Do you want to become a TikTok influencer but don’t know what to do? Don’t worry. Read this article and you can learn how to become a successful TikTok influencer.
TikTok creators are the hottest new thing, so move over, to Instagram influencers. TikTok boasts over one billion active users (yes, billion with a “b”). More than 800 minutes a month are spent using the app by users. Furthermore, the trend for that number is upward. Due to the influx of millennials and Generation Z users to the app, it is now ripe for a new kind of influencer marketing.
But to be a TikTok influencer, you don’t have to be extremely well-known. Due to its distinct algorithm and no-holds-barred culture, TikTok is actually probably the simplest social media platform to master.
What Are TikTok Influencers?
The social media platform’s celebrities are TikTok influencers. Numerous thousands or millions of people follow them on TikTok, and these fans are devoted and active. Because of this, they have the ability to post viral videos like it’s nobody’s business.
The ability to profit from their video content was made possible, above all, by their influence on the platform. Influencer marketing is a favorite strategy for brands to get their products in front of consumers.
An influencer only needs to publish sponsored posts, drop a few hints, or urge their audience to click on links. Then, sponsorship funds will scatter into their pockets. Finally, influencers can use their power to support a business or any side projects they are working on.
Further Reading: How To Become An Instagram Influencer?
How to Become a TikTok Influencer?
TikTok assists you in monetizing your video content and making money off of it because it is an entertainment platform. Ads and sponsorships are the main sources of income for TikTok influencers. Because of this, you must be aware of the precise steps needed to use this platform as an influencer and earn money. They include:
Pick Your Niche
The first step in becoming a TikTok influencer is identifying and concentrating on your area of interest. Selecting a niche that is close to your heart ensures that you will do your research and become an expert in it. This creates the groundwork for you to regularly produce top-notch content. Additionally, having a certain level of expertise in the relevant field aids in growing your fan base. Choose the field without hesitation if you check off the points listed below.
- Will you continue to produce content on the subject?
- Do you only engage in activities you enjoy that are not paid for on your domain?
- Do you prioritize finding solutions for others’ problems?
- Do you possess a talent that enables you to address the problems of others?
Additionally, consider the most popular domains listed here to proceed:
- Beauty
- Travel
- Motherhood
- Food
- Fashion
- Fitness
- Comedy
- Memes
- Music and Dance
- Finance
- Gaming
- Home Décor
- Entrepreneurship
- Love and Relationships
- Haircare
- Family and Home
Create and Set Up a Unique TikTok Profile
For both brands and creators, TikTok offers accounts. But whereas a brand needs a business account, an influencer will need a creator account. Once you create an appropriate account, you need to set you your profile which requires you to fill in some details such as:
- Bio
- Profile photo
- Profile video
Making the above additions in a distinctive way defines your personality and leaves a lasting impression on your followers.
Know Your Audience
In order to draw in readers, you must post original content. Because of this, you must have followers. Even if it doesn’t, you can still present it in a way that is appealing to your audience.
To create a solid content strategy, you must first comprehend your audience. Analyze your follower base for this purpose, then look for the post that generated the most interaction. You need to produce more content in this area.
Analyze Your Competitors
Your understanding of the needs of the market today is influenced by your understanding of your competitors. Find the opinion leaders who have similar demographic interests for this purpose. Analyze the content they post to:
- Determine the kind of content that they publish.
- Find the posts that have received the most likes and shares.
- Find the links or missing information in their posts.
Take inspiration from the aforementioned observations and either create your own original content or add your own style to the existing content to improvise.
Build and Strengthen Your Content Strategy
You must schedule a time for your video uploads after you’ve planned your content strategy. By doing so, you can inform your audience about the timing and type of content to be released.
- Posting random content on a regular basis should first be done by trial and error.
- Later, stick to the subject matter of the content that generates the most engagement.
- For your content to go viral and engage your audiences, make sure it is original and contains creative ideas. In order to connect with your followers on a human level, you should also include some content about your personal lives. Developing different types of content helps to break up the monotony.
- To increase visibility, incorporate hot hashtags into your posts. On the app’s Discover page, you can even look up trending hashtags to add value to your posts and find the right audience.
- To reach new audiences, keep up with the latest trends, and add some humor to your content. In a similar vein, incorporate popular songs into your videos to draw viewers to that particular section.
Engage Your Audience
After publishing your content, it is crucial to keep your audiences interested. You can do this by:
- A two-way conversation can be started by responding to your followers in the comments section.
- Creators on TikTok can add a video comment in addition to a text one.
Apart from these traditional ideas, you may even plan to:
Host “Ask Me Anything” Event
The benefit of using these sessions is that they will engage your audience and encourage them to ask you any questions about your personal or professional life. Consequently, you can establish an emotional bond with your audience. You can also demonstrate your authority in your area of expertise.
Announce a Giveaway/ Contest
Through these giveaways and competitions, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience. As a result, it increases their number of followers. Additionally, you can collaborate with other influencers to effectively promote them.
A giveaway is when you give your followers something in exchange for their comments, shares, and likes on a post. Furthermore, you can permit your followers to include their friends in the announcement by tagging them.
A contest is very similar to a giveaway, but in order to win the same thing, your followers must upload particular content or use your hashtag.
Promote Your Videos
Once your videos are complete, you must spread the word about them on other social media sites. By including a link to your TikTok profile, you can attract new audiences to your blog, Instagram, and Facebook accounts. In order to expand your audience, you can also use TikTok to advertise your other social media profiles.
Network With Other TikTokers
You can see other TikTokers as more than just competitors if you keep up good relations with them. Moreover, because of your bond, you might even get opportunities for collaboration. To interact with other TikTokers by leaving comments, sending messages, or liking their videos.
