Struggling to gain TikTok followers? You’re not alone. The platform can be a little overwhelming in the early stages, but we’re here to help you build your roadmap to reaching your follower goal.
TikTok has over 1 Billion monthly active users, with the U.S. alone having 50 million daily active users (MAUs). You can say that out of 4.8 billion internet users all over the world, 20.83% of them are TikTok users. Moreover, out of 4.48 billion active social media users, 22.32% of them are using TikTok daily.
TikTok is right up there with Instagram and Facebook as one of the biggest social media platforms on the globe. TikTok stands out to be one of the best social media platforms to grow your brand. So buckle up as we reveal the secrets to increasing your TikTok followers and why it has to be TikTok.
What’s the big deal about TikTok?
If you are living under a rock and aren’t familiar with how TikTok works, here’s a little brief. Essentially, it harnesses the popularity of the short video format; this is the only way content is delivered on the platform. It has struck a chord with today’s generation. While photos can only convey a certain amount of information, long videos are unengaging and fail to keep viewers hooked. For this reason, the short video format is a brilliant sweet spot.
What also worked for TikTok, albeit unintentionally, is the timing. The platform started getting popular just before the covid virus pandemic, and this is when a lot of people started exploring it. Scrolling through photos all day while staying in started getting stale, so people naturally spent more time on TikTok.
It is evident that this rattled the competition, as Instagram soon launched its Reels feature. This was a blatant ripoff of TikTok with an identical format and layout. But do the social media managers feel that TikTok is worth it? Will the videos created on TikTok have a positive impact on your brand?
Implications for social media managers
Some social media managers would argue that TikTok is not a great platform to engage with your audience. This is an understandable misconception since, on the surface, TikTok just seems like a platform to express your silliness and consume more silliness. This makes up a large portion of the platform, but there are also life hacks, how-to videos, and general knowledge. It’s a mix of everything.
Content here can also be completely unrefined, which makes it cheaper to produce, yet more realistic and human. You can hire spokespeople to talk about your brand or recent events in your industry or take part in challenges that relate to your products. Again, with almost a billion users worldwide, a large chunk of your target audience will certainly be scrolling through TikTok. Proactively increasing your TikTok followers can be extremely fruitful, especially if you’re an online business.
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Before you get started on TikTok
TikTok is not just another platform you have to be on as part of your social media strategy. Before making a profile, you have to consider who your target market is. For example, if you wish to increase the awareness of your healthcare services for the elderly, TikTok just won’t be the right place (bad example, sorry!).
If you have the resources, putting in the effort to carry out some primary research will certainly help. Conduct interviews and discussions with an appropriate sample of your target audience. Strive to go a little deeper than “Do you use TikTok?” and “How often do you use TikTok?”. Ask exploratory questions about their behavior, and what they like, or don’t like to see on TikTok.
Some patterns can’t be noticed plainly. So you can simply ask your audience to give you amazing insights on what TikTok content you should produce. Moreover, consider the below 12 techniques that will help you to increase followers on your content.
Proven ways to increase your TikTok followers count.
Identify your target audience
Be sure what you post is what your audience wants. To increase followers on TikTok you need to make sure the content you post interests your audience. Now it depends on whether you merely want to increase your followers list or attract an audience who is genuinely interested.
The content you will find on TikTok covers multiple niches, locations, and demographics. So the type of content prepared for a niche may not be suitable for a different type of niche. Thus, study your target audience and find out what they do on social media and what their preferences are.
Some tips to help you identify your your target audience:
- Know the type of people to whom you sell your product such as their gender, age group, and financial status.
- Know and establish which social media channels can be used by your target audience.
- If you have an existing audience group, survey them and extract crucial facts that help you attract more potential audiences.
Once done, it would be easier for you to prepare content that interests them. Also, be sure that the content you create is entertaining or educational, this enables you to make real connections. Moreover, it will help you attract an audience that is truly interested in your brand. Additionally, your created content should be of interest to your target audience rather than everybody.
Now that you know your target audience, create content on the latest trends on TikTok.
Hop on to trends FAST, to gain TikTok followers!
A major component of social media management is simply scrolling through platforms looking for content opportunities. This is true for TikTok as well, and you should actively be looking for trends and challenges. There are new ones virtually every week, and people move from trend to trend at breakneck speed.
In short, you have to be fast.
To speed up the process of identifying trends, follow hashtags related to your niche/industry, and also other generic ones like #viral, #trendalert, and #trending.
As soon as you identify a trend, consider how it could tie in with your business. Then put a video out with the trend’s hashtags as fast as possible. For example, a lot of brands took part in the #albumcoverchallenge, where they used their products in imaginary album covers. These made for a very popular TikTok! Again, don’t fret about the production quality as much, last thing you’d want to achieve is perfection to gain followers.
