If you're trying to build an audience on TikTok, one of the best ways to do it is by getting your first 1,000 followers. This may seem like a daunting task, but if you follow the right strategies, it can be relatively easy to achieve.
A strong start on any social media platform is crucial, and TikTok is no different. When you have a large following, you're more likely to get featured on the For You page, which is one of the main ways that TikTok users discover new content. But this is jumping the gun as there are a lot of other low-hanging fruit things to do before you can hope the For You page might feature you and help you go viral.
There are a few different ways to get your first 100 followers on TikTok. In this article, we'll go over some of the best methods so that you can start building your audience today. If you can actually get your first 1,000 followers, you can use that to continue building your audience.
Ultimately, having a large following on TikTok can make you famous, but more importantly, you can make money from your following through brand deals, promoting affiliate products, and even selling your own products.
Let's jump into how to get your first 1,000 Followers.
How to Get Your First 100 TikTok Followers
Create Interesting Content
If you want people to follow you, you need to create content that they're actually going to want to watch. This may seem obvious, but a lot of people try to get famous on TikTok without actually creating content that is interesting or entertaining.
There are a few different ways that you can create interesting content. First, you can start by figuring out what kind of content is already doing well on TikTok. Look at the For You page and see what kinds of videos are being promoted. Also, look at other popular accounts in your niche and see what they're posting.
Once you have an idea of the kind of content that does well on TikTok, you can start creating your own videos. Keep in mind that TikTok is a platform that favors creative content, so don't be afraid to get outside of the box with your ideas. In an ideal world, you want to find the people who love your content, so you can be your authentic self and let people appreciate it.
Another approach to creating interesting content is to film yourself doing something that you're passionate about. Similar to being authentic, if it's something you care about, you're being authentic to you. As a result, people are much more likely to follow you if they can see that you're genuinely interested in the content that you're creating.
Creating interesting content is step 1 that you should really think deeply about as once you're known for a certain category, it'll be hard to change it completely.
Be Consistent with Posting
In order to get followers on TikTok, you need to be posting content regularly. This doesn't mean that you need to be posting multiple videos per day, but you should at least be posting one video every day or every other day. However, there are many creators that have become famous that did post multiple videos a day for months or even years. So, if you're up for it, you should post as much as possible.
The reason why consistency is so important is that it keeps your account active and makes it more likely that people will see your content. When you're first starting out, you won't have a lot of followers, so you need to make sure that the followers that you do have are seeing your content. You want to give the TikTok algorithm as much input and material as possible for it to show your videos to potential followers and optimize the audience.
The key takeaway though is that if you're not consistent with your posting, people will forget about your account and they'll be less likely to follow you. On the other hand, if you consistently post, even if someone might not follow you the first time, they might on the second or third time if the content resonates with them.
Engage with Other Users
Another great way to get followers on TikTok is to engage with other users. When you comment on other people's videos or like their content, they're more likely to check out your account and potentially follow you.
Of course, you don't want to spam other people's videos with comments, but if you leave genuine, thoughtful comments, you'll be more likely to get noticed. In fact, you should be very careful to not spam other creators because once you enter a given sub-community like Booktok, RelationshipTok, or MoneyTok, you'll realize it's a smaller world than you think. If the biggest creators in that community see you as annoying or unhelpful, you'll build a negative reputation. Not only could that be hard to shed later, but it's also a bad signal to their followers about your channel.
In sum, try to interact with other users in your niche but be thoughtful and considerate. Add value to their videos or support them. Don't just self-promote. This way, you're more likely to attract people who are actually interested in the kind of content that you're creating.
Use Popular Hashtags
Now that you're making videos thoughtfully and engaging with other relevant creators thoughtfully, how can you up your efforts to get discovered? Hashtags.
Using popular hashtags is a great way to get your videos seen by more people who might be interested in that same category. When you use hashtags, your videos will show up in the search results when people are looking for those particular topics. Conversely, make sure that the hashtags you're using are relevant to your video and that they aren't too popular. If a hashtag is too popular, your video may get lost in the shuffle.
You don't want to stuff your videos with hashtags, but using a few relevant hashtags can help you reach a wider audience. You can browse to see which hashtags are popular through the trending tab. Use that to find which hashtags you might want to use. You'll probably want to scan the trending hashtags at least once a week, if not daily, depending on how often you post.
Post at the Right Time
Now you're even using popular hashtags, which is getting you a lot of views. What next? Think through timing.
