0 to 1,000 TikTok Followers in 15 Days – No Cringe!

Case Study – Parenting Niche

Followers

Days

Who is This Case Study For?

If you want to grow your following on TikTok quickly without doing anything cringe, this case study is for you.

You’ll get the step-by-step formula + secret sauce that I used to grow my followers to 1,000 within 15 days.

How I Got Started on TikTok

My wife & I recently had a baby & she encouraged me to create a dad parenting account on social media.

Her logic: Parenting accounts by moms are a dime a dozen, but not many are from the POV of a dad.

My Strategy 🎯

Target Audience: Malaysian parents.
Language: Bahasa Melayu.
Platform to Focus: TikTok.
Persona: A new dad sharing his experiences.
Video Gear: Mostly iPhone.
Consistency: At least 1 video each morning.
Secret Project: 100% organic growth

Finding Time: I edit my videos at 5 am, after my son wakes me up for milk & before I start my day job at 9:30 am.

Check out the progression of my follower count on the left (desktop) or at the bottom (if on mobile).

My Top 3 Best Videos 🔥

Here are my top 3 videos with over 100k+ views!
They do well because I share my experience that’s relatable to many new & would-be parents in Malaysia:

@millennial_dadmy
Ini 3 brand botol susu yang kitorang pakai & dapat sebagai hadiah. @pigeon @heorshe_us & @nubyukofficial. Saya bagi review jujur. #botolsusu #botolsusubayi #parenting
♬ SUN GOES DOWN – Andreas Roehrig

@millennial_dadmy
Ini preparation night shift jaga baby. Botol susu, air panas & lampu tidur. Korang prep macam mana? Komen dibawah. #parentingtips #parentinganak #nightshift #botolsusubayi
♬ R & B, lofi, night, relax, mood(1034618) – zomap

@millennial_dadmy
Ini pengalaman saya sunatkan anak 1 bulan di KPJ Damansara. Total RM1200 dan siap dalam 30 minit. Pengalaman korang pulak camana? Komen dibawah. #sunatbayi #parenting #muslimparenting
♬ Lofi Hiphop Chill – naoki osawa

My Stats 📈

As of this writing (12 days after launch), the stats are impressive:

Video views

Followers

Make Money on TikTok 💰

Once you have 1,000 followers on TikTok, you can start registering as a TikTok Seller, where you can sell your or affiliate products.

Here’s a snapshot of what that looks like. At the date of this writing, my withdrawable commissions is RM56.92.

I will write another case study on TikTok affiliate income in the future & my email newsletter subscribers will get them first.

So if you have not signed up for my email newsletter, please sign up here.

🔥 My Secret Sauce 🔥

Shooting Tips

Speak like I’m talking to a friend.
Most of my content is shot on my smartphone.
Voice Over the videos later. My gear.

Your smartphone is all you need

Editing Tips

Use the TikTok style text captions.
I use Davinci Resolve & Capcut, both FREE.
Editing software does not matter.

Voice over + TikTok captions

Publishing Tips

The more frequent you upload, the better.
Morning uploads for the commuter traffic.
Include popular hashtags & trending music.

Publish as often as possible

Engagement Tips

Encourage a conversation with your viewers.
Do content around a commonly debated topic.
Reply or like to your comments.

Engage with your audience

Key Takeaway

If I can pick only 1 thing to contribute to my success, it would be this:

I was laser-focused on who my target audience is & created content that spoke to them directly.

TikTok is great for beginners as the content requirement is candid & unintimidating, unlike Instagram & YouTube.
You don’t have to do cringe dances or reactions to get followers on TikTok.
Education videos do well as long as they are short, relatable & entertaining.
The more you post on TikTok, the better.
Due to this, it could get tiring trying to keep up with the TikTok content demand.
I think the content on YouTube is evergreen, whereas traffic to content on TikTok tends to die off after a few days unless you post new content.

How You Can Start with TikTok

Don’t sweat about gear. Your smartphone + the free Capcut app is all you need.
Don’t worry too much about strategy if you’re a complete beginner. Just get the hang of shooting & editing TikTok videos on your phone first.
Educate, entertain, or motivate your target audience.
If you have a hard time figuring out your target audience, create content for your past self.
The algorithm likes an active account. Plan, shoot & edit your content in batches so you won’t run out of steam & go crazy.
Don’t have a TikTok account yet? Register through this link to get rewarded for signing up!