TikTok – you know the one. It’s the most popular social media site right now, and normal people like Addison Rae are somehow global superstars on it that have attracted millions of followers. For us mere mortals, it’s a great opportunity to share funny skits and challenges with our friends, followers, and family.
However, this doesn’t mean that it’s always easy to get their attention. In fact, most of the time, it’s downright difficult. This is why a lot of people feel like they need a bit of help with their TikTok account because, at the end of the day, we all want to be popular on the social media sharing app, right? Let’s talk.
Develop a Niche
You might love the idea of doing a bit of everything, but if you’re too broad with your content, unfortunately, you’re not going to get the kind of attention you’re hoping for. If you want to connect with a unique audience out there, you’ve got to choose a specific kind of video or music that is going to bridge the gap directly.
If you’re a big fan of one type of music, set your sights on it and don’t let go. It’s also worth sticking to just one style of TikTok video, too. While it might be fun for you to do skits and lip syncs, we recommend choosing one or the other.
When you’re creating your content, remember to keep it nice and short. TikTok videos can be as long as a minute, but personally, we recommend sticking to around 20 seconds.
Lip sync if you can: if you like lip-syncing and find that you’re naturally good at it, then stick to this specific niche. This is because lip-syncing is literally what started TikTok and made it so popular, so it’s a pretty good style to have – it’s going to appeal to a niche audience, but a big one. Just remember to keep those videos short and that you need to know the words to the song to pull it off.
Use Comedic Content: if you think that comedic skits are more you style, experiment with TikTok memes to come up with the best type of content for your page. The good news is that there is no shortage of inspirational content out there, so if you think that you’re someone who is naturally funny, don’t be afraid to make this your go-to style.
Stick with Popular Songs: while you might be a bit less mainstream than the average joe when it comes to your music taste, if you want to become popular on TikTok, you’ve got to cater to your audience. This means only using popular songs that are going to be instantly recognizable so that they can connect and relate to your content a bit easier.
Head to the ‘Discover’ tab and figure out what’s trending right now in terms of songs and video style. If there is a new trend that relates to a specific song, start creating your own content around this. Remember, popular songs on TikTok aren’t necessarily popular songs on the radio. This is why a lot of your research needs to be done on TikTok itself.
Be Weird When You Are Popular: one thing that popular TikTok influencers have on everyone else is the creative freedom to choose obscure, weird songs that nobody has heard of to lip-sync to. If they’re popular enough, it doesn’t matter what the songs are – their audience is going to engage with them. So, look forward to this ability, but remember that you’re probably not quite there yet.
Creating Your Content
Create Lots of Content: the more active you are on TikTok, the more popular you’re going to become. Think about it – if you’re someone who is only posting up a video once or twice a week, how are you supposed to compete with your rivals in the industry that are posting new content for their audience every day? If you want to become popular on TikTok, you’ve got to make it an everyday thing.
This is a big ask for most, as it requires spending a lot of time creating content. However, this is the foundation of a TikTok influencer, so the more you put in, the more you’ll get out. The good news is that you don’t have to make a big deal out of every single video. Keep them short and snappy, and don’t overthink it.
Use Costumes and Props When You Can: there’s nothing that TikTokkers love more than a good costume, or prop to make a video they’re watching interesting and unique. If you’re using a cool background for your thumbnail, or you’re dressed up in a costume, then your audience is a lot more likely to check out your content.
Try to dress up to the theme of the song that you’re dancing and lip-syncing to. You can match the clothes to the song, making it even more appealing for your audience.
Create Interesting Content: one of the best ways to create content that’s unique and interesting is to film in places that are different from what you’ve seen on the app so far. A lot of TikTokkers record their videos in their bedrooms, or in other parts of the house. However, there’s no reason why you can’t get outside to make your TikTok content.
Try to get people’s reactions recorded outside when you sing your TikTok song, and try to record in front of interesting landmarks to keep your audience watching. You can even change the ambiance of your room at home by switching out the lights and putting up a sheet as a new background.
Adjust the speed of the song and use filters: every now and then, we think that it’s worth mixing things up when it comes to the speed of the song and the filters that you use over your video. You can find the ‘speed’ button in the app when you’re recording so that you can adjust the speed of the video.
You can also click on the ‘+’ for more filters to use. New filters are always popular when they first get released, so make sure that you jump on this bandwagon and make the most of new filters. However, if you overdo these two things, your audience might get tired of it, so limit their use.
