TikTok, not unlike Instagram, is the land of the influencer. People are seen, copied, and sometimes their view of the world catches on, and overnight someone goes from slinging sandwiches at Jersey Mike’s to being a culinary expert millions of people watch daily. (We’ll take a large Italian.) 🥪 🤌
But, for real – the numbers don’t lie. TikTok has over one billion active users. That’s a lot of people complaining in their cars, doing funky dances, or both.
Users are spending more than 800 minutes per month on the app. And that number is only going up, especially if you’re a millennial or Gen Z.
There’s nothing magical about gaining influencer fame, there are what we call in the biz “best practices.” Below, we’ll share what we’ve learned along the social media highway thanks to our social media guru, Mel. (She has like a bazillion followers on TikTok. So, she knows stuff.)
You’ve probably seen the videos of someone getting jiggy with their cat or whining about the pizza in Arkansas and have thought, “Wait, I can do that!” From New York to Chicago, people everywhere are snapping videos of themselves to grab an audience, one follower at a time.
As we literally just said: There aren’t any shortcuts for becoming a TikTok influencer. But there are specific strategies you can use to grow faster and build an audience who will fall in love with your content.
First, you have to make a TikTok account. (Duh). If you’re here, you may actually not have one so here are the basics:
- Open a TikTok account and write your bio.
- Learn how to create short-form videos on the platform.
- Start posting every day (and as much as possible).
Always aim for authenticity
Unlike Instagram’s curated feed of posts and intentionally staged moments, TikTok wants to see the real you. The stuff that happens behind the scenes and that’s the most relatable to a big number of people is what tends to go viral on TikTok.
If you want to be a TikTok creator, you have to be authentic. Don’t be afraid to lean into your niche. Whatever it is that you’re passionate about, rock it. If you’re mowing lawns and want to show the world, go for it. Just be real. The average TikTok user wants to see your life in a way that’s not curated like Instagram. A relevant influencer knows the ins and outs of content creation that work for what they represent. If you’re the dancing handyman, swing those hips, Phil. Just make sure your tool belt is tight enough.
The importance of being authentic on the platform is two-fold:
- You’ll grow an audience that genuinely likes your content because it relates to their own life.
- You don’t have to spend so much time staging perfect videos, which speeds up your content creation process.
Engage in the comments
Take the time to engage with and reply to users that leave a comment on your content. At the very least, give their comment a like to let them know you saw it. If you’re aiming to be a creator, the content matters, but so does how you engage with the masses.
Engaging in the comments section is a great way to find additional content ideas. Some creators go as far as responding to comments with another TikTok video. It’s a smart way to create more relatable content by answering questions or crafting responses to opinions that your people want to see.
Use TikTok’s filters and sounds
TikTok wants you to use its filters and sounds. Getting creative and incorporating them into your videos is a critical way to increase engagement. To make content creation easier, TikTok’s bookmark icon allows you to save sounds and effects so you can use them down the line. Generation Z is all about the engagement.
Pro tip from Mel: “TikTok has trending sounds, which you can view in their sound library. This includes top 50 audios, as well as viral audios! Using these while they’re trending can help boost your video.”
Post often
The more you post the more you’ll see your profile grow. The TikTok content machine thrives off high engagement. Posting more increases the chances of accumulating that engagement. TikTok recommends posting anywhere from one to four times a day. The TikTok platform loves a good viral video. Now, getting one isn’t a science, but if you post often and engage in the platform in an earnest way, the personalized brand will emerge like a beautiful turtle coming out of its shell. Or something like that.
Pro Tip from Mel: “Keep in mind that just because your video isn’t going viral immediately or even a few hours after posting doesn’t mean it won’t happen. The way the TikTok algorithm works is, upon posting, your video gets shown to a small percentage of your audience and (sometimes) a small percentage of a potential new audience through the For You page.
