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Within hours, Dinin’s clip was seen and liked by millions.

“It was incredible to watch,” said Dinin, a lecturing fellow in . “You start refreshing the page every five seconds to see how much it’s grown and it’s blowing up. I mean, tens of thousands of views every five seconds.”

Today, that brief 15-second clip has compiled 17.4 million views, 2.2 million likes and over 5,500 comments. It’s an example of one of several viral posts Dinin has created that exemplify the power TikTok can have for reaching younger, rising audiences. Today, TikTok has more than one billion active monthly users .

The platform is especially popular among American teenagers age 13 to 17, according to the Pew Research Center, but a quarter of U.S. adults under 30 also regularly use TikTok, according to .

��ţӰ�� launched a TikTok account in 2022, joining a growing trend of higher education institutions that are using the platform as a to reach current and prospective students.

Within the past year at Duke, the Lemur Center, Athletics, men’s basketball, football team and Admissions have also launched accounts. ��ţӰ�� social media coordinator Anna Lee said across the country, higher education is still trying to figure out how to capture the attention of audiences on TikTok.

“We’re all in the same boat of trying different things, trying videos that have done well on other platforms,” Lee said. “Once one school figures that out, everyone’s going to join that trend, but nobody’s cracked the code yet.”

Still, department successes provide a window into how the social media platform can engage learners and people interested in Duke happenings.

“I didn't expect it to be so funny,” Donald said in a last year. “I expected some things to be maybe a little bit dry, but they really found a way to integrate the class work with the youth culture and explain things.”

At the end of each semester, Donald awards bonus points to students who created the best videos.

In his courses, Dinin has used TikTok to show a different side of the “Professor Life.”

Some of his clips include in his syllabi and the . He also shares messages he wants the next generation to know, like when he realized he was teaching in the where he once received a C in chemistry.

In the comments of that video, Dinin encouraged viewers that grades don’t define you.

“The best brand I can create on TikTok is humanizing faculty,” Dinin said.

As TikTok continues to grow, Dinin hopes he can use his platform as a place for positivity and spreading knowledge, which has a direct correlation to the values and goals of Duke.

“If the goal is to ‘enhance the creation, delivery and translation of knowledge for a rapidly changing world’ – that’s the and what we’re trying to do here — then the way we’re going to do that is with platforms that reach the world,” Dinin said. “There is value to this.”

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