I just reached my first 10,000 followers on TikTok!!

I have tried many things, some worked and some didn’t. I had many growth spurts, sometimes waking up to over 1000 new followers, but I’ve also put in a lot of effort into posts that flopped, so here’s my advice about how to reach your first 10k followers on TikTok as a beginner. The last one is the most important.

DISCLAIMER: If you have good video editing skills, or you’re a big company with an established business, throw this advice out the window. This is for small businesses with low tech skills, or individuals who want to grow with the aspiration of someday marketing a business online.

1. Start Before You’re Ready

If you think you should only start posting after you’re ready to sell a product or service, you’re missing a huge opportunity to get your audience’s input about what they actually want. And if you grow a community before you have something to sell, you’ll have people waiting and eager to see what you’re offering. Show the messy process. Many creators show their passion online and it turns into a business based on the input of their followers.

2. Don’t Start by Selling

Don’t think about selling – yet. You probably do want to grow an account so you can sell something, but if you approach it that way, people can tell, and they’ll be turned off. Aim to make friends and build community first. Make people feel like they’re hanging out with you rather than listening to you deliver a speech.

3. Don’t be afraid to be cringe

If you’re worried about what people are thinking about you, you’ll end up being boring and flat. Candid and casual does much better than polished for individuals who want to connect with an audience, especially if you don’t have the skills to make cinematic or heavily edited video right out of the gate.

Also, don’t shy away from a negative feedback. Any attention is good attention – comments push your account to new people, so don’t worry if some people disagree with you. Their angry comments will help you!

4. Quantity over Quality, for now.

When you’re just getting started, quantity over quality. Lower the bar for yourself and just make easy posts until you figure out your groove. When you’re starting, nobody will see the bad posts anyway, and until you have some practice, you won’t know which posts are bad and which are good – it may surprise you. Think of social media like a laboratory where you’re testing to see what works.

5. Keep it Easy

Many people film in their cars because there’s good lighting – the set doesn’t matter. If you don’t want to film on the first take, minimize your editing work by practicing a few times and then recording the whole thing on one clip. Then go back and remove the outtakes.

Come as you are. You don’t need a tidy background or perfect hair. People love to comment on things they notice and sometimes a weird thing in your background will be the thing that people want to talk about.

6. The Hook is Everything

You have less than 2 seconds to catch the audience. Some people say 3 seconds, but I have definitely scrolled as fast as my brain could process the scene. Cut out the “millennial pause” (that short pause between hitting record and starting to speak), and don’t give a greeting – no “hi’”no “I’m just popping on here to . . . ” I’m already bored and scrolling before you get to your first sentence. Established creators can get away with this because they already have an audience that recognizes their face, but if you’re new, you need to start every video with a strong hook.

7. Good Sound Quality

Good sound is more important than good video. Get a microphone and avoid filming in windy or noisy places.

8. Be Consistent – Whatever that means.

Consistency is great, but it can be done in many ways. Sometimes consistency looks like posting almost the same thing almost every day, sometimes it means having the same hook, or the same format but different topics. Consistency helps, but if you’re just starting, the most important thing is to post regularly until you start to figure out what you want to be doing more of. Until you have some experience, keep trying new formats, new hooks, new topics.

9. Ride the wave.

This is the most important strategy, because sometimes just being in the right place at the right time can skyrocket your growth.

• If your post is popular, make sure to reply to the comments, and reply with a video when possible. TikTok makes this easy with a Reply with Video feature.
• Post your take on a trending topic
• Try a trend that you can apply to your interests or niche (use with discernment because many trends are just silly and won’t get you followers)
• Try a new feature – When the app rolls out new features, it tends to push videos using that feature.
• If you’re trying to grow on other social media, adopt new apps early.

This advice all changes once you start to have a following, but your videos will naturally evolve as your editing skills grow and you get feedback from your audience and figure out what works best for you.

Happy Posting!

You can follow me https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderandwilder