Are you looking for some legitimate ways to get free likes on TikTok?
Having a high number of likes not only makes you look more popular, but it can help your videos perform well in the TikTok algorithm too. So, by increasing the number of likes your videos receive, your will end up with far more followers and fans overall.
Thankfully, there are a lot of things you can do to get a bunch of likes for free, that don’t require you to break TikTok’s rules, spend any money, or give away your password.
In this article, we’ll cover 5 of the most effective ones!
1. Like Other People’s TikToks First
The first thing you should definitely try out is to go around liking other people’s videos first, particularly other creators that don’t have yet large followings.
This strategy is known as ‘like-for-like’ and the basic premise is this – if you like the videos of small creators, they are likely to take notice. When your name pops up, they may get curious and visit your profile as well, and start liking some of your videos to return the favor.
Just be careful not to like too many, or to spam like them by liking all of their videos without actually watching them.
At first, this may seem like a strategy that is hard to scale. But the truth is, it really doesn’t take that long to carry out!
If you’re quick about it, it is easy to like the videos of over 100 different creators each hour. While not all of them will reciprocate, it can give your videos a nice little boost in the number of likes – which may just be enough for the algorithm to pick them up.
Once you’re beyond a certain number of likes, most of the new likes should be coming from your followers or the For You page anyway. So, this strategy is all about getting your videos off the ground, so they can start getting traction in people’s feeds.
Tip: For optimal results, carry out this strategy shortly before or after you plan on posting your next video. Engagement early on after your video has been posted will help you far more than getting likes on it days later, when it comes to it being shown to more people.
Additionally, if you can’t find accounts to follow, start by finding a creator that’s similar to you, then visiting the people that follow them. TikTok shows their most recent followers first, so you know you’re finding people that are interested in similar to content that you post also.
2. Engage With Small Creators
Just like it’s beneficial to like the videos of small creators, it’s even better if you actually take the time to engage with them.
In fact, this is one of the best ways to build your initial fanbase on TikTok. They say you only need 1,000 true fans – people that actually care enough to watch everything you post, and like every video, to eventually grow a massive page.
So, you can start by building these relationships one-on-one by engaging with other small creators.
Take the time not only to watch the videos they release, but to leave meaningful comments on them that show you actually care about what they have to share. Take the time to really think about something thoughtful to say.
Everybody likes it when other people watch and engage with their videos. At the same time, most engagement is quite shallow, and easily forgotten. So, by leaving thoughtful comments and showing that you actually care, you can really stand out – and start building fans on your own.
Instead of just relying on the TikTok algorithm to get your videos in front of people, you can really jumpstart your TikTok page by putting in effort to market it yourself.
To grow as fast as possible, you should always be marketing and connecting with others when you’re not creating and posting videos. Who knows, if one of your TikTok friends ends up going viral, maybe they’ll shout you out too!
3. Reply To Comments On Viral Videos
On TikTok, there are three ways to get visibility at scale – meaning you can do something once, and have hundreds or thousands of people see it.
Either your videos get pushed into people’s feeds, someone shouts you out (directly, or by duetting one of your videos), or by appearing in comments.
When it comes to big creators, some of their videos can get millions of views in a matter of days. At the very least, this results in tens of thousands of people checking over and reading the comments.
Even if you have no videos posted at all, it’s still possible to amass thousands of followers through comments alone. Notice this comment I left on a video that got over 2,000 likes.
This comment alone got me my first 15 followers on this account (and I don’t even post on this one.)
Now you may be thinking that 15 followers is nothing to get excited about. But what if you made a habit of leaving 20 comments a day, and let’s say half of them actually got some attention?
That would be 300 comments every single month that got noticed. Even if you only averaged 10 followers for each one, that would be 3,000 new followers every month through commenting alone. Who knows how many likes I would’ve gotten on my videos if I had posted any!
Of course, it isn’t always that easy. But the point isn’t to build your entire following through comments alone – rather to give your account the followers and likes it needs to really start growing on its own.
This method is completely free, and doesn’t take much time at all. So if you want to grow the likes on your TikTok account, you should certainly try it out!
