How To Get More Followers on TikTok

Gaining followers on TikTok requires persistence. By consistently creating good content that’s relevant to your niche, you can build a solid following.

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.

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

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.