Tik Tok has taken over the social media world. App users such as Joe Albanese are gaining more fame every day from posting these short, yet comical videos.

       Tik Tok, the number one trending app in the App Store, is a company owned by ByteDance. They bought the well known app, Musical.ly, for $1 billion as well as buying Tik Tok and merged the two apps together in August 2018. Musical.ly was very similar to Tik Tok as an outlet to post short, comedic videos that generally entice the younger generation. However, since the popularity of the app has begun, people of all ages have been seen enjoying it. 

       One user, Albanese, rose to fame very quickly as he began to post comical videos with his mother and his two sisters. The 18 year old rose to fame in March 2019 when he posted a video of himself break dancing in his kitchen. Since his viral video, the young star has gained over 8 million followers and continues to grow his fan base rapidly throughout the Tik Tok community each day. Freshman, Jordan Lawrence says “His content is typically him getting hurt which makes people laugh and ultimately makes people days better.”

       However, the majority of his fame came from posting videos of him and his little sister, Bella, as well as his mother, Denise Viglione-Rivera. The Connecticut born star has since gained a mass following on the app with over 8 million followers. Joe began to post videos of himself and his friends performing a trending dance on the app. He says, “Whenever there was a trending dance going around on the app, I put my own twist on it by either break dancing, going out in public, or doing the dance with friends or family to make it that much more entertaining to watch. Since this was new to Tik Tok at the time, people loved watching those types of videos and my followers began to rapidly grow.” 

       Albanese has also received many opportunities since his following began in late 2019. Because of this following, he has had the chance to travel to Los Angeles, California to further his career. This move has given him the opportunity to meet with other social media stars, including Hailey Orona, Josh Richards, and Bryce Hall. He says, “Some of my biggest opportunities so far include moving to California next month with other influencers.” He has also gotten the opportunity of meeting even bigger celebrities such as singer Bebe Rexha as well as going on stage with the Chainsmokers during their concert at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT. As well as meeting many celebrities, he has also made partnerships with many worldwide companies such as Arizona Ice Tea, Fashion Nova, MVMT, Young and Reckless, Pacsun, and Redbull. He also has many more opportunities coming up. Lawrence says “because of his following he’s had a lot of opportunities which is shown on his account as he thanks many of these companies and businesses for supporting him and his videos”

       Albanese continues to say “Other opportunities I currently have [include] being a part of Bratz TV, working with Zumiez, and being flown out to London next week,”. As Albanese’s career grows, larger companies reach out to him to help promote their businesses.

       Despite how life changing and helpful this is for his career, it has also been very hard on his family because of how often he is gone.

       “I’m constantly traveling around to different states/countries for new opportunities for this social media career path,” says  Alabanese while speaking about being away from his family. He continues to talk about his family’s overpowering love and support for him and his future career. Albanese’s family has had a major impact on him as well as all of his opportunities since his fame began in 2019. However, when his fame first began to rapidly grow, his family was not supportive and somewhat upset with his decisions. He says, “They didn’t realize how much potential money/growth for business there was in having a social media career. Once I was able to prove to them I was making something out of it, they finally accepted it because they saw the new opportunities I was receiving each day.”

       Once his mother understood the concept she started making dancing videos with her son and even made her own account. His two sisters also found their way to Tik Tok shortly after and began rising to fame with their brother, Joe, due to their features in his previous videos. 

       As for schooling for Albanese, he finished off his senior year in online school and graduated in October 2019. “Now, I’m working with eCommerce businesses to further push my brand for growth,” says Albanese.

       At such a young age Albanese has already come so far so fast and is continuing to make a name for himself in the social media world. Every day he is gaining followers on all of his platforms and is getting more recognition from other popular influencers. Albanese plans to continue on his business career path and hopefully meet with bigger and better opportunities through the process.