how to go viral on Tiktok?

If you are wondering how to go viral on TikTok, you have landed on the right article.

TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms that allow publishers to produce content and build their following.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• • How to go viral on TikTok (with impactful strategies)
  • What’s considered viral on TikTok
  • Does TikTok pay you if you go viral
  • And, more

Before going into the details, let me tell you that TikTok is not only about lip-syncing and dancing; you can produce all types of content that can appeal to any age range. 

With that out of the way, let’s now get into the action.

 

What is Considered Viral on TikTok

Some videos have a view count of more than 100M on TikTok. So, the answer would probably be a subjective one and depend largely on the niche.

Some industries are so popular that you’d need to get a lot of views to compete. It also depends on how broad your target audience is, and what you want to achieve with them.

Entertainment topics get tons of views on TikTok, whereas a lower competition niche like technology won’t get as many views.

While it depends on multiple factors, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to call a more-than-500,000 views video viral. Of course, you can attract millions of views on a video, which would probably be a mega-viral video.

 

Is it Easy to Go Viral on TikTok?

TikTok is a leading social media platform with around 100 million active users. So, it’s a great platform to publish a variety of content and get popular.

However, going viral on TikTok takes the right strategies and smart work. It’s not advisable to just go with the trend and post without planning.

The rule of thumb is, define your audience and offer something that they will likely find a lot of value in. Your content should resonate with them.

Moreover, posting consistently and at the right time also helps publishers to go viral on TikTok relatively easily.

Later in this article, I’ll be diving deep into the strategies and techniques that you can use to go viral on TikTok.

Let’s first see how long you should wait for your videos to go viral on TikTok.

 

How Long Does It Take to Go Viral on TikTok?

Right after you post your video to TikTok, the platform pushes it to a few hundred people on “For You” pages.

You’d commonly hear that TikTok pushes your content from the time of posting to up to 24 hours after that.

But, that’s not exactly the case.

While you may see a video get viral within a 24-hour window, if it gets decent views and watch-time, you’ll see that it keeps on performing well.

The TikTok algorithm works in mysterious ways. You can get viral within 24 hours of posting a video or you can get traction even after several days.

How quickly the algorithm pushes your video to the audience mainly depends on its watch time and engagement. If your watch time is above 70%, there is a high chance that it’ll get viral in a particular audience.

With that out of the way, let’s see how the TikTok algorithm works and what usually goes viral on TikTok.

 

What Usually Goes Viral on TikTok?

So, how does TikTok examine your video’s potential? The algorithm isn’t that tricky to impress if you know the right path as a publisher on TikTok.

What TikTok does is that it puts your video in front of a sizeable audience, say 300 to 500 users. You upload a video, and a few hundred people get the chance to see it.

Probably the number one metric that TikTok uses to make your video viral is watch time. If you can get a 100% watch time of your video, there is no reason why you shouldn’t go viral on TikTok.

But, keep in mind that you need to include the right hashtags and keywords to get visibility on the platform. Those few hundred viewers that see your content at the start of a video’s journey mainly determine its fate.

While watch time is an important metric for a TikTok video to get viral, other factors play a major role too. I’ll discuss them thoroughly in the next section.

When someone stops at your video and watches it for a few seconds, TikTok counts a view. However, if they keep watching it until the end or replay it, you get extra points.

Your video can go viral within 24 hours; however, it might take longer. After some time, you’ll naturally see a downturn in your views.

If something doesn’t go viral, what publishers usually do is re-upload the video to get in front of that “For You” page audience.

Let’s now get into the strategies you should use if you want to go viral on TikTok.

 

How to Go Viral on TikTok

Let me give you the good news first: You don’t need to have a single follower to get viral on TikTok. TikTok’s algorithm is such that your video can get a boost as soon as you push the publish button.

 

Grab Viewer’s Attention Instantly

Your video content should be captivating right from the word go. Users don’t stick for too long if they don’t find the initial few seconds of a video interesting.

If you don’t hook them to your video, they’ll find something else to watch. After all, it would be just a scroll away.

Just make sure not to practice click-bait or dishonest claims to get their attention. It’s only going to hurt your watch time, which is the single most important factor in getting viral on TikTok.

Plus, you want your viewers to follow your channel as well. No one would probably want to hear from you again if you over-promise or under-deliver.

 

Keep Your Video Short

When you decide on your video content, make sure to keep your video under a minute. People don’t have a long attention span. If you make a long video, people might leave it somewhere in the middle.

When you keep your video short, even if someone watches it for a few seconds, your overall watch time won’t be that bad.

For instance, a 7-second video that gets 4-second average watch time is better than a 1-minute video that gets 30 seconds of watch time.

You see, it’s the game of percentages.

 

Use Your Own Voice

You want to give TikTok as many resources as you can to help it rank your video. When you record audio in your voice, you essentially give TikTok more content to help it understand what your topic is about.

Sure, you should use keywords that you want TikTok to rank your video for but saying those words will also help you get more traction.

 

Tell a Story

Let’s be honest, not all of us can dance and lip-sync. Luckily, TikTok is much more than that.

