TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social networks. It was launched in 2016 exclusively for the Chinese market and became available worldwide in 2018, after merging with Musical.ly, another Chinese company. And boy, did it pop.
It took the app just about three years to get the first billion subscribers. As of 2021, TikTok has 689 million monthly active users worldwide (excluding China), and the number is only growing exponentially.
This number may seem small compared to Instagram’s one billion monthly active users, but you need to take into account the pace of growth that TikTok’s audience has. Undoubtedly, it’s one of the most downloaded apps by far, and it opens up a lot of opportunities for expanding your brand’s online presence.
In this article
The Reasons for Success
TikTok wouldn’t become so popular around the world if not for several things that make it unique. These things are also the reasons for the success of the most popular TikTok influencers. Keep them in mind if you want to use TikTok promotion as a part of your marketing campaign.
1. Short Videos
TikTok is famous for short funny videos. Our attention span is getting shorter and shorter, so we go for shorter content more willingly, and preferably, it should be visual content.
The amount of information you can find online is enormous, and in order not to waste your time on hour-long videos, we are inclined to dynamic bite-sized clips. If you can stack all the information into a 60-second video and still make it entertaining, educating, and useful, you’re on the right track.
2. Young Audience
TikTok found its niche with youngsters. Just think about it: according to Oberlo, 62% of US users are aged between 10 and 29. The prevalence of younger audiences is connected with their background. The so-called Generation Z kids were practically born with smartphones in their hands and definitely know their way around the technology.
TikTok gave them an opportunity for self-expression, and they took it. Not only do they consume large amounts of content, but they also produce relatively the same portion themselves.
3. Opportunities for Monetization
Last but not least, the reason for the app’s snowballing success is also its ability to help you earn money from making videos. You can either join the TikTok for Business program and place advertisements or become a member of TikTok Creator Marketplace.
The latter is a longer path, as you need to grow your audience up to 100,000 subscribers, have 100,000 views in the last 30 days, and be over 18 years old.
The Most Useful TikTok Tips
If you want to get a piece of this success pie, you’ll need to have a decent number of people in your audience. And here’s how to get followers on TikTok, keep them coming back for more, and grow your fanbase even bigger. Whether you are a small business or an international brand, these tips work both ways.
1. Make The Profile Look Stunning
An attractive profile gives you extra points in the eyes of potential followers. When a user clicks on your name, they will see your profile picture, short bio, and the content you posted. There’s not much you can do with it, but you can try your best.
For a company account, it’s better to use your corporate logo for the main picture and place a link to your official website. It’s also beneficial to describe what you do and where your office or shop is located. The grid will depend on the videos you create, so we’ll talk about it a bit later.
2. Find Your Audience
We’ve already mentioned the average age of TikTok’s audience, but you need to be more specific than that. The right audience on TikTok should ideally coincide with the target audience of your marketing strategy in general.
If your products or services are not something a teen or a young adult can be interested in, you probably shouldn’t hope for much in your TikTok promotion. When you consider the age, gender, geography, and interests of your potential audience, only then will you strike gold.
3. Be on Top of Trends
When you can fit your content to the latest trends, you can expect a lot more subscribers. Participating in hot challenges and being in the loop is the way to go if you want the numbers of followers and likes to go up.
Another tip is to think of trending songs or of those that are not too old but still make waves in the social networking world. When you’ve gained enough followers, you can start your own challenges and encourage people to join them.
4. Define the Best Posting Times
You may wonder what the best time to post on TikTok is. Unfortunately, there is no universal answer. However, you can analyze your existing videos via TikTok statistics and see which ones brought you more views and likes in one day. This, of course, depends on your location and the geography of your audience.
Generally speaking, there are three periods of time throughout the day when people open the TikTok newsfeed and recommendations – in the morning around 9 a.m. on their commute, around lunch hours, and late in the evening before going to bed. Your goal is to be one of the firsts your followers see; otherwise, they may not even scroll to your clip.
5. Make Use of Hashtags
The purpose of hashtags is simple. They group content by topics and help people find videos they are interested in. To make the most of this system, you shouldn’t rely exclusively on trending hashtags.
Add branded hashtags as well – this way, it will be easier to find videos related to your business. And not only the videos made by you – if you create a challenge, people can add your hashtag to their videos so you can identify them among the sea of other videos tagged #tiktok #viral #follow and other common keywords.
6. Create Cool Videos
It may seem very obvious, but there it is – you need to create cool videos that have the potential to go viral. If it is a staged piece, make sure the plot is not dull and repetitive. Make sure your lines are on point, and it is clear for the audience what’s happening. If you record authentic videos, take care of their length as well. For challenges, there is only one tip – repeat what’s needed and, optionally, add a personal twist.
On TikTok, you don’t really need to have impeccable video editing skills and complex editing apps. Internal tools are almost always enough, but if you look for more original ideas, you can rely on external services like Fastreel Video Editor, Kapwing, or Canva’s video editor.
7. Post Regularly
Another important thing is to provide your followers with new content on a regular basis. TikTok has a visible advantage over YouTube because short videos require less time to shoot and edit, while you need high-quality content for the biggest video-hosting site.
Posting several TikToks a day may be too much, but posting videos every other day seems like a reasonable choice. You can create them in advance and have a content plan for when to post what. You should also try to make yourself consistent with whatever you are posting.
The best way to build your network is by creating something daily, consistently. When you do so, you will be able to get more fans as you continuously update your page with fresh and useful content. When you have hundreds of followers already, you will be able to generate a significant amount of income from the social media platform.
8. Collaborate with Popular TikTokers
Working with influencers is a good idea because they definitely know how to get followers on TikTok. Interestingly, Instagram celebrities may not pop on TikTok and have the same massive subscription base as they have there. You may want to aim for collaborations with native TikTok stars.
