Social media is the next frontier for brands, marketers, and influencers. There is a lot of potential in the huge numbers that these social platforms draw in.
TikTok alone has reported gaining over 1 billion users even before the last quarter of 2021. It is also reported that the average user spends about an hour each day on the app. That’s about a billion hours of watch time a day!
The extremely huge amount of viewership on the platform is certain to attract brands and aspiring influencers. Where the people are is where the money is.
If you’re one of those who would like to become an influencer, then this post is for you. Learn the ways to achieve success as a TikTok influencer in this informative article.
Keep reading to learn more, and when your done, take a look at our other TikTok guides:
- What Is Influencer Marketing: How to Develop Your Strategy
- How Much Does a TikTok Influencer Make
- How to Choose an Influencer on TikTok?
- GrowTok – Influencer Plan
- Free TikTok Followers
Table of Contents
Who Is a TikTok influencer?
A TikTok influencer is someone who has the power to “influence” or affect their viewers’ thinking and decision-making. Influencers can promote brands and products that the audience will support and purchase just because the influencer featured them.
This power and allure over thousands and even millions of viewers are what generates them money. Their charisma makes people want to give them their adoration and their hard-earned cash. This charm is what brands pay for.
So, if you’re thinking of becoming an influencer, be ready to work hard to attain that coveted position. No need to sweat it, though. We’re here to teach you how to become a TikTok influencer in easy, doable steps. Read on to learn the trade.
How to Become a TikTok Influencer?
Being an influencer on TikTok is pretty much the same as being an influencer on other social media. You will need a lot of followers to show for it. But the number of followers is not all that matters on TikTok.
Another important aspect is the engagement rate of your videos. You get bumped up more on the TikTok algorithm if viewers finish watching your videos, than just having lots of followers and views.
So, the key to getting more exposure is by having people watch your content until the end. Therefore, hooking your audience up until they finish the video is a must.
To become a successful TikTok influencer, you have to keep your audience engaged. Here are the steps that you can do to get on the road up to that status.
Know Your Audience
Knowing who the viewers are on the platform lets you tailor your content to them. You can then create videos that the majority of the demographic will surely love.
On TikTok, here are the audience demographics:
- 35% of users are 19-29 years old
- 28% are 18 years old and below
- 59% are female
- 105 million are from North America
- 64 million are from Latin America
Choose Your Niche
Going broad and trying to do everything won’t work on the platform. What does work is focusing on a single niche and target audience.
Be the TikToker who creates dance videos, or the one that duets, or the one who uploads funny clips, or the one who produces informative videos. You should aim to be the go-to person for that niche or topic.
To make choosing your niche easier, try going for topics that you’re already good at. If you’re good at performing, go for the entertainment niche. If you’re athletic, go for physical or sports-related videos. In case you’re more of an academic, do informative clips. If you already have a profession, create videos about it. You’ll never run out of content ideas this way.
Emulate Famous TikTokers
Another tip to be successful is to study ideal influencers. Choose an influencer or two in your niche and observe what they do. Then try to imitate their good habits. It might just work for you, as well.
Answer these questions to see what makes them so effective.
- What kind of videos do they upload?
- When do they upload the clips?
- How long are the videos?
- What makes the video interesting?
- What call-to-action did they use?
Create Viral Videos
Videos that have gone viral are what make every TikToker famous. Viral videos might be of a different niche or type, but there is a certain formula to get that popularity. Try applying these tips to your next videos:
- Only make videos that are 20 to 40 seconds long. You want viewers to watch until the end. So, shorter is better at the start of your career. You can make longer clips once you have established an avid audience.
- Utilize the popular sounds and music that are available on the platform. These videos get more positive engagement than those that use original music or sounds.
- Do duet videos using content from famous influencers. Their huge following will generate millions of views, even if you’re just a fledgling TikToker.
