With 689 million active global users, everyone is on TikTok, even our grandmothers! Having lots of followers, then, can represent a direct line to your business’s target audience and help ensure that your audience can find you, which is key to your marketing strategy.
But how do you make yourself “findable”? Or, better yet, “Followable”?
Spoiler alert: It’s neither that direct nor that easy. If it were, we would all have gone viral by now. So don’t be fooled by those apps that allow you to buy bots and fake followers. This will only feed your ego but will do nothing for your brand awareness how to buy comments on tiktok.
The following tips will show you how to get followers on TikTok the honest way.
How to get followers on TikTok for free
Define your target audience
You can’t have something to offer everyone. Know your audience to know how to capture their attention. Be specific. Focus on your niche. What do you like? What do they dislike?
Having a clear idea of who your target audience is (and who isn’t) will help you get your content to the right For You pages. The For You section is the page that appears when you open TikTok. It’s the place you want to be!
Find out what your audience likes
Don’t you know what they like? Ask them!
Use your other social media platforms to ask your followers what types of content they would like to see on TikTok. Instagram polls and questions can make interactions very dynamic and also let your followers know that you have a TikTok account that they should follow (wink, wink).
Check out what your competition is doing
It’s not a bad idea to take a look at other similar creators and brands in your industry. After all, they share a similar audience, so it’s free field research!
Research Generation Z
Keep in mind that TikTok is the platform on which many young people of Generation Z spend their time. In the US, the vast majority of TikTok users are under 30 years old.
If your target audience could be part of Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, then your chance of reaching them through TikTok is even higher. If you have a slightly older audience, don’t worry! There are more and more users over 30 on TikTok, so don’t turn your back on the platform.
Participate in challenges
Challenges are one of the biggest trends on TikTok and can skyrocket your follower count.
If you don’t know what a challenge is, here we tell you: it is when you challenge or ask other users to do or try something. Actually, it can be anything. Just look at how the “tell me without telling me” challenge has evolved:
Challenges can technically happen on any social network, but they are most popular on TikTok.
Here are some tips to take into account when participating in a TikTok challenge to get more followers:
Choose the right challenge
Some challenges spread like fire while others go out almost before they begin. Much of the success of a challenge depends on it being easily replicated and people identifying with it. The #youdontknow challenge on TikTok achieves both elements (maybe that’s why the hashtag has over 550M views!)
Try doing a Hashtag Challenge
Any company can create a Hashtag Challenge and thus allow TikTok users to develop content and advertise for it. This works great if you reach out to popular creators and offer to pay them to create a video for your challenge. This way, you will have access to their loyal and engaged fan base to expand your own audience. As an example, check out the number of views of the brand hashtag #somosverdeesperanza launched by Fonter, the Spanish sparkling mineral water brand.
Try to get to the For You page
The For You page on TikTok is to creators what the Explore page is to Instagrammers. Kind of like the popular kids’ table in the school cafeteria. It’s where you want to be!
TikTok recommends videos to each user through its For You page based on their interactions with other videos on the platform. If you want to know more about the algorithm, you can take a look at this entry, but basically, it is curated content for you and only you. This also means that no two For You pages are the same.
When your company’s content appears on multiple pages, it is much easier for you to attract new followers, get more likes, and go viral.
Create attractive content
Unlike Instagram or YouTube, TikTok accounts with few or no followers can aspire to go viral with the right content. In theory, juicier content should rise quickly. So make sure your content is high quality, trending or relevant, and something your audience will definitely like.
Create a lot of content
Remember to post, post, post. The more content you have on TikTok, the more likely you are to reach multiple For You pages!
Don’t delete your TikTok videos either! Sometimes a video that has been up for a few weeks can suddenly hit the For You page in droves and go viral. Whether it’s due to timing, a chance event, or a stroke of luck, having a lot of content in the algorithm increases your chances of reaching more For You pages, which could translate into more free followers on TikTok!
Make quality videos
Another great way to reach the coveted For You pages is by creating high-quality videos.
Use a ring of light. Make sure the framing is good and the audio clear and crisp. Edit your videos in an attractive way.
Your audience is more likely to engage with your content if it’s high quality. And you’re also more likely to land on some For You pages.
Use hashtags
Hashtags help your content on TikTok be seen by more people than those who already follow you. Hashtags are easy to create and search for, and have even become an effective marketing tool for businesses and brands as well as the average TikTok creator. Plus, of course, they help you with the TikTok For You page algorithm. Using the right hashtag will allow people who don’t follow you to find your content.
Here are some tips for finding the right hashtag to get your content seen and attract more followers.
See which hashtags are trending
There’s no magic hashtag that will get you to everyone’s For You page. Not even hashtags like #Foryou #Parati #FYP #ForYouPage guarantee that you will have a place there.
Knowing which hashtags to use can feel a little like hitting the airwaves. Fortunately, you can see which hashtags are trending using the hashtags tool in the app. When you’re writing your video descriptions, tap the # sign and suggestions will appear. Those are the hashtags you can use (of course, if they are relevant to your video!)
Create a branded hashtag
A branded hashtag is a great way to get TikTok users to interact with your brand by sharing your unique hashtag. It should be a phrase or word that inspires people to bring your brand into the conversations they are having on TikTok and take advantage of current trends. It can also be a hashtag challenge that motivates TikTok creators to generate content for your brand and become unofficial brand ambassadors.
