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As a brand, TikTok offers a colossal user base and a powerful algorithm that selects which videos will go viral. Despite having hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have exposure, influence, or community building. The most vital difference is between accumulating followers and creating an active community.
In this article, we’ll analyze the differences between TikTok followers and the TikTok community, explaining why the latter is more valuable for building meaningful influence over the long term.
The Appeal of Follower Counts
Big TikTok follower numbers are easy to get seduced by. As follower counts increase steadily, it can be a dopamine hit that’s addictively tempting to try and buy followers or employ follow/unfollow techniques to artificially increase them.
The truth is, follower counts by themselves mean nothing. More followers do indeed mean a larger potential audience for your content. However, if the second part of that is not true, it doesn’t mean anything, as you didn’t ‘buy’ any followers; all the follower accounts may be fake or have no interest in engaging with the brand.
Follow/Unfollow Techniques Also Lack Value
Alongside buying followers, some users attempt to rapidly manufacture a bigger follower count using follow/unfollow techniques.
The process involves using automation tools to identify and follow hundreds or thousands of accounts per day within a target interest group. Some of these accounts inevitably follow back. After a set period, the automation tool then unfollows those who didn’t reciprocate.
Like purchased followers, this method prioritizes quantity over quality and real relationship building. Sure, it can quickly inflate follower numbers. But the followers it attracts have no authentic interest in your brand – they followed back automatically or because they hoped you’d follow them forever.
When you subsequently unfollow them, it leads to disengagement or even resentment towards your brand. The method provides no long-lasting benefits plus wastes a ton of time.
Gaming follower counts through these tricks violates TikTok’s terms of service and could lead to penalties or banned accounts if caught.
Why a Strong Community Trumps Big Follower Counts
Instead of merely chasing follower counts, experienced influencers recognize that an active community, no matter the size, can be more powerful than a larger but uninvolved audience. You could develop a sustainable influencer brand even from 1000 dedicated fans.
Let’s explore why community beats followers when it comes to cementing influence on TikTok:
Engaged Communities Consume Content
The simplest reason why real communities have worth is because they view, enjoy, and share your videos. Bought bot followers or followers from giveaways do not engage with your content.
1,000 views from an engaged community are so much more valuable than 100,000 views from some gimmick or system manipulator. When a real community engages, their connection to your content and brand is authentic.
Communities Boost Visibility Through Algorithmic Signals
TikTok’s For You feed algorithm relies heavily on user engagement signals to determine which content to surface and recommend to new users.
Videos that receive lots of authentic comments, shares, and genuine video completions send signals that they provide value. TikTok then pushes them out more through suggestions.
If you have an engaged community that interacts with your content, the algorithm picks up on this and starts recommending you to more genuine users. This is far more powerful for building influence than bought followers who take no action.
Communities Allow Two-Way Interactions
Real TikTok communities don’t simply consume your content; they get involved. As a creator, there can be a level of engagement when you respond to comments, listen to community suggestions, and value dialogue.
This two-way exchange of value helps cement loyalty in your key fanbase. In contrast, amassing followers through artificial methods provides no opportunity to interact or learn from your audience.
Communities Enable Collaboration Opportunities
Authentic TikTok communities centered around a niche open up more collaboration opportunities with other creators. You may produce guest videos, co-market to each other’s fans, or collaborate on wider projects.
Organic networking and collaboration opportunities arise when you focus on community over follower counts. But bought or gimmick-accumulated followers rarely translate into authentic partnerships.
Communities Provide Social Proof
A small, yet dedicated community acts as powerful social proof. When someone sees a video of yours with hundreds of comments and authentic engagement, it shows that your video provided value.
Conversely, if you see an account that has 500,000 followers but barely any comments or shares, it just doesn’t seem right, and warns you that the follower count is probably obtained artificially.
How to Cultivate a Loyal TikTok Community
We’ve explored why community building should be the priority over inflating follower counts. But how exactly do you go about cultivating an authentic, engaged community on TikTok?
Here are 8 proven tips:
Post Valuable Content Consistently
The foundation is creating content that resonates with your niche. Analyze competitor videos and comments to identify value gaps you can fill. Poll your audience to discover their burning questions.
Keep posting consistently around themes and formats that generate engagement. Consistency and perceived value will organically attract a community over time.
Use Hashtags Strategically
Using relevant hashtags allows you to engage in larger TikTok conversations and get found by those interested in your discipline.
Look up hashtaged using competitors and use other discovery tools. Use few popular hashtags along with some long-tail hashtags, so you can show up in both other and niche searches.
Interact Genuinely With Other Accounts
Don’t just broadcast your content. Interact with other profiles through likes, comments, and sharing viral videos with duets or stitches.
When you bring value to others first, it sets you up as an influencer that is actually worth noticing. If done repeatedly , this community-based activity builds authentic relationships.
Respond To All Comments
Always reply if anybody in your community engages with your videos! Say thanks for the watch, ask follow-up questions, and keep the dialogue going.
Making an audience feel seen and valued is going to build loyalty. It will also show new visitors you are an engaging presence in their community.
Run Contests and Challenges
Contests, user-generated content campaigns, hashtag challenges, or giveaways are fantastic for community activation.
They encourage creativity, give you content to repost, and allow fans to actively co-create value. Make prizes relevant to your niche rather than generic free products.
Go Live Frequently
Livestreams allow for more intimate, real-time interactions with your community. Go live regularly to announce news, do Q&As, reveal behind-the-scenes insights, or chat casually with fans.
Streams also get pushed heavily through TikTok’s algorithm due to their ephemeral nature. They show up on follower feeds as “happening now”.
Collaborate With Niche Creators
Look for opportunities to co-create TikTok content by collaborating with other creators in your space. Guest videos expose each other’s audiences to new influencers in an authentic way.
Analyze Your Analytics
Use TikTok’s Creator Portal analytics to understand your audience and optimize your content. Pay attention to authentic viewership, retention, and traffic sources rather than just follower counts.
Conclusion
First glance of the follower count is an enormous follower count, and it looks impressive till the say, but the real influence is actually when you get a niche community engaged in something. Almost all of the followers have zero value.
The very first thing to focus on is to post good content methodically, with the use of strategic hashtags, and to keep interacting with other creators. Create campaigns, go live, and respond to comments to build up community relationships.
As long as you can generate some sort of authentic engagement and loyalty with that small group of fans, it’s much easier to grow your audience with help from word of mouth influence. Once the community building begins to take off, TikTok’s powerful algorithm will come into play and share your content with the people you are trying to reach.
