10 Steps to 1000 Followers on TikTok
Plus - How It Literally Changed My Life
We’re Rachel Hurley and Frank Keith IV, co-owners of the music publicity firm Sweetheart PR. Once a week, we’ll publish a new edition of My Manager, where we’ll share actionable advice on all facets of the music industry.
Welcome to the first edition of our monthly “Free Friday” newsletter - where we’ll give a general round-up of what we’ve sent out in recent paywalled editions, plus some free advice. If you’re liking what you see, please consider subscribing to the full newsletter for only $5/month.
Before we get to the round-up, here’s an essay from Rachel on her recent goal of reaching 1000 followers on TikTok, and some tips on how you can grow an audience there (hint: it’s not just for kids!):
I am not being hyperbolic when I tell you that TikTok has completely changed my life.
Since joining the platform I’ve lost twenty pounds, cut my grocery bill, boosted my energy, and cleared my skin by becoming “almost vegan” after following a trio of nutritionists. I redecorated my office on a budget to be a room that I get total joy from after following a DIY decorator, I learned genius cleaning tips after following a “Maid to the Stars” and how to get killer deals on products after following a “Crazy Coupon Lady.” I corrected behavioral problems my dogs exhibited after following dog experts, started using the Fabulous App after following a business strategist which allowed me to create rituals that have doubled my work output, I corrected a posture problem that I have struggled with since I was a teenager from following a calisthenics expert, learned countless marketing strategies, and started using an investment app after following a finance coach called Acorns that I put $50 in and now sits at almost $800.
All this to say: TikTok is not just a teen app for “dancing.”
I downloaded the app back in November 2019 to check out what the hype was all about. I quickly learned that it feeds you content based on your “likes.” The more I interacted with posts that I found interesting, the more similar content it directed to my “For You” feed. It also uses your age and location to adjust your content - so I quickly learned there are a lot of people using it besides teenagers.
I spent the first few months lurking/watching, since I was still too intimidated to make my own posts. The last thing I wanted was to be accused of being too old, too fat, or too ugly to be on the app. Does this sound familiar?
It was pretty clear to me from the beginning that the beauty of TikTok is their algorithm. I have been using Facebook and Twitter since 2006 and Instagram since 2010. Along the way, I used all of the common tricks of the trade to build followers. But as we all know, those platforms have throttled views over the years in order to make you pay to reach people - even if they follow you!
My personal Instagram has sat at about 2500 - 2800 followers for a few years now. I’d gain a few hundred and lose a few hundred every year. I’ve tried different things to increase my followers, but I’ve never been able to come up with a set of demonstrable actions that worked.
I started telling my clients at the beginning of the year that I thought TikTok was a great opportunity to reach a new audience but not many jumped on board since most of them have never figured out a clear line of action to grow their other social accounts - what was the benefit of adding ANOTHER social media account to tend to?
The reason is this: TikTok has a HUGE audience - over 100 million users just in the US - that everyone on the platform has access to. All you have to do is create engaging content. If it’s good - they’ll show it to a lot of people. It’s like being able to play a country fair where there are 100,000 people walking by you. If you’re really good - you’ll catch some ears and people will amble over to check you out. If you are mediocre - people are going to just keep on walking by.
So, I decided that if I was going to ask my clients to use TikTok - I needed to be able to demonstrate that if I could do it, then they could too. So in January, I made a personal goal of growing my account to 1000 followers. That might not seem like a huge number, but if I could do it with barely any talent at all - then it would demonstrate that anyone who set their mind to it could. Here’s how I did it.
First of all, this would have gone a LOT faster if I had just committed to it - but just like many of you, I was scared to make a fool of myself. While IG is a curated feed of your best content - on TikTok you have to fail a lot to learn what works.