You can tell your own story to the audience and captivate them. Stories are compelling, and it’s not like you’d have to do a lot of hard work to tell your own story.

Just talk about your day in an interesting way. Something that happened with you that you want your audience to know about.

Just keep things quick and interesting. Don’t go into too much detail.

 

Create Educational Videos

TikTok is not all fun and games. A lot of people would love to learn something new at any opportunity they get.

Leverage that type of audience by creating fun and interesting tutorials on a subject that you know about. You can put bullet points in your video, which will make viewers pause your video, keeping them engaged longer.

Better engagement with your video is going to help its visibility on TikTok.

 

Include an Actionable Call-to-Action

You don’t just want your audience to watch your video and scroll down. Although 100% watch time is ideal, you need to get your audience to subscribe to your channel.

That way, when you post another video, they get a notification. Although you can go viral without having a following, it can be quite helpful.

Your video also gets a boost from the TikTok algorithm when more people subscribe to your chancel after watching it.

You can use a call-to-action asking your viewers to “Subscribe for more”, “Don’t forget to hit that like button”, and “Subscribe for the second part”.

 

Inspire People to Comment Under Your Video

One way to inspire engagement with your video is by getting your viewers to comment on it. You can ask them a question at the end of the video, or you can talk about something that isn’t related to your video.

You can include anything that can pique your audience’s interest and make them comment. The more you get comments under your video, the more will be your chances to go viral.

An effective way to improve engagement is by leaving something unanswered. Talk about something and leave a major point for the next session.

That will attract tons of comments and help your video perform even better.

 

Include Text on Your Video

Add text on the first slide of your video. This will keep your viewers engaged for a longer time.

Your watch time will eventually increase, which will be a sign to the algorithm to make your video visible to more people.

 

Use Relevant Hashtags

Hashtags help the social media platform to identify what your video is about. They may be the keywords that your potential viewers are searching for. Or, maybe something that helps the algorithm push your content to relevant people.

 

Post Frequently

This one is a no-brainer. You need to post high-quality, relevant content regularly to attract the right people to your videos.

To go viral, post as frequently as you can while maintaining the quality and relevance of your videos. The more you post, the higher will be the probability of getting viral on the platform.

Not only that, but you’ll also get good at producing content with practice.

 

Use TikTok Analytics

One of the several TikTok tools is analytics. It offers insights into different metrics like where did your audience came from and when do they get active on the platform.

TikTok analytics will help you identify any loopholes in your strategy. For instance, you can post your video right when your target audience gets active and get more traction. 

Using analytics, you can progress relatively quickly as it gives you real-time data and lets you make the right decisions.

 

Collaborate With Other Influencers/TikTokers

TikTok has a huge audience, which means it has a huge publisher base as well. There would be a lot of influencers in your industry that might want to work with you to grow further.

You can find out the relevant ones and offer to collaborate with great content that both of your audiences love.

Collaborating with other publishers in your industry will let you attract more followers as it boosts your channel’s reach.

Best of all, it’s a win-win for both parties.

 

Be Entertaining and Fun

This doesn’t get said enough: People on TikTok don’t like long, boring videos. Even if you are talking about the right things, the way you communicate with the audience matters a lot on TikTok.

Keep your message short and fun. Don’t get into the details. Be an entertaining storyteller and add exceptional value to your viewers’ lives to keep them coming to your channel.

 

Do you Get Paid if You go Viral on TikTok?

No, TikTok doesn’t have a monetization program. So, even if your video gets millions of views, the platform won’t pay you anything.

However, there are multiple ways you can make money on TikTok.

 

Be an Influencer

One of the most effective ways is to grow your following and work with brands. When you have a good enough following, brands approach you and you can promote their products in return for a monetary benefit.

 

Flip Your TikTok Account

The other way is to grow your TikTok channel and then sell it. Essentially, you create an account, build your following with great content around a specific niche, reach out to potential buyers, and you’re your account.

 

Get Donations from Followers

Another way you can make money with TikTok is through donations from direct followers. TikTok has its own currency; your audience can send you that and you can convert it to PayPal dollars.

Invest in TikTok Ads

TikTok has its own ads platform as well. If you have something to sell to an audience on TikTok, these ads can help you grow your business. However, you’ll need a budget to invest in these ads depending on what you want to achieve with them.

 

Manage Other Accounts

This one doesn’t require owning a TikTok account. You can manage TikTok accounts of publishers that don’t have the time to do so.

For instance, you can develop their content strategy and work with analytics to grow their account.

So, no matter how viral your video goes, TikTok doesn’t directly pay its publishers. However, there are other ways that you can use to make a lot of cash.

Your followers would be your real asset, so you need to keep providing them with entertaining and valuable content.

 

Final Thoughts

TikTok is a leading social media platform and it’s still growing. The good news for new publishers is that you don’t need to have a massive following to get viral on TikTok.

TikTok “For You” pages can help you get in front of a lot of people without having an active following on the platform.

That said, having followers is always great.

The strategies discussed in this article will not only help youmake your videosgo viral, but you’ll also be able to build your following.

Moreover, while TikTok doesn’t offer a monetization platform yet, as a publisher you have several options to monetize your content.