From here, if your video garners engagement and the platform believes it will perform well, it will start showing it to more people. A lot of times, the lifecycle of a video will have it resurface days, even weeks after posting, and THEN it will start gaining popularity and being shown to more people. I’ve had videos go viral almost 5 weeks after posting, having low views for the first few weeks and all of a sudden getting millions overnight. All that to say… don’t give up hope and KEEP POSTING!”
Use TikTok hashtags
TikTok uses hashtags to help new audiences find your content — either through the For You page or the Explore page. The TikTok algorithm is tailored to your interests, so if you’re down a rabbit hole, the app is going to notice. This means that, while you might want to do things like participate in branded hashtag challenges and use hashtags in your video descriptions, they won’t guarantee success. Stay the course and stay consistent with content creation. That’s what matters. The follower count will come if you stay on top of things that are trending like the hashtags.
TikTok users find themselves hitting that virality by trying out TikTok trends — regardless of whether their videos include hashtags or not. The keyword here is “experiment” until you see what resonates with the right audience.
If you’re having trouble finding hashtag ideas, try some of these things out:
- Once in the app, navigate to your search icon in the top right corner.
- Check out the suggested searches OR type in a basic keyword.
- Click on “Hashtag” to get a long list of related hashtags you can use in your video descriptions.
Pro Tip from Mel: “Now that TikTok is becoming more of a search engine, using niche hashtags really helps categorize your content within the platform, and helps TikTok show your videos to the perfect audience. Because of this, it’s also recommended to avoid using super popular hashtags such as #foryoupage #dogs etc, because you’ll fall into a pit of millions of other videos who will not be pushed out to broader audiences.”
Experiment with format and themes
Don’t be afraid to go wild with different formats and themes to see what works for you. While a sound or effect might work well for another creator, it might not be the best fit for your type of content. Don’t be zany for the sake of being zany. Do stuff that makes sense for what kind of content you’re trying to create. Play around and see what works. To be a good creator is to see what you can make out of nothing. That’s the whole game of TikTok: it’s about how you see the world, and how you champion your niche.
As TikTok comes out with new filters, effects, and sounds, remember to mix it up with other content ideas.
Film content outside or with friends, or film a behind-the-scenes mini-vlog, etc. The more creative you can be with how you grab your audience’s attention, the more memorable they’ll find your presence as an influencer.
Tips for finding brands to work with as an influencer
Brands want to work with influencers who create the type of content that appeals to their target audience. Finding the right influencers who will lead to brand awareness and conversions often can be just as challenging for brands as it is for influencers. Gen Z is all over this market as they’re the ones who’ve mastered the art of being a TikTok influencer. But, that doesn’t mean a boomer can’t master it, too. It all goes back to working within that targeted niche of your little corner of social media.
Check out the TikTok Creator Marketplace
TikTok’s Creator Marketplace is the platform’s built-in brand and influencer collaboration space. It’s where brands connect with influencers, and TikTok provides additional data and analytics tools, so brands don’t need to look for alternative ways to measure campaign success.
Creators join by invite only. Creators can either wait for direct invites from brands to possible collaborations, or they can answer open application campaigns. Once you’ve connected with a brand, reading the contracts, getting the invite notifications, and setting the campaign details all happen within the app.
Pitch yourself to brands
As an influencer, a great marketing strategy is to pitch yourself via email to brands about the possibility of creating sponsored content for them. Finding contacts for a particular brand’s marketing department might take some time, but could be well worth it. Make sure you use platforms like LinkedIn to your advantage to find emails and build connections with influencer marketing managers. To be a TikTok influencer, it takes some work, but if the content is there, brands will want to collaborate.
Pro Tip from Mel: “A lot of times you can DM a brand on Instagram and ask them for the best contact to reach out to about a potential collab. Once you have your contact, perfecting your pitch and building out a solid media kit will increase your chances of landing a paid partnership.”
Landing a sponsorship isn’t as simple as sending an email. But as you refine your marketing strategy, as well as your influencer content, it’ll be easier to get brands to notice you. Remember what we said about creating content people want? No brand is going to partner with you ’til you’re at a certain level of visibility. Just sayin’.
