by Ally DuLong
TikTok is a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering videos. According to Pew Research Center, Facebook and YouTube remain the most widely used social media platforms among adults in the U.S., however, there is a substantial increase in the number of TikTok users in 2024. There is over a billion active users on TikTok and is the #1 downloaded app in more than 40 countries. Because this platform reaches such a wide variety of audiences, it is a great platform to use to promote yourself and/or a brand/company. Here are some tips on how to increase engagement on Tik Tok:
- Reply to comments with a video
Replying to comments in general is essential to increase engagement for your TikTok account. To do the extra effort of making an additional video addressing the comment shows the audience that you are engaged with them, which makes them feel connected with you, or the creator. This also allows for more content to be posted, as well as make people feel encouraged to comment under your video. Example below:
- Use popular trends to your advantage
Trends become trends because typically people catch on to things they like and begin to act on that. Taking a trend and making it relevant to you or your company surely will increase TikTok engagement. Putting your own spin on trends also allows for your audience to get to know you and your content better.
- Post consistently
Regularly posting content elevates engagement with your audience and allows them to grasp the pattern of when and how often you post. On the other hand, some influencers post their content when they know their followers are likely to be on their phones. This makes it the content creator’s responsibility to get to know your audience and followers. Also, TikTok’s algorithm favors accounts that are more active than other accounts. The strategy of posting consistently kind of goes hand and hand with learning from TikTok analytics. TikTok’s analytics can reveal information to know who is watching and engaging with your content in terms of demographic, location, and video performance. This information can help guide content to appeal to your followers.
- Eye-catching thumbnails
Creating content that catches TikTok user’s eyes is super important to increasing engagement on your account. If your posts don’t look interesting just by scrolling through your account, it is less likely that people will watch the videos once they are on your account. If the thumbnails draw interest from TikTok users, they will likely engage with your posts.
- Take inspiration from big brand pages/influencers with a large following
It is public knowledge that TikTok is one of the most successful platforms to grow a brand or promote one’s self. Because brands/people have already excelled in doing this, it would benefit others to learn from what they do. Some people promote their brand in a creative and trending way, while others do storytelling and connecting personally with followers/customers. Understanding what type of content you want to focus on post can help figure out what accounts you would be inspired by.
i thought your emphasis on how understanding and utilizing TikTok’s algorithm enhances overall engagement was particularly interesting. Specifically, when you touched on consistent posting leads to higher engagement because it allows followers to see posting patterns and how the apps algorithms factors in different accounts.
Hey Ally! This is such an insightful post! Working with smaller businesses has made me realize how hard it can be to get engagement on your social media platforms. These were some really awesome tips that could benefit a lot of people, specifically the usage of the algorithm and paying attention to your use of thumbnails! Nice job!
Hi Ally! This post is very helpful for people/brands who are just getting started on TikTok. I applied some of this advice to my current role as a marketing manager and it has worked immensely. I especially think that following current trends is the most important thing a brand can do to get seen by a larger group of people. I think you outlined these steps very well and eloquently!