Increase your follower count through Reels and TikTok. (In 2024)
There are a lot of content creators that post a video and it gets thousands of views but soon when they apply some well-known principles to get more views, they do get what they strive for and get millions of views on the same video that they posted before, So what makes the difference? Let’s discuss it.
Why are your Instagram reels or TikTok not getting views? now each social media platform will have its differences in formatting and algorithms but the basic principles that make a piece of content go viral are all the same and we want to share with you some of those principles, as they will help you out a lot in progressing further, but first let’s address the question, why?
why should you care about getting views and building a following on Instagram or TikTok for yourself, working on your clients in short because more traffic, more followers, equals more people to marketing which ultimately will allow you or your client to make more money in your business and if we’re being honest that’s the end game for most creators and businesses is to make a living off of that content so if you want to grow your business or be a capable marketer to grow other businesses you’ll want to learn and apply these principles.
so, let’s dive into our first and most important tip,
The first tip is content is king the 1st and main reason why your reels or TikToks don’t keep views is that your content isn’t relatable, relevant, or shareable the rest of our tips won’t do you much good if the content of your video just doesn’t appeal to anyone so let’s give you a few examples of how to do each of these,
Be Relatable for your audience!
first “relatable,” Think about this, can people relate to your content? all the relatable reasons about how expensive something is how many endless pieces of gear you have to buy, how many posts on Instagram do you have to make, why you don’t get any views and eventually you get one awesome piece of content and it makes it all worth it now these are all examples of relatable scenarios, so it hits those factors really well
The Art of Shock!
Now some other activity that is hardly relatable to most regular people but it is shocking, the activity is shockingly cool and that shock factor makes things shareable, so as you’re creating content for yourself from clients ask yourself the question would I share this with someone I know? if the answer is no then think how can we spice this up to add some more shock or wow factor to make it more shareable.
How long should your content be?
let’s move on to our next tip and that is to keep it concise, the big question on this topic is how long should my reels be and vaguely the answer is as long as you can keep someone’s attention, generally, the algorithms will favor shorter content like 5 to 10 seconds but that doesn’t mean longer form content can’t be shareable. You should know a couple of things about this, you don’t need a large following to catch hold of Instagram or TikTok algorithms, two it also shows you that length doesn’t necessarily matter Instagram specifically has a limit on their reels but they recently changed posts that can be up to 15 minutes long to also show up in the reel feeds even if it’s longer than 90 seconds which was the previous limit, so even if it’s longer than 90 seconds it still has the same shareability as a reel.
The First three seconds decide it all!
that having been said our attention spans are short so generally speaking the shorter the better and that brings us to our next tip the hook, the first three seconds are the most important part of your video as people are scrolling through Instagram or TikTok you have about 3 seconds to capture their attention to hook them into watching the rest. As you’re brainstorming content and as you’re in the editing room think what can I do in the first few seconds of this video to get people hooked, if you have a one-minute video for example you should put the most engaging clip or the most shocking moment or the most relatable clip at the very beginning.
10 Second Rule? More like 5 Second Rule!
Moving on to our next tip and that’s the 10-second rule, since the attention spans have diminished so we’ll update it and call it the 5-second rule but basically what it means is don’t let more than five seconds go by without changing visually what your audience is looking at the first step is to hook their attention the second step is to retain their attention throughout the whole video.
This can be done through captions or on-screen text or it can be done with changing camera angles or punching in on the existing angle but probably the most engaging option is to add a B roll or video clips that visually show what you’re audibly hearing, the rule applies to any kind of edit now ideally you have your own B roll that you’ve shot if you don’t have any B roll of the subject matter at hand then just use some stock footage, when saying 10 second rule,
It doesn’t have to be exactly every five to 10 seconds that’s not the point just keep the edits engaging keep your audience on their toes by giving them something new to look at as often as possible but moving on to our next tip and that is to add value rather than ask for value let me point out one of the biggest mistakes content creators make on social media in general and that is that they post about themselves what they don’t realize is no one cares about you until they know how much you care about them,
Until you add value to their lives, that could be in the form of entertainment or giving them news updates educating them or it could be making them laugh making them feel good about themselves inspiring them This is why so many podcasts and blogs fail out of the gates because most blogs and podcasts are centered around “me” and “my life” so ask yourself that question when brainstorming what kind of content is going to add value to other people’s lives
Form a connection!
