TikTok has come around and taken everyone by storm. From the Oh Nana challenge in lockdown, to the “I ain’t never seen 2 pretty best friends” meme today, the app never stops changing and consequently shaping our world. It is an app where everything seems possible, and everyone can become a celebrity – whether you are an 80 year old cute grandpa or a 15 year old dancer. But among the Charlie D’Amelios and Addison Rays, it is difficult to stand out. So you find yourself asking, is it possible for me to go viral on TikTok?
Before anything else, let me tell you this. ANYONE can go viral on TikTok. No matter what your niche is, if you follow the below steps then you will eventually make a video which hits a million views, maybe more. So put away the little voice inside your head which says there are already too many creators out there. If I can do it, anyone can!
Just a little background about me: I joined TikTok 3 months ago and grew my account to over 20k followers, with 3 of my videos reaching 1 million views. The best thing about TikTok is that your videos get shown to people on their FYP (For You Page) even if you are not posting. This also means that you can get thousands of new followers while you sleep!
As my account continues to grow, read along to find out how yours can too.
1. Hook the viewer in
The first 3 seconds is what matters. This is when the viewer decides whether they want to keep watching your TikTok or scroll right past it.
Even more than Instagram, TikTok is very much about the scroll.There is so much content out there, that unless your video hooks the viewer in right away, then it will most likely go unnoticed.
Here are a couple ideas of how you can do this:
- write text on the video to establish what your video is about
- show your face and get to the point quickly
- if your video is a montage, make sure to start with the most exciting and visually pleasing clips
Here is how the algorithm works: you make a video. It gets shown to our followers (if you have any – if not, the algorithm will decide who to show it to). If your followers engage with the video by liking, sharing and commenting, then it will get shown to more people.
TIP: the way to see if your post has made it to the FYP is by clicking on the notification where it says a group of people liked your video (X and 257 others liked your video). From there, you will be able to see a list of the people liking your video. If the buttons next to them say “follow” and not “follow back”, then you know your post is being shown to people who are not your followers.
When you are first starting out, hashtags play a very important part on TikTok. They help the algorithm decide who to send your content to!
The best way you can use hashtags is by targeting those with a lower reach. It is pointless to use hashtags such as #Fyp or #foryoupage as they will only confuse the algorithm due to being too generic.
Ones that you DO need to use can be location based, or generally describing the topic of your TikTok. For example, if I made a TikTok about best places to see in London, then I would put hashtags like #london #londontown, #londodblogger, etc. The best thing about this is that TikTok makes it easy for you by showing you suggested hashtags based on what you type. You can also see the reach of each hashtag!
3. Use trending sounds
Another secret to going viral on TikTok is to use trending sounds. Trending sounds are the sounds that are being used the most often. For example, if a big creator uses a sound or if the sound goes viral, everyone will be clicking on that sound. And when they do, they will see all the other videos made with that same sound. This hugely increases the chances of your video being discovered.
The best way to discover these trending sounds is by watching the TikToks that made it to your FYP – clearly they did something right to make it there! Another way is to go into ‘Sounds’ and select the ‘TikTok Viral’ section. TikTok will also sometimes suggest which sounds to use.
Bear in mind that this does not mean you should use an audio just because it is trending, if it does not match your video at all. Even if you don’t use a trending sound but match it very well with the video, it is still likely to perform well.
4. Completion rate matters
An important thing to remember if you want to go viral on TikTok is that completion rate of your videos matters a lot. To put it simply, the more people watch your videos till the end, the more likely TikTok is to send out your content to more people.
Above is the screenshot from my most recent viral video. As you can see, the video is 19 second long and the average watch time is 14 seconds. This is why it did so well, getting 1.8 million views!
Here are a couple ideas of how you can ensure that your viewers stay until the end of your videos:
- In the caption, point out something which you show at the end. For example, if your TikTok is a list of best places to visit for young people, then you can say something like “The last one is my favourite” to create mystery around the last destination.
- Tell a story – have a beginning and an end – people will be more likely to stay to hear the end of the story!
