employ reciprocity, social proof, consistency, scarcity, liking, authority, and unity to engage audiences and drive book recommendations. By conducting a quantitative analysis of 100 top-trending BookTok posts, this research identifies common post types, content themes, and heuristic subcategories. The findings reveal that video content dominates BookTok, accounting for 91% of trending posts. Reviews emerged as the most prevalent content type, emphasizing personal reflections and storytelling. Social Proof (100%) and Liking (73%) were the most frequently observed heuristics. Additionally, subcategories of heuristics such as Humorous Entertainment (Liking), Relatability (Liking), Exclusive Knowledge (Scarcity), Peer Validation (Social Proof), Fandom/Community Affiliations (Unity), and Building a Shared Group Identity (Unity) played pivotal roles in content engagement. Notably, this research also found that likes and shares exhibited similar behavior and contributed the most to the overall engagement rate of content.