In late 2021, TikTok had an active audience of around 689 million users. The seventh most-used social media platform in the world, TikTok holds huge potential for overnight fame and fortune. If looking to make it big, figuring out how to go viral on TikTok is a good place to start.
A single viral video on TikTok can stack up to a million views in no time. Going viral really is the Holy Grail for content creators with big ambitions on TikTok. The question is – what can you do to boost the viral potential of your content? Is there a way of ensuring your content goes viral or is it all largely out of your hands?
Table of Contents
- How Does a Video Go Viral on TikTok?
- How to Make Your Video Viral On TikTok?
- Create Great Videos
- Clarify the Topic of your Video in the First Few Seconds
- Keep Up with the Trends
- Post Humorous Videos
- Make it Short
- Use Hashtags
- Engage with Your Audience
- Stick to One Niche Where Possible
- Use Popular Songs
- Tell Stories
- Add CTAs in Your Videos
- Share Tips, Advice, and Tutorials
- Do Controversial Things (Carefully)
- Don’t Use Generic Hashtags
- Reply to All Comments
- Post Frequently
- Spend Some Time Watching Videos in FYP
- Use Text in Your Videos
- Use Your Own Voice
- Buy TikTok Views
- Conclusion
How Does a Video Go Viral on TikTok?
The answer lies somewhere down the middle. Videos go viral when a large audience of users shares a clip in quick succession. It’s the classic case of the ‘snowball effect’ in motion, quickly gaining momentum and generating huge exposure.
A few people share a clip with their followers, their followers do the same with their followers, and the cycle continues. Anyone who knows and loves TikTok will have come across plenty of examples of viral posts. Out of nowhere, something appears that quickly becomes a worldwide phenomenon.
Technically speaking, you have no direct control over who shares what and who with whom. But there’s plenty you can do to appeal to TikTok’s algorithm and boost the visibility of your videos. Not to mention, create and edit videos with the best possible viral potential.
How to Make Your Video Viral On TikTok?
Enhancing the viral potential of a video on TikTok can be approached from a variety of angles. All of which should be experimented with as part of your publishing strategy. Applicable to both personal and business TikTok accounts alike, these are the tried, tested, and trusted strategies for improved viral potential:
1. Create Great Videos
First up, it should go without saying that all videos you publish should be of outstanding quality. If you’ve ever created videos of limited value simply for the sake of it, you’ve wasted your time.
Always remember that the TikTok algorithm takes both views and completion rates into account when choosing content to promote. Unless you’re hooking their attention right to the end, you’ve no chance of going viral.
2. Clarify the Topic of your Video in the First Few Seconds
The importance of getting your point across early also cannot be overstated. This basically means communicating the topic of your videos within the first few seconds. Avoid the temptation to be unnecessarily cryptic or to keep them waiting too long. Make it clear what your video is about as quickly as possible, and ensure they’re hooked from the word go.
3. Keep Up with the Trends
Attempting to keep up with every trend on TikTok is both inadvisable and impossible. But if there are any trends or trending sounds of genuine relevance to your audience, go for it. Just remember that trends fall out of favor almost as quickly as they appear. If there’s a bandwagon worth jumping on, you need to jump on it the moment it breaks out.
4. Post Humorous Videos
Nothing has more viral potential on TikTok than a genuinely hilarious video. The problem is that coming up with something that’s both funny and original isn’t easy. Ripping off the ideas of other publishers wholesale is never the way to go. Work on your own humorous content and be mindful of what your audience finds funny or otherwise. While at all times, keeping things tasteful.
5. Make it Short
Likewise, concise content has exponentially more viral potential than long-form content. TikTok users are inherently more likely to share short and punchy videos that deliver instant gratification. There’s a time and a place for longer videos, but shorter is better for going viral. Keeping your clips to no more than around 20 seconds (or less) could help you reach more people.
6. Use Hashtags
The strategic use of hashtags is essential when publishing content of any kind. The hashtags you use need to be 100% relevant to the clips you publish. Don’t use too many and never use irrelevant hashtags, simply to bring more traffic to your videos. If the hashtags you use are not relevant to your content, you’ll pull in people with no interest in what you do, which is, in every sense, a waste of time.
7. Engage with Your Audience
Appealing to the TikTok algorithm and boosting the viral potential of your videos is all about engagement. You need to get the TikTok users you’re targeting to take more than a passing interest in your content.
Precisely where engaging and communicating with your audience could make all the difference. Share their videos, leave comments, and generally keep yourself as active and communicative as possible.
