Co-Founder of BuiltGen, a TikTok growth agency, and author of the book “Outset.”
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Growing a following on social media has been a game changer in the digital marketing economy. The rise of social media marketing has created a new era in which individuals and businesses can market directly to their audience. TikTok is a social media app that allows users to create and share short looping videos and is the fastest growing social media platform today.
In the winter of 2021, I started creating content on TikTok. I was instantly hooked by the app because it allowed me to express my creativity in a way that I never could on other platforms. I had always loved to tell stories but never had a platform to do so. TikTok allowed me to creatively tell my own stories. Over the past two years, I have grown a following of over 10 million on the app, and I have been able to create a stable career and life off of my TikTok content. Here are three lessons I learned from growing my following on TikTok that you can use, too:
Lesson 1: Stick to a niche.
One of the most important aspects of growing your TikTok following is to stick to a niche and make your content accessible to your audience. Focus on creating content that’s interesting and accessible to your audience. It should be relatable, engaging and enjoyable to the specific TikTok audience. For example, I chose to make specific types of TikToks that would appeal to a younger and more diverse audience because I saw that there was a gap in that specific type of content. Once you identify a niche, stick to it and don’t look back.
Lesson 2: Create content that is relevant to your audience’s interests.
One of the most important ways to create an engaged following on TikTok is to make sure that your content is relevant to your audience’s interests. In order to do this, you have to take time to get to know your audience and their interests. You can do this by interacting with your audience and asking them what they want to see more of. It’s important to make sure that your content is relevant to your audience because it makes the content more interesting and relatable to them. Your audience’s interests will change periodically, so it’s important that you interact with them to make sure you stay up to date with your content.
Lesson 3: Don’t give up.
I would like to believe that the most important lesson I learned was not to give up. In order to grow a following on TikTok, you’ll likely deal with negative comments, hateful messages and people who doubt you. Every day when I posted my content I received negative comments from people who were upset because they did not like my content and wanted me to stop posting. When you encounter these people, don’t pay attention to them—they are not a part of your audience. To grow your following, you’ll have to deal with negative comments and haters, but that does not mean that you should give up. You need to continue creating content that is interesting and accessible to your audience.
The lessons I have learned in growing my TikTok following have helped me form a stable career on social media. I believe that it is important to apply these three lessons to any type of social media platform that you want to grow your following on. The internet is a powerful space, and if you want to grow a following on social media, the lessons above can help you do it.
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