TikTok needs no introduction!
Despite being the newest social media platform started in 2016, it has become one of the most popular platforms. TikTok grabbed the opportunity during COVID-19 when everyone had nothing exciting to do, and they gave people everything they could want as entertainment. And boom! TikTok became the buzzword, its popularity skyrocketed at an unimaginable level.Â
Even though the pandemic is over, TikTok’s craze hasn’t worn off yet. It was GenZ, then Millennials, and now it’s even your grandmother.
What’s the use of growing on TikTok?
There are over 150 countries where TikTok is available and it has been downloaded over 2 billion times. With its platform, users can express themselves creatively while connecting with other users worldwide.
It has become an increasingly important platform for content creators and brands. Global audiences are an excellent way to market your brand, boost your search rankings, increase traffic to your website, and engage your customers. Now you know why growing on TikTok is so important.
Here’s how to get more followers on TikTok for “FREE”:
Be REAL CLEAR about who your audience is:
Its highly personalized “For You” feed, which is tightly backed by its algorithm, has made TikTok so popular. You need to be very specific about what type of audience you want to attract on TikTok. Research your target audience and create content tailored to their needs.
Understand what your target audience is doing on TikTok and what content they’re seeking.
When you don’t know what your target audience wants, just ask them directly. It’s as simple as that.
Polls
You can use Instagram Polls in your stories. Asking what content they want to see from you.
Survey
You can use survey tools like SurveyMonkey to create a survey and then share the link in your bio or stories. This is a more comprehensive way to know what your audience wants.Â
Live Q&A
You can host a live Q&A session. This way you can directly talk to your audience face-to-face.
To create real connections with your target audience, you need to approach your content with the purpose of adding value with a mix of entertainment. After finding your audience, you can begin creating content that caters to their needs.
You don’t need hundreds of thousands of followers, just the right ones. Making content for the sake of following might get you great numbers, but what good is it if you’re not able to get anything out of it.
Leverage the advantage of Trends
If TikTok could be summed up in one word, it would be “Trends”. TikTok is all about Trends. Following trends as they arise is a great way to increase your follower base, the earlier you hop onto the greater the chances of being seen by a large audience.
It’s important to note that just because a trend is popular, that doesn’t mean you need to participate. Be very careful which trend you choose, and make sure your target audience is also participating.
Here’s how you can find trends on TikTok:
Look for trends around current topics
These trends are ongoing hot topics based on popular current events. Incorporate them into your brand values and mission. Like, on Inauguration Day, there were a lot of posts celebrating the historic moment of the first female. So if your target audience includes women, you could easily grab that hot topic and share your views on it.
Check the Discover Page for Trends
These are the curated trends updated daily. They include trending hashtags, sounds, effects, and brand trends that businesses pay to get featured. But know that once a trend hits the Discover page, it’s already so popular and saturated that it won’t last longer than 3-4 days.
Spot Up-and-Coming Trends
These are upcoming trends that have the potential to go viral. They are a bit trickier to find as they might have some thousand videos initially but have the biggest potential to find. The thing about trends is they don’t last long. Earlier it used to be 7-10 days but now it’s more like 3-5 days. So you need to hop onto these trends before they expire.
So how do you find such trends?
To spot early trends, you need to see a wide variety of content other than your niche. Here are the steps:
- Create a second empty TikTok account. Just scroll down the “For You” page. Here you’ll see different content, creators, and music that you wouldn’t see on your main account.
- Glance quickly through the feed and find any repeating patterns with audio, hook steps, or text in the video.
- Once you find such, then check the number of videos using that sound.
- Once you find such a trend that could work for your account, create your own TikTok video for that trend.
Educate Your TikTok followers:
The Top TikTok Creators are those who have a mix of value driven and entertainment content. Create engaging and educational content with TikTok that provides value to your audience. This gives your audience a reason to stick with you. The best way to educate your audience is to showcase their values and products in cleverly curated content that makes their lives easier.
The team at Wendover Productions explains complex topics in an entertaining and easy-to-understand manner.