5. Try different things at first
You always hear people talk about sticking to your niche. This may be important with other social media platforms like Instagram, but it does not really matter at first on TikTok.
I started my account focusing mostly on travel. But when I realised that I did not have enough content for travel while in lockdown, I made a couple videos about restaurants in London. The first one I made was my first ‘viral’ video, so I knew that people were more interested int that topic.
I went on to make videos for both travel and food, alternating between the two. And so far this has not been a problem or stopped me from getting followers.
The morale of the story is that it is best to experiment with different topics when you are starting out, and you won’t be penalised for choosing a few!
7. Keep them as short as possible
This is a little trick that I learnt recently. The shorter you make your videos, the more likely it will be that people watch your videos till the end.
I have also found that making your videos slightly shorter than the sound also increases the view rate. This is because most people will wait for the song to finish before scrolling past. Ending the song early ensures that they stay until the very end!
8. Post about something you’re passionate about
It is difficult to make it on TikTok (or anywhere) if you are not passionate about the topic. I cannot stress how important it is to love what you are posting and do it with passion. Otherwise you will just give up halfway through if you don’t have passion to help carry you through.
Another thing is that you need to be posting about something you can get constant new content for. When I was posting travel content, I ran out very quickly when I used up all my videos from my past travels. This is when I turned to food and restaurant content, because I went to new restaurants every week and documented it. I was also very passionate about it and this led to a couple exciting opportunities – I had restaurants reach out to me to give me free meals in exchange for a TikTok video!
9. Get inspiration from others
It is completely okay to get inspiration from other creators and make similar videos. As long as you give them credit and make the content your own, you won’t come across any major issues.
Even when scrolling through your FYP, you will notice that a lot of creators are doing the same trend or using the same sound and still going viral even if they were not the first ones to do it. So, if you see a trend that you like, have a look at the people who did it and went viral.
Ask yourself: what was it about the video that did so well? Was it shareable? Did they offer something of value? Did they keep you engaged throughout? When you answer these questions, you will find it a lot easier to know what to look out for when making your own viral video.
10. Be consistent
When wondering how to go viral on TikTok, you cannot expect overnight success from a video you put minimal effort into. It’s true that some people get lucky. Take Bella Poarch for example. The video of her bopping her head to a song became one of the most liked and viewed videos of all time on TikTok. We are talking 500 million views and over 40 million likes. Who knew that many people even existed on a social platform?!
However, this is an example of a suddenly viral video. Unfortunately not all of us are able to bop our head and suddenly get 40 million followers.
If you really are determined to go viral on TikTok, then it is absolutely key to be consistent and not be put off by your videos not doing well. Remember, the more you put out there, the more likely it will be for at least one of your videos to go viral!
And once it does go viral, don’t just think ‘I did it’ and give up. If you want to build up your account and your following, then you should be consistent. Otherwise people will just unfollow you if your account goes stagnant!
So, don’t give up, keep making videos and one of them WILL go viral! I promise.
11. Educate your audience
When trying to go viral, it is important to add value so that your content can be appreciated and shared. Even if you may think you don’t have authority over a certain topic, you can still create a video about it. Yes, you might get some comments disagreeing with you but so what? That means people are still watching your video and engaging with it.
For inspiration, here is a TikTok I made on the ‘coolest food spots in London’. Of course, how am I to know which ones are the coolest? I just complied the video using some videos of food that I thought looked cool. It ended up getting over a million views as people shared and tagged their friends!
12. It is simpler than you think!
Sometimes, a video you thought would do badly is the one that does go viral on TikTok! And that is just the nature of social media. You cannot always predict what people are going to like.
However, although you need to think outside the box, you can also just make anything and see if it sticks. My most recent viral video below was made very randomly one day when I was bored. I was going through my videos and compiled together a montage with a viral sound. The next thing I knew, I had posted it 5 minutes ago and it already had 12k views!
So trust me when I say, it is easier than you think!
What did you think? Did you find these tips useful? Let me know below!
Wow this is a really great. Don’t stop the great work
Author
Thanks a lot!