30 days. 34 posts. 1 Live. 1 embarrassing dance. 3 copycat scammer accounts. 1 marriage proposal. 385K views.
And 1,194 followers gained.
For a TikTok newbie, that’s not too shabby, is it?
It’s been a few days since I wrapped up my TikTok experiment, and let me tell you, I’ve gained a few grey hairs in that time.
But, dear reader, it worked.
No gatekeeping here (if you know, you know) — here’s exactly how I did it. In this article, I’ll share all of my learnings from this weird and wonderful time: the tactics that got results, those that didn’t, and a couple of nifty tips and tricks I learned along the way.
Girl meets world TikTok
I spun up my TikTok account way back during the monotony of the pandemic and just could not get into it. We had video on Instagram — why was another short-form video platform necessary?
The interface was too different for my millennial brain, the content too raw (where were the aesthetic feeds??), and the app lay dormant on my phone for a good two years.
It was only about a year ago that I really started to get into TikTok, and even then, only as a user. The power of the TikTok algorithm and the idea of the platform as a search engine finally hooked me.
I found pockets of the platform that felt like home (love you, BookTok), and it finally dawned on me that, as a creator, I was really missing out.
At the time, I was feeling really despondent about my Instagram content, too. After being a diehard ‘Grammer who grew a modest following early on, my interest in the platform (and, to be fair, the platform’s interest in me) started waning. My sporadic posting on the platform just wasn’t cutting it anymore.
It took a couple of months (and several videos stuck in 200-view jail) on TikTok to help me fully realize the potential there. If I wanted to make this work, my Instagram and LinkedIn scraps weren’t going to move the needle. I was going to have to be strategic about this.
As this idea coalesced, I found my algorithm started to shift toward TikTok strategy content (sneaky little AI that it is), and I was getting all sorts of advice from TikTok's social media strategists. “TikTok wants you to be using Stories,” one creator spouted. “You need to be engaging with people for 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after you post,” another insisted. “Lives are the way to grow,” still another was sure.
It was a little overwhelming, to be honest. Still, in and amongst these weird and wonderful hacks was one nugget that came up time and time again, and I latched onto that:
Post every single day.
As tough as that sounded, it resonated with me. Consistency often trumps all else when it comes to social media success, and it’s one that’s worked for me on Instagram and LinkedIn.
The journalist in me itched to put it to the test. Was that all it took to go viral on TikTok?
So I gave it a bash. For 30 days, I shared a video or photo carousel every single day.
That was the major variable I wanted to test and the only one I committed to, though I did sprinkle a few other tactics into my videos that did make a difference:
- I leveraged strong hooks.
- I applied TikTok SEO where I could.
- I picked a niche and (mostly) stuck to it.
- I occasionally went above and beyond and shared more than 1 video per day.
- I tried a few trends and one TikTok Live.
- I did one silly dance (I don’t want to talk about it… OK, I will).
Spoiler alert: it worked. And then some.
I grew my following by more than 1,000 percent in just 30 days. To be fair, I had around 70 followers when I started and I’m now at a little under 1,300. Which does not make me a runaway success by any stretch of the imagination.
But I’m still really proud of that growth. Plus, I’m pretty sure that if I kept it up, my following would continue to grow at that pace. I won’t (but more on that later).
6 learnings from my TikTok experiment
1. A niche (or a handful of connected niches) is where it’s at
Defining a niche or choosing content pillars are other social media strategy staples — and with good reason.
(If you’re focused on growing your following, that is. More on this below.)
Finding a niche is particularly powerful on TikTok because of the way users engage with content and accounts there. If you’re a TikTok regular, think about how you use the platform. I’m willing to bet that you don’t switch to your following feed as soon as you open the app. TikTok’s For You Page (FYP) and the powerful algorithm that fuels it are just so darn good.
Sure, videos from people you follow are likely to pop up there, but for the most part, you’re seeing content from creators and brands you don’t follow that resembles the other videos you’ve engaged with (or watched to the end).
If you do find a video you enjoy or find helpful in your FYP, you may tap over to the creator’s profile to see if there are more. And if what you find there is a hot mess of all sorts of unrelated things, you’re going to bounce back to the FYP without tapping ‘follow’ real fast.
After some early success with a “get ready with me” video, in which I talked about finding my job at Buffer, I leaned into remote work, the power of building a brand on LinkedIn (my personal Roman Empire), and my home-working set-up.
@itsmekirsti Story time ✨🇿🇦 I’m never filming another grwm again, so help me. But: Get ready with me while I tell you how I managed to get hired remotely at one of the coolest tech companies in the US while working in Cape Town, South Africa. I’ll talk through my remote job search process, how I changed my system, and finally started getting interviews, the power of LinkedIn, then what the interview process looked like at Buffer. PS I know I’m absolutely useless at make up, please dont come for me. #jobsearch #jobsearchtips #remotejobs #grwm #grwmstorytime #wfh ♬ original sound – Kirsti Lang
I enjoyed creating content about these topics — a VITAL consideration if you’re going to be consistent — and they felt connected enough that they may still be enough incentive for someone to follow me.
