9 Proven Ways How To Grow Your TikTok Account

If you want to grow your presence in social media going forward, you need to learn how to grow your TikTok account. It has become that important.

TikTok is the world’s third-largest social media site. It currently boasts over a billion active users and is on track to surpass 1.8 billion TikTok users by the end of 2022. 

TikTok is widely regarded as the most addictive social media platform, too. Users love interacting with their favorite influencers and spend an average of 28.7 hours per month on the platform. 

However, as any would-be influencer or business account manager knows, capturing a piece of the TikTok pie for yourself or your business can be difficult. It sometimes seems as though the algorithm is skipping over you in favor of rival businesses or similar profiles. 

The key to growing your TikTok account is to grow organically. This means that you need to produce high-quality, short-form video content that users will love and return to on a daily basis. 

1. Create a TikTok Business Account

As a marketer, you have to recognize that TikTok business and personal accounts are inherently different and face different challenges during the growth phase. Folks who stumble across your business account will treat your content with suspicion and will be wary of hard sales pitches.

When producing adverts for TikTok, be sure to follow TikTok’s advice and produce ads that entertain. Even if you want to preserve a professional brand image, you have to remember that users’ attention spans are short. So, if you aren’t producing entertaining content, users will scroll past your hard sell in a heartbeat.

Fortunately, TikTok offers a range of options to help your business account stand out. For example, if you’ve identified your target audience and want to drive a new campaign, you can create Spark Ads. 84% of users say they’ve been convinced to buy something after viewing a Spark Ad, and 67% say they appreciate the storytelling aspect that Spark Ads provide. 

You can use Spark Ads to quickly grow your following and boost general engagement. Spark Ads are particularly useful if you’re running an “always on” marketing strategy and have a mix of marketing objectives. 

Business accounts have another ace up their sleeve: TikTok’s TopView. Content on TopView ranks highest on TikTok’s engagement index, and 71% of users say that TopView grabs their attention. TopView content is actually making the shift to cost per mille (CPM) buying — allowing you to capitalize on that visibility by paying per 1000 views.

Understanding the difference between business accounts and personal accounts is the key to thriving on TikTok. However, before you start producing content and sponsoring ads, you need to identify your target audience using key analytics from across the web. 

Further Reading: Here is How to Change Your TikTok Username – in 5 Simple Steps

2. Use Your TikTok Analytics Wisely

Analytics is king in the social media world. Analytic insights can help you spot growing trends, reassess your current approach, and create a social media strategy that promotes long-term growth. 

TikTok has its own analytics page that is housed under “Creator Tools”. Once in the analytics tab, you’ll have access to key insights like: 

• Follower growth;
• Video views;
• Likes, comments, and shares;
• Average watch time;
• Traffic source.

These analytics give you a deeper insight into the growth of your TikTok account. However, if you want to leverage analytics in your favor, you’ll need to use a blend of social media management tools to help you see the data behind your growth. 

Start by using a social media dashboard that is fully integrated with TikTok when planning, posting, and assessing your TikTok content. This means you can complete all your analytics in one place and can compare your TikTok growth to other social media sites. 

Successfully utilizing analytics can help you discover your niche, target your subculture, and produce informational content that drives engagement and increases your follower count. 

Further Reading: 17 Best TikTok Management Apps for Scheduling, Analytics & Much More!

3. Find Your Niche

@theritzcrackersofficial

@barstoolsports you have some explaining to do #RITZ #ritzcrackers #ritzsandwich #snacks

♬ original sound – RITZ Crackers

Finding a niche on TikTok is unlike finding a niche on any other social media platform. Businesses that find success on TikTok don’t try to replicate the same content they use on Facebook or Instagram. Instead, they find their niche and produce content that fills that need. 

Take Ritz Crackers as an example. Ritz’s Facebook profile is dedicated to sharing recipes and “sane” advertising content. However, Ritz’s TikTok – RITZTOK – is a completely different profile. RITZTOK features crackers with bangs, crackers using peanut butter as lip gloss, and crackers in their “fall era.”

Ritz finds success on TikTok because they embrace their niche and create content that gives their crackers a “personality.” While this may seem a little unhinged, it’s exactly the kind of content that appeals to TikTok users and can land you more followers. 

Take a leaf out of Ritz’s playbook by creating niche content specifically tailored toward TikTok. This niche content should be high quality and utilize trending sounds and hashtags so your video content gets picked up by the TikTok algorithm. 

Further Reading: The Secret TikTok Emoji Codes: What They Are and How to Access Them

4. Use TikTok Trending Sounds and Hashtags

Incorporating trending sounds and hashtags gives you a better chance of landing on users’ For You page. That’s because TikTok is great at identifying their users’ interests and showing them more content that appeals to them. 

You can discover trending sounds using the Sounds page on TikTok. You can either filter sounds by specific hashtags and playlists or use the “all” filter to view the biggest sounds today. You can also duet and stitch your own content from this page, meaning you can jump on a trend by dueting with a popular video. 

If you’re struggling to find a trend, consider using Google Trends to start your search. Google Trends gives you a wider snapshot of current trends and hot topics. Using these insights, consider planning TikTok content that is relevant to users’ current searches. 

You can further improve your reach by utilizing hashtags in your branded content. You can browse trending hashtags on TikTok (go here for a shortcut) and see all the available analytics behind the trend. When viewing trending hashtags, consider factors like: 

• Interest over time;
• Audience demographics;
• Regional popularity.

