The content creation industry is an ever-evolving one that comes with many challenges. One of the biggest challenges is getting viewers to like your videos. While viewers might enjoy your online posts, they don’t always engage with them. This makes the TikTok algorithm continuously relegate your posts to the sidelines, giving the impression of a shadow ban.
Why? Because likes are the best sign of user approval on social media. The more viewers like and engage with your content, the more people TikTok’s algorithm will show it to. Some creators buy likes on TikTok using reliable services, so TikTok’s policies do not target their accounts.
However, alternative, self-driven routes exist for beginners who can’t afford to purchase likes. For example, you can do research to tailor your posts to a niche audience and learn how TikTok’s algorithm works to leverage it.
Because the platform has an extensive database of users, many people can digest your posts, and lots of likes can be mined. All you need to know is how. So, let’s dive in!
How To Get Likes On TikTok
Social media’s most excellent resource is its large audience. However, a large audience that doesn’t engage with your online posts can harm your TikTok account.
You can post user-generated content consistently, but without likes and comments, it becomes counterproductive. So, how can you get users to like and engage with your TikTok videos?
Start By Understanding Your Audience
You don’t necessarily need to target a wider audience when looking for likes. Instead, you need to leverage your existing audience and use them to tailor your posts. While consistently posting videos is good, consistency has no point if you don’t understand your audience.
Using online services and TikTok analytics, you can create a profile for your target audience and define them using demographics such as age, gender, social media habits (e.g., what time they are most active), and even keywords they consistently follow.
After identifying your audience, the next step is understanding the videos they interact with the most. Look at the videos on your page with the most likes and view other TikTok users who create similar posts and the videos their audience likes most.
Tailor Your Content According To Your Audience
When creating videos, you need to know which content gets interacted with the most to create engaging videos. Your TikTok videos need to resonate with your target audience in several ways.
First, you must ensure that your video quality meets their needs. You must improve your editing skills if you use a poor camera or lighting. Second, audio matters a lot, and trending audio significantly improves your content’s visibility.
Prioritize Relevance Over Quantity
While having many TikTok videos on your page gives your account some credibility, your videos must be relevant. User-generated content that fits a particular niche and doesn’t deviate too much is essential.
Users who enjoy content in your niche can find your page and, if it is relevant, are more likely to interact with it. Based on your research and content knowledge, this makes responding to their comments easier.
Relevant videos and content can also boost your TikTok account by allowing you to reach a wider audience through user sharing on other social media platforms.
Ensure Your Content Has A Hook
Your posts might not get likes because they aren’t engaging enough in the first ten seconds. Content with a hook gets more TikTok likes.
A hook is a section of your video that appeals to users and makes them want to watch more.
Statistics show that users are likelier to like videos in the first 5 – 10 seconds. Without a hook, users simply glance and scroll past your post.
Qualities of A Good Hook
There are three things a good hook must do:
- Grab the attention of your target audience.
- Be relevant to your users while engaging them.
- Spark curiosity
You must use words and phrases to keep your audience listening when creating a hook. You can use a personal catchphrase, a catchy saying, or something relatable that will make them want to hear what you say.
While a catchy phrase matters, it must be relevant to the viewer. If you post about cooking and talk about fashion and the topic is out of context, the person viewing your post will likely scroll past it and find something more relevant.
One way to spark curiosity is to find unusual facts about your niche and include them in your posts. Your audience will be engaged because they believe they can learn new things from you.
To boost your TikTok presence with hooks, you can create catchphrases, research relevant facts, and create fun activities to engage your audience within the first few seconds.
You can also use a catchy title image so users know what to expect when engaging with your online posts.
Use Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to gain TikTok success. They make it easy for your audience to find your posts when searching for a particular niche, creator, or trend.
Relevant hashtags also help the algorithm place your content on your target audience’s ‘For You’ page, making it more likely for you to get likes.
Hop On Famous TikTok Trends
Trends are a guaranteed way to increase TikTok likes. When specific dances, audio, and video content become popular, they receive a lot of hype and attention, which is the basis of a trend.
Using relevant hashtags related to the trend makes your post easy to find within the trend. But that isn’t enough.
You also need to ensure that your post with trending audio or dance moves is high-quality, engaging, and still relevant to your audience so they will like your videos and follow you.
Collaborate With Other Content Creators
Collaboration can help you get active viewers from other users’ pages. These active users are a means to get more TikTok likes.
You can collaborate using live videos, curated posts, or even just reposting related content from the users on your social media platforms and redirecting their viewers who interact to your TikTok page.