Tip: Want your comment to get noticed more easily? Share something controversial, or tell a story. These types of comments not only hook the reader, but will encourage responses as well!
Tip: If you can’t think of something to say, replying to the top comment can also lead to a lot of visibility as well.
4. Use An Alt Account
This one is the quickest and simplest, but with the least overall reward.
TikTok allows you to have up to 3 accounts on one device, at one time. So, each time you post a video, you can log in to the other accounts and like your new videos.
Additionally, you can like it with the account you posted with as well.
This means that at the very least, you’re starting with 3 likes on all of your videos. While 3 likes isn’t going to make you go viral, it has been proven that people are more likely to like a video that already has a few likes on it.
Each little thing helps, so it may be worth using alternate accounts to give your videos that slight boost early on.
5. Use An Engagement Pod
The last strategy that can be started for free is to use what’s known as an ‘engagement pod.’
These originally were a big thing on Instagram, and people used them to grow their accounts to the hundreds of thousands.
The idea behind engagement pods is this – you essentially get a group of people to come together, and everyone likes and comments on each other’s videos to boost its performance in the TikTok algorithm.
These groups usually communicate somewhere else, such as in Telegram or Discord. When a video is posted, you ping the group, and everyone rushes over to like and comment on it.
That being said, this sort of artificial boosting may be considered manipulating the algorithm by TikTok, which may lead to shadowbans. Therefore, it is the most risky strategy out of everything listed here.
We’ll talk more about how to avoid shadowbans later on. Sadly, engagement pods aren’t usually advertised, so they can be hard to find. In most cases, it’s easiest to get together a group of friends and to start your own.
Important: Avoid Scam Services, And Don’t Buy Them!
When doing research to find other methods to get free TikTok likes, I came across a lot of services that are outright scams.
Some of them want you to pay for likes, where as others try to convince you to give them your TikTok login information.
Both of these things should be avoided at all costs.
First of all, there is never any reason why a service should require your TikTok password in order to help you get likes. Instead, these services scam people in order to steal their accounts.
If you already gave your password to one of these services, you should immediately change it by following the instructions here.
Secondly, buying TikTok likes will not help as much as you think it might. While some of these services may legitimately deliver the likes that they promise, it will only hurt your account in the long run.
Here’s why.
TikTok goes to great lengths to try and prevent people from gaming their algorithm, including the purchasing of likes. Therefore, they have systems in place to look for patterns of unusual behavior.
For example, these services use the same accounts to deliver likes to each person that purchases. As you might imagine, it is easy for TikTok to flag these accounts, in order to see who is purchasing likes.
If you’re caught, not only will your video likely not perform (even with all of the fake likes), but you may get shadowbanned as well. This will not only hurt your current videos, but even the future videos that you publish as well.
Warning: Do These Tactics In Moderation
Finally, my last piece of advice is to do all of this in moderation.
As mentioned earlier, TikTok does not want anybody doing anything that may constitute as manipulating the algorithm. They are a lot smarter than you might think, and their system can pretty easy recognize when you’re trying to cheat.
So, it’s best to do this in moderation. Rather than going through and liking thousands of people’s videos at once for example, do it in a way that seems natural.
This could mean liking 50 or so, taking a break, and then doing it again a couple of hours from now.
Engagement pods, buying likes, or using bot software are the only methods that have been proven to lead to shadowbans. So, as long as you remain reasonable with your engagement with others, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Remember that TikTok is a long-term play. You can and will grow your following if you’re consistent – just have some patience, and don’t try to chase shortcuts!
Conclusion
Thankfully, there are plenty of things to increase the number of likes you receive on your TikTok videos, even without spending any money.
That being said, it’s always a good idea to focus on building real connections with people, than trying to cheat the algorithm. 1,000 true fans is enough to launch your TikTok page into stardom, so don’t shy away from building these connections up one-by-one.
I hope that you’ve found this article helpful. If you have any other questions about TikTok, please ask them using the comment form below.
Wishing you the best,
– James McAllister