How To Boost Your TikTok LIVE: Grow Your LIVE Audience

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Carolyn Howell

Last Updated: Jul 09, 2024

TikTok Growth
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A LIVE audience gives content creators unique opportunities to build meaningful relationships with followers and establish themselves in their niche. Knowing how to boost your TikTok LIVE is a skill every creator should have to ensure good viewership. 

Learn some best practices to help you level up your LIVE streaming game!

An audience gathers around two male buskers playing guitars and singing out on the street.

How To Boost LIVE on TikTok: 5 Tips for Greater Viewership

A LIVE stream is often a hit-or-miss affair unless you’re a mega-influencer or celebrity. Unlike video views, which are practically permanent, you can lose LIVE views as soon as you gain them. Reaching as many viewers as possible increases your odds of retaining a decent number throughout your stream. 

So, how do you tip the odds in your favor? Let’s explore the top five tips to help you boost TikTok LIVE and generate high viewership.

1. Announce Your LIVE Ahead of Your Stream

Let viewers know that you’re hosting a LIVE session in advance, ideally a few days or weeks prior to the stream. 

Create short posts announcing when it is and what audiences can expect. Invite them to subscribe to your LIVE event so they’ll receive a notification when your stream is up. Add your announcement to your TikTok Story, Facebook Story, and Instagram Reels. 

A big audience gathers around a stage at an outdoor concert.

2. Know the Best Time To Host a LIVE

Find out when’s the best time to go LIVE on TikTok and reach the widest audience possible. There are three ways to do this:

  1. Refer to your TikTok Analytics. Go to your Profile>Menu>Settings and privacy>Analytics>Followers tab. Scroll down to check your followers’ Most active times. Schedule your stream based on your followers’ TikTok viewing habits. If you have been posting regularly on TikTok for at least several months, you’ll have reliable data on your followers’ active times. 
  2. Ask your followers. Give them schedule options and ask them to vote. Audiences always appreciate any opportunity to contribute to their favorite creators’ creative process. 
  3. Check out popular creators in your niche/industry. Go to their pages and find out when they usually host LIVE streams. Don’t forget to also check how well the streams performed in terms of viewership and engagement based on different schedules.

Once you figure out an ideal LIVE schedule that generates the highest views, you can host regular streams. Following a strict LIVE schedule helps build a regular audience. 

Finally, your streams should be short enough to keep viewers interested and long enough to offer value. The optimal duration is between 30 minutes and one hour. 

People at an outdoor event pop their smoke cannon poppers and release colored smoke into the air.

3. Pick a Topic That’s Relevant to Your Target Audience’s Interests

Viewers join a TikTok LIVE and stay throughout when it’s worth their while. Remember that they can spend time watching tons of other content out there. Why should they join your 30-minute or hour-long LIVE? How would it be beneficial to them?

Pick a topic they’re currently interested in. Use Creator Search Insights to discover trending search topics among your niche audience. Within the beauty industry, for example, millions of users may currently be looking for tips on “How to curl your hair.” You can include this in your LIVE tutorial, as well as curly hair care tips and a curly hair Q&A. 

It’s just as important to keep your viewers entertained so they won’t resume scrolling after five or ten minutes. They should want to stay until the end. When the algorithm sees that viewers are staying glued to your stream, it will put your LIVE on more feeds. This means more potential LIVE viewers. 

4. Prepare a Script

You can’t have even a few seconds of dead air during your LIVE. Something should always be happening to sustain your audience’s interest. 

If you’re doing a Q&A with guests or viewers, the back-and-forth should be continuous. If you’re doing a demonstration, the activity should run smoothly alongside your instructions. 

It helps to prepare a script to guide the flow of your LIVE. Your script doesn’t have to contain everything you’ll say, word for word. It can be a simple outline of your major talking points. It can also include tasks you have to perform and the estimated timestamps for when you’re supposed to do each one. 

A woman in the audience at a concert raises her hands and makes a heart shape with her fingers.

5. Actively Engage Your Audience Throughout Your LIVE

Social media platforms have shortened users’ attention span to that of a goldfish. Miss a beat during your LIVE, e.g., you get interrupted or lose your train of thought, and you risk losing your audience. 

How do you keep your viewers engaged in real time and glued to your stream? Here are some quick tips:

  1. Acknowledge your audience every chance you get. Let them know you’re paying attention to their likes and comments. A simple “Thanks for the like, [name of liker]!” can do wonders for your engagement. Reply to comments when you can, and apologize if you’re not able to respond to each one. If you have access to LIVE Gifts, always say thank you for every virtual Gift you receive. 
  2. Encourage questions. Keep the comments coming by prompting your viewers to ask questions or share their thoughts. Don’t forget to mention the commenter’s name when you address their comment. Viewers enjoy receiving attention during their favorite creator’s LIVE. 
  3. Invite a LIVE guest. You can have another creator or some of your viewers as your guests. They can join you via audio or video. Having guests can add variety to your stream and help keep things interesting. 

High engagement during your LIVE also helps push your stream in front of more viewers. So make sure your stream is not just all about you. Encourage audience participation to keep your LIVE abuzz with engagement. 

Does Going Live on TikTok Boost Views?

Does going LIVE on TikTok boost views? Hosting a LIVE can help you generate tons of views if you follow the tips outlined above. 

Your first few times doing it serve as practice runs that let you collect data to improve your LIVE content format and strategy. But when you apply the aforementioned best practices to your first attempts, you can perfect your strategy more quickly. 

There are also a few things you should avoid when you’re trying to boost LIVE TikTok streams:

  1. Don’t buy views, likes, or comments for your LIVE. This is especially important if your stream has low views and engagement to begin with. TikTok can immediately detect attempts to manipulate numbers and will shut down your stream just as fast. 
  2. Avoid sensational or sensitive topics. As tempting as it may be to join the latest hot issues on social media, you should always err on the side of caution. Familiarize yourself with TikTok’s Community Guidelines on For You Feed Eligibility. 
  3. Avoid copyright infringement. This is a big deal on the platform. And the most common mistake LIVE hosts make is using background music that may be subject to copyright. Stick to TikTok’s Commercial Music Library to stay safe. 

Confetti falls from above and over a throng of people at a music festival.

What’s the Best Way To Gain a Highly Engaged LIVE Audience?

The answer is optimized targeting. When you’re able to put your content in front of genuinely interested viewers, you can almost always guarantee sustained and engaged viewership.

Learn how to boost your TikTok LIVE and how to sustain your viewership. If you need expert help connecting with interested viewers, sign up for a High Social plan!

With High Social’s advanced, proprietary AI targeting solution, you’ll instantly match your posts with suitable audiences. Get higher viewer-to-follower conversions. 

Start growing your TikTok today!

TikTok Growth