7 Tips For Small Businesses to Hack The TikTok Algorithm
With any new social media platform, it can be difficult to learn all of the best tips and tricks to improve your reach. But if you’re feeling extra lost about increasing awareness for your small business on TikTok, you aren’t alone.
Unlike Instagram, TikTok is known for keeping their algorithm top secret. They’ve never officially released details about their algorithm and how to expand your reach or increase video views so the platform can be a bit of a guessing game.
While we don’t know exactly how the TikTok algorithm works, we do know one thing for sure – getting a video onto the For You Page is the best way to increase views. The FYP page is similar to Instagram’s search feed where you can view an endless stream of trending TikTok videos curated for you based on your interests and past videos you’ve engaged with.
So what can your small business do to make the TikTok algorithm work for you and get one of your videos on the For You Page? Below are seven tips and theories to help your small business hack the TikTok algorithm:
1. Include Relevant, Trending Hashtags
The first tip to make the TikTok algorithm work for your small business is to be smart about the hashtags you are including in your post. It’s important to use trending hashtags that are relevant. TikTok makes it pretty easy to know which hashtags are trending – when you are searching for hashtags, TikTok will show you how many views each hashtag has and they will indicate which ones are currently trending with a little fire icon. Use trending yet relevant hashtags in every single TikTok caption to increase your video views.
2. Use Trending Songs
Music is key to the TikTok experience and you will quickly notice that you often hear the same songs used frequently. TikTok will show you which songs but the best way to get inspiration for songs is to quickly scroll through your TikTok feed. If you are noticing the same song being used over and over again this is a pretty good indicator that it’s a trending song and you’ll know what type of content to post with that song. If you find a video with a song that you want to use eventually, click on the music title at the bottom of the TikTok to ‘Add to Favorites’ to easily use later on.
3. Participate in Challenges
While we are talking about trending songs it’s important to talk about challenges. Challenges are a fun way for people to recreate their own version of a trending video and usually these challenges each use a specific trending song. So to use two tips at once to beat the TikTok algorithm, try participating in challenges and using trendings songs! (Tip: Each challenge usually has a hashtag so don’t forget to include this also to increase your chances of ending up on the FYP.)
4. Post in The Evening
There are some theories that show late in the afternoons or evenings are the best times to post to TikTok. This theory is based on when people are the most active on TikTok and therefore the most likely to see and engage with your video once it’s been posted. Luckily, people are spending a ton of time on the TikTok app with users reportedly spending 52 minutes per day on the app.
5. Post Often
The more TikTok videos you create and post, the more chances you will get to end up on the FYP page. It can be hard to predict which videos will get the most views and sometimes it’s the videos you least expect to ‘go viral’ that end up doing the best. When you post often, you can begin to see which types of your TikTok videos perform best then you can keep making more that are similar to increase your reach on TikTok. Another reason to post multiple times in one day? TikTok reported that US users open the app eight times a day with sessions averaging 4.9 minutes in length.
6. Talk About Location
TikTok will show you videos made by people in the same city and country as you which is great for small businesses! Be sure to mention your location in your TikTok videos and captions. Also, don’t be afraid to make videos that only a local would appreciate, especially if your small business is trying to attract more local customers.
7. Never Delete Posts
An interesting theory we’ve come across on TikTok from several people who have had a video ‘go viral’ suggest never deleting a post even if it didn’t get many views. Some people have theories that deleting videos causes TikTok to shadow ban your account but that’s not the main reason to never delete videos. Once a TikTok goes viral, your account will have tons of new followers who will scroll through all of the videos on your account – so all of those old posts that didn’t end up with many views will get watched. Who knows, you might even have an old video start trending from all the new followers!
We hope these TikTok tips and theories help your small business make the TikTok algorithm work for you and increase the reach of your videos. Don’t forget to stay authentic and have fun with it!