Fill your descriptions with relevant hashtags too!
It’s also important to include hashtags relevant to your content and your brand in your post description. This way, your audience can find you and the algorithm knows what to do with you. Plus, if you reach a good level with a hashtag, people searching for that hashtag might find your videos.
Connect with your audience’s favorite subcultures
Hashtags are also the reason why many niche communities and subcultures emerge on TikTok. TikTok even calls them new demographics, which means that to find your audience it will be important to align yourself with the right subculture. Is your audience more #cottagecore or are they true #baddies? Knowing your hashtag is knowing your audience!
Post when your audience is online
Without a doubt, what you publish is important. But the moment you publish it also counts a lot.
What is the best time to post on social media? When your audience is connected!
How can we decipher what that moment is? Switching to a TikTok account for business.
This free upgrade gives you access to TikTok Insights, which gives you profile metrics and relevant data to help you find the best time to publish.
Use Statistics to discover when your audience is online
There are two things to consider when finding the best times to publish: where your audience sees you from and the times when you published your most viewed content.
The Followers tab in your Stats will track your follower rate growth, top locations, and follower activity. Remember that TikTok shows you data from the last 28 days.
In the “Follower Activity” section within the Followers tab there is a detailed count of the hours and days when your audience is most active. This information is recorded in UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time). So be prepared to convert to reflect the schedule your audience is on.
The last part of the picture is the performance of your content. In the Content section in TikTok Statistics you will see the performance of your posts over the last seven days. Seeing your best posts and the times you shared them will help you get a clearer idea of the relationship between when you posted and how your post also did.
Attracting a lot of eyes to your new content right when you publish it can help your videos take flight and create momentum to get more followers on TikTok.
Cross-promote with other platforms
Most people use several applications at the same time. In fact, according to an article on the use of social networks in 2021, among young people between 18 and 29 years of age in the US ., 71% are on Instagram, 65% on Snapchat and 50% on TikTok. Posting your content on multiple platforms (such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) contributes to your overall visibility and drives traffic to your TikTok profile.
Adapt your videos for Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels are the new toy and, in a way, they are the version of TikTok developed by Instagram. Reels can be up to 60 seconds long, while TikTok videos can already be up to 3 minutes, so be prepared to shorten your videos in case of as necessary.
Avoid leaving the TikTok watermark on your Reel, otherwise the Instagram algorithm will not promote it. a>
Reels also have an Explore page that allows you to access a whole new audience. If you want to prepare Reels for success to take advantage of this magnificent discovery tool, be sure to read our guide to get your content to appear on Instagram’s Explore page.
Use TikTok advertising
One way to get around the algorithm and get in front of your audience is to have ads on TikTok. Although it must be considered that this option depends on whether you have the budget for it.
With TikTok Ads Manager, you will gain access to a global audience on TikTok and have different management tools at hand to define objectives, create ads, receive reports, etc. and help you get the most out of your ads.
Why ads on TikTok? Ads on TikTok are relatively new, so there’s plenty of room to get creative and get seen by the right people — without too much competition.
Partner with other TikTok creators
Collaborating with a popular TikTok creator can amplify your message and help boost your campaign. You can use TikTok’s Creator Marketplace to find a variety of creators, influencers, and personalities who might be a good fit for your brand and share a similar audience.
Turn your best videos into ads with the Promote tool
The new Promote feature (not yet available in all geographies) helps businesses reach more people and grow their community with their TikTok videos. to reach new audiences, increase your follower count, and drive traffic to your business website. Their costs also tend to be high, so you’ll have to decide if it’s a worthwhile expense for you. Promote allows you to turn any organic video within TikTok into an ad
Advantage: You have the data you need in your TikTok Insights, so you know which content has resonated the most with your audience.
Remember that you can only promote videos that use the original audio or sounds that can be used for commercial purposes.
10. Use trending songs and sounds
Why do so many people (me included) know the super catchy lyrics of “And a kuzaza-kuza, kuza-zakuza, there she goes, there she goes” by GiBlack? By TikTok. No more no less.
If you look at current charts, many of them are super popular on TikTok. This is no coincidence. TikTok is a huge asset to the music industry and is constantly negotiating with record labels to push certain songs on the app. Go do something with one of these songs and your video will be more likely to be played on the For You pages. (And by this tip what we mean is that you use the song in your video, not that you necessarily have to do a dance!).
11. Experiment with the Duo and Paste functions
Another great feature of TikTok is duets. These are side-by-side videos, one from the original creator and one from some other TikTok user. This mode can be used to comment, respond, imitate or complement the original video and is a fun way to interact with the app. There is also a duo option with green screen design that turns the original video into the background of the second video.
Duos motivate people to share and interact with your brand’s content, increasing its chance of being seen by more users. They help create engagement with the brand and open up the possibility of having more followers who might not otherwise have seen your content.
This creator made a duet with the reaction that his Elmo doll had to a popular video and got more than 2 million likes.
Conclusions on how to get followers on TikTok
There is no magic solution applicable to everyone to get more followers on TikTok. But there are definitely plenty of ways to increase your visibility and get to the right For You pages. Knowing your audience, taking advantage of trends, hashtags and challenges, using other social networks, paying for ads to promote your content and posting at the right times are all great ways to improve your chances of having more followers without downloading dubious apps or paying for bots.