For example, if someone was drawn to my profile after watching a video about finding a remote job, they might be interested in how I set up my office to maximize productivity and coziness.
I found that mapping this all out in advance in Buffer helped a bunch — the color-coded tags system helped me stick to my niches, too.
That said, I didn’t let these broad, connected niches limit me too much. I veered off-topic a fair few times and while some of those videos did really well, they didn’t do much for growing my audience.
This really hit home for me on about day five of my experiment when I watched Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. I posted several videos from the show (because content), and three of them blew up. This one netted an eye-watering 163.9K views. How many followers did that one earn? 36.
Now, that’s pretty great. But that’s a conversion rate (for want of a better term) of 0.02 percent. The Swifties were tapping over to my profile and didn’t find a Taylor Swift fan account.
On the remote work video I mentioned above, which netted a very pleasing 70K views, I earned a huge chunk of new followers — 757, to be exact — and a much healthier conversation rate of (*coughs) 1 percent.
I had similar results on other, less viral, videos in my connected niches. This clip on the strategy I would use if I were looking to find a new remote job had a conversion rate of 1.3 percent, and this one on remote job application mistakes saw 1.06 percent.
@itsmekirsti Replying to @NikitaJade This is the exact process I would use to find a remote job from outside the U.S. if I was starting from scratch today! I wanted to follow up on my chaotic grwm video yesterday with something a little more structured — this is my step-by-step guide to finding and landing a remote job, particularly in the tech industry. Screenshot my notes at the end of the video! Let me know if you have any questions. 😊 #remotejob #remotework #jobsearch #jobsearchtips #remotejobs #wfh ♬ My Frequency – Rickert Ponce
Another important finding to note here — and perhaps a rabbit hole for another time — is that follower count, particularly on a discovery platform like TikTok, is probably not the best metric of success anymore.
With the proliferation of the FYP and Instagram’s Explore and Reels feeds, users are behaving differently on social media. They no longer need to follow brands and creators to find the content they’re after.
On TikTok, consistently high views are probably the best measure of success.
2. Watch time is what you should aim for — so hooks are hot
TikTok is not exactly forthcoming about the signals that carry the most weight in their algorithm, but I’ve heard whispers that, like YouTube, watch time can have the biggest impact.
Unlike on Instagram, where engaging and, in particular, sharing dictates whether or not your content will make the Reels feed or Explore page, TikTok isn’t as bothered with likes and comments.
Engagements like these definitely carry weight, of course. But, anecdotally speaking, my videos with the highest watch times garnered the highest views — or rather, the videos with the highest percentage of viewers who watched the full video. Even on videos that didn’t get as many likes, comments, or shares, I saw success when the watch metrics were high.
The best way to keep your viewers watching? A strong, clear hook. At the bare minimum, that means stating — either vocally or via text within your video — what the video is about right at the outset.
It’s not enough just to create a video title/cover/thumbnail that shares this, either. Remember that, while those titles look great and can be helpful when viewers tap over to your profile, they don’t appear on the FYP at all.
And on the FYP you have, at best, two seconds to draw your viewers in.
Now, if you want to take that a step further, you can use a couple of clever tactics to keep your viewers engaged beyond simply sharing what you’re showing/discussing in the hook. A tactic that worked really well for me was indicating I was sharing exclusive value (which, in many cases, I like to think I was!).
A great example of this was in the video I mentioned above. My first words were: “No gatekeeping, this is the exact strategy that I would use if I were looking to find a remote job today.”
“No gatekeeping,” — a TikTok favorite — implies that you are about to share knowledge that others wouldn’t want public because it gives them an edge. “This is the exact strategy I would use” offers clear value. “Find a remote job,” is a great keyword and something users on TikTok might search for.
3. Trends and popular audio can have an impact
…But they’re not a magic bullet.
Tapping into trends and using trending audios are often touted as the be-all and end-all of growing on TikTok. I’d have been a terrible former journalist if I hadn’t attempted at least a couple of goofy trends that popped up on my feed. In the name of science. Or something.
In my experience, while they can boost views and often don’t take too much work to create, they’re not going to net you a boatload of new followers with each post.
Unless, of course, the trend ties in well with your niche. I’ll circle back to the point I made in #1 — if it’s followers you’re after, you’ve got to stick to those content pillars.
If you can figure out a way to make a trend work for your audience, then you may be in for a win. I tapped into the “If you were to ask me about” carousel trend, using the text to talk about remote work. It earned me 11,000 views and 11 new followers:
I also tried the Hogwarts House trend (as a millennial, this one spoke to me), which garnered a not-too-bad 5,000 views and… 1 follower.
@itsmekirsti I mean, this is so obvious to me. Apparently you can tell someone’s Hogwarts House by the way they look up and down. Can you guess mine? #hogwartshouses #hogwartsismyhome #harrypottertiktok #slytherin #ravenclaw #gryffindor #hufflepuff ♬ famous people used my sound – ploopy
Then there was this fun dance/audio trend that took me so far out of my comfort zone that I couldn’t even see it anymore. But, I’d managed to figure out a way to make it work for my niches (sort of), and I was convinced I was ahead of the curve enough for it to go viral.
