How to Get Followers on TikTok

Growing your TikTok following feels like trying to catch lightning in a bottle, but it's more about strategy than luck. The platform's algorithm is designed to give every video a chance to go viral, meaning small accounts can blow up overnight with the right approach. This guide breaks down the actionable steps for defining your niche, creating content that connects, and engaging with your community to turn viewers into loyal followers.

Understanding the TikTok "For You" Page Algorithm

Before you create a single video, it’s important to understand the engine that drives discovery on TikTok: the "For You" Page (FYP). This is where users spend most of their time, and landing here is how you reach people who don’t follow you yet. Unlike other platforms that heavily favor accounts with large followings, TikTok’s FYP is surprisingly democratic. It pushes your new video out to a small test audience and measures how they interact with it.

The algorithm is primarily looking at these key signals:

• Video Completion Rate: Did viewers watch your video all the way to the end? This is one of the most powerful ranking factors. A high completion rate tells TikTok your content is engaging.
• Rewatches: Even better than watching to the end is watching it again. This signals that your content was extremely valuable or entertaining. Creating "loopable" videos where the end flows seamlessly into the beginning can be a great tactic here.
• Shares, Comments, and Saves: These are strong indicators of engagement. Shares are particularly valuable, as they bring your content to an entirely new audience off-platform (or via DMs). Comments keep people on the video longer and show active interest.
• Time Spent on Video: If your video is 30 seconds long and the average watch time is 25 seconds, that’s a fantastic sign. The longer you hold a viewer's attention, the better.

Your goal isn't just to make "good content," but to make content that scores well on these metrics. Every strategy that follows is designed to improve these signals and get you featured on the FYP.

Step 1: Find and Define Your Niche

You can’t be everything to everyone. The fastest way to grow a dedicated following is to become the go-to person for something specific. A niche gives people a reason to hit the "follow" button because they know what kind of value they can expect from you in the future. Someone might enjoy your one-off funny video, but they’ll follow you if they know you consistently post hilarious content about being a dog owner.

How to Identify Your Niche

Think about the intersection of three things:

1. What are you passionate about? What could you talk about for hours? Your genuine excitement will shine through and attract people with similar interests. This could be anything from vintage video games to sustainable gardening.
2. What are you knowledgeable about? What skills, expertise, or life experiences do you have? People on TikTok are hungry for educational and "hack" style content. Maybe you're an Excel wizard, a master thrifter, or you've perfected a 10-minute makeup routine.
3. What are people searching for? Do a little research. Type keywords related to your passions into the TikTok search bar. Look at the top-performing videos. What questions are people asking in the comments? If you can provide answers and value in an underserved area, you’ve found gold.

Your niche doesn't have to be incredibly narrow, but it needs a clear focus. For example, instead of just "food," your niche could be "easy vegan recipes for college students." Instead of "finance," it could be "personal finance tips for freelancers." Specificity builds loyalty.

Step 2: Create Engaging, High-Retention Content

Once you have your niche, it’s time to start creating. Focus on quality and value over pure production polish. You don’t need a Hollywood budget, you just need to understand what makes people stop scrolling.

Nail the First 3 Seconds

You have less than three seconds to hook a viewer before they swipe away. Your opening is the most important part of your video. Ditch slow intros and jump right into the action.

Proven Hook Strategies:

• Start with a bold or controversial statement related to your niche: "You've been using your air fryer all wrong." or "Stop making these 3 mistakes on your resume."
• Show the final result or "wow" moment first: If you're decorating a cake, show the stunning finished product for one second before showing the "how-to" process.
• Ask a direct question that your target audience will answer: "Tell me you're a 90s kid without telling me you're a 90s kid." This immediately invites participation.
• Use on-screen text to state the video's value proposition: "How I saved $5,000 in 6 months" or "3 Lightroom presets you need."

Leverage Trends, Sounds, and Effects

Trends and trending audio are TikTok’s shared language. Using them is like joining a platform-wide conversation, and the algorithm often prioritizes content using popular sounds.

