Knowing how to get followers on TikTok might seem easy at first glance, especially if you still think TikTok is a platform where Gen Z dedicates itself to choreographies and silly challenges. But oh, my friend, if you think TikTok is just a social network for teenagers and bored kids, you’re thinking like a boomer. Take a look at the IAB and Elogia social media study (which is the best and most comprehensive of all published) and then tell me if your business should be on TikTok or not.

Basic Tips for Getting Followers on TikTok:

1. Forget about promotional videos.
2. Study your competitors.
3. Let people know you’re on TikTok.
4. You have 5 seconds to capture attention.
5. Be spontaneous.
6. Quantity matters.
7. Size matters too.
8. People before brands.
9. Use hashtags.
10. Humor and originality.
11. Subtitles.
12. Thumbnails.
13. Music.
14. Style.

TikTok is like quantum physics: if you think you understand it, you actually don’t know it well enough. And if you know it well, you understand it less every day. Just as a particle can be both a wave and an electron can be in many places at once and nowhere at the same time, TikTok is many things at once. So, change the oil and filter of your neurons because today we’re going to talk about how to get followers on TikTok by doing what physicists have been trying for decades and haven’t achieved: unifying the principles of quantum physics with relativity.

In TikTok, followers matter much less than views. This, which initially complicates getting followers on TikTok, doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. This social network is not like the others, and you won’t “build a community” here. We’re going all out to reach as many people as possible.

But don’t forget that you’re targeting a specific audience or throw digital marketing principles out the window. Let them talk about you, even if it’s good. Let the algorithm show your videos in the “For You” section, which is also the default section when opening the app and the one most people use. Followers will come later, but that’s the primary goal: views.

So, don’t get depressed if after 3 months on TikTok, you have a measly 40 followers. It’s normal. What you shouldn’t lose sight of is that the average views (which should be much higher than those 40) are progressively increasing. That means you’re doing well. And I say the average because the uncertainty principle is no joke. You never know how well a specific video is going to perform, and you’ll find that after getting 20,000 views and thinking you’ve made it, the next video has only been seen by 250 people and increases at a rate of 2 views per day.

So, you know, patience and chipping away, because that’s how things are built properly.

I’m going to skip the part where it says you should define a target, a content strategy, and plan what you’re going to post, because that has already been published over and over again in this magazine and by specialists much better than me. So, we’re going to focus on the peculiarities that will help you get followers on TikTok. And we’ll do it, of course, in the form of a list.

1. If you expect anyone to pay attention to a promotional video, forget it.
2. Spend many hours watching videos from your competitors.
3. Let your other social networks know you’re on TikTok.
4. You have 5 seconds to capture attention.
5. “Too” professional videos perform worse.
6. Quantity matters.
7. Size matters too.
8. People follow individuals much more than brands on TikTok.
9. Use hashtags.
10. Humor triumphs, but don’t forget about content.
11. Subtitle your videos.
12. Create a thumbnail with large and readable text explaining what the video is about.
13. Use trending music on TikTok.
14. Develop your own style.

String theory? Nah, a graph of trends on TikTok.

The 8 basic principles of how TikTok works:

1. Like the Universe, TikTok is constantly expanding.
2. TikTok warps space-time around it.
3. TikTok’s uncertainty principle.
4. This app is many things at once.
5. Things appear out of nowhere on TikTok.
6. TikTok trends accelerate at near-light speed.
7. There are dark matter and energy on this app too.
8. TikTok defies the laws of physics.

Given that, it’s important to keep in mind some basic principles when managing your presence on this app, rigorously (ahem… oh, excuse me, I coughed!) scientific ones:

1. Like the Universe, TikTok is constantly expanding.
2. TikTok warps space-time around it.
3. TikTok’s uncertainty principle.
4. This app is many things at once.
5. Things appear out of nowhere on TikTok.
6. TikTok trends accelerate at near-light speed.
7. There are dark matter and energy on this app too.
8. TikTok defies the laws of physics.

And that’s it. Happy TikToking!