Why TikTok?
TikTok is THE platform to be on. It might seem like the app is used only by teenagers, and that is indeed the major demographic to be found there. But TikTok is rapidly maturing, with older and more professional demographics adopting it more every day. Just as this happened with Instagram years before, people are realizing the true commercial power of this new platform. TikTok is much easier to build a following on than Instagram or Facebook, and has much less competition, at least for now.
So at the beginning of 2021 I decided to sign up for TikTok and build a following myself. For the first few weeks my videos received only a handful of views and I gained perhaps 5 followers. But in time I learned how this new platform works, and how to create content that does well on it. As I write this in 2021 I have 71 thousand followers and 500 thousand likes. There is nothing special about my page. If I can do it, so can almost anyone. So I thought I’d share 5 simple TikTok lessons that helped me gain millions of views.
5: Don’t Follow Trends
One of the most powerful things about TikTok is the trends you see there. When a certain type of video gains traction, countless users jump on the bandwagon and produce one like it. It’s quite simple- when eyes are on a specific trend you can gain a lot of followers by taking part. But I think for marketers and business people it would be better to avoid following trends. Instead, you should focus more on creating evergreen content that will continue to get views long after the trend is over. It’s commonly believe that the shelf life of TikTok videos is extremely short. But I find that my videos from months ago still get new views every day. This is due to both my use of hashtags and the algorithm TikTok uses. Be under no illusion – trends burn out quickly.
4: Metadata Matters
The metadata available to you on TikTok is much less than is available on platforms like YouTube. You’re essentially limited only to your video description, which can be no longer than 150 characters. Given your limited use of language, your description should be short and be related to the actual content in your video. Your words tell the algorithms what kind of video this is, so do not waste them. This also goes for your hashtags. I never use more than 4 hashtags, and they must all be related to both the video content and the description you have written. I also like to use a mix of popular and niche hashtags. So if two hashtags you use have more than a billion views, the other two should have much less.
3: Consistency
You need to upload at least twice per week. But the more, the better. If possible you should upload every single day. That’s what this platform was built on. It’s why you can only post short videos. Consistent posting tells the algorithms that your account is active, therefore making it more likely to pick up your content. TikTok gets nothing from pushing an inactive channel to new users. Be consistent.
2: Double Down
If you find that a certain type of video does well, try creating a similar video to see if it also does well. If it does, you’ve found a winning formula. Simply keep recreating this kind of content. That’s the one thing every successful influencer has in common. We double down on what works. My first video to get over 100k views was on some interesting facts about Mongolia. So I started doing similar videos on other countries. Most of my followers have come from such content.
1: Be Visual
Your content needs to be visually stimulating from the very first moment. It doesn’t matter how well thought out or interesting your video is. If you don’t hook the viewer from the start, you’re doing TikTok wrong. The most important part of any TikTok video are the first 5 seconds. If this part of your video fails to intrigue, nobody will bother watching any further. Remember, the power of TikTok is that it’s easy to reach new people. The For You section is constantly showing new videos to users. If your video doesn’t hook them, they will just keep on scrolling.