Using User Generated Content on TikTok is another great trick to use. User Generated Content is any form of content created by a common user to share their experiences with a brand, product, or service. You can increase your brand trust, user engagement, and reach with UGC.
Here are the reasons why promoting UGC content can be so crucial to grow:
Trust factor
Building trust is the first step while trying to grow. You need a solid reason for the audience to follow you. And UGC plays a key role in this when they get to see people similar to them on your TikTok. That’s how your audience will develop a connection with you.
Covers a wide spectrum of audience
In a world of self-promotional TikToks, and glimmer marketing, what stands out? Unique and impactful content. This is user-generated content. When a TikTok is created by someone like them, the audience will instantly relate to it.
Drive More Sales
After watching TikTok, 52% of users purchased something. Your TikTok videos need to be strategically integrated into your marketing campaigns. You can do this either by reposting them on your TikTok account or by posting them across your eCommerce store, which will get the audience’s attention and encourage them to buy.
So how can you create UGC content?
- Create a TikTok Challenge
- Repurpose existing UGC content
- Start Hashtag Campaigns
It’s all about Timing:
It is crucial to post on TikTok at the right time to maximize your audience reach. It is difficult to decide a specific time because everyone has a different audience, so it can be tricky to generalize a time. Here’s what you need to know about post timings:
Which time zone does the majority of your audience belong to?
With a global follower base it is impossible to generalize a specific timing. Identify where your maximum audience lives. One way to do this is to switch accounts. Pro accounts come with a set of features, including analytics.
Analyzes your audience’s gender ratio and the top demographics from which they come. In addition, the Creators could use which audience engages more to get a better understanding of the demographics of the audience.
Make sure you know their time zones and when they are online and post accordingly!
Leverage the use of Stitch:
The stitch feature was introduced by TikTok in the late 2020s. It allows you to add together multiple videos from other TikTok Creators to create new, original videos. It is a fun way to collaborate with other creators and make some highly engaging, creative content. Also, it is a great way to rapidly grow your following.
The idea is to use a few seconds from another person’s video as a part of your video to inform, grow, and engage. As stitch is still relatively new, Tiktok favors stitches. So get started.
Here are some tips to keep in mind for stitching:
#1. Hop on Viral Trends
#2. Try telling a story.
#3. Use stitch to show off your skills.
#4. Be as Creative as you can be.
#5. Focus on Audio.
So start collaborating and get stitching!
Having a fully integrated digital marketing strategy means having a variety of social media platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn, as well as Reddit, Pinterest, and Quora. You should cross-promote your videos all over social media platforms depending on where your target audience spends time.
Cross-promoting your TikTok Videos
If your target audience scrolls social media, you should be there as well. Use your online presence to cross promote your videos. Share your TikTok content, repurpose it or give it a little tweak to make it more social. Not only will it save you time but it will also help you repurpose one piece of content across multiple social networks.
You can repurpose TikTok content on platforms like Instagram and YouTube, which offer their own short-form videos. Using platforms like Twitter, you can save videos from your TikTok feed, and then upload them as they are with the TikTok logo and your handle in the corner of the screen, so your followers know how to find you.
Instagram Reels does not allow reposted, watermarked videos, so you’ll need to upload the original short video or edit it to promote original content over repurposed TikTok videos. TikTok watermarked videos are allowed on YouTube Shorts, but they cannot be monetized.
Using this strategy, you can cross-promote your TikTok videos on your other social media platforms. This will inform your target audience that your brand has a TikTok profile as well.
Closing Thoughts
With more than 800 billion monthly active users, TikTok continues to grow day by day. Take advantage of the platform. Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to growing your TikTok audience, increasing engagement, and forming a community. As soon as you find your target audience on the platform, you need to create the kind of content they want to see.
In order to succeed on TikTok, getting your content on the TikTok For You page is key, but without a proper strategy, it is hard to grow.
The crux is you don’t have to implement every single tip in one day. Begin by learning what your target audience likes on TikTok when they are most active, and then start creating high-quality content with a call to action and posting it during peak times. That’s how you get started!
Be patient, and consistent, and do your best. Don’t get overwhelmed and get started!
Yes, you got it, mate! 🙂