And it did…not.
The dance that took me hours to film and edit (not to mention my entire wardrobe) had a passable performance and earned me… no new followers.
@itsmekirsti Just a cozy wfh girlie who has no idea how to dress. Did I just… do a Tiktok dance? Am I a gen Z yet? 😂 #wfh #cozyworking #workwear #workwearstyle #remotework #cozyhome ♬ original sound – kasane teto
Another point to consider: if you’re in a committed relationship, consider the impact your goofy TikTok antics may have on your partner.
4. Lives are worth it for trying to reach more followers
The power of TikTok Lives is something I’ve seen many ‘How to Grow on TikTok’ TikTokers tout, and TikTok definitely seems to be pushing the feature. Lives seem to be popping up increasingly in my FYP, and creators who are currently live get pride of place in the inbox, with a little pink circle around their profile pictures.
Lives also offer some fun gamification features that I can see becoming quite addictive (daily rankings, levels to climb, and some neat badges), plus a way of monetizing. During Lives, viewers can offer creators coins and diamonds that creators can cash in for real-life money.
Before you start seeing dollar signs, this is not a great way to make a living. You’ll need at least 200 diamonds to make… $1. And you can only cash out when you have earned $100.
But, while not the best route to replacing your income, the little boost in reach lives give you is a neat way to find new audiences beyond just churning out videos.
I hosted a lunchtime ‘coworking’ live, and despite having a teeny following, almost 300 folks tuned in at some point during the session. I earned three new followers without scripting, filming, or editing.
I also got one diamond (only 19,999 to go!) and one marriage proposal from a nice chap in the UK, which I politely declined.
5. Spend more time on creating and scripting, less time on editing
In my past forrays into TikTok, I’ve gone all in on the editing. As you’ll see from the clips below (some of which we used on the Buffer account), I used to spend hours, days, and painstakingly editing my videos in CapCut. But sometimes, all the fuss and flash falls flat on TikTok.
@itsmekirsti Hi TikTok Notes is coming and I’m actually excited about this one! I spent a good portion of the day wading into the weeds to discover everything I could figure out about TikTok’s new photo app for a blog post on @Buffer and it’s made me oddly… hopeful? Here’s a quick overview: 1. It’s currently available in Canada and Australia 2. It syncs with your TikTok account (sort of) 3. The main feed has a two-column grid 4. There’s a ‘For You’ and ‘Following’ feed 5. It pulls through your TikTok photo posts 6. The focus seems to be useful over aesthetic content 7. Your posts will have headlines and long captions 8. E-commerce is likely the end goal 9. There’s no global release date yet Anyway, maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree here or I’m just desperate to go back to the magic of early Instagram, but I think TikTok Notes looks really promising. 🙋♀️ If you’d like to learn more about the app, I’ve written an article about everything we know so far on the Buffer Blog, which you can find via the link in bio. 🙌 #tiktoknotes #socialmediatips #creatoreconomy ♬ Walking Around – Instrumental Version – Eldar Kedem
My unscripted, low-lift get-ready-with-me videos were among my best-performing content. They got plenty of engagement, netted me plenty of new followers, and needed very little editing.
6. My strategy worked really well… on LinkedIn?
OK, back to the good stuff! To maximize the impact of all my hard work, and since so much of my content was largely work and career-related (and because Buffer makes cross-posting so easy), I opted to share some of the videos I made for TikTok on LinkedIn and Instagram.
On Instagram, they performed fairly well and consistently, netting around 2,000 views per reel.
But when it came to their LinkedIn performance, I was blown away! One of the videos I posted garnered an impressive 59,000 views, and another more than 30,000.
I’ll caveat this by saying that I shared these videos right around the time that LinkedIn started rolling out its own in-app video feeds (which appear at the top of the mobile version), so the platform is definitely pushing video right now.
However, interesting to note is that these were not the usual talking head videos you see on LinkedIn, but more aesthetic, home office set-up clips. It’s not what you’d expect on LinkedIn, and I’m sure that breaking the pattern in combination with the video push is what stopped the scroll. Still, it’s a tactic I’ll be trying again!
The verdict: Will I keep posting on TikTok every day?
If I were trying to make it as a full-time creator, then absolutely! I was amazed by just how well the sensible tactics above paid off.
But, as I’m not — I have a full-time job at Buffer that I love — so, no. As much as I would have loved to have plowed on with this fun, rewarding strategy, it. was. exhausting.
I tried to batch-create videos on the weekend and after hours, but, inevitably, filming and editing started to eat into my work time and my family life.
For the entire month, I’m not exaggerating when I say I was either working, making TikToks, or parenting. Sometimes, I was doing all three simultaneously.
As a working mom of a toddler, this pace was definitely not sustainable, and as fun as growing on TikTok was, I rather like my job. And my kid. And my sanity. And one TikTok Live diamond is not enough to live on.
All that said, my TikTok account certainly won’t lie dormant — my plan is to stick to the videos that brought me the most joy (my cozy working set-ups, of course) and keep sharing across all platforms I’m active on.
For fun, rather than followers.
