As TikTok has been increasing in popularity, many people and businesses have wanted to get a foothold on the platform and started creating content. At the most basic level, one of the best ways to show you are successful on TikTok is to have a high follower count. In reality, a large follower base can help promote your brand and increase engagement, which will help improve your success on the platform. However, competition on TikTok is fierce and everyone is competing for views and followers. So what can you do to stand out from the crowd?

In this article, we will answer the question of how to increase TikTok followers by providing you with a series of tips that can help you attract new followers to your profile. While buying followers on TikTok may seem like the easiest answer to how to grow on TikTok, we recommend that you try to grow your following in a more sustainable way. In this article, we will walk you through some techniques on how to organically gain followers on TikTok. From finding out more about your audience to creating engaging content and finding the ideal time to post, we will show you some of the best ways to gain followers on TikTok.

12 Tips to Effectively Increase TikTok Followers

With so many people looking to increase their follower count, how can you make your profile stand out on TikTok to increase the number of your followers? Instead of just randomly posting content, it is important to develop a strategic approach that aligns with your goals on the platform. To help you succeed, we have collected 12 of the best ways to increase your TikTok followers.

1. Know Your Audience

When you’re first starting out on TikTok, experimenting with different types of content is a great way to discover what works best for you and what you enjoy creating. But if you are serious about increasing your followers on TikTok, you need to understand who you are creating your content for. In other words, you first need to find your target audience and understand what kind of content they want to see.

An effective way to find out more about your target audience is by analyzing your competitors or other profiles similar to yours. Along these lines, you can study what works for them and what kind of content gets a lot of traction. A benchmarking and analytics tool can be a great help when trying to figure out what content is resonating with your target audience based on data points from your profile as well as that of other similar profiles.

Additionally, if you are active in a specific niche, incorporating that niche into your username can greatly increase your searchability, making it easier for users who are interested in your content to find you. Alternatively, you can write about it in your bio, so people can see what your account is about. People interested in that topic are likely to come to your profile and as a result may start following you if they are interested in the content you post.

2. Create Valuable Content

Identifying what type of content is most successful with your target audience can help you increase interaction and attract more followers on TikTok. One of the first questions you should ask yourself when you start creating a TikTok video is, “What value does my content bring to users?”

Educational videos provide value to the users by providing information in an accessible and entertaining way. In addition to educational content, entertainment and inspiration are key pillars of TikTok. Entertaining videos tend to capture and hold users’ attention. On the other hand, inspirational content, which motivates and moves the audience, can also generate a strong emotional connection and encourage users to follow you.

Whether it’s educational, entertaining or inspirational content, the goal is to produce videos that stand out and encourage users to follow you for more of that content. Conducting competitor research can provide insight into the type of content that works well in your niche, helping you create even more effective TikTok videos. A social media tool that provides unlimited profile tracking allows you to monitor and analyze the performance of thousands of profiles to gain deeper insights and improve your strategy.

3. Research What Content Format Works Best

Another strategy you may implement to gain TikTok followers is to find out which content format connects the most with your audience. Videos may work best for some accounts, while carousels may work best for others. Within the carousels, you can also analyze how many photos you should use and what kind of photos can attract new followers. 

A good way to find out what kind of content attracts the biggest audience is to study the best performing content formats in niche. This can help you understand what elements of your content your audience interacts with the most, which will allow you to post more videos or carousels that are more successful in your niche and consequently bring more people to your profile who can turn into followers.

4. Find the Optimal Length for Your Videos

Another thing you should keep in mind when considering how to gain more followers on TikTok is the length of your videos. For some brands or businesses, short videos may perform the best, while other audiences may prefer longer videos. But how do you find out what length your target audience actually prefers? 

You can find out the average video length in your industry or niche by conducting a benchmarking analysis. Use a social media tool to analyze your competitors and find out how long their videos are on average, so you can get an idea of how long your videos should be. Adjust your posts based on the results to ensure that your content is not only engaging, but also effective in attracting and keeping followers on TikTok.

5. Use Hashtags in Your Captions

In addition, it is important to find a balance when choosing hashtags. While it may be tempting to only use the most popular hashtags, this can make it difficult for your content to stand out due to high competition. Instead, try to use a combination of generic and specific hashtags. Generic hashtags can expand your reach, while specific hashtags can help you reach a more targeted audience, increasing the likelihood that users who want to see more about that topic will become followers.

6. Find the Best Time to Post

Another approach that can help you gain TikTok followers is to post at times your target audience is actually active on the platform. Early engagement can also help increase the chances of your video getting picked up by the TikTok algorithm and reaching a wider audience. 

