🔴 I Bought 1,006 TikTok Followers

Hey, it’s Harry.

Welcome back to another week of the streaming and content journey.

After a week off, we’re back and it’s time to talk about one of the most contentious types of livestream on TikTok. I’m talking about grow streams of course.

So let’s do a bit of a deep dive this week!

📰 In Today’s Edition

• 👥 I bought 1,000 followers without breaking the rules

• 📈 Some people still aren’t using this simple hack to grow their community

• 📉 Why you have 0 views on Twitch (or any other platform)

• 🤔 Content stealing debate

 👥 I Bought 1K Followers From “Grow” LIVEs

When I first started on TikTok, I thought the only way to legally buy followers was via TikTok Promote. It turns out there are two ways and this second method is much cheaper but more controversial.

The Rules

First, it’s important to look at TikTok’s community guidelines.

TikTok says facilitating the trade of services that artificially increase engagement, such as selling followers or likes, is not allowed.

Grow Streams

Buying followers from a third-party website is off-limits. This is where the grow streams come in.

Join a major grow LIVE such as Ben Toye or Petrus and you’ll quickly understand what is happening. If you send a treasure box, a gift or you subscribe then you gain followers. You are expected to follow a portion of those people back.

Interestingly, the hosts never say the word “follow”. They’ll tell the viewers to “get” the top 20 gifters. Or they’ll say open the treasure box and hit the red button (i.e. the follow button).

They have worked out how to avoid detection from TikTok’s AI and in return, TikTok turns a blind eye to what clearly seems to be the facilitation of services that artificially increase engagement. A clear violation of the rules.

Ben Toye owns the world’s largest TikTok LIVE agency, GravitasQ. So TikTok is aware of grow streams and chooses to allow it.

My Plan

Whilst testing LiveApps I decided to make a test account. This needed 1K followers to go live so I thought why not see how much it costs via a grow LIVE.

So I created HarrysWordGames. I think I made a mistake here though. I wanted it to be recognised as a US account so I created it using NordVPN (affiliate link). However, TikTok detected this and put some restrictions on my account. As a result, I couldn’t buy coins online (30% cheaper) and was massively restricted on who I could follow back.

My Experience Buying 1,006 Followers

New accounts get a discount on their first coin purchase via Google/Apple stores so I purchased around 800 coins for £9.49 ($12).

Grow hosts typically stream 4 to 8 hours so I knew that if I join as early as possible I could simply leave my phone in the LIVE for 8 hours to take full advantage. I joined Petrus’ LIVE and got myself into his top 20 with around 500 coins by slowly tapping the rose button 500 times.

This results in an initial flow of followers as people tap on your profile as you are sending the gift. This is followed by a consistent trickle of followers as the host tells viewers to “get the top 20” gifters.

Three days later and around £33 ($41) later I hit my peak follower count of around 1,006 followers. Wasting no time, I instantly went live for 30 minutes to unlock LIVE Studio.

As said earlier, I could likely have done this for cheaper if I wasn’t follow banned. Many viewers in the stream will follow you back without anybody sending gifts. I could also have done it cheaper through buying coins from the website.

One Week Later

The account has already lost around 230 followers. This was expected. They aren’t following for you, they follow in the hope they gain followers themselves. i.e. follow for follow.

My experiments with streaming have been met with mixed results. I had a stream with basically 0 viewers and one that did reach over 50 concurrent viewers, albeit briefly.

If I then pivoted this experimental account to creating great videos and streams, I think it could work out well.

My Overall Thoughts

My general thoughts haven’t changed.

This is not a good way to gain followers and it most certainly is not a good way to grow a community. It also increases the chance of the algorithm not liking you, as these followers will lower your average watch time.

That said, spending $30 to $40 to unlock LIVE access could be worth it for some people. You should then stop at 1K followers and switch to building a loyal fanbase of viewers, rather than a base of self-obsessed people who just want followers.

What are your thoughts on grow livestreams? I’m curious to hear. Hit reply and let me know.

🚀 Just One Block

Just One Block is an interactive Minecraft Java minigame for TikTok LIVE.

It’s designed as a simple yet effective way to get more gifts and have fun with your viewers.

Here are the key points:

• ⛏ You mine a block with a large amount of HP

• 🎁 Viewers send gifts to help or hinder you

• 🤑 You make money, the viewers have fun

Use code HARRY to get 30% off!

📈 Everyone Needs A Third Party Platform

What if you suddenly get banned from a social media platform? Do you have a plan?

In the age of false bans and AI, it is more important than ever to have a home for your community that is not controlled by an algorithm.

That could be a newsletter like this one, a Telegram group or more commonly, a Discord group!

The creator above is concerned about promoting Discord via video. I understand this concern. However, if you have a long video, you can promote it at the end with no issues as only your most loyal fans will be watching by this point.

If you’re livestreaming then it’s much easier to build a connection with the audience and you should be frequently promoting your Discord. I say this from experience, you will not lose viewers by doing this.

Make A Server

If you don’t have a Discord server already, it takes 15 seconds to make one.

To make a Discord server:

1. Click the plus in the bottom left.

2. Click Create My Own.

3. Choose “For a club or community”.

4. Pick a name and click Create.

It’s that simple and takes 15 seconds. If you haven’t made one yet then I highly recommend it. You should then use a “link in bio” tool such as LinkTree or SoloTo (affiliate link) and place this link in all your bios.

P.S. You are all welcome in my Discord server.

 🤔 Post Of The Week

My X post below is a reply to somebody who appears to make thousands by stealing other people’s content.

On YouTube, there are systems in place for monetised creators to detect people stealing their content. It seems no such systems exist for TikTok.

Thoughts? Hit reply and let me know.

🎬 Weekly Video

As some may know, I have a small experimental channel called Harry’s Streaming Shortcuts.

This week, let’s look at why your view count might be on 0. And how to fix it!

🎯 Bullet Point News

• LiveApps is a series of tools I’ve been testing that help TikTok streamers. Test it here and send your feedback.

• Twitch integrates Streamlabs and StreamElements into their own alerts software.

• League of Legends makes history as the Worlds 2023 grand final is the most streamed esports event ever.

• Creators Pokimane and Tenz both received criticism over recent product launches.

• Chaos was unleashed upon the world of AI over the past few weeks with the OpenAI drama. Want to stay up to date with the world of AI? I highly recommend the Superhuman Newsletter. I read it myself daily.

• UK TikTok streamers are invited to join the waitlist for my agency. Once our agency is onboarded, we can help you get a stream key.

• Worldwide TikTok streamers can find my list of agencies in other countries here.

👋 Thanks for reading!

Harry

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