Pro Tip from Mel: “Your content should and will speak for itself, but you’ll also want to make sure you include things like your media kit (which should have important metrics like reach, following count, and engagement rate), a few content examples that directly relate to the brand you’re pitching, and just a little bit about you. Keep the emails short and sweet (imagine how many they’re getting per day), but also make it pop and show your potential!”
While influencers need to refine their cold outreach strategies, brands also need to get better at contacting influencers. In the end, it’s a two-way street that requires collaboration from both ends. (Mel said that in her case, most of her partnerships were in-bound wherebrands reached out to her. So, keep cranking out the quality content.)
Sign up for influencer marketing hubs
There are plenty of influencer marketing platforms you can join to look for brand partnerships yourself. Once you sign up and create a profile with all your information, you can respond to brand sponsorship opportunities seeking influencer collaborations.
Pro Tip from Mel: “These opportunities will highlight what the campaign expectations are, and will either include the budget for the deliverables they requested, or a space for you to input your own rates. Make sure you’re taking into consideration usage rights, exclusivity, whitelisting, etc. when submitting your rates on these platforms.”
These ads will include pay ranges and the specific type of content brands want, which can be helpful if you’re just starting out. Consider platforms like:
- Tribe
- Tune
- Tokfluence
- AspireIQ
- Fohr
- GRIN
- Upfluence
- Obvious.ly
- Klear
- Izea
- Mavrck
Make your contact information easy to find
Your contact information should always be easy to find if your goal is to work with brands and find partnerships.
You can do this by:
Adding your email to your TikTok profile bio. You can also add a link that leads to a landing page with more information about you. The easier you make it for brands to reach out, the higher the chances that they will.
Why is TikTok good for influencer marketing?
First things first: people love to laugh. They also love to look inside a world they don’t know, and to see inspiration as to what they could be.
People connect with people, and a personal TikTok account is a great way to grow that “know, like, and trust” factor that’s crucial for the growth of a business. As a platform that thrives on short-form video, TikTok makes it easy for influencers with both large and small followings to create a strong relationship with their audience.
To be a good creator, brand identity is always at the forefront and the TikTok platform is an excellent way to communicate that – if you’re in the wheelhouse of that brand is trying to communicate themselves. So, if you’re a passionate taco lover, go hard on that carne asada, maybe Taco Bell will come calling.
As influencers build and maintain that trust, endorsing products and incorporating product mentions in their videos feels more “organic” and relatable. Consider the following stats about the effects of social media on influencer marketing and the results marketers are getting with TikTok:
- Businesses are averaging $5.78 earned per $1 spent on influencers.
- 54% of marketers say that video is the most valuable content type.
- 61% of 18- to 34-year-old consumers have had a decision swayed by influencers.
If your ultimate metric for success is sales, consider TikTok’s engagement rates as a key indicator of the platform’s influencer marketing power. According to CreatorIQ, TikTok’s smaller influencer accounts get about a 9% engagement rate while the huge influencers on the platform manage to get about a 5% engagement rate.
While those numbers might seem small, they’re huge compared to the engagement rates on other social platforms. Instagram’s biggest accounts, for example, only get about a 0.7% engagement rate.
TikTok’s growth potential is so strong, startup founders are leveraging it to grow their audience and launch their businesses to a pool of potential customers by becoming influencers themselves. There’s no shortage of ways to build a brand and make sales on TikTok, whether you’re the influencer or the brand trying to build relationships with them.
Good luck out there. We can’t wait to see what you create. Now, put on your dancing shoes.
Do more on social media with Manychat
With enough consistency and a little bit of luck, it’s easier to become a TikTok influencer now more than ever. And you don’t have to be part of Gen Z to succeed on the platform either.
As a video app, TikTok thrives on viral videos, trends, algorithms, and content creators. Because of this, much like growing an audience on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok requires long-term thinking.But the most important first step is to get started creating TikTok content and make sure your authenticity shines through. Whether you’re an influencer or an ecommerce brand, the same rules apply.