Make the Most of Popular Challenges: even if you don’t know anything about TikTok, there’s a good chance that you’ll know about viral challenges. Just like lip-syncing as a style, viral challenges are what make TikTok do so well. This is why it’s important to be a part of viral challenges whenever you can.
When you go to make your first one, make sure you watch a few others first, so you know what your audience is expecting. Also, remember to include the relevant hashtags for the challenge, so that your video can be easily shared.
Dance as Much as Possible: even if you don’t think that you’re naturally good at dancing, it’s still important to do so. This is because people using TikTok love watching dancing videos, and because music is the biggest medium on TikTok, you’re going to see a lot of other people dancing.
This means that if you want to become popular on TikTok, you’ve got to be seen dancing in at least some of your videos. If you don’t naturally like dancing or don’t think you’re good at it, just try to have fun and not overthink things.
Connect with Your Followers Through Livestream: going live on TikTok is a great way to get to know your followers more intimately, and share a bit of behind the scenes with them. TikTokkers love it when their favorite influencers go live because they can connect with them in realtime, and feel valued as a community. Instead of uploading something that you’ve already created, use the TikTok app to live stream yourself.
Whether it’s just talking to your followers or completing a TikTok challenge, this will make a big difference to your TikTok presence. You can even listen to music that you love while live streaming, work out, or show followers how you do your makeup. With live stream, you can do anything.
Gaining Followers and Getting Exposure
Match trending hashtags with trending songs: if there’s one thing that TikTokkers love, it’s a popular song combined with a popular hashtag that’s easily recognizable. Just head on over to the ‘trending’ tab to find popular hashtags that are associated with trending songs. This is a great way to jump on the bandwagon and produce your own rendition of what other TikTok influencers have done.
Make the Most of Hashtags: just like with other social media platforms out there, never underestimate the power of a good hashtag. Hashtags are the lifeblood of any social media platform or app these days, which means that if you’re not using the right ones with your content, this could be a big reason why you’re not as popular as you want to be.
If you’re using a Justin Bieber song in your video, tag #justinbieber so that others who want to listen to that particular song and watch a video can easily find your content. With this tip, it’s important to take a look at what influencers are doing, and what kind of hashtags they use within your niche.
Network with More Popular Friends: there’s nothing like having a more popular friend on TikTok, right? It definitely comes with its perks, like being able to collaborate with them and have their audience see your content as well. This is a surefire way to get more followers and exposure onto your page, so it helps to have friends in high places. You can even suggest a duet, which is a popular style of video on TikTok these days.
Send Particular Channels Your Content: if you go onto YouTube at all, you might have noticed that there are some sites that put together compilation videos, showing their favorite TikTok videos from the past week, or that fit within a particular niche. If you want to gain more followers on TikTok, then try to send channels like this as much of your content as possible. You never know, you could end up being featured on their channel and in front of millions of YouTub users.
Be the First Comment: how nice would it be if you could be the first comment on a popular users’ video? This will definitely help you to stand out and get noticed. If you follow someone regularly on TikTok, try to figure out their upload patterns, so that you can get first dibs on that comment. It doesn’t even have to be witty or clever – just the fact that it’s the first comment can get you a lot of attention.
Network with Others: it’s somewhat cliché at this point, but it’s true. If you want to get known on TikTok, get more followers and become famous, then you’ve got to talk to other users in the hopes that they check out your profile. Make sure always to link their name when you’re mentioning them, just in case they choose to return the favor.
Share Your Content Elsewhere: if you want to get more followers and expand your exposure, then you need to make the rest of your social media channels work for you as well. If you’ve got followers on Instagram and Facebook, it’s definitely worth sharing your TikTok content over there as well. This way, they’ll not only realize that you have a TikTok account, but they’ll most likely head on over to check it out.
Outsource Your Engagement to an Expert: sometimes, we simply don’t have the time to put into our TikTok account beyond creating content. Creating stellar content that people will love is hard enough, let alone spending all day interacting with the right people.
If you don’t have the time for this, consider outsourcing your engagement needs to Tokupgrade. We are above board, trustworthy, and we take care of our client’s engagement authentically and organically, so it’s just like you’re doing it yourself. This can make a huge difference to your TikTok growth, and put you on the map in terms of being famous.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there’s a lot more to your TikTok growth and becoming famous on the popular sharing app than you had previously thought. It really does take a lot of time and hard work to become famous and get more followers, but this doesn’t mean that it can’t be done.
Remember that there are some simple, yet effective tips we’ve talked about above that can make all the difference to your TikTok content, and if you’re really stuck and need a bit of time-saving help, there are companies like Tokupgrade who can take over. Good luck getting TikTok famous!