From obscurity to fame - how did an ordinary South African girl gain over 10,000 followers in 30 days?
Zinhle, a university student from Johannesburg, created her first TikTok account in May 2024. She had no video editing skills, no filming equipment, only an old mobile phone and a desire to record her life. A month later, her account broke through 10,000 followers and even began to receive cooperation invitations from brands.
How did she do it?
Understand the algorithm, not fight it
Zinhle realized that TikTok's recommendation mechanism is not simply to see whether the content is "good or not", but to see whether "someone is willing to click in". She began to study the covers, titles, and editing rhythm of the first 3 seconds of popular videos, and applied these techniques to her own videos.
She mentioned: "I learned to make a 'suspenseful beginning', such as 'You will never guess what I encountered in the supermarket in South Africa...' so that the audience is more interested in watching it."
Localized content makes it easier to break through the circle
Zinhle does not follow popular dances or challenges, but records the little things in her local life, such as "visiting the cheapest night market in Johannesburg" and "a student's 50 rand meal challenge for a week". These videos have aroused a lot of resonance and discussion, and have even been recommended to the homepage of the "Recommended for you" page.
The first viral video: a combination of surprise and preparation
Zinhle's first video with over 50,000 views was a simple late-night snack vlog. She recalled: "I didn't deliberately shoot that video, I just edited it according to the AI template, and the topic and release time of that day just happened to hit the platform rhythm." Since then, she began to review the performance of each video more systematically, and insisted on using tools to optimize the title, cover and release time.