If your TikTok is short and engaging, and you’ve used the right hashtags. Rest assured that it will end up in the Discover section for a LOT of people. The next thing to consider would be maintaining proper posting times.
Post your TikTok videos at the right time
Just like Instagram, there is a best time to post on TikTok, which is different for each handle. Unlike Instagram though, there is no Insights section where you can see the period during which your audience is the most active. This makes it a little tricky to find out the best time to post on TikTok for your handle.
The best way to do this is to simply put out your first few videos on different days and times. Now wait to see what works best for you. Over time, you’ll get at least a rough idea of when you can most effectively reach your target audience.
Take a look at a rough guideline of the best posting time across the world from a study by Marketing Hub.
Finding out your sweet spot on TikTok can create a multiplier effect for your account. Posting at the right time will increase your likes, shares, and comments and eventually your organic reach. With the right posting time, also try to connect with the best creators to increase your followers.
Engage with other creators to gain TikTok followers
When you first start building your brand on social media, you may find it a bit difficult.
To overcome this problem, start engaging with other creators to increase your reach. Huge influencers may not be the right ones for you due to an unengaged audience or exorbitant rates. A little bit of research to find the right creators to reach out to could be well worth your time!
When you’re just starting on your TikTok journey, it is always a good idea to reach out to small creators for collaborations first. Big, famous influencers usually don’t bother making content with smaller influencers (harsh truth, sorry), so reach out to creators with a not-so-substantial following. You’ll be able to make a more persuasive case for yourself, and thus have a higher chance of going ahead with a collaboration!
Note that smaller influencers generally have a more engaged, reactive audience as well.
The idea is when you work with creators, your content is exposed to their audience as well. This exposure can give a fruitful kickstart to your content and your TikTok follower count!
For a super-easy way to collaborate, check out the very popular Duets feature on TikTok. You can remotely add to any creator’s content with a twist of your own!
Use TikTok Hashtags for More Followers
If you’re not using hashtags on TikTok or using them incorrectly, you’re not going to make it on the platform. It’s as simple as that.
The main benefit of using TikTok hashtags is discoverability. If you’re using hashtags that are trending, you will potentially end up in the Discover section for a lot of users.
Don’t stop at trending hashtags though. Use any hashtag related to your TikTok, and you will end up amongst the videos under that particular hashtag, and anyone following it is likely to see your content.
Read this piece if you think your Instagram hashtags are not performing as well as they should.
Create (and Participate in) Challenges
Nowadays, it is easy to find various trendy and viral challenges on TikTok. So here, you have a choice to either select from various challenges or create one.
If you want to choose from existing challenges, try to select one that is trendy and viral. A challenge that is already viral on TikTok will have a great impact on your video leading to increased followers. Here is a great idea, use your brand employee in your video. He or She can be the one to represent your brand in the video. Or else, find and collaborate with an influencer who can represent your brand in the video.
TikTok also lets you create your challenge. You can scroll through challenges to pick up ideas. Moreover, you can also take a look at other brands. It can be a great opportunity to study their challenge progress. This will help you to create amazing challenges.
TikTok also lets you create a brand hashtag that you can use in your challenge. For example, if you are a food brand named ‘Tacoland’, consider a hashtag such as #tacolandcreation. Now you can ask users to create videos with a twist in recipes from Tacoland dishes. Also, ask them to use this hashtag in the video you create.
Now you can start creating and participating in TikTok challenges to increase your followers on TikTok. Always remember, that the content created should tend to go viral. This will attract an audience to view more of your videos.
User-generated content for the win
Sharing user-generated content on a social media platform can be of great help. It lets the audience acknowledge that you are a brand that wants to share healthy relationships with its followers. It is also a great way to inspire more users to generate content that is related to your brand.
Sharing UGC does not technically affect how TikTok’s algorithm sees you. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bother with it. It’s a great way of improving your account’s likeability and perception. This could indirectly bring you TikTok followers.
It also makes perfect sense from a plain business perspective, since customers often find the opinions and experiences of other customers more credible than what businesses themselves communicate.
Pro-tip: To encourage users to generate content, you can develop your own branded TikTok filters! These filters can integrate augmented reality, which makes them very interactive!
Creating contests, trends, and challenges is a great way to put your brand in the limelight on TikTok, and customized filters help you do just that!
Don’t: Buy TikTok views or followers
One thing you absolutely should not do is buy TikTok views or followers. If you find yourself in a situation where you’re looking for free TikTok views, you have to think about what landed you there in the first place.
