A case study about how I organically grew my TikTok account from 12 to 50,000 followers in less than two months.

1. Going Viral
On TikTok
How I grew my
TikTok account from
12 to 50,000 followers in
less than two months.
Andrew Shusterman

2. TikTok (formally known as Musical.ly) is a
social media app where users produce
and share short videos edited to music.
TikTok's videos are vertically-oriented
and most similar to Snapchat and
Instagram Stories.
TikTok's parent company, ByteDance
first launched the app in 2016 under the
name of Douyin in China, before
launching TikTok in international
markets in 2017.
WHAT IS
TIKTOK?
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Andrew Shusterman

3. KEY
TIKTOK
STATS
TikTok boasts 800 million active users across 155
countries.
TikTok had 1.5 billion downloads by the end of 2019,
making it the 7th most downloaded app of the
2010's.
By March 2020, TikTok reached 2 billion downloads,
doubling its total from 15 months prior.
TikTok has a higher average engagement rate per
post than Instagram and Twitter.
TikTok users spend an average of 52 minutes per day
on the app.
When it comes to non-gaming apps, TikTok ranked
3rd in March for global in-app revenue, after Tinder
and YouTube. TikTok monetizes through ads and live
streaming.
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Andrew Shusterman

4. TikTok broke a record for the
most app downloads in a
single quarter in the first 3
months of 2020.
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Andrew Shusterman

5. WHAT
YOU NEED
TO KNOW
TikTok is a sound-based social media app, so
most users watch videos with the sound on.
TikTok video posts are searchable on
Google, unlike Instagram.
On average, TikTok content is more positive
and uplifting in nature. Short dance, lip-sync,
humor, and talent videos make up the
majority of the platform's content.
TikTok's algorithm takes into account the
interactions of each individual video, rather
than a user's profile as a whole, which is why
a user with 0 followers can get millions of
video views.
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Andrew Shusterman

6. 01 02
REACHING GEN Z
Globally, 41% of TikTok's
users are 16-24 years old.
In the US, 60% of monthly active
users are 16-24 years old.
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Photo: Julian Gentilezza
Andrew Shusterman

7. Of the 124 million US TikTok app installs,
46 million of them occurred in 2019.
40 million 100 million 200 million 300 million 400 million 500 million
India
China
USA
TIKTOK USAGE BY COUNTRY
467 million
173 million
124 million
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Andrew Shusterman

8. Hi! My name is Andrew
Shusterman and I am a
social media marketer,
content creator and
longtime skateboarder.
I joined TikTok on
February 13th, 2020.
Photo: Jake Pollgreen
tiktok.com/@shusterman1

9. On March 16th my 8th video
went viral. Up until that point
my videos had performed well
relative to the size of my
following, but it wasn’t until
this video that things began to
change.
On March 15th I had 12
followers and by March
26th, my following had
increased to 20K. At this point,
my second video had gone
viral and I was quickly learning
what type of content was
resonating with my audience.
FIRST VIDEO
GOES VIRAL ON
MARCH 16TH
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tiktok.com/@shusterman1
Andrew Shusterman

10. 50,000
FOLLOWERS
ON MAY 6TH
10.8 million total
combined video
views
1 million total
combined likes
Two videos with 5.6
million combined
views and 482K
combined likes
When I reached 50,000 followers the account had:
tiktok.com/@shusterman1
Andrew Shusterman

11. The first viral video is from a
2019 Halloween-themed
skateboarding contest where a
skateboarder dressed as 'The
Joker' collides with a few
onlookers and knocks them
down like bowling pins. I edited
the video to a song that was
trending at the time called,
‘Fuck It Up’ featuring rapper
YG. The chorus of the song
picks up at the exact moment
The Joker collides with the
onlookers.
'THE JOKER'
VIRAL VIDEO
tiktok.com/@shusterman1
Andrew Shusterman

12. Trending music - By using a
popular song I was able to increase
the chances that the algorithm
would favor my video and that
users searching for that song were
more likely to discover it.
Engagement - I answered
questions, liked and responded to
comments in a timely manner,
especially within the first 24 hours
of the video being posted. The
golden rule in social media applies
to TikTok as well: the more often
you engage with followers, the
better your post will perform.
NOTE: Most song samples on TikTok are 15
seconds in length, so it's best to keep most
of your videos to 15 seconds or less.
HOW 'THE
JOKER' VIDEO
WENT VIRAL
tiktok.com/@shusterman1
Andrew Shusterman

