TikTok isn’t just for trendy dances and music hits any more. Check out how to go viral on TikTok and grow your following with these simple hacks!

If you’re a content creator, you may be dreaming of viral success. It can be all too easy to assume it comes down to luck, and opt for the post and pray approach. But, you can take matters into your own hands and become a master of your own online fate.

If something goes viral, we tend to think of an overnight skyrocketing of views and engagement, in the tens of thousands. This isn’t always the case, and practising patience and employing some careful thought can launch you into the viral stratosphere.

Laura Reid is a travel and lifestyle vlogger with a healthy following on both YouTube and TikTok. In this video, she explains in super simple terms how anybody, even a total beginner, can achieve that coveted viral status.

Lighting

Her first tip for how to go viral on TikTok is a game changer, and is wonderfully accessible for an aspiring content creator. Investing in a decent ring light to illuminate your videos will guarantee more visually appealing content. After all, TikTok is a visual platform, and the better your content looks, the longer people will stick around to watch it.

Format

You can upload any kind of video you like to TikTok, but there is a certain format that is proven to help videos perform better. Firstly, making sure your video is the correct dimensions (1080 x 1920) is a fundamental step.

Then, thinking about how you can optimise the potential to capture someone’s interest comes into play. By adding music, voice-over and text to your video, you’re adding the engagement factor of your content. Laura demonstrates in her video just how to position text to make it fun and eye-catching.

Niche

As a travel vlogger, there is of course a huge amount of competition online for Laura to vie against. Just like other social media platforms, TikTok lets you add hashtags to your videos to improve their reach. Unsurprisingly, there are billions of videos featuring #travel, but only tens of thousands for #traveltheworlddaily. Aiming for mid-tier hashtags that are more specific will improve the chances of your video being seen.

So, if your thing is food, you can bet that there’s going to be some serious competition around #food. Think about how you can make your videos a little more niche. Maybe you could look at food from around the world, or cheap home-made alternatives to popular fast food.

Tip: the more hashtags, the better.

Educate

Once you’ve found your niche, you should aim to add value to people’s lives by teaching them something. People are more likely to stay watching your video if they think they will get something out of it. By teaching them a recipe, letting them in on some great restaurants in Europe, or just some simple food storage hacks, you’ll engage viewers and keep them coming back for more.

This isn’t to say that your content needs to be stiff and boring. The key to going viral on TikTok is finding the sweet spot between educational and entertaining.

Target

Keep an eye on how your old content performs. If you notice a video did particularly well compared to others, try making more variations on this.

Laura uses her example of a video on how to pose whilst she was travelling. She went on to make informative videos on how to pose for different scenarios, in different settings, with different accessories. Rather than just taking a shot in the dark, you can use insights to steer your fresh content in the right direction.

Algorithm

Algorithms are always a fairly mysterious topic when it comes to social media. The Instagram algorithm is often treated with some derision by content creators, due its seemingly ever-changing nature. However, head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri recently explained how the algorithm works, in a bid to be more transparent with users.

TikTok is also fairly mysterious, but it is perhaps slightly simpler.

Landing your video on the “For You” page of TikTok is vital for viral success. If you’ve tapped into an engaging niche, formatted your videos well, and been clever with your hashtags, the amount of views, comments and engagement you get could push you onto this page of recommendations.

Once you’re here, your video is exposed to a huge audience who will hopefully add to your video’s growing level of engagement. If you manage to combine these key ingredients, you should see the view counter go up and up.

Remember, viral status doesn’t have to happen overnight. It can take time for views to trickle in, and your content to get pushed up towards the “For You” page. Even a week could pass before you see any activity, so do have patience and keep the faith.