I started out mimicking content of other content creators, I did lip-syncs and posts about my dogs, volunteering at my local animal shelter, and imitated the biggest trend posts. I posted maybe once a week, but never got much traction - maybe a few hundred views at best. You won’t find any of this content on my profile now - because it was embarrassing and it has all been deleted ;) Not getting much traction was pretty discouraging. It didn’t boost my confidence or make me want to create more content. While I still was addicted to watching content, I didn’t really feel compelled to make any.
Then on a lark, I made a post about Barack Obama and got 30k views. I also got a big bump in followers. Looking back, I now realize that this post was the first one I made where I showed a big part of my personality. I care a lot about politics and have a very particular absurdist viewpoint when I comment on what’s happening in the world. This is a huge part of who I am, and the people who get my humor really connect with it.
I still continued to try to post other content, but it never got the same type of response. Then I did a reaction video to another TikTok about a song with oft-misheard lyrics. I made it in two minutes and all I did was cover my face and respond with 2 text bubbles with why it made no sense to me that people did not understand what the singer was saying - it now sits at 841k views. That’s when I finally got it. It’s a piece of advice you’ve heard a million times - just be yourself and people will respond to it.
I care about politics and music. From this point on, that’s what I will post about.
It took me seven months to get to 500 followers because I was not consistent and I did not know what to post. It took me one month to get to 1000 followers because I figured out my voice. Now I have a video go viral at least once a week.
Here are my recommendations for building your own following:
Do not post about your music (yet). People don’t like to be sold to the first time they meet you. As a publicist, I’ve met writers that I waited YEARS to pitch to after our first in-person introduction. If you get to know people first, then you can casually suggest things to them later - and it’s not a hard sell. Plus, if they say no, you can go back to them later with something else. The same rules should apply with social media. This is your opportunity to show people who you are as a person, then later you can let them know that you are ALSO a musician - and since they already like YOU - they’ll be more likely to check out your music.
Figure out what you like and share that with people. Do you make clothes? Can you teach people an instrument? Do you know weird pop culture facts? Do you have a collection of items you can talk about? Figure out what you can share with people that has value. Once you figure out what that is - make it a theme of your profile. If they like one of your posts and decide to follow you, it’s because they are going to expect similar content in the future. My profile did not get much traction until I found my voice.
There are 4 ways people can engage with your content that affects the algorithm: Views, Likes, Comments, and Shares. Views are the MOST important. Likes are great, but the “algo” can tell if someone just goes down the page and likes posts but does not actually view the entire clip. Comments also really help to push posts to more people’s feeds. After all, if people stop to comment on a post and not just scroll by - it’s probably good content.
Interact with every comment - if you can, try to ask the commenter a question so that they will come back and answer. If a post has a lot of comments - people will stop scrolling just to check out what people are saying about your content. On my political posts when I would get negative comments - I would just go ask the commenter “What do you mean?” - they would always come back and “explain” their point to me. People LOVE to explain themselves!
Post as much as you can as long as it is good content - don’t worry about the “only post once a day” rule. I’ve posted something, then posted something else an hour later and the 2nd post is the one that went viral.
Hashtags really do work to get more views on TikTok - so use them - but don’t use ones like “FYP” or #foryoupage - everyone’s posts end up going to a certain number of people’s “For You” Feeds - then as you build followers and they start interacting with your posts - it will end up going out to more and more people’s FYP feeds.
If you have not posted ANYTHING to TikTok yet - make sure your FIRST post is REALLY good. The algorithm will give you a “boosted” first post because they want you to be more likely to KEEP posting! All of my client’s first posts did pretty well - and then the views went down when they were not consistent with posting.
Set your account to Pro Account and keep up with your analytics - that will tell you when the best time is for you to post your content.
Make a bunch at once and save them to post throughout the week. Once I get into the TikTok mindset - I can come up with a lot of ideas and will make 6 or 7 videos at a time and then I just post them at various times over the week to see which ones do the best. My personal page does best around 8 PM at night - my theory is my audience is a little older and there probably scroll through TikTok before they go to bed. You can also use the content you create on TikTok for your other channels too which will help you to cross-promote between channels.