13. Popular and trending hashtags - By
choosing hashtags with a high volume
of posts, my video became
discoverable to millions of relevant
users.
Emojis - I used emojis in the caption
that were relevant to the video
content because emojis are culturally
relevant to TikTok's users.
Additionally, some studies show that
adding emojis to social media
captions help enhance them visually,
making them more eye-catching.
Using emojis in combination with plain
text also helps bring out the
emotional nuance of your caption. If
executed properly, all of these factors
can help increase post engagement.
HOW 'THE
JOKER' VIDEO
WENT VIRAL
tiktok.com/@shusterman1
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Andrew Shusterman

14. Popular and trending hashtags - This
time I used a combination of the
hashtags from the first video and a few
new trending hashtags to increase reach.
Emojis - Once again, I used emojis to help
increase visibility and engagement.
Engagement - Authentic and frequent,
especially within the first 24 hours.
To capitalize on the virality of the Joker
video, I decided to post a new 'slam' clip of
The Joker days after the first video went
viral. Even though I didn't use a trending
song, I was still able to ride the coattails of
the 1st Joker video.
HOW THE
2ND 'JOKER'
VIDEO WENT
VIRAL
tiktok.com/@shusterman1
Andrew Shusterman

15. THE JOKER
VIDEO BECOMES
POPULAR ON
INSTAGRAM The two viral Joker videos
became so popular on TikTok
that by mid-April they made their
way to several different
Instagram influencer accounts.
This speaks to the strength of
TikTok's growing popularity and
cultural relevance.
Andrew Shusterman

16. After two viral videos, I was
running low on footage of The
Joker. Because I knew at this point
that millions of users (including
my new followers) were familiar
with and loved these Joker videos,
I decided to 'repackage' my
original content.
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Andrew Shusterman

17. The 'Raw' Video - No music or editing of the
original Joker viral video.
The 'Remix' Video - Extended version of the
original viral Joker video with all of the other
slams incorporated into one long edit.
The 'Related' Video - New/unseen slam
footage of The Joker edited to a new
trending song.
REPACKAGING
CONTENT
tiktok.com/@shusterman1
Total Repackaged Video Views:
1,012,000 Views
Andrew Shusterman

18. VIRAL & TOP-PERFORMING VIDEOS FROM MARCH 16TH - MAY 6TH
tiktok.com/@shusterman1 Andrew Shusterman

19. SUMMARY
This case study describes in detail how I made two
videos to go viral. I dive into how I repackaged
content related to the viral videos to increase my
video views, engagement and following. There are
other ways to go viral on TikTok, which is what makes
this app so fun to experiment with and explore. For
example, creating content that embraces trending
memes, TikTok challenges and evergreen content
are other methods to increase video views and
engagement. For more details about these topics,
check out social media expert Elise Darma on episode
315 of Amy Porterfield's podcast "Online Marketing
Made Easy." This case study should be helpful for
those new to TikTok and answer the question, "is
TikTok is right for my brand?" It is! The following slide
shows a sample of global brands that have
incorporated TikTok into their marketing strategy.
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Andrew Shusterman

20. GLOBAL BRANDS ON TIKTOK
Andrew Shusterman

21. THANK YOU!
Andrew Shusterman
contact me:
andrewshusterman.com
tiktok.com/@shusterman1

22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok
https://influencermarketinghub.com/tiktok-statistics/)
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tik-tok-statistics/
https://appinventiv.com/blog/top-tiktok-statistics-2020/
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/tech/tiktok-bytedance-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-05-06/tik-tok-expansion-los-angeles-culver-city-
brittany-broski-drake
https://later.com/blog/tiktok-marketing/?utm_source=Later&utm_campaign=58b5a384fe-
newsletter_TikTokMay2020_TikTokWebinar&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ed013a3012-58b5a384fe-32164303
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/new-study-looks-at-how-emojis-videos-and-caption-lengths-impact-
instagram/562567/
https://www.amyporterfield.com/2020/05/315/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Email1&utm_campaign=AP-
Podcast-315&utm_content=315
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REFERENCES
Andrew Shusterman