The next tip is humans connect with real humans not with brands or organizations this is a tough one for many videographers and filmmakers in general because we don’t like putting ourselves on camera unfortunately though in today’s landscape of social media it favors the extrovert and favors those willing to put their face on a camera now of course it is possible to create successful reels and TikTok content without putting your face on camera.
But every creator should, even if you are behind the scenes camera person to build your personal brand by including behind the scenes shots of yourself talk to your audience on camera when it makes sense not only will this help you better connect with your audience but it will attract more video clients as well as they get a feel for who you are as a person since they’re hiring you to work with you not just buying a final video product from you and on this note well add that people connect better to you when you’re being real, authentic, organic, unscripted, for example that’s why such a popular format you’ll see in reels and TikTok’s is a clip of two people talking to each other in podcast format because two people having a real unscripted dialogue comes across so much more natural, real and organic than someone talking to a camera in a monologue in order to monologue the person has to be insanely talented as a communicator which some people are but for those who aren’t, this can help us feel a lot more real and natural as humans connect with real humans.
Keep on moving with trends!
moving on to our next tip though is to keep up to date with trends and trending audio yes it is possible to succeed on Instagram and TikTok without ever jumping on a trend or ever using trending audio but of course, the algorithms will work in your favor if you can include some trending audio and your content will instantly fall into the relevant category if you’re jumping on a video style or song that is trending this is one of the easiest ways to grow from nothing, now it’s not like you have to jump on trends forcefully if you can naturally include some trends in your content then great but don’t force it.
Neglecting good audio and lighting?
moving on to our next tip, this is don’t neglect lighting and audio, a lot of shareable content these days can be done from a smartphone camera and that’s fine as far as video quality goes even the audio can be usable from a smartphone as long as you’re close enough to the camera but if you’re doing anything where you’re not right next to the camera then use a microphone as it will make your videos feel so much higher quality. on the lighting side again you can get by with a cheap camera as long as your lighting looks decent, the free option of course is to get yourself next to a window or you can pick up a ring light, your videos are going to look and sound much higher quality.
Add some Captions!
now to our next tip captions or on-screen text captions or subtitles are a growing necessity on short-form content makes content much more engaging and easier to consume as you can both hear audibly and see visually what’s being said this also makes the content more shareable across multiple languages as some people may be able to read your language better than they can understand it, you can use phone apps if you don’t have premiere pro.
Captions are a great way to do what we mentioned in the five-second rule tip and that is to keep your audience engaged and retain their attention better throughout the entire video and even if there’s no talking in your video by throwing on some text on your video at the beginning, for example, it can act like a hook to add anticipation and to tell the viewer what they can expect to see happening later on
Optimized Export Settings!
now moving on to our last tip, it is the aspect ratio and export settings, sadly vertical 9:16 content will typically perform better as it takes up the full use of the screen and looks more organic like you shot it on your phone vertically,
Just scale in to fit a vertical frame or if too much of your subject is being cut off then just put a title on top and some subtitles below to utilize the space better but ideally, the video itself is taking up the full vertical frame so you’ll want to keep that in mind when framing your shots but when I edit together content that I’m delivering for both YouTube horizontal and Instagram vertical I’ll first do the edit vertically in a 1080 by 1920 sequence I’ll then copy my whole timeline and paste it into a new
Bonus Tips!
