Boost Your TikTok Growth: Key Things to Know for 2021
When it comes to TikTok growth, the platform has made several changes to help new creators thrive and reach new audiences. Looking to debunk some stereotypes of TikTok (like “it’s for younger people” and “the content is entertainment-only”) the platform now prioritizes new styles of videos.
Regardless of your niche, the focus on building a community, retaining your audience, and increasing your followers is a crucial formula for growth on any social media platform, including TikTok. Let’s reveal in this article how to grow on TikTok in 2021.
How to grow an account on TikTok
Identify your niche
To increase engaged followers, you have to first find a way to connect your unique personality with the content your target audience is interested in.
Choose 1-2 main themes for your content and stick with them. The people who follow you will follow you for these topics. If you have a TikTok account that focuses on educational business content, for example, your followers will expect that type of content from you.
That doesn’t mean you can’t innovate or experiment with new types of content, but stick with the main topic of your account for the most part. This will keep your audience engaged and interested, and you’ll retain them better.
Decide your content approach
On TikTok, usually content falls into one of three categories:
- Original content: this type of content uses original sounds and visuals that aren’t super popular on the platform. As we explore in an article about TikTok monetization, the Creator Fund was launched to help this type of content thrive on the platform nowadays.
- Trending content: utilizes popular hashtags and songs, as well as trending content like challenges that many people do. In other words, it is the typical “TikTok content”.
- Promise-to-payoff content: With this structure, you make a promise at the beginning of the video and then deliver on that promise. This model keeps people engaged to watch until the end and it’s more commonly used for educational purposes.
What content structure will your target audience be more likely to engage with? What structure makes the most sense to your specific topic and niche?
The best videos on TikTok aren’t improvised, and just taking out your smartphone to film won’t usually do the trick. First, think about what the video will be about and outline the key things you want to convey. This will reduce the chances of you scattering and losing your audience’s interest.
Optimize your hashtags
On TikTok, very few people find content from a hashtag search. Hashtags are rather a categorization metric, which means that the hashtags you use tell the platform to which audience you want to distribute your content.
If your content is very specific, use hashtags that are relevant to the video. Likewise, if your content is broad, recur to hashtags that are broader as well.
Research competitors in your niche for more ideas: what hashtags are they using?
Master video timing
In any social media platform, the formula for success is the right content, in front of the right people at the right time. TikTok isn’t an exception.
Look in your account analytics (you must have a Pro Account to access the analytics on the platform) to discover the hours your audience is more active in. As a general rule, the most popular hours on the platform are in the evening (4-8 PM), but again this will depend on your audience.
On the other hand, don’t be so strict with this. Give yourself space to experiment and see what days and times work best for you and your account.
Keep that consistency!
A regular upload schedule is very important. A platform like TikTok requires you to publish at least 2-3 times per day to scale fast.
It can seem a bit overwhelming to produce that much content, but I urge you to at least try. Produce some videos in bulk, with an hour or two per day you will be surprised at what you can achieve if you outline your video ideas beforehand.
And by the way, if you want to quickly grow your account on the platform and start making money right away, you can buy a TikTok account with enabled monetization and save yourself the time and effort that requires to begin an account from scratch.
Understand video metrics
Video metrics are super important because they help you to understand why your videos work (or didn’t work).
On TikTok’s Analytics, “For You” shows you the percentage of your videos that appear in the “For You” section. These are videos shown to people that aren’t following you but that may be interested in your content.
Aim for a +75% of appearance in the For You section. This will help you to reach a wider audience and to expand the reach of your content, boosting your TikTok growth tremendously.
Keep an eye on “Watch Time” as well. This metric shows you how much time your audience watches your content before leaving. If your watch time is significantly low, it can mean that your content isn’t engaging or relevant enough.
Lastly, “Shares” is an important metric because if a user finds your content so relevant that interrupts their activities to share it, it means that you are doing great. Comments and Likes are also important, but a high number of Shares imply that your content is very engaging and valuable. Keep up the good work!
Limit inspiration sources
On TikTok, a platform designed to be addictive, it can be super easy to lose focus.
Follow a limited number of accounts when looking for inspiration and set a specific time frame to watch videos when looking for ideas. Otherwise, you can waste lots of time that you could have used to create more content.
Conclusion
To grow on TikTok you have to follow certain principles that are common in almost every social media platform: build a community of engaged followers and create valuable content relevant to your audience.
But the platform has some particularities that make growing a TikTok account different from growing an Instagram account or a YouTube channel. Follow the tips on this article and you’ll be on the right track to skyrocket your TikTok account in less time than you can imagine.
Do you have any other tips that worked for you? Share them with us in the comment section below!