There are certainly places where you can buy TikTok views, all you have to do is reach out. However, it puts your account at serious risk. TikTok has AI moderators, and if you’re caught, you could be temporarily banned from using the platform. Even when your ban is lifted, you’ll most definitely see a reduction in your organic reach, because the TikTok algorithm considers the ban as a big red flag.
If you’re looking for a sense of perceived credibility and are hence looking to buy TikTok views, there are other ways this can be done. Simply, put out good content and work with good content creators! In a platform with incredible organic reach, sticking to the basics just works.
Boost TikTok Followers through Cross-Promotion
If you intend to grow your business or brand on social media, depending on TikTok alone is not sufficient. Other social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest will help your content to reach a wider audience.
Your audience itself is not just stuck on TikTok but has other social media accounts as well. So this is a great chance for you to establish your brand on other social media platforms. Here, you will already find many of your existing followers who will support your brand. You can post your TikTok videos on these platforms and ask your audience to follow you on TikTok.
For example, you can take a look at popular brands from any social media platform. Now search on other platforms and you can find they have an established social media presence on various platforms. Also, you can visit Instagram and check out video content that is posted on Instagram for cross-promotion.
Since video content can attract more viewers, your TikTok videos will attract a larger relevant audience. Moreover, try to create videos according to the trending content style of each platform. This will help your brand grow on different social media platforms increasing your brand recognition. Eventually, it will also lead your users to your TikTok account and increase the number of your followers. You should also consider running ads for your brand for the same purpose.
Use TikTok Ads for More Followers
If your marketing strategy already includes paid ads, then you should use TikTok ads to promote your videos on TikTok. There are various types of Ads available on TikTok, so select one that can deliver your message to the correct audience.
- In-feed video ads
- Brand takeover ads
- Spark ads
- Image ads
- Video ads
- Pangle ads
- Carousel ads
Ads can also appear as branded stickers and lenses that can be used by other TikTokers. Ads on TikTok can be of great potential due to the various options available as seen above.
It is easier and more beneficial to run an ad on TikTok. Here are a few reasons why TikTok ads are more beneficial:
Budget-friendly
TikTok prefers raw and unedited videos that can be directly made from phones. This makes advertisements budget-friendly.
Engaging format
The formatting of ads on TikTok is more engaging. They appear as first ads when you open your feed or come later as you scroll the videos. You can easily like, share, comment, and follow to directly connect with the brand through these ads.
Easy collaboration with influencers
Collaborate with influencers to promote your brand. These days, brands have adopted this technique to promote their product via influencers on TikTok. You can send the product itself as a payment rather than cash. Moreover, audiences would love to purchase a product if a well-known influencer recommends it.
TikTok also provides you with a feature that will help you promote your public videos as ads on the platform.
Turn your best videos into ads with TikTok’s new ‘Promote’ tool
Launched in 2021, this new advertising tool from TikTok allows your public videos to be discovered by more people. Moreover, it guides people to your site as well as improves your chance to get more followers. So the videos selected to promote will be displayed as ads for the time they are promoted.
Promote allows you to track information such as the number of views, likes, shares, and comments on the video you promote. The video can either be of the original sound, or you can select a sound from the commercial music library.
This feature of TikTok allows you to promote your public videos as ads on TikTok. You can also check the progress of the video that you promote. Once you can check the progress, it will help you to find out the points that aren’t great for your content. So next time, you can be fully prepared to create content that will please your audience.
Try a TikTok Video Making Tool
Did you ever consider using a tool to make your TikTok videos? let me tell you that it can be a lot of help if you intend to create trendy content. Though there are various tools for this purpose, the best one I prefer is the Predis.ai tool. It is easy to use and can create free TikTok videos in different languages. Another great thing is that you don’t have to use different editing tools.
You can add an extra touch of perfection to your videos by using a tool. there are various templates and music available in the tool that will help you create amazing content.
So here I would like to recommend using a video creator that can help you handle your work pressure. The time you will be saving from creating videos can be used to conduct further research for your brand. Moreover, the high-quality content with viral trends and the latest templates will surely attract many followers.
Wrapping it up
We hope that the above tips will help you to strategically increase your TikTok followers and brand recognition.
This blog tells you about how TikTok is a beneficial platform if you intend to grow your business via social media. TikTok plays an important role as a social media platform to post raw unedited videos and attract genuine followers.
Implementing these methods will increase your followers provided your overall social media strategy is solid. It’s important to not have unrealistic expectations of your profile. Keep at it, and in a few months, you’ll be in a very happy position.
Visit Predis.ai for amazing tools to help you smoothly manage your social media platforms. Follow us on Instagram for fresh and regular updates regarding social media. Check out this blog to know how you can keep up amidst dying organic reach on Instagram!
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