There is a proven method that can allow you to go viral on TikTok no matter how many followers you have and it doesn’t matter if you post it on TikTok and failed 500 times, if you’ve never posted before on TikTok or if you’ve gone viral before in the past and you haven’t been able to replicate it, the tactics that we’re about to share with you are going to increase your odds of going viral and they’re going to make it way easier for you to go viral and in way less time.
you can’t just start creating content and expect it to go viral you have to do some research first and you have to research if your content is something that goes viral in the first place, think about if your content has the potential of go viral and does it fulfill the criteria of most viral videos.
A lot of creators get this wrong, all you need to do is type in the topic that you’re about to make content on, you want to use the filter for “this week” or “this month” and filter by “most liked” if there are no videos with over 10,000 likes you’re not getting over 100,000 views on those videos and just
Simply put, that’s how it is. Now of course, if it’s something that literally happened 30 minutes ago and you don’t see content for that well then you might be too early and one of the worst things you could do on TikTok is too early with a piece of content because you’re going to invest all that time you’re going to invest all that energy then moving forward, you’re going to have no idea whether or not it’s actually going to work.
You should spend more time doing research, more time figuring out and asking yourself does this have a chance to go viral before you end up creating the content
the next step in this method is that whatever topic you’re about to choose you’re going to create on you need to make sure that you actually create your content in the right length and so many creators mess this up there are three links that are working best right now on TikTok the first one is going to be super short “5 to 11 seconds” long, plus you wouldn’t want to make videos shorter than 5 seconds long because they’re not going to get pushed out,
The second one is going to be a medium length which is “17 to 32 seconds long” and then finally videos that are “45 seconds” are enough but you need to realize something depending on how long you should make your video, it’s going to determine what kind of metrics you actually have to hit when you upload that video because uploading a 5-second video a 30-second video and a two-minute video they’re all going to be judged by TikTok differently, in fact, you could upload these same length content and they seem topic and get drastically different results and you’re probably wondering why?
Well, because all the videos about how to get bigger biceps are over 30 seconds long and you created one that was 29 seconds long guess what? you’re probably not going to get views on that post now before we share with you the exact analytics that you need to be hitting in your content in order for that post to go viral no matter what length of post you’re creating we need to make sure that you understand something.
This opportunity to grow on TikTok that we’re currently seeing right now is not going to last forever so you need to double down you need to take advantage of it right now because the days of getting a lot of views and getting a lot of followers really easily aren’t going to last for long, make sure you take this seriously,
So here are the metrics that you need to be aiming for the next time that you upload a piece of content, if your video is less than 13 seconds long you need to be aiming for 100% if your video is 14 to 35 seconds long you need to be aiming for 80% for anything longer than that.
You just try to hit 60% and the way that you’re going to do this is by focusing on your hook and making sure that your piece of content is actually better than the other piece of content out there you cannot expect your video to go viral if one, you didn’t do the research and see if the exact topic that you’re about to make a post about is eligible to go viral, two, you didn’t make your video the right length and three, you didn’t actually make a video that’s better than the other videos out there.
The way that you’re going to go viral is by giving TikTok exactly what TikTok wants and what TikTok wants is not you spending hours and hours creating a piece of content all they want is a piece of content that’s going to keep people on the app which is heavily related to the last metric that you need to be paying attention to which is, you need to make sure that you’re getting at least 70% of people to stick around for the first three seconds of your video you’re probably thinking, how could I do that?
Well, the way that TikTok works now, is actually based on your watch history so if you engage with videos about dancing or you engage with videos about health, fitness, or fashion well, the next time you log on to the app you’re going to see content like that which is why you need to reverse engineer what is your audience watching right now which involves you doing the research and finding out the topics you create a piece of content on, making it the right length, making sure it’s better than your competitors, making sure you’re hitting those analytics and boom you’re going to go viral on TikTok.
Now, if you want it to make it incredibly easy for your content to go viral on TikTok, we’re currently noticing that this is not going to last forever and the only two things holding you back from getting the followers that you deserve right now on TikTok and the followers that you want is one, assuming that you’re above average so the odds of you gaining over 50,000 followers in just 30 days is probably quite high and it doesn’t matter what your background is or what your niche Is these techniques will help you in gaining followers.