Post Consistently
Consistency is key to creating engaging content. Once you have mastered your audience’s preferences and figured out your videos and their quality, you must stay consistent with your content. Here is how you can remain consistent:
- Ensure you have a content calendar to structure what type of content you post and when. This will build user anticipation and help raise expectations for new viewers.
- Don’t deviate from your schedule unless you have to.
- Jump on TikTok trends, but ensure you creatively include your usual content to maintain structure.
While posting consistently is good, there are peak times to post to make sure that your users are active and ready to engage.
Know When To Post Content
There are specific times when TikTok users are most active. However, these generalized times don’t usually work for everyone.
If you have a target audience, you need to use data like location and age to determine when they are most active in viewing your TikTok videos.
Make Your Caption Stand Out
Lots of social media users interact more with the caption than the post. Make your caption stand out so that users like your post because of your caption.
Always include hashtags that resonate with your online posts in your caption and make it niche-specific so that people likely to interact with your post will see it.
Your caption can also benefit users with special needs. So, make it as detailed as possible while keeping it catchy.
Use A Call To Action
If you’ve ever watched YouTube videos, you’ll notice that many have a popup that says “Subscribe Now.” Those that don’t tend to have creators reminding you to like and subscribe to their channels. This isn’t just a strategy to gain more followers but a way to drive engagement.
To help your viewers remember to interact with your content, add a like-and-follow comment to your caption or include it within your post and at the end.
It’s to remind viewers because they sometimes get distracted and forget to interact with your content.
Focus On User Generated Content
While collaborating with brands or using brand content is a great way to sell and market, it isn’t the best way to get likes on TikTok and social media. So that your posts don’t look like an ad, you need to individualize them as much as possible.
Qualities of User-Generated Content
- It’s organic
- Reflects the person rather than the brand
- Contains authentic individualism/ genuine experiences
When creating user-generated content, you need to leverage personal experiences, even if you’re doing a brand ad. This makes your posts more likely to resonate with people, and they’ll like it.
Join TikTok Challenges
Engaging in challenges is a fun way to keep things fresh and engaging on TikTok. You can create dynamic content using challenges and add your spin to them.
You can make the most of TikTok by recreating popular dances, experimenting with new dishes, or finding fun ways to entertain your audience using the challenge rules.
One great way to get your followers to like, share, and engage is by encouraging them to recreate your challenge video, including their spin, and creating a personalized hashtag for them to share.
Use Just One Content Format
Mixing formats is detrimental when creating content because it confuses your audience and makes them less likely to engage. If you’re creating comedy content, for example, don’t deviate from that format, even if you’re using it to drive a message or advertise.
The same goes for educational content. Your posts must always adhere to a strict format. Before you start creating content, study your target audience and format your content according to what they engage with frequently.
Engage With Users Frequently
Social media users are likelier to like your posts when you make them feel heard and seen. While you can’t physically do that, you can arrange frequent live videos to get your audience to engage. These live videos could be Q&A sessions, quizzes, and other fun and engaging activities you spearheaded.
You could also organize behind-the-scenes content for them or a day-in-the-life live video so they can interact with you.
Finally, you can engage with users by responding to them in the comment sections. This will facilitate your account’s growth and lead users to like your comments and start engaging in conversations in your comment section, leading to the algorithm giving you more visibility.
Leverage TikTok’s Algorithm
The algorithm on TikTok controls the impact your presence has on other users.
Therefore, you must adhere to TikTok’s guidelines when making posts, avoid anything that might trigger an account ban, and create high-quality content.
You must also avoid buying followers if you have a high follower count with very low engagements. If you do, the algorithm could flag your account, leading to a shadow ban, in which case your posts will no longer be easily accessible to new users.
Use A Service
Some services offer to help you get likes on your posts. If all else fails, you can get help from a reliable provider to buy likes.
You must ensure you properly research them before carrying out a transaction to avoid being scammed or getting your account banned.
Conclusion
While you can continuously improve your content, you must always stay updated with TikTok’s guidelines and follow them in your videos. Get to know your audience, tailor your posts according to their needs, prioritize relevance over quantity, ensure they have a hook, use relevant hashtags, hop on famous TikTok trends, and collaborate with other content creators.
When you understand your audience, creating engaging videos that grab their attention, provide relevancy, and spark their curiosity is more straightforward. You must also choose good video quality to suit their needs and leverage trending audio to improve exposure.
Remember to prioritize relevance over quantity. Users are more likely to connect with material that fits their niche and doesn’t deviate too much. Finally, as much as possible, use a call to action to prompt users to like your posts. Remember, when creating content, remain authentic, research, and stay consistent!
