How to Boost Your TikTok Followers Organically
Whether you want to grow your own social media marketing agency’s following or you want to help your clients do the same, TikTok is a solid platform to look at.
Though it’s one of the newest social media platforms to make it big and really hit that mainstream status, it’s also become an integral part of many brands’ social media marketing strategies.
In order to really drive results and grow your TikTok followers, though, you need to start by building a strong follower count with enthusiastic fans. In this post, we’re going to go over how to get free TikTok followers so you can expand your reach without paying a single dollar.
1. Participate in All The Latest TikTok Trends
TikTok is more trend-heavy than other social media marketing platforms, and that’s partially thanks to TikTok challenges.
These challenges often encourage users to share their own content around a single theme, like using a certain song while showing your pet’s headscarf blowing in the wind (yes, we wrote that correctly).
If there’s a trend that’s going viral, jump in and participate in a way that represents the brand well. If you happened to sell headscarves, for example, that Please Don’t Go challenge would have been a killer opportunity.
If you have enough brand name recognition, you can even create your own viral trend. Chipotle did this with their #ChipotleLidFlip and #GuacDance challenges. These centred the brand, and since Chipotle is wildly popular amongst the TikTok audience demographics, both campaigns took off.
2. Share Your TikTok Videos Cross-Platform
Tiktok is a new platform. If your business has been around for several years, there’s a good chance that you’ll have bigger followings elsewhere.
Take advantage of that, using your reach on third-party platforms to get more TikTok followers for free.
Share your best TikTok content cross-platform. While you want to share it across all accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and potentially even LinkedIn if relevant, it’s especially valuable Instagram in your Stories and Reels where they naturally and seamlessly fit into place.
When viewing any post created on TikTok, you’ll see the option to share it to different platforms. This makes the cross-platform sharing incredibly easy, whether you want to share your own content or ask others to share yours.
3. Use High-Visibility & Niche Hashtags
Hashtags can be just as useful on TikTok as they are on Instagram. Users search for hashtags the same way on both platforms with the goal of finding content that they’re interested in watching.
On TikTok, that could be a branded hashtag, an interest-based hashtag, or even a location hashtag, but it’s common to have them related to challenges.
Taco Bell, for example, did the #ThisorThat challenge featuring their products and used the hashtag #ThisOrThat along with their branded hashtag.
4. Partner Up With Other TikTok Creators
Collaborating with other users on social media is always a solid approach when you want to expand your reach and increase followers.
If you’re wondering how to get free followers on TikTok that will actually engage with your brand, here are a few qualities to look for in a collaboration partner:
- Someone with overlapping audience niches. If I’m a B2B brand trying to reach Millennials who need help with their taxes, it probably won’t make sense to partner up with a Gen Z influencer who ranks her favourite types of candy. Overlapping audiences and topic niches are key.
- Someone with an engaged userbase. Someone might have a large number of followers, but what are their like and comment counts? That matters; people with more engaged audiences are going to be most effective at driving new followers your way.
- Someone who you trust to be associated with your brand. We’re all for expressing yourself and your brand however you see fit. But let’s say that you sell children’s books, and you partner up with a book promoter who three days later does a very review of 50 Shades of Grey. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s probably not something you want tied to your particular brand, so keep that in mind.
5. Post at Peak Times
Posting at the right time definitely has its advantages; it can be easier to get your content seen by more users if you’re posting at the times when they’re most active.
Each brand’s audience is different, so best posting times may vary compared to the standard benchmarks and testing is essential to help you find what works for you.
That being said, Oberlo recently released a guide about the best times to post on TikTok globally. The times are listed in EST, which is approximately fourteen hours behind the Canberra ACT timezone in Australia. You can see the best times to post here:
6. Always Create Unique Content with Your Audience in Mind
It can be tempting to lose focus of your goals on TikTok, merging a personal and branded account together. In most cases, though, it’s best not to wade into fads that go against what your business wanted to do on the platform in the first place.
Don’t shy away from educational content if that’s something that you want to bring to the table. You can do it in short, fun videos that your audience will love. Stasher Bags is a great example of an account that does this well, focusing on providing environmentally-friendly tips for their followers. It’s educational content that aligns with their followers’ and customers’ values while still staying fun for the platform.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for how to get free followers on TikTok, these straightforward marketing practices are going to be your best path forward.
Keep in mind that while free followers are great, if you ever want a quick boost of reach, TikTok Ads can help speed things up.
No matter what, remember that consistency in the type of content, frequency of content posted, and quality will all matter here as you’re growing a following.
