"1⃣ Find your niche. And trust me, your niche audience is likely bigger than you’d think."

"And remember, 60%+ of TikTok users are Gen Z which is August’s target audience, creating an opportunity to educate young women/girls who are getting their periods for the first time and looking for places to learn."

"2⃣ Getting your first viral video. You usually can’t plan for it, so create often."

"After speaking with so many founders, it was clear that many of their first viral videos were random or happened by chance – it’s difficult to manufacture virality on TikTok on Day 1."

"It often takes experimentation with different series, content styles, and sounds to find your rhythm / build an audience."

"Showcasing your app organically (and consistently)"

"For EdTech app Kadama, it took ~2 months (8th video) to have their first viral video with 7.7m views and 948k likes."

"TikTok’s mantra for businesses is “Don't Make Ads, Make TikToks,” and this makes sense – Gen Z notoriously hates being sold to and prefers organic/authentic content."

"Kadama’s viral video was a tips video showing students “Apps that helped me get a 4.0 in school"

"Posting weekly / monthly: Higher production quality videos that your audience expects – you know these videos come out less frequently, but will likely have cultural impact or effects."

"Posting daily: Especially in the early days, this is the preferred method – when you don’t know what works, and have a better chance at achieving virality if you post frequently."

"For Contra, a new professional network/community for independents, it took 9 videos and 5 days to have their first viral video."

"It was the first video in a series where Contra posted remote jobs every week – this one being a freelance “lyric associate” for Genius – that you could apply to through the Contra platform."

"The same can be said for Kum & Go, a midwest gas station chain/convenience store, which looked externally to find a native TikToker to push their boundaries on the social app (and grow to 166k followers)."

"He asked a friend from Iowa Safe Schools if they knew any brilliant creative kids on TikTok from the high schools where they ran sessions, and they pointed Ariel to Evelyn (they/them), a 19 year old who had just graduated and who had ~150k followers at the time."

"And with TikTok, especially in the early days of growing a following, you need to be consistent and give your followers a reason to come back for more – Mitch realized this and found the perfect person to tap from his team."

"“The challenge with TikTok is you have to be posting frequently – having it be entertaining, jumping on memes etc. – and if you don't have time to jump on memes and do your rif/take on them, your follower count goes down quickly.”"

"“How much do you TikTok? What are your favorite, favorite accounts on the platform? We’re trying to get some sense of whether they really get it or not.” – Kyra Founder/CEO Dev Karaca"

"Spending time on TikTok as a founder can also lead to a more direct relationship with your users and relative insights that can help improve your startup/app as well, as was the case with Ali Maggioncalda, Founder & CEO of Lovewick, who created an app for couples."

"folks on TikTok seem to really value authenticity and trust, and I personally find it so much easier to trust a person than a disembodied ""brand"""

"August intentionally has its own account with 170k followers and a team of ~5 people creating content from a different point of view."

"4⃣ Stick with organic in the early days, experiment with paid later."

"After speaking with a bunch of early stage founders, it’s clear that organic has been the best performing channel on TikTok from an ROI perspective – invest in organic content when you can."

"5⃣ Don’t ignore the comments section… that’s your community."

"Chick-fil-a commented on one of their videos saying “Bringing a nugget tray to share 😋 What sauces would y’all like?” — to which Duolingo replied in the comments “rainbow sauce only plz 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍🌈” nodding to their stance on supporting the LGBTQ+ community (Chick-fil-a is notoriously anti-pride)."

"This is very different from the way millennial social media managers of the past were encouraged to post and build their brands – the Duolingo account leans into the Gen Z POV / aesthetic in a material way, especially when it comes to dark Gen Z humor."

"“Responding back to comments and engaging with the comments has been our biggest strategy to grow"

"6⃣ Track attribution & understand the metrics of your videos so you can iterate faster."

"“a video unrelated to my business with 1M views has relatively the same impact as a video related to my business with <10K views.”"

"To me, this underpins the importance of quantity for founders/teams creating content – even videos with a smaller footprint in terms of views can have a material impact on your business if you’re making content the right way."

"“It's really important to use Bitly UTM parameters and Segment to really understand the value flow of a Tik Tok user. Top of funnel awareness is the name of the game, but once your company matures, it's important to get really granular with their user journeys.” – Ben Huffman, CEO of Contra"

"7⃣ Study other accounts in your niche to learn faster."

"“For the first month, I was in full-on experiment mode. I did a lot of lurking and commenting, trying to train my fyp to be mostly love and relationship content so I could get acclimated to what performed well in that space for others. After a week or so of that, I tried to cast as wide a net as I could in terms of creating my own love and relationships content"

"8⃣ Leveraging other influencers or thinking about UGC? Start small / optimize for volume of creators. And don’t give creators a script."

"A perfect example here is Notion, the note-taking & organization app, which blew up organically on TikTok in early 2021 because Gen Z users were sharing their Notion templates (that are cute and have personality, more similar to Tumblr boards)."

"For example, videos related to “notion template” have 386m views on TikTok… entirely driven by users. Here are a few examples, with each user excited to share their unique template/aesthetic: exhibits one, two, and three."

"TikTok is architected in such a way that optimizing for volume through a network of smaller influencers can often be more effective (both in outcomes/reach & cost) than getting a huge influencer onboard."

"“The best thing to do if you’re getting started with UGC is to start with smaller influencers… every single person has the opportunity to go super viral. It’s often better to pay $1,000 to 10 people who have a couple thousand followers than it is to pay $10,000 to one person who has 100,000 followers."

"And one thing to note in working with creators big and small – it’s often best not to offer up a “script” to read from."

"9⃣ Partnering with TikTok? Early days, but more opportunity soon."

"In June 2021, TikTok launched its Jump program to offer third-party integration tools that allow startups to create an app within the TikTok ecosystem with HTML5 compatibility and minimal technical integration."

"instead of having your users navigate to your link in bio or the comments section, they can click it natively within the video and be directed to your “app” within TikTok."

"And that’s another important thing to note – creators can leverage the “Jumps” links within their own videos."

"Again, I imagine this list will expand overtime and become more of a marketplace for creators as TikTok expands their Jump program out of beta."

"🔟 Make trends your own… and don’t sell."

"Being on trend can certainly help, but more importantly, making them your own while staying true to your brand/mission."

"Participating in trends to maintain relevance is important, but “not selling” is just as crucial as you create direct content for your products/services. Be authentic, add value to users through education or humor, and be creative."

"“Don't use TikTok just to ""sell""; use it to learn. You can learn so much by interacting with folks in the comments, soliciting feedback, and being aware of what is trending in your niche.” – Ali Maggioncalda, CEO/Founder of Lovewick"