TikTok Creator Marketplace will help you find the right people for advertising your business. You can reach out to those influencers who have a similar target audience and promotion style and fit the values that your brand transmits.
9. Cross-Promote on Other Social Networks
You should also notify about your TikTok updates on your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts. Don’t duplicate the content, but rather tease your subscribers and encourage them to follow you on TikTok for more exclusive content.
Cross-promotion works great when you don’t do it often and don’t spam with the same video over several social networks. Your TikTok content should differ from your Instagram stories and Facebook posts. This will make people subscribe to your account on different platforms in order not to miss all the awesome things you have to offer.
Content Creation Tips
Getting a lot of followers is impossible without having great content. Here are some tricks that will help you get better at shooting and editing videos.
1. Types of Videos
The secret for making your audience stay with you and come back for more is to diversify your content. Making the same type of videos may be suitable for one-focus themed accounts – humorous, educating, etc. – but for a business TikTok account, it will be better to provide the audience with various content types:
- Promotional clips
- Short how-to guides and lifehacks
- Behind-the-scenes footage
- Product launch teasers
- Events coverage
Promotional Clips
Use the opportunity to tell your followers about your products or services with the help of short dynamic clips. Show off their best features and advantages over similar services.
How-to Guides and Lifehacks
Teach your audience how to use your products – goods, programs, online tools – and do it in a quick 60-second clip. You can even dedicate a special segment and post various video instructions weekly.
Behind-the-Scenes Footage
Exclusive shots from your workplace can really boost your views count. Show the people behind that awesome product of yours, your daily life, and sneak a peek into your corporate events.
Product Launch Teasers
Announce new products via short clips that reveal just enough information for your audience to get interested and wait in anticipation for the actual release.
Events Coverage
If one of your colleagues takes part in a conference, either as a guest speaker or as a listener, it will be worth mentioning. You can post about the most interesting events, do full coverage, or add short interviews.
2. Ideas for Inspiration
It may be difficult to come up with fresh ideas for new content. To get some inspiration, you can check out popular challenges, your followers’ publications, or even your competitors’. Here are some TikTok tips that will come in handy if you’re stuck:
- Run a contest among your followers. It can involve completing a challenge, creating something (a video or a collage), or even going on a treasure hunt. It depends only on your imagination.
- Engage with UGC (user-generated content). Sometimes you can find real gems that you can share with the rest of your community.
- Visit events that your target audience regularly goes to. Get in touch with your followers in real life – invite them to demos or interviews – and then tell others about it.
3. How the Pros Do It
TikTok became the starting point for many and many of today’s influencers. Brands and businesses, however, are still new to this. Let’s take a look at those who excelled in their short video promotion and know how to get followers on TikTok.
- Chipotle varies its content from mouth-watering recipes to funny sketches and has a lot to offer when it comes to puns. Their bio says “Less Tok, More Guac,” and their Halloween #boorito challenge hit four billion views.
- ESPN is on top of covering sports events both on television and on TikTok. They post funny compilations featuring sports stars, and of course, fans from all over the USA. Their key to success is using trending songs that reflect the content of videos.
- Crocs gets creative and uses every possible type of video, including collaborations with other brands and superstars, funny animal clips, and good old advertising.
- San Diego Zoo’s account posts only what the vast majority of people love – cute animals. They educate their audience about endangered species, share interesting facts, and just overwhelm the feed with cuteness.
Promoting Your Profile
Promoting videos and your account in common can be challenging for a beginning TikToker. As this platform becomes more and more popular, you are going to have many competitors, so it would be best if you thought about how to improve the visibility of your content. Here, we have collected a few tips for you.
Keep Your Eye on TikTok Analytics
This tool can help you figure out what kind of content is more popular among your audience, how people react to your videos, and how popular your profile is. TikTok Analytics is based on your profile information, your audience, and your content.
The service collects and analyzes the data about views, likes, and comments, about users’ behavior, and your profile metrics. With the help of this tool, you can create a strategy and a content plan that will suit you best.
Develop Your Style
The unique style of videos can be the thing that catches a user’s eye and makes them watch a video to the end and then subscribe to you. The visual part of your content plays an essential role in promoting this content.
There is no need to create an entirely new concept; you can take different ideas from the most successful tiktokers and create your own style based on those ideas.
Interact With Your Audience
When your followers comment on your videos, they are interested in interacting with you. If you respond to them, make a small conversation, and thank them for their opinion and attention, you can better connect with your audience.
Also, it can help you to create an impression of your presence, and this is valuable as viewers visit your profile not only to watch your videos but also to communicate with a person that is interesting to them.
Launch Giveaways
Free stuff from a brand is what people like the most. So why don’t you indulge them? Prepare everything from your side: conditions, time limit, prizes, etc. Then announce the giveaway in your profile – post a video and add a link in your bio.
If you don’t know how to make one, you can check out Woorise that will help you build an engaging template and attract more audience.
Be In Trend
It often happens that some videos become extremely popular among users or simply – viral. People start making and watching videos similar to this one; it becomes a trend. If you are looking for popularity, it is vital to pay attention to such trends.
Your chances to get more views, likes, and subscribers increase if you are making content that is the most viewed these days. Do not forget that trends are changing quickly nowadays, and you have to fit in as soon as a new one appears.
Final Say
Getting a large following does not mean that you are going to make more sales overnight, but it is an easy way of building a network that will always support and love your company.
If you look at the history of a website or a company, you will notice that most successful companies or organizations had a steady following of people. The reason is that they regularly update their content and keep their social media active.
So if you want to go viral, it is very important that you do the same thing. Instead of wasting your time posting useless and non-essential information on social networks, go ahead and go viral by creating educating, entertaining, and purposeful content on TikTok.
