TikTok and YouTube are the leading platforms to post gaming content
Twitch is great for live streaming, but that isn’t the best place to post edited content
TikTok has fewer users than YouTube, but it has more watch hours in 2020 and 2021
And half of those watch hours are on gaming content
The best thing you can do for your TikTok gaming channel is to post a lot of good content. TikTok is a platform that builds momentum with time and content. That means the more you post consistently, the faster your channel will grow. There are other things you can do too, but that is #1
Before you can reach your TikTok goals, you need to create those goals and understand why they are your goals
Deciding what your goal is with TikTok
Why are you building a TikTok account?
If you have been working on it for a while without success, why is it important to you?
If you are new, why are you considering TikTok?
There are going to be days when posting anything is going to feel impossible
If your ‘why’ is “Someone told me that I should”, you won’t make it through those hard days
However, if you know why you are working on it and it is important to you, working through those hard days will be a lot easier
Some possible reasons to grow a TikTok account could be:
- To increase traffic to Twitch live streams
- To bring more people to your YouTube channel
- To build an audience and get paid by TikTok
- To share clips with friends
- To connect with other gamers
Whatever reason you choose, having a reason will help you
It will help you keep going when it gets hard, and it will help you decide what to do because you want to work towards that goal
How do you choose what you are going to post on TikTok?
Now that you know what your TikTok goals are, now it is time to decide what you are going to post
Try not to get too serious here
TikTok is all about connecting with people and being authentic
So have fun and really show your personality
It is important to do a mix of content types
There are two types that you can create:
- Trending Content
- Evergreen Content
Trending content grows fast but dies fast
Evergreen content usually grows slow but keeps growing for weeks, months, or even years
Trending is anything that goes with current trends
Usually, it is a sound and a video to go with that sound
If you scroll your FYP and see something repeated a lot, that is a trend
Evergreen content is content that is relevant today, tomorrow, and in the foreseeable future
Your gaming content is usually evergreen content!
From there, post videos that will help you reach your goal
If you want more watchers on your live stream, create videos that are like a commercial for your stream
The purpose of the videos would be to make people want to join you live
Think about your goal and decide what you need to do to move toward that goal
Do you need to niche down on TikTok?
You will hear about niche down a lot on every platform
But it is less important for TikTok
As long as you are using hashtags correctly, you can stray from a specific niche
As long as you aren’t faking your content for views, you will grow
The more personality that you show in your videos, the more people will start to follow you for you as well as your content
That is how to gain fans that will follow you where ever you go
Things you need to do to meet those goals
Now that you have the basic plan for your TikTok account, here are 11 tips for growing with your gaming content
- Post as many videos as you can consistently
- Use smaller hashtags
- Engage with other creators in the same niche
- Go live
- Direct people to your stream
- Direct people to your YouTube channel
- Use a mix of trending and evergreen content
- Respond to comments on your videos
- Master your hooks
- Use a CTA
- Be entertaining
Not all of them are available from the beginning
So do what you can and look forward to the rest when it becomes available to you!
Post as many videos as you can consistently
The best thing you can do for TikTok growth is post as many decent or good videos as you can consistently
Don’t post 10 times a day unless you can keep that schedule up
But remember that your account probably won’t grow very quickly if you only post three times a week
It is possible to go viral, but that is a lot of work and attention
Going viral might give you a lot of views and followers, but that is only a good thing if the video is for your target market
If you make a funny joke that has nothing to do with gaming and it goes viral, you will end up with a lot of followers that are not gamers
So those followers might make future videos struggle more and make it hard to get back onto GamerTok
Your best bet is to grow at a consistent rate by posting as much as you can while staying consistent
Use smaller hashtags
It seems the opposite but smaller hashtags are better for your growth than larger ones
If someone looks at the videos in a large (over 1 million views) hashtag, you are probably lost in a sea of videos
If someone looks at the smaller and niched-down hashtags, you are more likely to be found
In addition, TikTok uses hashtags to understand who to send your videos to
The more specific your hashtags are, the more details TikTok can get about who you are trying to reach
But don’t go too small
Too small has the opposite problem
Not enough people for TikTok to send it to, and not enough people searching the hashtag
The sweet spot for hashtags is between 2000 and 1 million views
Make sure that the hashtags you are using fully match the video that you are posting
You can add hashtags about:
- What is happening in the video
- Video niche
- Who you are
- Who do you want to reach
When you find one that you will likely use often, don’t forget to save it so you don’t need to do hashtag research every time
Engage with other creators in the same niche
TikTok is a very social platform
The more you interact with other people in your niche, the better off you are
Remove any thought that they are competition
That isn’t how TikTok works
Find a few people and get very active on their page
Change who those people are depending on if they interact back
Most of the time, the more you appear in a creator’s notifications, the more they start to notice you
Many creators will return the engagement favor and follow back
That creator’s followers will also start to notice you
As long as you are very kind and helpful in your comments, that is a good thing
Go live
You can’t go live on TikTok right away, but you can after you reach for first 1000 followers
If you are posting a lot and consistently, that shouldn’t take that long
Going live boosts the videos that you have previously published and recommends them to more people
TikTok also recommends your live to as many people as they can
So you get more views on your live, more followers from your live, and a boost on your other videos
It is best to post a couple of videos right before going live to take full advantage of that boost
Direct people to your stream
If you are trying to use TikTok to increase traffic on your stream, then make sure that you are directing people that way
If you stream on YouTube, you can direct people there right away by connecting your TikTok profile to your YouTube profile
Then just tell people to join you and let them know when
If you are on Twitch or any other platform, you will need to either pin the information on how to find your stream in the comments or wait until you can add a link to your bio
You get access to the link in your bio when you reach 1000 followers
But make sure you include inviting people to your stream as one of your CTA (see more on this below)
Direct people to your YouTube channel
If you are trying to grow a YouTube channel, it is the same concept as a stream
Link your YouTube to your TikTok profile and tell people that they can find more content like this on your YouTube in your bio
The more you invite people to go check out your channel, the more people will listen and go to your YouTube
Use a mix of trending and evergreen content
I mentioned trending and evergreen content above
But I recommend going to both
Preferably a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of evergreen to trending content
That is because trending will help more in the long run, but trending will help you gain traction on your evergreen content
Respond to comments on your videos
TikTok is a social platform
That means they reward people that are social
One way to prove that you can be social is by responding to as many comments on your videos as you can
You can also respond to responses that you wrote on other videos
Just don’t be a lurker
TikTok doesn’t reward that
Master your hooks
Hooks are one of the most important things to master for TikTok
You have about 5 seconds to convince people to stay
You can have the best video in the world, but no one will see it if they leave in the first 5 seconds
Hooks can mean the difference between success and failure for a video
Use a CTA
A CTA, or Call To Action, is asking your viewers to do something at the end of the video
A CTA can be anything as long as you are clear about what you want
The most common CTA on TikTok is “Follow for more”
But you can ask anything that you want of your audience
Try to mix it up
If you want people to join your Twitch stream, ask that a couple of times
Then ask for follows a couple of times
Mixing it up isn’t required, but it helps regular viewers not ignore your CTA
Be entertaining
People go on TikTok to be entertained
That means that you are most successful if you can be valuable and entertaining
This can mean a million different things
Find what you have to offer people and use that
Have fun, don’t get too serious (unless that is the goal), and just don’t quit