The best time to post on TikTok can be different for each creator, business or brand, depending on their location and audience. To find out the best days and times for you to post, you should analyze data collected either from your own profile or profiles with a similar target audience to find the time frames that correlate with the highest interaction rate. Posting at the right time can greatly increase the likelihood of your post being shown to your followers and even non-followers who might start following you.  

7. Post Consistently

When it comes to posting frequency, the key factor is letting your audience know they will receive new content on a regular basis. A high posting frequency can also potentially offer you more opportunities to reach new people, and in turn increase your followers on TikTok. So, how often should you post?

Your ideal posting frequency may vary depending on your industry, business, or niche. Conducting a benchmarking analysis is a great way to find out how often you should post new content. Determining how often your competitors and other profiles in your niche or industry post on average can be a good starting point when trying to identify the ideal post frequency that helps you stay visible without overwhelming your audience.

8. Include Subtitles in Your Videos

Another key factor when trying to find out how to increase your TikTok followers is making your videos accessible to a wider audience by including subtitles in your videos. Many users watch videos without sound, especially in public places. If your video does not have captions, these users are likely to lose interest and move on to other content. Therefore, captions are essential to ensure that your message reaches as many people as possible, regardless of their environment or hearing ability. TikTok also values accessibility, which in turn can increase the visibility of your post. 

By increasing the visibility and understanding of your message, subtitles can help attract more viewers and convert them into followers. In addition, subtitles are a great way to SEO-optimize your TikTok videos, as with subtitles you can include keywords through which new followers can reach your content. By optimizing your captions for SEO, you can help the TikTok search engine to rank your content higher, making it easier for users who are actively searching for content like yours to find your videos. In this way, including subtitles in your TikToks does not only help with inclusivity, but can also help you reach more people and, consequently, can result in getting more followers on TikTok.

9. Keep Your Audience Engaged

If you’re not intentional with your hooks, you could end up making TikTok users scroll to the next video. This means that the first 3 seconds of a video should be engaging enough to make someone want to keep watching. To make sure your hooks are good enough, always ask yourself: if I were someone else scrolling through TikTok, would this be compelling enough for me to watch, or would I move on to the next video?

Great hooks are not the only way to keep your audience engaged. Another thing you could consider trying out is creating video series. Creating content in a series format can encourage viewers to watch the next video to see what happens next, similar to a TV show. Also, responding to comments through video responses can keep users coming back to your profile to watch more of your content. Getting users hooked on a video series will make them not want to miss the next video, which can subsequently turn them into loyal followers.

10. Use Calls to Action (CTAs)

Another way to increase your followers on TikTok is by actively telling them to do so. You can end your video with a CTA (call to action), telling them to follow you or visit your profile. But be careful, if you do this in every video, you could overwhelm your audience. 

One way to do this, for example, is when posting a series of videos. End your videos with a reminder to follow you, so as not to miss the next part of the series. Used sparingly, these CTAs can be a great way to get dedicated followers on TikTok. 

11. Post Trending Content

For some users, joining a trend is a possible way to make a video reach more users. By contributing to a very popular audio, you can increase the chances of your TikTok being viewed more often. Therefore, you can increase the chances of your profile reaching more people, who in turn can become new followers. However, not every trend can and should be used by every brand or business. 

Only join trends that are in line with your usual type of content, otherwise all those new users reached will not become your followers. To find trending content, you can use a social media tool with features for trend research, allowing you to see what’s trending in your industry and beyond.

12. Switch to a Business Account

If you haven’t done so already, you should switch to a TikTok business account. But how can this help with gaining followers on TikTok? With a business account, you’ll be able to use TikTok’s analytics dashboard, which provides valuable information about the performance of your videos. By analyzing and monitoring your content, you can find out what things are working for you and what parts of your content you still need to improve to increase your followers on TikTok. 

Furthermore, a business account allows you to get verified by TikTok, which can increase your visibility and gain users’ trust. With a business account, you can also make use of ads to boost your reach, which in turn can increase your audience and help you gain more followers.

How to Increase TikTok Followers

As you have seen in our 12 tips for how to gain more followers on TikTok, there is no magic trick that will help you achieve this goal in a few hours or even days. Rather, it is about applying some thought and making sure that you have a solid strategy in place using as many of the tips listed above as possible. Using a social media analytics tool can be a great help in understanding what content is performing well and what isn’t, making it easier for you to adjust your strategy accordingly.

Fanpage Karma helps you improve your performance through features for benchmarking and content optimization. Additionally, the all-in-one social media tool also offers community management and publishing features, allowing you to organize, plan and schedule your content. Try it now for free with Fanpage Karma’s 14-day trial.

You are also welcome to take part in the free weekly webinars to learn how the tool works.