Theater-focused creator Connor Martin aims his TikTok posts at the performer who watches it and immediately thinks, “That is so me.” That instinct explains why one video can rack up thousands of views and still land in an empty room, while another reaches a fraction of that audience and fills a comment section, gets saved for later, and finds its way into group chats. For actors, filmmakers, comedians, musicians, and other creatives, TikTok engagement is often a better measure of whether your work is connecting with the people watching it. Here’s how to make someone stop scrolling, react, and come back for more.
TikTok engagement encompasses the ways viewers interact with your content, including:
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Saves or favorites
- Follows
- Profile visits
- Link clicks
Watch behavior also matters. TikTok’s For You feed considers user interactions, including content someone likes, shares, comments on, watches in full, or skips. The platform has said that a strong signal of interest—watching a video from beginning to end, for instance—carries more weight than a weak one, such as the viewer and the creator being in the same country.
That’s an important distinction if you’re trying to understand TikTok’s algorithm. Views tell you that people encountered your video. Engagement gives you more information about what happened once they did.
Why does TikTok engagement matter?
- Visibility: A video people watch until the end, comment on, and forward to a friend can keep traveling long after everyone who already follows you has seen it.
- Earnings: Engagement also has a dollar value. TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program requires at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 authentic video views in the previous 30 days before a creator can enroll, and the platform’s criteria for its Additional Reward tier explicitly name content that sparks meaningful conversations and builds community. Passive viewers alone don’t carry you across those thresholds.
- IRL success: Then there’s the version that matters most if you’re a performer: An engaged audience is the one that actually shows up. Views are people who encountered you once. Engagement is the start of an audience that buys a ticket to your show, watches your short film when you post the link, or forwards your reel to someone who hires.
Credit: Chay_Tee/Shutterstock
Your TikTok engagement rate turns individual interactions into a percentage you can use to evaluate and compare content. There isn’t one universally used formula, but a useful way to assess an individual video is:
TikTok engagement rate by views = (likes + comments + shares) ÷ views × 100
Say a video receives 20,000 views, 2,000 likes, 150 comments, and 250 shares. That’s 2,400 engagements.
2,400 ÷ 20,000 × 100 = 12% engagement rate
You can also calculate engagement relative to your following:
TikTok engagement rate by followers = (likes + comments + shares) ÷ followers × 100
Some calculations also include saves. Whichever method you choose, consistency is more useful than obsessing over a supposedly perfect percentage. Use the same formula across your posts and look for patterns. If one series regularly generates significantly more interaction than another, your audience is telling you something.
1. Speak to someone—not everyone.
Trying to make universally appealing content can actually make it less compelling.
Martin—an actor, singer, dancer, and TikTok creator who has built an audience of more than 74,000 followers with his theater-focused content—finds that “the videos with the best engagement are those that speak to a very specific target audience.” To connect with those viewers, “You need to create some sort of emotional connection with someone through the screen that makes them laugh, feel seen, learn something, or want to feel included,” he says.
Martin’s content has long catered to performers and theater lovers, but he has recently narrowed his focus toward younger performers whom he hopes to encourage. That specificity can be valuable for anyone trying to build an audience on TikTok: Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, figure out exactly who you want to connect with.
“POV: You’re an actor” is broad. A joke about frantically checking your email after a final callback speaks to a much more particular experience—and gives the people who have lived it a reason to tag their friends. As Martin puts it, creators within specific niches need to “give audiences a reason to care.”
2. Give viewers a reason to stop scrolling.
Your opening needs to make viewers curious enough to stay, so a strong hook is imperative, says Martin. “Doomscrolling on social media is a real thing, so what is it about certain videos that make someone stop and think, ‘I need to watch this one specifically’?” he says. “Sometimes, if a video flops and doesn’t get the engagement you were envisioning, you just need to go back and reevaluate how it was speaking to someone within the first three seconds of viewing.”
For instance, an actor sharing an audition disaster might open with, “I realized after submitting my self-tape that…” A filmmaker could show the finished shot before explaining how they created it. A singer demonstrating a vocal exercise could start with the result before teaching the technique.