Assessing these data points will help you determine whether or not you should jump on a growing trend. 

Further Reading: How To Add A Sound To TikTok And 6 Tips To Make It Go Viral

5. Create High-Quality Video Content

Understanding trends and utilizing analytics is only helpful if you can consistently produce high-quality video content that appeals to users on TikTok. 

Start simple and record short videos with a trending sound and a few captions. If you want to jazz things up a little, consider using the “effects” button and use simple features like a green screen. Go easy on the augmented reality features at first, but sprinkle them in once you get to grips with the platform. 

Remember that TikTok content doesn’t have to be professional-grade videography. Unlike Instagram, where marketers produce movie-caliber content, a good TikTok can be as simple as you posing in the office with the product your business sells. 

For every post, you create, consider dueting or repurposing other TikToks with your own unique spin. This is an easy way to find ideas and grow your following organically. Just ensure that you’re adding value to the original video by reacting to the original creator or overlaying your own sounds and video.

6. Provide Educational Content

Balancing between entertainment and branded content can be hard, but informational content can help you strike a better balance. 

Informational content isn’t a hard sell, but it does tell the viewer about the product or service you offer. Informational content seeks to help the viewer by giving them information that is legitimately useful in their day-to-day life. This is something that big brands like L’Oréal Paris do well. 

L’Oréal Paris uses their TikTok account to show users how to best apply their beauty products. Users get a quick tutorial on how to best apply mascara and skin care products. These short videos are usually produced by influencers and aim to build trust and engagement among users. 

You can follow suit by producing informational content that resonates with your brand. For example, if you work with a health and wellness business, you can post a series of informational content that shares self-care tips like practicing daily hygiene, exercising regularly, and getting good quality sleep. 

You can also use live streaming to answer users’ questions and show people using your product or service in real-life. 

7. Livestream

TikTok recently enhanced their livestreaming service so that content creators can go live with multiple guests and increased moderation options. This means that going live is a great way to build your brand while retaining control over the conversation that occurs during your livestream. 

When planning a livestream, avoid hard selling or talking about your product without explaining its relevance to users’ lives. Hard pitches on TikTok are as unwelcome as door-to-door salesmen in the real world, and nothing will turn users away quicker than a live where you talk at length about your business.

Instead, follow the same steps you use when promoting informational content. Bring influencers who use your product into the livestream and have them show users how to use your business’s services. Schedule livestreams at the same time and day each week to pick up repeat viewers and build a buzz around your TikTok account. 

Further Reading: How to Go Live on TikTok: The Ultimate Guide

8. Engage With Your Community to Grow Your TikTok Account

Fostering higher levels of engagement can improve the reach of TikTok your account and send more users to your point of sale. This is a great way to improve your business’s bottom line while building better brand awareness.

Start by assessing your current engagement rate. Read our post on how to calculate your social media engagement rate for more details, but the most popular way of measuring engagement is:

• ((Number of likes + Number of comments + Number of shares) / Number of Followers) * 100

Average engagement rates sit between 1 and 2%. While the higher end of that engagement rate is reserved for celebrities, you can still build your engagement over time by interacting with users using the Q&A feature. 

In addition to the Q&A feature, you can build engagement by responding to comments and engaging with other users. Try to align yourself with brands that share the same target audience as yourself and engage in trends together. You might, for example, reach out to other businesses’ marketing teams and coordinate a series of dueted content that builds your profile and helps you reach new users. 

Further Reading: Try These 15 TikTok Challenges to Generate Engagement in 2024!

9. Collaborate with Influencers

Influencers can take your TikTok content to new heights and ensure that your brand appeals to TikToks biggest user base – Generation Z. 

When choosing an influencer, be sure to find someone with a proven history of successful posting. Identify a few possible influencers based on their analytic data, the demographic they represent, and the subculture that they connect with.

Next, dive deep into each candidate’s history, and ensure that they align with your brand’s overall values and vision. Teaming up with an influencer who has a shady past will tank your brand image and drive users away from your page. 

You don’t have to work with the same influencer every month. Spread your reach by teaming up with influencers who work with different subcultures and track the source of the traffic to your page. You may be surprised, for example, to learn that the “WitchTok” subculture is more interested in your business than other subcultures.

When working with influencers, give them creative control over the messaging. Influencers know the platform better than any marketing agency and are native users of TikTok. This means they have an insider’s view of your target audience and can produce content that drives users toward your profile.

Further Reading: TikTok Influencer Marketing: The Complete Guide to Get You Started 

Conclusion on How to Grow Your TikTok Account

Marketing on TikTok can be a real challenge. TikTok users don’t play by the same rules, and the algorithm pushes niche content to users who have specific interests in subcultures that exist online. 

You can grow your TikTok account by using analytics to identify trends, sounds, and hashtags that align with your overall brand image and marketing strategy. Assess the effectiveness of these trends, and adjust your current content to reflect your findings. 

You can promote greater reach and engagement by teaming up with influencers and producing informational content that adds value to your audience’s lives. Informational content shouldn’t be a hard sell but should show viewers how to use your particular product or service. This can create a real buzz around your page and ensure that plenty of users tune in when you livestream.

Further Reading: 11 Recommended TikTok Money Calculators to Estimate How Much Money You Can Make on TikTok

Author Bio

Jori Hamilton is a freelance writer from the Pacific Northwest who focuses on marketing, social selling, and the future of work.

Hero photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash