Welcome to the ultimate playbook for organic TikTok strategy and management, specifically tailored for brands looking to harness the power of this dynamic platform. As a TikTok agency that specializes in TikTok content creation and management, we understand the challenges and opportunities that come with building a strong organic presence. But where do you start? How do you lay down a solid foundation as a brand and how do you define success to know you’re on the right track? In this guide, we’ll provide you with valuable insights, proven strategies, and expert tips to help your brand thrive on TikTok organically. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Research
Before anything else, start with doing research using TikTok to build out and understand your specific buyer persona. You need to know what language they use, hashtags, the questions they ask, where they spend their free time, what music they listen to, what their humor is, and what they’re skeptical or sensitive about.
When you’re doing your research, collect inspiration videos that have already performed well (over 30-50k views with comments and engagement). By doing this, you lead with examples that have been validated and have social proof, so you aren’t starting from scratch. It’s all about taking inspiration from what’s proven and making it your own. Expert tip: just know if you blatantly copy, TikTok comments will be the first to call you out especially if you don’t give credit to the original creator. So remix it or give credit where it’s due!
Build out a strong strategy
One of the most obvious signs of a weak or poor strategy is being stuck in what we call “200 jail” where all of your videos can’t get past the 300 mark. Another sign that you don’t have a strong strategy is when you’ve gone viral, but they’re “empty” views—meaning the people watching aren’t converting (whether that’s into followers or customers).
There’s a balance you have to strike between planning and laying down a solid foundation and being flexible enough to change it when something picks up and you need to double down or if it’s not working. TikTok is more like a living breathing platform versus the days of Instagram where you could schedule 30 days of Canva graphics and kick your feet up.
Setting your account up for success
Be sure to add a bio with your keywords and add a link (even if it’s not clickable if you have less than 1000 followers). If you don’t have an account yet, don’t set one up until you’re ready to post and hit the ground running. In the same way, TikTok’s algorithm learns what you like and dislike, TikTok also learns how you are when it comes to posting. It’s important to post consistently from day 1 of the account so you establish yourself as a serious and consistent producer—not just a passive consumer of content. TikTok rewards you for this.
Set Your North Star and Define Success
If you don’t know what success looks like, it’s easy to get discouraged. Like other organic marketing strategies, organic TikTok can take time. Or not… Just this past week, we started an account from 0 and within seven days, grew it to 13,000 followers with a video at over 1 million views. We say this just to prove that the algorithm can be finicky and can work very fast but also can be an emotional rollercoaster with no overnight success.
If you’re not sure what your goals are or what being on the right path looks like. For us, we have two main goals for every new client:
- Go for maximum reach to get to the 1000-follower mark as soon as possible. This will give us the ability to place a clickable link in the bio so we can increase website traffic and conversions. We place UTMs so we can track exactly who comes from TikTok. Don’t just guess!
- Get at least one video with over 10,000 views within the client’s first 30 days of working with us. This helps the client have peace of mind that we know what we’re doing and their brand is getting in front of new eyes.
There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to growing a brand’s organic TikTok presence in a way that is meaningful to the business’ goals. If you don’t have the time or capacity to figure it out yourself, fast-track your growth by linking with an expert partner like Lauren Labeled.
We have a few spots open for organic TikTok management where we handle everything to grow the account and attract your ideal audience—like sourcing and briefing creators, content strategy, and day-to-day posting. Get started here!
