How to Become a TikTok Influencer and Start Earning Money
TikTok is a social media platform that has blown up to attract millions of people to engage in sharing short, influential videos. If you have a knack for supplying good content, you could become a TikTok Influencer. Gaining a large following and having loyal fans who will appreciate and respond to your content is essential for developing an influencer account.
According to Sensor Tower, TikTok has grown massively in popularity within the US, and that number will continue to grow. Americans have spent over $23M on TikTok within the last three years, and as it grows, so will the opportunity for profit.
1. The TikTok Algorithm
To be an influencer, it is important first to understand how TikTok works. It is primarily for entertainment, and the algorithm is programmed to generate content based on videos you have watched or shared. When a user shares a video, and it earns engagement, it is circulated to more and more people.
It helps when videos have good content because it will increase the likelihood that your video will eventually receive more shares and likes, which is different from other social media accounts. With the correct technique, you can become an influencer and earn money, with the primary source being through ads and sponsorships.
2. Becoming an Influencer
There are many ways that you can develop your own TikTok account as a profitable platform. Here are some of the best ways to start an account that will perform well.
Target your Audience
If you do not know the audience you intend to engage, your videos will most likely fall flat of engaging anyone. Knowing your target demographic is crucial to offering the right content within your videos so that you receive watches, likes, and responses.
TikTok mainly caters to millennials, with around 44% females and 56% males. Teenagers tend to utilize this platform more than other age groups. You should ask yourself some questions when deciding on how you will identify your specific audience:
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Who is going to watch the videos?
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What advice, training, or education is being offered to entertain, and who does it target?
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Why will people want to watch these videos above others in this same realm?
If you don’t know exactly where to start in terms of what to offer, you can spend some time researching TikTok trending videos to understand what is working. That research brings us to the next step to help you become an influencer.
Research the Competition
If you have a topic or niche that you have honed in on for your account, you need to examine the other content being posted and their engaging audience. You can analyze how well the competition’s videos are performing to use similar ideas or deviate from where their videos are not performing well.
You can find inspiration from viewing others’ work and also find innovative and creative ways to change it for yourself. You wouldn’t want to copy exactly what is being done, but finding a way to create a new unique twist that can engage more viewers by checking out what is already out there is helpful.
So much content is found all over TikTok, so you need to be quirky and different to attract your audience. If you can find a specific niche or area that isn’t already covered, you might have something that can go viral.
People like to see something different or out of the ordinary. If you can identify trends and gain insight into what your audience wants to see, then you can easily create content surrounding it.
Be Consistent
It is another essential tool that you stay consistent with your account. The length of your videos should be around the same time, and the times that you post/upload your videos each week or day should be the same as well. Your audience will come to know and expect when to see new videos posted by you.
Initially, when you begin uploading your first videos, you might want to try various methods with content and posting to find out where you are receiving more shares, engagement, likes, etc.
Your following will show you what they like and want to see more of, and then you can develop specific videos. Remember that it will not happen overnight, and it will take some time to gain your following.
Keywords and Hashtags
Creating your own hashtags is another branch off of developing your unique style as a TikTok Influencer. Identifying the proper keywords and phrases to increase your views will ultimately also increase your fanbase and audience engagement.
Look at some of the hashtags already being used across the platform. Many of them are trending for viral videos with clever jokes or challenges, so you can take from some of those ideas to make individual hashtags with keywords to grab viewers’ attention.
Quality Content and Engagement
Your audience, no matter who you are specifically targeting, needs to be engaged through interaction. Responses to comments or live videos where you can shout out to people viewing are excellent tactics to interact with your followers.
To gain more engagement, your content needs to have quality. Whatever your niche, you should be passionate and excited about sharing your ideas, advice, or educating your audience with helpful, valuable information.
People know it's fake when they see it, and you don’t want to create content just to put something out there because it’s the day you have to post. You need to take an active role in caring about the quality of what you are sharing so that your audience will reciprocate its value and stay loyal followers.
If you didn’t have time that week or day to create a quality video, then just go live and share whatever you got - your followers will appreciate your honesty!
3. Start Earning Money on TikTok
Now that you’ve developed a stellar account, quality content within your videos, and have uploaded consistently, you should see your following grow. Now is the time you can start to monetize and earn money with this platform. There are a couple of great methods you can look into to help with marketing yourself to make a profit.
Video Marketing and Promotion
Marketing your content and videos across other social media platforms is an excellent option to begin promoting your new TikTok account. Attaching your link to blogs, emails, and websites is another way to bring more followers in by click-through.
If your TikTok starts to take off, maybe you would like to see more engagement on a different platform, like YouTube. You can cross-promote by driving your audience to your YouTube channel to gain more visibility and traction across all of your channels.
Brand Ambassador Endorsements
TikTok influencers have the potential to gain upwards of $20k per video (yes, you read that right!) depending on the follower engagement and brand promotion. Obviously, the higher your engagement rate from your audience, the better the conversion for any advertiser.
If you succeed in gaining a following in the thousands, you can start to see some income. Suppose you have specific brands that you are interested in promoting as an ambassador or receiving endorsements for. In that case, you should begin to reach out and pitch a proposal for collaboration.
Sometimes, you may even be lucky enough to have brands seek you out for your influence. And you may find them reaching out to you for a collaboration. If you are pitching to specific brands, be sure to use your positive engagement on particular posts or comments that demonstrate your influence so that the brand can see your quality, content, and following.
4. Stay Organized, Keep at it
Staying organized once you become an influencer is essential. You don’t want to lose out on missed opportunities for more income. It can be helpful to enlist into link management to help you organize short links and monetization for your TikTok account, as well as other channels when you grow.
You should also develop a marketing strategy to launch new videos.
Consistency is also vital - once you establish yourself as an influencer, you have to continue generating and posting that quality content. It does not stop just because you have reached your goal; now, you have a new plan to gain more followers and increase your visibility across the platform to reach higher tiers.
You can help increase the likes and shares on TikTok by engaging in some of the trends like challenges or jokes that are going viral so that you get to snag a piece of what everyone is watching.
Doing that will allow your video to be viewed by people watching only what is trending and open up doors for a new audience. You can also add something to an existing video, like responding to a video that has already gone viral with commentary.
TikTok influencers know what they are good at delivering. They develop upon their own strengths, passions, and hobbies to engage and help others. Ensure that you also are following all of the TikTok guidelines regarding content and posting so that you don’t end up losing your account.