How to Do It Right:

• Find Trends on the FYP: The best way to find what's popular is simply by using the app. When you hear the same audio or see the same format repeatedly, you’ve found a trend.
• Adapt, Don't Just Copy: The key to using trends successfully is to adapt them to your niche. For example, if a trending sound involves pointing to common disagreements, a personal finance creator could adapt it for "Common myths about money management." A home decor creator could perform a popular dance while sharing design tips via on-screen text. This provides novelty and makes the trend relevant to your audience.
• Don't Force It: If a trend doesn't fit your brand or niche, skip it. Authenticity is more important than jumping on every single bandwagon. Wait for one that genuinely aligns with your content pillars.

Tell a Clear Story

Even a 15-second TikTok needs a basic narrative structure: a beginning (the hook), a middle (the value or substance), and an end (the payoff or call to action).

A Simple Storytelling Framework:

1. Hook: Grab their attention and set expectations. What is this video about and why should they care?
2. Substance: This is the core of your video. Deliver the information, tell the story, showcase the process, or provide the entertainment you promised in the hook. Keep it concise and fast-paced with quick cuts.
3. Payoff & CTA (Call to Action): End with a satisfying conclusion and tell the viewer what to do next. Your CTA shouldn't just be "follow me." Make it specific: "Follow for Part 2 where I test this gadget" or "Comment your favorite tip below." This encourages the exact kinds of engagement the algorithm rewards.

Step 3: Optimize Your Content for Discovery

Creating a great video is only half the battle. Now you need to package it so the platform and potential viewers can understand what it's about.

Write a Compelling Caption

Your caption should be short, add context, and encourage engagement. A popular way to do this is by asking a question that relates to the video. For a video showing how to care for a plant, the caption might ask, "What plant should I cover next? 👇"

Use Hashtags Strategically

Don't just stuff your caption with generic trending hashtags like #fyp or #viral. Instead, use a mix of hashtags that help TikTok categorize your content and show it to the right audience.

A Good Hashtag Strategy:

• 1-2 Broad Hashtags (#fitness, #baking): These have huge search volume but also a ton of competition.
• 2-3 Niche-Specific Hashtags (#beginneryoga, #sourdoughtips): These target a specific audience that is actively looking for content like yours. This is where you'll often find your most loyal followers. This strategy also helps your videos appear in search results.
• 1-2 Trend- or Community-Specific Hashtags (#CleanTok, #BookTok): These tap into existing subcultures on the platform.

Analyzing the hashtags used by bigger creators in your niche is a great way to discover which tags are working.

Post Consistently and at the Right Time

Consistency is more important than frequency. It's better to post 3 high-quality videos every week than to post 10 mediocre videos in one week and then get burnt out. A consistent schedule teaches the algorithm when to expect new content from you and keeps your followers engaged.

To find your best posting times, go to your Creator Tools > Analytics > Followers tab. TikTok will show you breakdowns of the days and hours your audience was most active over the past week. Aim to post an hour or two before these peak times to give your content the best chance to gain traction.

Step 4: Engage Authentically to Build Community

TikTok is a social media platform, so being social is essential for long-term growth. You're not just broadcasting content, you're building a community around your niche.

Interact in Your Comments Section

When people comment on your videos - especially when they ask questions - engaging with them is an excellent way to build loyalty. Reply to comments, "like" them, and answer questions. A fantastic tactic is using the "reply with video" feature to turn an engaging comment into a prompt for your next video. This makes your community feel included and gives you a steady stream of content ideas.

Collaborate With Others

Use TikTok’s native collaboration tools like Stitch and Duet to interact with other creators' content. When you use Stitch or Duet, you bring your own commentary and value to another trending video, which can expose you to the original creator's audience.

This tactic allows you to engage with a larger audience and get more exposure without waiting for the algorithm to promote your videos to more people. It shows you're active in your niche and sparks new conversations with other creators.

Final Thoughts

Growing a following on TikTok boils down to a clear strategy: define your audience, create content that grabs attention and delivers value, optimize your posts for the algorithm, and actively build a community. Treat it like an experiment, pay attention to your analytics to see what works, and don’t be afraid to adjust your approach as you learn what resonates with viewers.

Staying consistent with planning, creating, and posting is often the hardest part, especially when you're managing multiple social platforms. That's one of the reasons we built Postbase. We wanted a clean, simple way to see our entire content strategy in a visual calendar and reliably schedule our videos - especially for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts - without the clunky feeling of legacy tools. It helps our team stay organized and focused on creating great content instead of wrestling with their tools.