TIKTOK

How to Get More Followers on TikTok

Daniel Cruz

By Daniel Cruz
10 min READ | Dec 8 2021

Table of contents

Leveraging TikTok can make you more famous, whether you’re an artist or own a company. Statistics show this platform creates trends, viralizes concepts, and improves sales.

But first, you need people to watch your videos.

You’re on the right page for that because we’ll show you how to get more followers on TikTok by keeping in mind these 20 strategies. Keep reading below!

TL;DR

  • Challenges: Engage in trending challenges to showcase personality and boost engagement.
  • For You Page: Aim to feature on this page for massive visibility but ensure content uniqueness.
  • Quality Videos: Prioritize good lighting, clear audio, and a glitch-free experience.
  • Right Sound & Music: Use trending or original music tracks for better engagement.
  • Duets: Collaborate with other TikTokers, ideally those with a larger audience.
  • Posting Time: Utilize TikTok Pro Analytics to identify optimal posting times for your audience.
  • Cross-Promotion: Share TikTok content on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and through email marketing.
  • TikTok Ads: Consider investing in ads for wider reach, but costs can be high.
  • CTAs: End videos with compelling Call-To-Actions to drive desired actions.
  • Leveraging Content Creators: Collaborate with influencers to tap into their audience base.
  • Engage: Regularly interact with your audience for loyalty.
  • Consistency: Maintain a consistent posting schedule to keep the audience engaged.

1. Memorable TikTok Username

Your username can make or break your success on TikTok, so make sure it’s:

  • Catchy
  • Easy to memorize
  • Easy to pronounce

And yes, it can even contain your real name—especially if you already have a brand.

Apart from that memorable TikTok username, you also need:

  • A profile picture that draws attention while being easy to recognize
  • Links to all of your social platforms
  • A public profile

2. Deep Knowledge of Your Audience

You can’t get TikTok famous unless you know your audience precisely. After all, if you’re not speaking their language, how can you expect to draw their attention?

Here’s what you have to consider:

  • Be highly specific. Select a niche that will pick up on your TikTok videos and make them go viral.
  • Understand your audience. Know what they like and don’t like by researching different profiles within your target demographics (e.g., geographical area, age, etc.). Alternatively, you can just ask your existing audience for their feedback on other social platforms.
  • Understand your competition. It’s wise to check what your competitors are doing because:

- It helps you understand what makes your active users tick.

- You can identify something that your competitors aren’t doing yet, but your potential customers/viewers are craving. That something could be your unique selling proposition, aka your hook.

3. Your Hook

That hook should be unique, high-quality content that’s:

  • Molded to suit your target, but also:
  • Able to define your target audience

That way, people will:

  • Tell you apart from the competition.
  • Identify with your brand community.
  • Define the outsiders quickly.

TikTok creates culture, and if you want to be successful on this platform, you must stay on top of those trends. For instance, #AltGirls is a colossal viral trend regarding the aesthetic of young adults; some videos using this hashtag have over 300m video views!

Three examples of the #AltGirl TikTok trend. Using trends can help you become TikTok famous.
Three examples of the #AltGirl TikTok trend

Pro tip: Find a trend that:

  • Suits your values and personality
  • Fits your brand
  • Lets you show your uniqueness

5. Short Videos

People usually watch short videos until the end. Because TikTok’s algorithm considers watching time, that means those short videos are more heavily promoted.

However, you should still:

  • Pack those clips with lots of value for your audience.
  • Make sure they’re entertaining.
  • Communicate your message clearly.

This 4.6-second video follows all these conditions above.

6. Engagement

Creating engagement on TikTok guarantees that people who’ve accidentally discovered your videos will come back for more. Also, they’ll share those viral videos or even use them as a starting point to create their own content.

You can create engagement by:

  • Using a theme that’s easy to recognize
  • Linking “episodes” to keep your audience coming back
  • Responding to comments on your profile
  • Engaging with other content creators on their profiles

7. Frequent Posts

More posts attract a larger audience. The problem is you can easily slack off posting regularly. The solution is planning a rigorous schedule.

Thus, take the time one day per week to shoot and edit a bunch of videos. Then, post these videos the rest of the week to keep your audience coming back for more.

Pro tips:

  • Don’t get discouraged if your first few videos don’t get a lot of views. Keep at it diligently, and your time to shine will come.
  • Don’t delete old content. One of your old videos can hit the FYP page and go viral anytime. That’s TikTok’s algorithm for you—the more outstanding content you post, the more chances your old videos have of getting viral.

8. Catchy Video Titles

We don’t recommend clickbait-ing your audience, but you can think of the most exciting video titles to catch people’s attention. Besides, remember that your content should be quality.

Intriguing titles paired with poor content can dispel your audience quickly.

9. Trendy Hashtags

Using suitable hashtags will get you TikTok famous because people usually try to watch everything related to a specific topic they like. So:

  • Check out the trending hashtags using the suggestion tool. All you have to do is click #, and you’ll get many suggestions.
  • Start with hashtags that fit your niche and values.
  • Include relevant hashtags on your video captions to attract more potential followers and to show TikTok’s algorithm what you’re about.

10. Branded Hashtag

Hashtags reflect your audience’s subculture, so what better way to define your niche than using your unique hashtag? That phrase/keyword should:

Here are two examples you could draw your inspiration from:

  • J-Lo’s extraordinary #CambiaElPaso dance challenges on her TikTok account helped promote her new song. After all, she’s renowned for her grade-A dancing skills, not just her music.Chipotle's #lidflip challenge with 300m+ views has people flipping the lid over their Chipotle meals.
A collage of many screenshots showing the Chipotle tikTok challenge.
Chipotle’s TikTok challenge was a huge success

These two examples bring us to the next section.

