Post a lot, but not too much
To be a successful TikTok creator, you need to post at least 2 to 3 times daily — but don’t feel like you have to spend all day creating content. You can dedicate one day a week to film all your content and space out your uploads throughout the week.
Don’t upload all your videos at once, either. Post them throughout the day to keep your account active and viewers engaged.
Keep tabs on the latest TIkTok news and changes to guidelines
Lastly, stay up to date on algorithm and policy changes. Tiktok will rarely notify its users of algorithm changes, so use outside resources to stay current on creator information. Keeping up with the latest TikTok guidelines can prevent you from violating TikTok’s user agreement and prevent your account from being penalized.
That got me thinking: my dog Lance is pretty cute. He’s just as spunky as the celebrity dog influencers I’ve seen on TikTok. Why shouldn’t he have thousands of followers? And assuming the Internet doesn’t immediately recognize his doggy brilliance, is there any way I could legally give him a leg up in his follower count?
As of July 2022, Lance is now also the proud owner of 1,084 TikTok followers, and the recipient of a stadium’s worth of views on the platform. I know, because I bought them for him. It cost me $169.99. The whole process was totally legal, and completely compliant with TikTok’s Terms of Service.
The answer very well might be: they’re buying those followers and views. Especially given the large sums of money that are at stake for major influencers — and the relatively small cost of purchasing followers and driving up views— there’s a huge incentive to bulk up one’s audience with paid promotions.
I tried running the same campaign again, but this time Lance only picked up 130 new followers. Clearly, there are diminishing returns from promoting the same video over and over. TikTok’s algorithm is good, but ultimately it can only find so many people who see a Bichon Frise on the table and think “Yeah, I’d follow that.”
Instead of looking at an account’s followers, you should look instead at its engagement. How many people comment on the account’s videos, or share them along to others? Do the same accounts seem to come back, again and again, to engage with an account’s content? If you click through on some of an account’s top followers, do they seem real (for example, do they have wide and engaged followerships of their own?) Again, these things can be manipulated too, but it’s harder to fake shares and comments than followers and views.