8. Stick to One Niche Where Possible
It can be tempting to spread yourself thinly across to a whole bunch of topics in the hope of something you publish gaining traction. Unfortunately, this rarely paves the way for a successful TikTok strategy. Your goal should be to build authority and credibility in whatever niche you know best. Not to simply hop from one niche to the next, chasing every trend that comes along.
9. Use Popular Songs
That said, trending audio can (and often does) form the basis of viral content on TikTok. It’s, therefore, a good idea to keep your ear to the ground for what’s making waves at the time. Though again, this only applies if the trending audio in question is of genuine relevance and value to your audience. If it’s way out of their area of interest, it’s best avoided.
10. Tell Stories
Telling stories on TikTok means sharing anything your audience may be genuinely interested in. Something that happened to you on the way to work, a thought you had about a topic of interest, an anecdote from your past – anything goes.
Stories can be great for showing your personality, demonstrating authenticity, and building trust with your target audience—all adding to your viral potential.
11. Add CTAs in Your Videos
Going viral only happens when enough people share your videos with their own fans and followers. In which case, why not simply ask them to share your clips? It sounds simple, but adding CTAs with clear instructions can make a real difference. Don’t wait for them to share your content instinctively – ask them to do so, and let them know how much you appreciate it.
12. Share Tips, Advice, and Tutorials
Content of genuine value is always more shareable than clips with no real purpose. Examples of the former include tips on topics of interest, advice your audience will benefit from, and how-to clips with useful hacks. If it’s something they think others within their network will benefit from, they’ll share it far and wide.
13. Do Controversial Things (Carefully)
You have to tread a careful line with this one, as controversy on TikTok can go one of two ways. Get it right, and a clip with shock value can have insane viral potential. Anything that’s new, interesting, and eye-opening never fails to get the job done. However, take things too far, and you could land yourself in trouble—both with your target audience and with the TikTok algorithm.
14. Don’t Use Generic Hashtags
Back with hashtags, anything generic or overused should be avoided at all costs. Another area where bandwagon-hopping is inadvisable. Examples of which include #FYP, #foryou, and the like, which bring no real benefit whatsoever. Be strategic and creative with your hashtags, using only those of genuine value and relevance to your content.
15. Reply to All Comments
Getting into the habit of replying to every comment you receive is essential. This is another major indicator of engagement the TikTok algorithm takes seriously. In addition, there’s nothing more unattractive to TikTok users than publishers who simply ignore and overlook their comments. If you want to make things happen on TikTok, it’s all about engagement and interaction.
16. Post Frequently
If you post a video every few days on a random basis, it’s not going to happen. Whether looking to go viral or simply working on your engagement rate, posting frequently is mandatory. As is committing to a consistent publishing schedule, so your audience knows when to tune in. Quality matters most on TikTok, but quantity also plays a role.
17. Spend Some Time Watching Videos in FYP
Each time you watch a video in FYP, you gain invaluable insights into what’s hot at the time. Hence, spending at least 20 minutes or so each day checking out FYP could give you a major edge. Not in the aim of copying others’ ideas outright, but more a case of taking inspiration. While at the same time, seeing what others are doing and finding ways of doing it better.
18. Use Text in Your Videos
Using text in TikTok videos can be great for boosting engagement and clarifying the clip’s main message. The text effectively forces the viewer to pay attention to read it rather than watching it in a passive capacity.
And again, the potential power and influence of strategic CTAs cannot be overstated. Don’t bombard them with too much text, but use the power of the written word to your advantage.
19. Use Your Own Voice
Using your own voice and original sound as the backing for your tracks can also boost engagement and appeal. It’s again a case of showcasing your personality, demonstrating authenticity, and enhancing your image. There’s something inherently more appealing about publishers who use their own voices and let their own true personalities speak for themselves.
20. Buy TikTok Views
Last up, by far, the quickest and easiest option is to buy TikTok views. When you buy views on TikTok, you instantly enhance the credibility, appeal, and viral potential of your videos. All while massively boosting your content’s likelihood of being promoted actively by TikTok.
At GetAFollower, we specialize exclusively in 100% authentic views from active TikTok accounts. All as safe and effective as organic views, covered by our full refund guarantee for total peace of mind!
Conclusion
Going viral on TikTok is all about setting the ‘snowball effect’ in motion. After which, the rest takes care of itself. Precisely where buying views can make all the difference, giving your content the instant performance boost it needs to make things happen.
Still, it will always be the quality of the content you publish that determines the outcome. It’s worth remembering that there are almost 700 million people on TikTok, all competing for the same attention. There’s simply no room for substandard content – quality is King.
Boosting the viral potential of your content, therefore, begins with ensuring the videos you publish are worthy of going viral. After which, each of the other tips and tactics outlined above could help generate invaluable exposure for your content.