Let me guess: You’re looking for reliable tips on how to become a TikTok influencer, aren’t you?
And if my second guess is right, I’m assuming that you have no idea where to begin.
Don’t worry…
…We can change that.
We put together this guide to help our readers increase their popularity on TikTok and reach influencer status sooner rather than later.
Let’s go.
What are TikTok influencers?
TikTok influencers are the stars of the social media platform.
Their TikTok accounts have hundreds of thousands—or millions—of loyal and engaged followers. As such, they’re capable of posting viral videos like it’s nobody’s business.
Most importantly, their influence on the platform allowed them to earn money from their video content.
Brands love working with influencers to put their products in front of the masses.
All an influencer has to do is publish sponsored posts, make a few mentions, or promote links to their viewers. Sponsored money will then fly into their pockets.
Lastly, influencers can also leverage their authority to promote a business or whatever side hustle they have in the works.
Sounds amazing, right?
Before you worry about how to blow up on TikTok, there’s one thing you need to be aware of.
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How does the TikTok algorithm work?
The key to becoming an influencer on TikTok—or any social media platform, for that matter—is to build your presence.
Your social media presence is your authority, visibility, and social capital rolled into one. And to grow your presence on TikTok, you need a strategy to help you consistently upload relevant and interesting videos.
Understanding how the TikTok algorithm provides video recommendations to user feeds is a crucial prerequisite for this.
Basically, TikTok considers basic factors to determine which videos are shown to users. This includes:
- The user’s previous interactions: What kind of video content have the user liked or shared in the past? Which type of TikTok account do they follow?
- Account settings: Is the video a perfect fit for the audience’s country, device, and language preferences?
- Video post details: Does the video have a relevant caption or sound that the user is interested in?
Other than these factors, things like your follower count or video views bear no weight in TikTok’s algorithm.
That means you can’t rely on your previous results to grow your social media presence and attain influencership.
Every video you upload is a new opportunity to win new followers. And to succeed, you need to go above and beyond to create high quality content and maximize audience engagement rate.
How to become a TikTok influencer: 8 Marketing tactics
Here are 8 proven marketing tips that will help you achieve the status of TikTok influencer:
1. Be familiar with your target audience
The majority of TikTok’s algorithm relies on user-oriented factors.
What are their device and language preferences?
How have they interacted with TikTok videos in the past?
What time do they usually hop on to watch videos?
If you have a business account, you can use the built-in analytics tool from TikTok’s Business Suite. This will show you useful data on your follower growth and audience insights—from their gender to their usage patterns.
2. Study other social media platforms
You can borrow ideas from trending content on other social networks, like Instagram and Facebook, to fuel your TikTok strategy.
Remember, most—if not all—TikTok users have accounts on different social media platforms.
Jumping into those networks and looking at popular content will help you do the following:
- Obtain ideas for TikTok questions you can ask
- Identify popular topics that get engagement
- Turn trending articles or “hacks” into instructional TikTok videos
- Find trending hashtags that can boost your searchability
3. Optimize your TikTok profile
If there’s one thing top TikTok influencers have in common, it’s a polished, professional-looking profile.
They tend to use concise profile descriptions, a professional photo, and a shortened link to their website.
If possible, include a clear CTA that encourages visitors to engage right on the spot.
Experiment with different phrases like:
- DM me for questions!
- Click the link below to learn more
- Hit ‘Follow’ to get the latest tips
4. Use the trial and error method
Speaking of experiments, remember that the path to being a TikTok influencer has many forks.
The only surefire way to build a strategy that works for you is through trial and error.
Of course, you can start with strategies that worked for many TikTok influencers. But, in the long run, you need to rely on data to fine-tune your strategy.
You can use a social media management platform like Vista Social to generate and automate the reports you need.
It can provide you with a goldmine of actionable information, like your top-performing posts and relevant hashtags.
5. Publish quality and entertaining content
The main appeal of TikTok is its massive, community-driven library of entertaining and informative short videos.
If you want your personal brand to stand out, you need to elevate your content game.
There are several TikTok tools you can use to create top-quality videos that users will replay over and over again.
VEED, for one, is a cloud-based tool that can help you create and edit videos with ease and precision. You can add voiceovers, subtitles, images, filters, effects, and more.
Don’t forget to write an impactful caption to make your video uploads count. At the same time, use trending hashtags to make your video more discoverable on the platform.
The good news is, TikTok has a hashtag tool baked in. Simply type any hashtag and wait for the suggestions to pile in.
6. Study TikTok’s trending videos
Analyzing TikTok trending videos essentially lets you take advantage of the research done by another TikTok influencer.
It reveals what songs, effects, and styles work in creating videos around specific topics.
You can use TikTok’s built-in search tool to find popular videos using keywords or hashtags. Simply switch to the ‘Videos’ tab to quickly find trending videos that can generate more followers.
7. Collaborate with famous TikTok influencers
Yes—influencer marketing can also turn you into a TikTok influencer yourself.
Tools like Upfluence can help you find and manage campaigns with influencers across various platforms.
You can also build relationships with influencers more organically by engaging them directly on TikTok.
Share their videos, leave comments, and wait for the opportune moment to send them a DM.
As soon as they respond, you can track your conversations on an all-in-one platform like Vista Social. This will allow you to manage your influencer marketing and social media listening efforts in one place.
Using Vista Social to manage your conversations has the following benefits:
- Create notes for other team members
- Mention specific members when creating notes
- Use filters to find specific messages like comments, messages, mentions, and reviews
- Consolidate your relationship building, post planning, and social media analytics
8. Create content consistently
Again, the performance of a single video will not be enough to carry your authority on TikTok.
To be a TikTok influencer, you need to create and promote every video as if it’s your last. Be consistent with your content’s quality while aiming for a high posting frequency.
The recommended posting frequency for TikTok is 1-3 times a day. However, some of the biggest TikTok creators post up to 10 times a day.
At the same time, you should learn how to get more views on TikTok after posting. Doing so will allow you to squeeze the most value out of your growing TikTok content library.
Here are some ideas:
- Re-uploading videos with brand new hashtags
- Sharing your TikTok videos on other platforms
- Using the TikTok Promote feature
Become famous on TikTok now
Establishing an authoritative brand on TikTok takes time.
It could take weeks or months before your TikTok following reaches “influencer-level” numbers.
However, if you follow tried and tested TikTok marketing strategies, you are bound to accomplish your goals sooner.
In the meantime, stay on top of your overarching social media strategy—not just on TikTok, but everywhere else as well.
Vista Social can help you grow and scale your presence across multiple social networks at once. Experience what social media management is supposed to be by creating a free account today.