So you’re starting to gain traction and earn viral views on TikTok. What next? I recently had a fun and off the cuff cat video go viral. It has already doubled my follower count and has earned more likes that all of my prior TikTok videos combined. Here’s what I’m doing to sustain that growth on TikTok and convert more viral viewers to followers.
1. Engage with your audience
Like and respond to as many comments as you can and as quickly as possible to retain engagement velocity. It’s not only a best business practice, it’s just polite to engage with everyone who has taken the time to watch your content on social media. Also answer your DMs in a timely manner.
2. Make video responses
One really useful feature unique to TikTok is the ability to reply to comments with a video response. You can respond with a video and launch the camera or upload from camera roll feature, and publish just like a regular TikTok. Be sure to add a cover clip and text overlay so it’s obvious it’s part of this viral video series.
3. Update your profile bio
Make sure your bio is up to date because a lot of people will be checking out your profile as a result of the viral video. Give new followers an idea of what to expect with content from your account. Will you inspire, educate, or entertain them? Be sure to link your Instagram and YouTube profiles under your account settings. If you have 1k or more followers, you can also add a link in your bio.
4. Do a follow up video
This is important to keep the viral video momentum going. Feel free to recycle some of the video clips from the original viral video and remix them in a new way. Tell a different part of the story. Share what happens next, or maybe what happened before. Address more frequently asked questions from the comments of the first video. Potentially make this into a longer TikTok series that users can quickly identify with cohesive video thumbnails.
5. Post more in general
TikTok has a really unique algorithm with the For You Page. Experts recommend posting videos several times per day, unlike platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Post 2 to 3 times per day following your viral video to retain engagement and see where to go from there.
With some of these tactics, you may start to notice some of your other unrelated TikTok videos start to grow in average views and engagement. Your followers may also start to grow.
It’s also worth taking a note of the hashtags you used in your original viral post to better understand why it was so successful. In reality, there are so many other factors besides hashtags why your video went viral. The quality of the video, the trending song used, the captions written on the screen, and also the caption of the video. Hashtags can’t take all the credit but they can play a part of the video’s success.
Also if you don’t already have a TikTok Pro account and you’re using TikTok as an influencer or business, be sure to switch over. You’ll get access to weekly and monthly analytics and insights to understand your audience demographics.
In my case, I have no plans to switch niches and become a cat account all of a sudden, but I will plan to do period cat updates to help retain the viral followers I gained.
Have you gone viral on TikTok before? I would love to hear about your experience with this in the comments.
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