The time that you post your videos can have a meaningful impact on how many views and followers you get. Generally, it's best to post your videos during peak hours, which are typically in the evening and on weekends. To get more advanced, there are studies and even sites that speak to the ideal time to post. For instance, according to Influencer Marketing Hub, which analyzed 10,000 posts, here are the best time to post on TikTok:
Best Times to Post on TikTok (Eastern Standard Time):
- Monday: 6 AM, 10 AM, 10 PM
- Tuesday: 2 AM, 4 AM, 9 AM
- Wednesday: 7 AM, 8 AM, 11 PM
- Thursday: 9 AM, 12 AM, 7 PM
- Friday: 5 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM
- Saturday: 11 AM, 7 PM, 8 PM
- Sunday: 7 AM, 8 AM, 4 PM
You don't have to post during these times exactly or always, but if you want to get the most views and followers, it's a good idea to take these timings into account. They likely reflect times when users are the most active on TikTok.
Cross-Promote Your Videos
For maximum impact, you should also be promoting your videos on other social media platforms. This is especially effective if you already have a following on another platform, such as Instagram. That is, if you're a creator that already has a following on Instagram, posting there can help drive some of your existing followers on Instagram over to TikTok. This is a cheat code that works for people who already have a following.
Even if you don't have an existing platform, you might want to start cross-posting early on to build your following across platforms. Maybe one of your videos blows up on Youtube or Instagram even if didn't get a lot of views on TikTok. In a crazy turn of events, you could go viral on YouTube or Instagram and then those viewers might search for you and follow you on TikTok.
Although, realistically, many creators use TikTok as the top of their funnel in order to drive traffic to their YouTube accounts. This is because, if the ultimate goal, is to be able to make money from being a creator, then YouTube is the best platform for monetization. Meanwhile, TikTok is the best platform for going viral because of the For You page, which is basically a content recommendation engine. Since TikTok is focused on showing users new content they may like, it's easier to get discovered and go viral on TikTok. Many creators try to go viral on TikTok and put a link to their YouTube page in their TikTok bio.
To summarize, when you cross-promote your videos, you're more likely to reach people who are interested in the kind of content that you're creating. It's an easy way to become a more resilient creator in the unfortunate event that TikTok or another platform banned you for violating their rules. If that happened and you had already started building a following on another platform, you can make a new account and tell your followers to follow you on your new account.
Partner with Other Creators
Another great way to get more followers on TikTok is to partner with other creators, although, this is a more advanced tactic.
When you collaborate with other people, you're able to reach a whole new audience that wouldn't have seen your content otherwise. As long as there is some alignment, you'll likely gain followers from the other creator's audience and vice versa. In theory, it's a great idea. Partnering with other creators is also a great way to make new friends and expand your network.
However, pulling this off isn't easy and it isn't always a great tactic if you have less than 1,000 followers. If you're a creator with 1,000,000 followers, you wouldn't want to necessarily collaborate with a creator with only 1,000 followers. Creators that are in a similar phase of their journey might be open to cross-promotion, but maybe not a creator that is way ahead of you in their follower count. The creator with 1,000,000 followers has less to gain from working with you since you have less than 1,000 followers (unless you can offer the creator some special reason to work with you!).
Even if you wanted to try this more advanced collaboration technique, how would you go about finding other creators to collaborate with? The most seamless way might be to use a social platform like Swipehouse which allows creators to connect through a Tinder-type interface. Here's our review of Swipehouse if you want to learn more about how you can use Swipehouse to connect with other creators.
To wrap this up, you might not want to partner with creators on day 1. But, maybe once you start having a small following, you might want to find interesting creators to collaborate with. To do this, you might use a platform like Swipehouse. Try it out and see if you can make a plan of attack that makes sense, but realize it's a more advanced approach.
Run a Contest or Giveaway
Even more advanced than partnering with a creator is running a contest or giveaway. It's an interesting and potentially effective way to get more followers, but also requires a lot of effort.
In general, you're offering some kind of prize and, in order to enter the contest or giveaway, people have to follow you and maybe even repost your video (now that TikTok allows reposting). There are all sorts of creative ways to run these kinds of contests, but two popular ones include Loop Giveaways and Scavenger Hunts.
What is a Loop Giveaway
One popular way to run a contest is called the "loop giveaway." In this type of giveaway, people have to follow everyone that the original poster (OP) is following and then like and comment on the OP's most recent post. The idea is that the people who enter will follow everyone that the OP is following and then those people will also enter the giveaway. The result is a "loop" of people all following each other.