Some common misconceptions about short-form content, Don’t make these mistakes!
So for most people, their content creation strategy is creating original content on both TikTok and Instagram reels, all while the main theme being dependent on trends let’s all face it we know what trends are, and we know how to jump on them but the truth is that trends never make you want to follow someone let alone learn more about them,
They’re just quick pieces of entertainment that kind of get into our system make us feel good but then we kind of just keep going and this is actually where the problem comes in, when you just do trends on your social media content you’re not actually engaging the audience whatsoever This is why original content is so important now, original content is more difficult to actually create and for some reason,
It feels like it doesn’t always get the same amount of views but when you create original content it allows you to go deep with your audience and create a meaningful impact. it is consistency, you wouldn’t want to be consistent sometimes but the truth is that we’re not seeing the payoff that we’re looking for and this is where you kind of have to just simplify the process, you’re going to able to do that by using templates.
See a lot of people think that when they create content they have to come up with a new idea every single time and this is just not the case, think about your favorite TV show or your favorite talk show if you actually break them down which you’ll find is that there is actually a sort of template to the way that the shows work, this consistent template is used episode after episode but you never really notice it because each one is just slightly tweaked but it’s always entertaining
Now let’s move onto the next one, which is consistency in branding now you might already be aware of how many people want their content to look unique and this can be good because it gets boring to see the same thing every single time but the truth is that when you have consistency in your branding it allows the audience to know that they’re actually watching one of your videos,
So if you want to stand out as a brand it’s important that you have consistency in your branding but don’t make it over the top, there’s a lot of easy ways you can do this by implementing similar fonts, same colors or even just having your logo appear on the screen and you can add in the colors that coincide with your business these small little tweaks will allow people to start to recognize your short-form videos so that when they see it they remember who you are they remember who your brand is and ultimately they’re more likely to want to come back for more
A bonus tip here is that when you have consistency in branding it actually makes creating content way easier because all you have to do is earn their trust once from there if you’re branding is the same when your video pops up they will remember oh I enjoyed this person’s video last time let me watch it now, your hooks don’t have to be nearly as good you don’t have to try as hard to try to earn the view because you’re branding is on point they remember you they enjoyed you last time so now they’re more likely to engage with the rest of the content that you post.
FAQs:
Does Using Hashtags Matter?
Using hashtags is one of the most important things when it comes to targeting your audience and engaging it with your posts. Using the right tags can help you reach a lot more people than if you use the wrong tags or don’t use them at all, this helps you in engaging more people down the line.
Does Instagram pay you for views?
The pay or the amount of money you generate on Instagram is by the help of ads, so if you get a good amount of views it always helps Instagram, and in return you get paid for it as well. You will get 55% of the ad revenue generated from each view, and it will be paid to you monthly in your bank account.
What Hashtag is most popular?
The Hashtag, #inspiration, is the most popular one on Instagram, with over 235M posts throughout the platform. However, the best hashtags that go with almost any post are #love #instagood #follow etc.
Is it easy to get a lot of followers on TikTok?
TikTok can be relatively easier to use than other social media platforms, but building an audience can still take some effort and planning.
How much does TikTok Pay?
If your video reaches one million views, then it’s considered to be mediocre in the true Viral Sense, however, this will earn you a good flow of new and retaining followers which is always better for your content and your page it will also help you in adding value and quality to your content which is always going to be a good thing when it comes to creating potentially viral content on TikTok and Reels, both.
Conclusion:
Both, Instagram reels and TikTok can do wonders for you if you generate good content, but what is good or quality content, how to add value to your average or above-average content? How to engage an audience and keep them secure for watching your video? Well, these are the exact things that we have discussed, we hope that you got the information that you were looking for, and we wish you the best of luck in engaging your audience better than before and adding value to your content so both, you and your audience get to see a good time through these platforms! We hope that you create a retaining audience for yourself as soon as possible!