Tips for Finding Brands to Work With as An Influencer
Influencers who produce content that resonates with brands’ target demographic are sought after by brands. But finding the right influencers to promote a brand and drive sales can frequently be just as difficult for brands as it is for influencers.
Due to this, being proactive in your search for brand collaborations can be beneficial. You should be able to land some campaigns for TikTok influencer marketing using this advice.
Check Out the TikTok Creator Marketplace
The platform’s built-in area for working with brands and influencers is called the Creator Marketplace on TikTok. Brands can connect with influencers there, and TikTok offers extra data and analytics tools so they don’t need to look for other ways to gauge the success of their campaigns.
Creators can only join at this time by invitation. Once admitted, creators have two options: they can either respond to open application campaigns or wait for direct invites from brands to potential collaborations. Once you’ve established a connection with a brand, you use the app to read the contracts, receive invite notifications, and configure the campaign details.
Cold Email Brands
A great marketing tactic for influencers is to cold-call and email brands to inquire about the possibility of producing sponsored content for them. Finding the marketing department contacts for a specific brand may take some time, but it may be well worth it. Make sure to take advantage of online tools like LinkedIn to locate emails and establish connections with influencer marketing managers.
Now it won’t be as simple as sending one email to get a sponsorship. However, it will become simpler to attract brands’ attention as you develop your marketing plan and your influencer content.
Influencers must improve their cold outreach techniques, and brands must also become more adept at doing so. At the end of the day, it’s a two-way street that calls for cooperation on both sides.
Sign Up for Influencer Marketing Hubs
You can sign up for many influencer marketing platforms to search for brand partnerships on your own. You can respond to brand sponsorship ads looking for influencer collaborations after creating a profile with all of your information and signing up.
These ads frequently include pay ranges, as well as specifics about the kind of content brands, are seeking, which can be useful if you’re just getting started. Consider signing up for platforms like:
- Tribe
- Tune
- Tokfluence
Make Your Contact Information Easy to Find
If your objective is to collaborate with brands and establish partnerships, your contact information should always be accessible. You can accomplish this in a number of ways.
To your TikTok bio, you can add your email. Including a link to a landing page with more details about you is another option. The more accessible you make it for brands to connect, the more likely it is that they will.
Why is TikTok Good for Influencer Marketing?
People connect with people, and a personal TikTok account is a great way to grow that “know, like, and trust” factor that’s crucial for the growth of a business. TikTok, a platform that thrives on short-form video, makes it simple for influencers with both large and small followings to establish a solid connection with their audience.
As influencers build and maintain that trust, endorsing products and incorporating product mentions in their videos feel more “organic” and relatable. Consider the following stats about the effects of social media on influencer marketing and the results marketers are getting with TikTok:
- Businesses spend $1 on influencers on average for $5.78.
- 54% of marketers say that video is the most valuable content type.
- 61% of 18- to 34-year-old consumers have had a decision swayed by influencers.
Consider TikTok’s engagement rates as a key sign of the platform’s influencer marketing power if your ultimate success metric is sales. Smaller TikTok influencer accounts receive an engagement rate of around 9%, while the platform’s biggest influencers only manage to receive an engagement rate of around 5%, according to CreatorIQ.
These figures, though they may appear modest, are enormous when compared to the engagement rates on other social media platforms. For instance, the engagement rate for Instagram’s biggest accounts is only around 0.7%.
TikTok has such huge growth potential that startup founders are using it to become influencers themselves in order to expand their audiences and introduce their brands to a market of potential customers.
How Much Do Influencers Make on TikTok?
Payouts for influencer brand deals can be very diverse; it’s possible to realistically expect to receive anything from a few hundred dollars per post to many thousands of dollars per deal. The caliber of your target market, your chosen niche, and your creative output, however, play a significant role.
For the sake of illustration, let’s use Charlie D’Amelio, the highest-paid influencer on TikTok, who made $17.5 million in 2021 from a variety of brand collaborations.
How Many TikTok Followers Do You Need to Start Making Money?
TikTok offers built-in monetization tools for influencers, including a creator fund, a tipping feature, a subscription feature for streamers, and a virtual “gifts” product that allows users to send gifts to a creator which can then be converted into a real-world currency.
TikTok requires that creators have a certain number of followers and views to access these features:
- To join TikTok’s creator fund: a creator must be 18 years or older, have at least 10,000 followers, and have achieved at least 100,000 video views in a 30-day period.
- To receive virtual “gifts” during a Livestream: a creator must be 18 years or older and have at least 1,000 followers.
- To receive “gifts” on other videos: a creator must be at least 18 years old and have at least 100,000 followers.
- To receive “tips”: a creator must be at least 18 years old and have at least 100,000 followers.
Each feature has an unpredictably high potential payoff for influencers. TikTok considers a number of variables, including video views, video engagement, the location where a video was viewed, and the overall number of users who have signed up for the program, when determining how much to pay creators from the creator fund.
Hank Green and other creators who have revealed their TikTok creator fund income claimed they received a few cents for each thousand app views they generated.
Conclusions
TikTok is a video app that relies on viral videos, trends, algorithms, and content producers to thrive. TikTok requires long-term planning as a result, much like building an audience on social media sites like Instagram. However, the most crucial first step is to start making TikTok content and make sure your authenticity comes through.
It takes time to build a reputable brand on TikTok. It could take weeks or months before your TikTok following reaches “influencer-level” numbers. You’re guaranteed to reach your objectives faster if you stick to tried-and-true TikTok marketing strategies.