To make this even more effective, you can ask the people who are participating to share your content or tag their friends in order to enter the contest. This way, you'll get even more eyes on your content and have a better chance of people following you.
Realistically though, this might not be the best way to run a giveaway. It feels a bit like cheating the system and shortcuts like this often result in getting banned or low-quality followings. People still do it, but it's not our preferred method of gaining followers!
What is a Scavenger Hunt Contest
If you want to get really creative though, you can try something like a "scavenger hunt" where people have to find a series of clues that you post and then put them all together in order to enter the contest. This type of contest is harder to pull off but can be really fun for your followers.
It's very different than a loop giveaway since you have to put in a lot of effort and you're creating entertainment value for your followers, so we're not against this. But, be ready to put in a lot of work to make this happen.
There are all sorts of ways that you can run a contest or giveaway and it's up to you to get creative. Just remember that if you do decide to go this route, you'll need to put in a lot of effort in order to make it successful.
Finally, perhaps the easiest way to run a giveaway is to just give something away. People love free stuff, so if you offer something like a gift card or a product, you're more likely to get people to follow you.
Make sure that your contest or giveaway is relevant to your niche. This way, you're more likely to attract people who are actually interested in the kind of content that you're creating. For instance, if your channel is about cooking, give away a blender, not a PS5.
Add a Call-to-Action
Finally, let's wrap this up with an obvious step: adding a call to action. That means, in your actual videos and content, telling your followers to click the follow button. It sounds obvious, but reminding viewers to follow you has a psychological impact that may trigger them to actually click the follow button.
Simply, if you don't tell people what you want them to do, they're less likely to do it. Adding a call to action is low-hanging fruit. Maybe don't do it in every video, but test it out and see if it makes an impact.
What to Do Once You Have Your First 100 TikTok Followers
Okay, phew. You got through our list and now you hopefully have 1,000 followers. Actually, we're confident you can get really close with the above tips, especially on TikTok, because TikTok is built to make creators go viral. If you're not at 1,000 followers yet, keep doing the above and give it some time. It might take a few weeks or a few months even, but you'll eventually get there if you keep doing the right things.
But, let's say you made it. Well, first, congrats. You're now part of an elite club we call 'creators'. Seriously though, you have 1,000 people who are following you and will see whatever content you create. It's worth pausing to appreciate how awesome that is. In fact, we don't appreciate how powerful social media is in 2022, especially with TikTok now.
Now that you know how to get your first 100 TikTok followers, it's time to start thinking about what you're going to do with them. Here are a few ideas.
Engage with Your Followers
The first thing you should do, if you aren't doing it already, is to engage with your followers. If you are doing it, consider ramping up these efforts. When you engage with your followers, you're building a relationship with them When you have a good relationship with your followers, they're more likely to stick around and continue following you.
More importantly, if we tie all this to why you might want to become a creator and build a following, this impacts your ability to earn money. If you're interested in brand deals from advertisers, they often look at the engagement rate on an account. If you have tons of followers but no engagement, they may not want to work with you. Conversely, if you want to sell to your audience or convince them to try products as an affiliate, it's important that they trust you and are engaged with your content and recommendations. Try your best to respond to comments and messages.
Lean into what's working
Of course, once you have followers, you need to give them a reason to stick around. And the best way to do that is by creating great content. At this point, you might even use your interactions with your audience to help determine what content to continue to create. If your followers love hearing you talk about your favorite products, or sharing clips from your vacations, you might want to create more of that content. If you realize that your longer TikToks get the most engagement, maybe you should create longer content. Lean into what's working.
Stay consistent
This might be obvious but once you have an initial following, stay consistent in creating content. If you only post once in a while, your followers are going to forget about you. But if you post regularly, they're going to keep coming back for more, or the For You page will make sure they see it. Now that TikTok has the Following Tab, you can assume your followers are more likely to see it than before when they could only see it through their For You page. Stay consistent in posting.
The Final Word: Getting Your First 1,000 Followers
There's no one right way to get your first 1,000 TikTok followers. However, if you follow the tips outlined here, you'll be well on your way to building a following of engaged followers who love your content.
It boils down to being interesting and authentic, being consistent, engaging with your audience, and following best practices. All of our step-by-step tips fall into one of these categories.
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