Hop on the Trends
TikTok is all about what’s hip and trending. To ensure that you get on as many screens as you can, you should always hop on the bandwagon. Here are the usual types that you should look out for:
- online challenges
- trending sound
- trending hashtag,
- trending effect
To stand out from the rest of the trending videos, put a unique twist on your content. Flavor it with your character to make it special and memorable.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags are some of the under-utilized promotion tools available. They get tossed around carelessly by most users. But to get more exposure, using choice hashtags for your posts is the way to go.
- First, search for the trending hashtags on TikTok.
- Create videos and use those hot hashtags.
- Don’t forget to include #ForYouPage or #FYP to get onto the user’s main feed.
Add Call-To-Action
It’s easy to get caught up in making your content that you forget to remind viewers to like your video and subscribe to your account. You have to keep telling people those reminders to get more engagements.
It won’t cost your viewers any money to do it for you. But it will help your career a lot.
Connect with Your Fans
Another great way to reel your audience in is by engaging them. Talk to them during live streams, reply to their comments, and answer all their questions. Connect with them like a real person.
Creating personal connections will endear you more to people and help you gain lots of loyal followers.
Be Consistent
Doing business is all about numbers, especially when it comes to views, engagements, and followers. To get more views, you will need to do the following:
- Create tons of videos: 4 – 6 videos on weekdays, 6 – 9 videos during weekends
- Post regularly and at peak times. If you have the capacity, upload a video every day. If you’re a bit busy, you can try going for a few days a week. Just remember to stick to a schedule, so you get optimum viewership.
- Always reply to your followers. Building a solid community will be a great help on your road to success.
How to Make Money as a TikTok Influencer?
Here’s the fun part – earning some income for all your efforts. Just like on other social media platforms, there are many avenues to generate income. Here’s a list of how you can make money on TikTok:
1. Creator Fund
TikTok has set aside funds to reward top-performing TikTokers.But only those who meet the requirements and are chosen by TikTok will be eligible to earn from said funds.
Requirements:
- must be based in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, or Spain
- must be 18 years old and above
- have 10,000 followers
- get 100,000 views in the last 30 days
Once you have fulfilled the requirements, upgrade your regular account to a Pro account to be qualified for the Creator Fund. Then, apply for the Creator Fund through the TikTok app.
2. Live Stream Gifts
Doing live streams gives you the opportunity to receive Gifts and coins from your viewers. Users purchase these gifts on the platform and then give them to influencers during live videos. These are digital donations given directly to you.
TikTok will get a cut from the donations, but you will still get at least half of the proceeds. You can check your earnings directly from your dashboard.
3. Sponsorships and Endorsements
There are no clear terms for sponsorships that are published. But it is speculated that an influencer will earn about $0.01 to $0.02 per view of their sponsored videos. This amounts to roughly $10 to $20 for just 1,000 views.
Of course, the more followers and exposure you have, the more views you will get. Remember, it’s a numbers game.
4. Affiliate Links
Another popular and simple way to earn some cash is through Affiliate Marketing. You can get a commission from sales made through your link. A few percent in commission might not seem much, but it does add up.
Here’s what you need to do to get started:
- Join the Amazon Affiliate Program. Apply to be a partner through there.
- Generate your affiliate link. This will be traced to your account. Whenever a user clicks this link and makes a purchase within 60 minutes, you get a commission.
- Add the link in your bio. Since TikTok doesn’t let users add a clickable link to the video itself, this is the workaround for it. Just remind your audience to visit your profile and check the bio for the link.
5. Creator Marketplace
A method of earning income, unique to TikTok, is through the Creator Marketplace. Here, you can connect with music creators who will pay you to make their music popular. Simply add their music to your videos, and you get some money for the views. If it goes viral, then you just hit the jackpot.
6. Brand Merch
Once you have made a name for yourself and built a good-sized community of followers, you can now venture into doing straight-up business. Create your own merchandise that people can purchase to support you and also proudly show their love for you.
Final Thoughts
TikTok is a fast-growing platform that offers tons of opportunities for people who would like to become influencers. Even micro-influencers who have amassed a following will have more prospects of earning income.
So, if you want to get more followers, try the tips we have outlined in this post. Create videos that follow trends to get you to appear on the main feed and also on the Discover tab. Just keep on creating until you make it!
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