(not so) Secret TikTok Growth Hack
TikTok’s algorithm uniquely factors in the content you consume to decide who sees your posts. Warming up your account by engaging with niche-relevant videos can help position your content for better organic reach.
By Andrew Southworth
Hey friends!
Today I want to share something that’s kind of a growth hack for those of you posting on TikTok. Especially if you’ve felt like your content is great but every video flops.
I’ve talked to multiple music industry people and labels who use this technique, and it even came up on the My Point 4 Cents podcast several weeks ago. But i’ve never talked about it on my platforms.
It’s super simple too, and it revolves around this premise: the TikTok algorithm considers what content you consume on your account when it decides who to recommend the content you post to.
This is kind of a crazy concept honestly. It would be like if Spotify took into account what music artist’s listened to when deciding who to push out in their algorithm. And from my research it seems like TikTok is the only platform that does this, or at least the effect is stronger on TikTok.
Essentially what people do is they ‘warm up’ their TikTok account’s before posting. Then they maintain this warm up over time. But what does it mean to warm up an account?
Research your target audience
Find big accounts / videos / hashtags they would engage with
Go watch that content in full, engage with it
Skip content that doesn’t perfectly fit in your niche
That’s it.
This also means if you use TikTok personally you should get a 2nd account. The account you use for your music should mostly consume content that your audience would consume. The For You page of content that gets recommend on that account should be a perfect fit for where you count would fit in.
Now while I don’t have any concrete proof that this is how their algorithm works, I know companies that have invested thousands of hours into doing this. To them it is so real that they’re willing to spend thousands to do it.
This doesn’t mean your content doesn’t matter either though. Better content will still do better, but at least this ensures your content gets pushed to the right people so it can stand on it’s own merit.
Personally I find this infuriating because I don’t really consume social media content for fun. In a perfect world i’d just schedule content from a web platform and never open the app itself. So what i’ve done is used this time as research time, which is another benefit of this.
Even outside of the algorithmic aspects, being present on the platform will teach you the language of the platform. You’ll see what content works, how people engage and get ideas for what you should create.
Better content is always a good thing. It not only means you grow faster for free on social media, but it also typically means you’ll have better ads for your ad campaigns. It also means people that find you will be more ‘sticky’ because you’ll be regularly re-engaging them with interesting content.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:
My courses. Spotify Growth Machine teaches you how to use Facebook ads to promote your music on Spotify. YouTube Growth Machine teaches you how to grow a YouTube channel organically and how to use YouTube ads. Fan Growth Machine teaches you how to build a website, online store and grow your email list.
My ad agency Southworth Media specializes in running Meta conversion ads to promote your music on streaming platforms, email list growth, tour promotion and more.
Website / Store / Funnels. MusicFunnels and FanFunnels are the best all-in-one platforms for music artists to make a website, online store, sales funnels, build a mailing list and more!
1-on-1 consulting. You can book 1-hour calls with myself or my team here.
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