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Mayur Patil
Source: www.forbes.com, August 2020
Mayur Patil serves as Head of TikTok Growth & Strategy at Bustle Digital Group. Prior, Patil led growth and strategy at 10PM Curfew.
TikTok is a new sensation in social media. Even if you do not have the app yourself, odds are that you engage with TikTok content across other social platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. As recent research from Qustodio (via TechCrunch) shows, the popularity of the new viral video app has broken bounds in social media history. Any business can go viral on TikTok — that is the best thing about it — and I’m about to show you how.
As the head of TikTok growth and strategy at Bustle Digital Group, I have some tips for how to build large audiences across TikTok.
Learn How TikTok Works
First things first: It is vital to understand how TikTok works. The viral video app is very different from the likes of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Most of the gameplay on TikTok happens on the “For You” page. Consider this to be like Instagram’s “Explore” page: It allows users to explore countless video content tailored to their interests.
TikTok gathers video content similar to the user’s previous content engagement. If TikTok continues to focus on user growth, content creators will be able to obtain more organic reach. Learning how the TikTok algorithm works will give your business an easier time when developing viral content.
Target The Right Audience
Like on any other social media platform, targeting the right audience is key. On TikTok, you’ll realize that most users are in the Gen Z and millennial brackets (aged 39 and under in 2020).
I have built the largest fashion and beauty TikTok channels to over 11.2 million followers in five months. When I started out on TikTok, I found that it was very important to focus on your target audience’s interests rather than your target gender. If you are trying to build an authentic audience, you want to target people who are interested in your content; otherwise, you will end up with an audience that does not consistently engage with your content, which can lead to reduced growth.
The secret here is the ability to curate content that will sync with your business’s target audience. Once you start to build a following, TikTok should boost your posts as more people continue to consistently engage with your content.
Engage With Your Audience
Since TikTok is largely made up of Gen Z users, the app’s users are generally online 24/7. If you want to build an audience that comments on every post and views your business’s page daily for new content, you have to create a personality behind your page.
Building a relationship with your followers is key to building an authentic following. Many large content creators and brands don’t engage with their followers. Going live and replying to or creating video replies to comments is a great way to build a personal relationship with your business’s audience.
Create A Unique Content Strategy
Creatine a unique content strategy is an important aspect of leveraging TikTok’s organic reach. TikTok content is typically trend-driven: If one video goes viral, many people will recreate the video. Integrating viral trends into your content strategy will be key to getting onto the For You page.
Your posting frequency is another key variable to account for in your strategy. If you post two videos every day, odds are that one will go viral or none will at all. It’s important to post more frequently throughout the day to increase the probability of your posts going viral.
Focus On Hashtags And Your Post Analytics
Like on Instagram and Twitter, hashtags are key when it comes to discoverability on TikTok. Check the “Discover” section to find hashtags TikTok is promoting. If you curate content that fits these hashtags, your posts could have a higher probability of going viral.
I’ve found that TikTok boosts posts that receive high engagement. If your post gets a decent ratio of the number of likes and comments to views, odds are the post will be pushed to a larger audience on the “For You” page because the algorithm predicts people will engage with the content.
Another key insight to track is the average watch time for your posts. If your video is 15 seconds long and the average watch time is 7.5 seconds, that means most people only watched half of the video. TikTok may not boost the post if the algorithm detects that the content was not engaging.
Overall, I believe consistency is the most important aspect of growing across any platform. Integrating a unique strategy and engaging with your audience are integral steps, but consistency will allow you to drive long-term growth.