Still not sure what to post? JUST DUET OTHER PEOPLE’S POSTS! You don’t even have to be in the video - you can video a wall and then put a text bubble over it. My most viewed video is a duet where I did not show my face or use my voice.
p.s. feel free to reach out with any questions! You can check out my account to see the content I am creating: Rachelandthecity
p.p.s. you can get a $300 credit when you sign up to use TikTok’s ad manager
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
Here’s what’s happened so far on My Manager:
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A conversation with Joelle Rosen, a self-employed photographer who operates under the name Joelle Grace. When she’s not shooting for Billboard, Vogue, The New Yorker, or major-label recording artists, she maintains a steady stream of work with indie bands. She’s also a musician -- a vocalist / multi-instrumentalist in the Underhill Family Orchestra -- so she knows what it’s like on “both sides of the line.” We’ll talk about her process as a photographer, the importance of controlling your image (literally), and she shares some advice on how to approach and plan a successful photoshoot.
Pivoting In A World Without Live Music
A conversation with Trae Vedder, who is the talent buyer for Sixthman - a very cool destination event company that books a lot of the music cruises you’ve probably heard about like KESHA'S WEIRD & WONDERFUL RAINBOW RIDE, THE OUTLAW COUNTRY CRUISE, THE KISS KRUISE, THE ROCK BOAT, THE MELISSA ETHERIDGE CRUISE - and that’s just to name a few. Obviously, the 2020 pandemic has put most of their events out of service in the near-term, but they are still working with artists creating live streams and other content. We also discussed lots of tips for how artists can be using this downtime to their advantage and about the Topeka.live platform that allows artists including Jason Isbell, Molly Tuttle, John & Lilly Hiatt, Sarah Potenza, Marc Broussard, Scott Ian, and Sadler Vaden, to create new experiences that they can monetize, including live streams, music lessons, one-on-ones and more.
How to Pitch Your Music Without a Publicist
A conversation with Angela Zimmer, the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of The Boot, a highly-trafficked music outlet that covers mostly country & Americana musicians but also has a great track record of breaking new artists. We know many musicians can’t afford to hire publicists, so we chat with Angela about what she looks for when opting to cover an artist, the best way to pitch her and her biggest pet peeve when musicians are trying to get her attention.
The Secrets of Sync Licensing
A conversation with music supervisor Joe Rudge. He’s based in Brooklyn and known for his work on films such as Room, Blue Valentine, The Big Sick, Eighth Grade, Hereditary, and Midsommar. He’s currently working with Netflix and Ron Howard on Hillbilly Elegy.
Rachel worked for Joe as an assistant music supervisor when she first moved to NYC twenty years ago. He knows his stuff and is an all-around nice guy. We talked about what he’s listening to, how he finds music, the best way to connect with a music supervisor, and why this is such a great time to seek out sync licenses.
Save Money and Learn Something New!
A conversation with Phoebe Hunt about her new project, Plant Seeds of Music, which is a free online educational resource intended to create an opportunity for musical growth and connection through practice. The purpose is to foster connection within the global community of musicians, from music dabblers to advanced pickers, to music fans alike. Among the artists whose videos have been released in the first wave are: Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn, Sierra Hull, Tony Trischka, Allison Russell, Paul Kowert, and Brittany Haas.
Baby's First "Real" Newsletter
A conversation with Shil Patel, owner of Tiger Bomb Promo. He’s worked radio campaigns for Sufjan Stevens, Buzzcocks, Alice Cooper, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Hiss Golden Messenger, Julia Holter, The Magnetic Fields, Daniel Romano, Sarah Shook & The Disarmers - and many many many more.
If you want to know more about how a radio campaign works - Shil is going to break it down for us. He shares the components of a campaign, how he gauges if the campaign is successful, the hidden benefits of doing a radio campaign, and some of his best advice to up-and-coming musicians
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Coming next week: Annie Black // Social Media Manager // Consequence of Sound
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