11. Challenges

Taking part in challenges is a practical way to get more TikTok followers because:

  • It shows you’re part of a particular culture.
  • It allows you to show off your personality.
  • It gets you free user-generated content.
  • It’s easy to engage your followers because you now have a terrific topic centered on your brand.

12. The For You Page

The For You Page shows popular content on TikTok. If your videos can reach this page, you can become famous overnight.

Pro tip: It’s not enough to use #ForYou to get on that page.

Your content has to be amazingly unique, but relatively similar to what your audience is watching.

13. Quality Videos

Even if you’re a beginner or not in the showbiz world, your videos should still be high quality. That means:

  • Good lighting
  • No glitches
  • Perfect sounds

You don’t have to use extreme special effects for your videos, but you need a good camera. Remember: poor video quality can break even the best TikTok ideas.


14. The Right Sound and Music

If you’re a musician, use your original tunes on TikTok. Needless to say, you should select the best 15 seconds from your best soundtracks if you’re going down this road. Check out our ultimate guide to TikTok music marketing for more info.

Otherwise, consider using trending songs.

Hint: It’s not a coincidence that many popular songs are also popular on TikTok. This platform is in cahoots with the music industry, and many record labels push specific songs on TikTok.

So all you have to do is jump on a famous song wagon to get TikTok famous.

Here’s how to find a tune that works:

  • Open TikTok video editor
  • Tap on the plus icon
  • Select “sounds”
  • Check out what’s now famous on TikTok

Pro tip: If you want to be super-specific and choose a song that’s popular with your audience, get TikTok Pro. This account type has an Analytics tab in your Followers section that tells you what your potential customers listen to.

15. Duets

Making a duet with another TikToker—maybe a famous one or one of your most talented audience members—brings you one step closer to stardom. This strategy:

  • Helps you leverage the audience of the person you’re collaborating with
  • Shows off your skills/values
  • Brings more interaction between you and your audience
  • Increases brand engagement

16. Posting at the Right Time

If you want to draw more people to your TikTok profile, post when your audience is online. Timing is essential because it increases your visibility.

If you have that TikTok Pro Account we mentioned earlier, the Analytics section will help you find:

  • Where your audience is from
  • When your potential customers/viewers are on TikTok (days and peak times of day)

Although this data is only for the past four weeks, you can still gain a lot of insight into your audience’s patterns.

Pro tip: This Analytics tab will also show you your posts’ performance for the last week. That info allows you to adjust your strategy to get better results.

Screenshots showing TikTok Analytics, a great marketing tool to reach more people on TikTok.
An example of TikTok’s Analytics tool to better understand your audience

17. Cross-Promotion

Using other platforms is essential because:

  • Most TikTok-ers are Gen Z
  • Research shows that 71% of Gen-Z-ers are on Instagram, and 65% are on Snapchat

And, regardless of who your audience is, chances that they’re only using TikTok are very slim. Targeting these potential customers on all the social platforms they’re using:

  • Enhances your visibility
  • Keeps you top of mind
  • Allows you to engage with your audience in unique ways
  • Increases your chances of making a sale

Here’s how to go about cross-promotion:

  • Use Instagram Reels, aka Instagram’s version of TikTok.

- Remove the TikTok watermark from that video, or else Instagram won’t promote it to your Instagram followers.

- Use Instagram Reels Explore Tab that gives you access to a new audience.

  • Post your snippets on other social media channels and all of your websites.
  • If you’re doing e-mail marketing, you can include these videos, along with a suitable CTA, in your e-mails.
  • Leverage IG Reels editing Apps to make more engaging videos for your post.

18. TikTok Ads

Setting up TikTok Ads gives you access to a worldwide audience and useful ad management tools. These tools allow you to:

  • Select a specific target
  • See the people who already know you and have interacted with you
  • Create professional ads
  • Get detailed reports

Warning: These TikTok ad options range from $25k to $50k per day.

19. CTAs

End your videos with mobilizing and inspiring CTAs that will nudge your TikTok viewers in the right direction. Also, include that CTA in your video’s caption to ask people to:

  • Follow you
  • Tag their friends
  • Share your videos
  • Re-create your challenge
  • Take part in your contests/giveaways

20. Leveraging Content Creators

Getting more followers on TikTok is a lot of hard work. You need to spend lots of time researching, creating videos, and curating your material.

Influencer marketing is the more straightforward solution.

Partner with a content creator that already has a captive TikTok audience and leverage those followers. If you work with an already established influencer, your brand has a lot to gain.

Of course, you need that influencer(s) to reflect your values and address your audience.

Just look at how beautifully the lingerie brand Aerie collaborates with Charli D’Amelio to give wings to their #AerieREALPositivity challenge.

Screenshots of the Aerie TikTok challenge.
Image source

This challenge shows people the good part of staying home more now that COVID lockdowns are becoming more frequent. Here’s why this idea works:

  • Staying isolated or in small groups is difficult. People need as much positivity as possible when their lives are changing.
  • Aerie leveraged on one tremendous—although sometimes embarrassing—truth: people spend more time in their undies when they’re home. And that’s what Aerie makes.
  • It’s essential not to get carried away with “first world problems” when many people suffer dire consequences of these lockdowns. That’s why Aerie uses this challenge to donate to America’s Food Fund.

However, finding the right content creator to collaborate with poses its own set of challenges, like:

  • Who to pick
  • Where to find these people
  • How to guarantee a long-term relationship without breakdowns
  • How to reach out and write a contract
  • How to ensure quality content

inBeat can help with all of these problems and get you TikTok famous.

We have a massive FREE database of TikTok influencers to browse. Additionally, you can schedule a free call with us to discuss strategy.

A screenshot of inBeat's influencer search tool.


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