3. Create content worth sharing and saving.
Before posting, ask yourself: What should someone want to do with this video?
Martin has noticed that different types of content inspire different behaviors. Educational posts (such as his videos about keeping his voice healthy while performing on tour) can give viewers information worth saving for later; humorous or highly relatable posts are more likely to get shared.
“If I ask a question in the video or caption, I’ve had positive engagement in the comments,” he says.
When brainstorming, Martin also asks himself what he would want to see as a performer: “What questions do I want answered or wish I knew earlier?”
Try applying that question to your own niche. Teach something worth saving, create something relatable enough to send to a friend, or start a conversation people actually want to join.
4. Don’t chase engagement at any cost.
Remember that not all engagement is necessarily good engagement.
Content creator Glenn DeVar, who has amassed more than 2 million TikTok followers, cautions against pursuing interaction simply for the sake of boosting numbers.
“There is a somewhat pessimistic school of thought in content creation that says: Because it results in views, you should farm engagement in any way that you can,” he says. That can mean leaning on rage bait, shock value, or intentionally provoking online arguments. Those strategies might produce fast results, but DeVar warns that they can make building a sustainable brand much harder.
But while “negativity can be very lucrative at first,” he adds, “very few brands make it out of that kind of strategy unscathed.”
For performers especially, think beyond the number beside the comment icon. Thousands of angry replies may look impressive in your analytics, but are they helping you cultivate an audience that wants to follow your work?
5. Turn your comment section into a content generator.
Posting shouldn’t be the end of your creative process. Listen to what happens afterward.
TikTok’s Comment Insights can identify frequently discussed topics, audience questions, and viewer suggestions. You can also do this yourself: Read your comments, note recurring questions, and turn an interesting response into your next video.
“Viewers will tell you what they want to see from you, and if you deliver on that, they will know that their participation matters and will continue to do so,” DeVar says.
That creates a simple content loop: Post, listen, respond, create.
6. Use trends as a framework, not a personality.
Trending sounds and formats can give your video a recognizable starting point, but copying everyone else gives viewers little reason to remember you.
Instead, filter trends through your niche. Turn trending audio into an audition joke, filmmaking scenario, character bit, or backstage POV. The trend gets someone’s attention; your perspective gives them a reason to engage.
If you’re running low on inspiration, these TikTok content ideas can help you brainstorm.
7. Study your own engagement patterns.
The best TikTok engagement strategies may already be hiding in your analytics. Look at your strongest posts and ask:
- What happened in the opening seconds?
- What topic were you discussing?
- Was the video educational, funny, aspirational, or relatable?
- Did people primarily like, comment, share, or save it?
- What were people saying in the comments?
- Did the post inspire new followers or profile visits?
Then do the same with videos that underperformed.
Don’t just recreate the video that worked. Figure out why it worked.
Experiment with formats and timing, too. While broad recommendations can provide a starting point, your own audience behavior should ultimately guide you. Our breakdown of the best times to post on TikTok can help.
8. Build with your audience.
The best TikTok video engagement tips ultimately come down to remembering that there are people on the other side of your analytics.
“At the end of the day, people on the internet are looking for connection,” DeVar says. “As a content creator, it’s your job to construct a space in which people feel compelled to participate.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean ending every video by telling viewers to “like, comment, save, and share.” DeVar cautions that overly manufactured calls to action can feel inauthentic when you’re trying to cultivate an organic community.
Instead, include your audience in what you create: Ask questions, respond to suggestions, make follow-up videos, and let recurring commenters know you’re listening.
“It’s easy to approach content from the ‘me’ perspective, but when you shift that paradigm to ‘us,’ audiences feel it,” DeVar says.
Ultimately, increasing TikTok engagement is about building a relationship between the person making the content and the person watching it. Find the specific people you’re creating for. Give them a reason to stop scrolling. Make them laugh, teach them something worth saving, or create something they’ll immediately send to a friend—and listen when they respond.
