Are you looking to build your following on TikTok, but do not want to post any videos to actually do it?
Although it requires you to get a little creative, it’s actually possible to build up quite a large following without even needing to post a single video.
In this article, we’ll cover several different methods you can use to build your TikTok following without having to post videos!
1. Engage With Others By Leaving Comments
Perhaps the most effective way to rapidly build your TikTok following is to leave thoughtful, engaging comments on other people’s TikTok videos.
Comments can receive a LOT of visibility on TikTok. In fact, for small accounts, the comments they leave on other people’s may end up getting more views than their videos themselves!
This is because a lot of people open up the comments to see what other people think about the video. So if you manage to get one of the top comments, you can easily rack up tens of thousands of views in no time.
Of course, a percentage of people that view your comment will click through to your profile, if nothing else because they’re curious.
And because people visit your profile, a percentage of them will end up following you as well.
This is particularly true if people have recognized you for leaving smart, witty or funny comments on other people’s videos.
If you’re following someone, their comments will appear above everyone else’s, with the exception of any pinned comments. So, people may follow you to just so they can see the other comments you’re leaving more easily.
This is why commenting on other people’s can be such an effective strategy to build TikTok followers – even if you don’t ever publish any videos!
2. Follow Other TikTok Users
Another strategy worth trying out is following other TikTok users.
When you follow someone, they will get a notification that you’ve followed them. This can prompt them to check out your profile out of curiosity, potentially causing them to follow you back as well.
This method is known as ‘follow for follow’ and can quickly build up hundreds or even thousands of followers to your TikTok account, even if you don’t have any videos posted. It invokes people’s need to reciprocate – you follow them, so they feel an obligation to follow you as well.
So, they aren’t following for your content (or lack of it.) They are simply following to be nice.
It tends to work best if you focus on following people that don’t yet have a large following themselves. This way, they are likely to notice each and every new follower that they get.
Keep in mind however that TikTok has strict limits in place regarding how many people that you can follow.
Additionally, once you hit TikTok’s following limit, you may need to unfollow some people in order to follow new ones again. TikTok limits the rate in which you can unfollow people, so you are also limited in how many new followers you can get using this strategy.
Normally, this strategy is considered controversial, and can actually hurt your engagement if you were to ever start posting videos.
Therefore, I recommend that you avoid doing this in any sort of spammy way, and combine this strategy with other methods in order to build your following on TikTok.
3. Get Other People To Shout You Out
In order for people to follow you on TikTok, they need to know that you exist first.
The easiest way to get attention on the platform is obviously to post videos. If you don’t want to do that however, you need to find it another way.
One really effective way to get a huge rush of followers is to partner with a creator that already has a following.
Then, ask them to tag you in the video or directly ask people to follow you.
For example, tagging your username in the comments or in the video caption will make it easy to visit your profile and follow you, without having to use that much effort.
Remember that comments and TikTok’s messaging feature are a great way to build connections with creators. While you shouldn’t start friendships to try and get something out of another person, you can truly get a lot of followers through the power of networking alone!
4. Drive Followers From Other Platforms
If you have a following on another platform, you should certainly share your TikTok page with them!
I’ve seen influencers with tens of thousands of followers that didn’t have a single video posted on TikTok, simply because people are already following them on other platforms.
Simply let your following know your TikTok handle, or share a link to your profile with them directly.
Actually, one of the great things about building a social media following is that people will follow you wherever you go.
So, you’re never starting from zero on a new platform. Leverage your existing audience, and you will immediately have people to share your videos with if you ever decide you’re ready to post to TikTok.
5. Post Videos (But Remove Them After)
Finally, if all you care about is having a profile that doesn’t have any views on it, you do have one more option.
Post videos, and then once they’ve been up for a little while, delete them.
TikTok does not punish you for this unless you decide to keep reposting the same video over and over again (in which case, it may get a low number of views the second time onward.)
As long as you’re posting unique content each time, you should be okay.
The majority of TikTok videos have a short lifecycle. They acquire a lot of views shortly after they’re posted, but rarely get many views at all after this initial novelty period has passed – it simply will no longer be shown on people’s For You or Following pages.
This means you can get the maximum impact of the video, without really losing much by deleting it just a few days after posting.
So, if you’re willing to leave videos up for at least a little while, consider trying this strategy out!
Warning: Don’t Buy Fake Followers!
Although each of these strategies work, they can take time and effort to find success with.
Therefore, you may be tempted to just pay a little bit of money to purchase some fake followers.
However, I strongly encourage you not to do this!
Not only will it hurt your engagement metrics if you ever do decide to post (because the fake followers won’t actually care about you or your videos, or may be bot accounts), but purchasing followers can result in your account getting shut down.
Because TikTok wants to keep the integrity of its platform high and prevent spammy behavior, they may close your account if they believe you’re engaging in spammy behavior.
While purchasing followers doesn’t technically seem to be against their terms of service, you are certainly walking a tightrope engaging in this sort of behavior.
It’s just not worth it!
Further Reading: Did you know that it’s possible to get verified on TikTok without a large following? Click here to learn how!
Conclusion
As you can see, posting videos on TikTok is not necessary in order to amass a following on the platform!
Although it’s easiest to get followers by posting high quality videos, if you get creative there are plenty of other ways to acquire followers as well.
I hope that you’ve found this article helpful. If you have any other questions about building your following on TikTok, please ask them using the comment form below.
Wishing you the best,
– James McAllister