With more than a billion monthly active users, TikTok is a powerhouse platform for short form video content. Its popularity makes it an incredible tool for spreading information, creating trends, and of course, marketing your products.
While there isn’t a consensus on the number of TikTok followers you need to execute an effective marketing strategy, it’s clear that followers reflect your reach and ability to monetize. More views lead to more potential conversions. Case in point: top TikTok influencers have turned their massive followings into full-time careers.
Ready to boost your TikTok presence? Here’s how to get more followers on TikTok.
How to get more followers on TikTok
- Know your target audience
- Jump on trends
- Tell stories
- Check out the competition
- Use the right hashtags
- Engage with your community
- Lean into your value proposition
- Post consistently
- Collaborate
- Talk about more than just business
- Pay attention to the analytics
Looking to up your TikTok game? Here are some actionable tips to add TikTok followers—and improve your engagement and content quality along the way:
Know your target audience
To grow your TikTok audience, tailor your content strategy around the specific TikTok users you want to attract, creating videos resonating with their interests. Use focus groups, surveys, competitor research, and market research to determine your target market. Create an ideal customer profile that includes age, gender, income, relationship status—anything that might affect their interest in your account.
Consider TikTok’s broader audience—it’s made up of various demographics but typically trends younger (between 10 and 19), female (53.4%), and British and American. If your target market includes any of these traits, TikTok may be your go-to marketing platform. If your audience is significantly different (for instance, if it mostly includes baby boomers), you may opt for another platform.
Jump on trends
From challenge videos to trending sounds, TikTok is home to all kinds of viral moments, with trends spreading like wildfire. Creating TikTok content that participates in current trends can help land you on the For You pages of potential followers, increasing your reach and follower base.
While TikTok is famously quiet on the inner workings of its algorithm, trending videos are more likely to appear as recommendations on others’ For You pages. Consider this report from TikTok, which details the way childcare brand Makuku built its marketing campaign around two trending keywords. This resulted in 500% more sales and 20% more offline customers to its storefront.
To find the latest TikTok trends, check out TikTok’s Trend Discovery platform, a powerful tool with data on hashtags, sounds and songs, creators, and videos. Use the tool as inspiration for your next video, to find trending songs, or to identify buzzy creators to collaborate with.
Tell stories
To attract and keep more TikTok followers, focus on high-quality, engaging content.
“I think I’m a storyteller by heart,” says Maggie Sellers, angel investor, content creator, and founder of Hot Smart Rich Media, on an episode of Shopify Masters, “and that’s what a good marketer is. Somebody that’s good at brand marketing. They can tell a story.”
Telling a story can take various forms. Consider this post from Allbirds that tells a long-form narrative about a farm visit, or this one from Dieux Skin addressing a commenter’s concern about labeling. The goal of storytelling is to help users get to know your unique, personal brand.
Check out the competition
For more followers, look at other brands in your industry creating content on TikTok, either by searching for them on the app or browsing TikTok’s Top Ads Dashboard. What are they doing to keep their viewers engaged? What kind of content seems to get the highest views? Experiment with similar videos to see what sticks with your audience, or try something radically different to see if it works. Don’t limit yourself to just TikTok videos—check out the competition’s presence on other platforms, too.
🌟While TikTok’s algorithm may be shrouded in mystery, examining the most popular content on the platform can uncover the secrets to going viral. Learn what it takes to create engaging videos, with examples from real brands.
Use the right hashtags
Hashtags boost a video’s discoverability, making your content more visible to other TikTok users and helping to grow your TikTok following.
In general, stick to a few relevant hashtags per video and avoid highly competitive hashtags like #fyp. This video from Mush Studios has more than eight million views and just three hashtags: #mushstudios, #tufting, and #rug. They’re specific, accurate, and popular (#tufting had over 4.5 billion views as of September 2023). You can also use TikTok’s Trend Discovery tool to identify trending hashtags.
Engage with your community
Create content that builds a community around your brand, showing old and new followers that you value their input. Use TikTok’s Q&A feature, pin FAQs, create your own challenge, or host TikTok Lives to foster more engagement—likes, comments, shares, DMs, and of course, click-throughs and purchases. You can also share user-generated content relevant to your brand, crediting the original creator to boost visibility among their followers.
Lean into your value proposition
Upping your follower count is about more than gaming the TikTok algorithm. Create high-quality content that keeps your followers on board. Consider what you can offer to TikTok users—whether it’s new information or a fresh take on a topic, like Maggie does with angel investing.
“Content creation was something that I thought I could do differently,” Maggie says. “At the time, nobody was talking about business in the way that I have.”
In her Shopify Masters podcast episode, Maggie explains how she drove a conversation around angel investing and business on TikTok, democratizing that knowledge in a way she hadn’t yet seen on the platform.
“There was a lot of value that I could provide people,” she says.
Post consistently
TikTok’s algorithm favors active accounts, or creators who post videos regularly. There’s no ideal number, but most businesses post TikTok videos about twice a week. If you’re struggling to maintain your posting volume, supplement your own content with user-generated videos, behind-the-scenes shots, or other easier post types.
🌟Need inspiration? Browse popular TikTok video ideas you can use for your brand in 2024, whether you’re just getting started or taking your TikTok strategy to the next level.
Collaborate
TikTok influencers have significant sway on the platform. If you have extra funds in your advertising budget, partner with other TikTok creators to reach their followers and diversify your marketing.
You might feel compelled to ask the heavy-hitters—TikTok accounts with millions of followers—but don’t discount micro-influencers who may have more followers and sway in your specific industry or niche.
Then, cross promote your influencer posts on other social media platforms to expand their reach.
Talk about more than just business
Expand your topics beyond business and show the real you. Maggie recommends a very personal approach to TikTok marketing. When making her first video, she decided to act as if she was at dinner with a friend.
“We don’t just talk about business at dinner,” she says. “We talk about fashion. We talk about travel. We talk about relationships.”
She wanted her TikTok account to show a more human touch.
“I knew I wanted my content to resonate with people in a healthy, positive way,” she says. So even people who weren’t buying from her still felt like they could be a part of her story.
Pay attention to the analytics
Keep an eye on your analytics tab. TikTok analytics reveal trends in your follower count, post performance, and overall engagement. Use this data to refine your strategy and deliver more of what your audience loves and shares.
How to get more followers on TikTok FAQ
Do brands pay for TikTok followers?
Some products market themselves as TikTok growth tools, allowing you to pay for TikTok followers, likes, comments, and shares to artificially boost your TikTok presence. However, these are strictly against TikTok’s rules, and using them can lead the platform to ban your account.
How do you get TikTok followers fast?
The fastest way to get TikTok followers is to make sure your content is visible. Use trends and hashtags and post regularly. For long-term growth, create high-quality content for your target audience. Hop on the TikTok app to see what other creators are posting so you can incorporate and build on the successful elements of their posts.
Why am I not getting followers on TikTok?
Follower growth is as much an art as it is a science. To get a larger audience, make sure you’re regularly posting high-quality content that speaks to your target audience, and incorporate relevant hashtags and trending topics or sounds to increase your discoverability.
